Can I update to .Net 5 NuGet packages even if I'm using .Net Core 3.1?

Question

I was looking for some NuGet updates about my project libraries. I see that there are a lot of Microsoft libraries update to v5.0.0.

Based on my knowledge I t

Answer 1

Unfortunately, you cannot update many of these newest Nuget packages to 5.0. The reason being is that the newest Nuget package versions are written primarily for .NET 5, and often times Nuget Package Manager will even prevent you from installing them since there are differences in the APIs. With that said, there may be a few spots where it will allow the installation, but I wouldn't recommend it if you plan to keep the application on .NET Core 3.1. Most likely it could cause some inconsistencies that would be hard to debug. Proceed with caution, or upgrade your projects to .NET 5.