I have just installed XCode 9 beta 3.
But I don't see an iOS 11 version under Pref, Components.
How can I setup an iOS simulator?
1) Open the Devices and Simulators window:
Window -> Devices and Simulators
2) Click the plus in the lower lefthand corner
You will see dialog to add a new simulator
3) Select a device (i.e. iPhone 7) that supports iOS 11 and click create
I had a similar issue only seeing iPhone 5 and 6 sims and not able to create / download iPhone 7 simulator with iOS11. My solution was to move Xcode 9 beta 3 from the downloads folder into the Applications folder along side xcode 8. I didn't realise it was still in the DL folder. Once launched from the Applications folder Xcode 9 beta 3 loaded with all the sims in place. Worth checking if your's is still in the downloads folder too with a previous version of Xcode in the Applications folder.
Follow these steps to add a (new) simulator
Click on Simulator icon and open simulator list.
At the end of list, there is an option to add new simulator "Add Additional Simulator". That will open 'Device & Simulator' window.
Switch to 'Simulator' tab.
There are three field in simulator tab.
Click on '+' icon, on left bottom corner of window.
Simulator Name: Enter simulator name here
Device Type: Select iPad from this dropdown list
OS Version: Select OS version from this dropdown list
Click on 'Create'
A new simulator will be added in your Simulator option list.
Look at this snapshot to understand flow of above steps:
And if there is no simulator/OS version in simulator list, you're looking for,
Click on Simulator icon and open simulator list.
At the end of list, there is an option to add new simulator "Download Simulator". That will open 'Component' window (from Xcode >> Preferences).
Select/click simulator from list, which you need to download.
Look at this snapshot:
in Xcode, I can see the simulators (in Window->Devices), however XCode itself will not recognize the simulator as an option to run on. Any ideas?
there may be two reason by which your Xcode not recognise simulator.
1.You have selected higher or lower version in development target.
Go to Xcode ---> window ---> Devices --> Add device on click + icon. it will be added a device on your Xcode .
Thanks
Enjoy coding.....
Just upgrade my Xcode from 7.2.1 to 7.3. Have no idea why. Do I have choices other than delete Xcode and reinstall again? (which I highly don't like).
BTW, the documentation tab is fine. Just a blank simulators.
Update: If I click "check and isntall now", it reports:
Could not download and install OS X 10.11.4 Documentation. The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “devimages.apple.com.edgekey.net” which could put your confidential information at risk.
I checked cert on https://devimages.apple.com.edgekey.net, seems fine..
In Xcode 7.3 I found the following way to add older simulator versions.
1.) Choose "Window" from the menu bar
2.) Choose "Devices" from the drop down menu list
Result: Devices window opens
3.) Click the "+" icon in the lower left-hand corner of the window.
4.) Choose the Add Simulator option
Result: You can add a simulator (and download older ones).
I have strange behavior of XCode, if someone could explain it to me it would be very useful.
So the thing is that I've updated XCode 6.2 to 6.3 at 10th April.
Mac App Store app says that my Xcode is 6.3 now, but Xcode itself says that it is still 6.2 (in the XCode > About Xcode menu).
Why?
Odds on, your Dock has an Xcode from another location on your disk. Right click on the dock icon when it's open, select Options, then Show in Finder. What's the path to the folder (right click on the title of the Finder window)? If it's not /Applications, then drag it off the Dock, and grab the App Store version from /Applications.
On my old Mac running Snow Leopard, I could type "ios" into spotlight and it would start up the iPhone/iPad emulator by itself.
I have since had to get a new machine running Lion. I have installed Xcode for Lion, I have installed the developer tool options from the preferences panel.
But the "ios" option is no longer there :( The only way now seems to be to run Xcode, create an empty project and then launch emulator with the run option.
I have searched and searched the intertubes and the facewebs, but nothing helps.
Does anyone know how to run only the emulator on Lion?
UPDATE:
THIS IS RESPONSE TO #ike_love thread below.
THAT answer is not assured to work on all Yosemite machines.
Assuming you have Xcode installed in /Applications, then you can do this from the command line to start the iPhone Simulator:
$ open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app
(Xcode 6+):
$ open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS Simulator.app
You could create a symbolic-link from your Desktop to make this easier:
$ ln -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app ~/Desktop
(Xcode 6+):
$ ln -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS Simulator.app ~/Desktop
As pointed out by #JackHahoney, you could also add an alias to your ~/.bash_profile:
$ alias simulator='open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app'
(Xcode 6+):
$ alias simulator='open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app'
(Xcode 7+):
$ alias simulator='open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app'
Which would mean you could start the iPhone Simulator from the command line with one easy-to-remember word:
$ simulator
The easiest way without fiddling with command line:
launch Xcode once.
run ios simulator
drag the ios simulator icon to dock it.
Next time you want to use it, just click on the ios simulator icon in the dock.
In XCode 7+ the location is now
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app
Run it from the command line
$ open -a Simulator
From Terminal you have to run:
open -a Simulator
No need to do anything on the commandline.
Just use spotlight to run simulator.app
is it helpful to you see the image
Edit
Now with new Xcode if the icon of the Xcode is on dock you can just right click it and form the menu you can select Open Developer Tool and in the sub menu you can select the iOS Simulator to open the simulator without opening the Xcode.!
You can get it to launch via spotlight if you create an Automator launcher for it:
Open Automator.app
Choose type of Application
Select Actions > Library > Utilities > Launch Application
Open the dropdown of applications that can be launched and choose Other
You can't directly select the Simulator app because it's inside the Xcode.app package. So instead you'll have to navigate to it in a separate Finder window and drag it onto the file selector window. It will be at one of the following paths depending on your version of Xcode (oldest to newest):
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/iOS Simulator.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iOS Simulator.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app
Finally, save this Automator app in your applications folder as iOS Simulator.app
To get a nice icon for the Automator app you just made, you can do the following:
Right click iOS Simulator.app and choose Get Info
Click the icon in the upper left corner and do Cmd-C to copy it
Right click your Automator app and choose Get Info
Click the icon in the upper left corner and do Cmd-V to paste
As the multitude of answers indicate, there are lots of different ways to address this issue. Not all of them address what is my number one issue, and what seems to be the asker's priority, as well: The ability to launch from Spotlight.
Here's the solution that works well for me, and should work with any OS X and XCode versions. I've tested it on OS X 10.11 and XCode 7.3.
Initial setup does require launching XCode, but after that, you won't need to just to get to the Simulator.
Setup
Launch XCode
From the XCode menu, select Open Developer Tool > Simulator
In the dock, control (or right) click on the Simulator icon
Select Options > Show in Finder
While holding down Command and Option, drag the Simulator icon to the applications directory. This creates an alias to it.
If desired, rename the alias from "Simulator" to "iOS Simulator". Whatever you name it is what it will show up as in Spotlight.
Note: There are other ways to get to the location of the Simulator app (steps 1-4), such as using Go to Folder… in the Finder, but those require knowing the location of the Simulator to begin with. Since that has changed from version to version of XCode, this way should work regardless of these changes.
Use
Launch Spotlight (command-space, etc.)
Type "simulator" or "ios" (if you renamed the alias).
If necessary, use the down arrow to scroll to the Simulator alias. Eventually, spotlight should learn and make the alias the top choice so you can skip this step.
Hit return
Try below instruction for launching iphone simulator:
Goto Application Folder-->Xcode app-->right click to Show Package Contents-->now show files in xcode contents-->Developer-->Platforms-->iPhoneSimulator.platform-->Developer-->Applications--> now show iOS Simulator app click to launch iphone simulator...!
With Xcode 6 the location of the simulator has changed to:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS Simulator.app
It can no longer be found here:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app
I hope this helps someone since I sometimes want to start the simulator from terminal.
The solutions above didn't work for me in ZSH. I needed to escape the dot in the iPhoneSimulator.platform. This works for me:
alias simulator="open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app"
This could be even more resilient version:
alias simulator="open -a 'iOS Simulator'"
There's a far easier way:
Hit command + space, Spotlight Search will appear
Type in iOS Simulator and hit return
Done.
----- In follow up to #E. Maggini downvote---
Yes you can still easily access iOS Simulator using Spotlight.
In the terminal:
For Xcode 9.x and above
$ open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app
For Xcode-beta 9.x and above
$ open /Applications/Xcode-beta.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app
I know it is an old question, but this might help someone using Xcode11+ and macOS Catalina.
To see a list of available simulators via terminal, type:
$ xcrun simctl list
This will return a list of devices e.g., iPhone 11 Pro Max (6A7BEA2F-95E4-4A34-98C1-01C9906DCBDE) (Shutdown). The long string of characters is the device UUID.
To start the device via terminal, simply type:
$ xcrun simctl boot 6A7BEA2F-95E4-4A34-98C1-01C9906DCBDE
To shut it down, type:
$ xcrun simctl shutdown 6A7BEA2F-95E4-4A34-98C1-01C9906DCBDE
Alternatively, to launch a simulator:
open -a simulator
Source : How to Launch iOS Simulator and Android Emulator on Mac
The easiest way is to use Spotlight Search. Just click CMD+Space and type in search Simulator. Just like this:
And in few seconds emulated device will be loaded:
To switch to another device you can use menu under Hardware -> Device
There are few different cool instruments you can use under Hardware menu, such as orientation change, gestures, buttons, FaceID, keyboard or audio inputs.
Go into Finder.
On the sidebar, click applications.
Find Xcode in Applications.
Right click Xcode by whatever settings you have (usually two finger click [not tap]).
Click "Show Package Contents."
Go into the Contents folder.
Search simulator.
Wait 30 secs for it to load.
Scroll down and find iOS Simulator.
You may drag this onto the dock for easier access.
I hope this helps!
In case you were trying to open multiple distinct simulators at once:
Open the Simulator app, not Xcode.
Then File >> Open Device >> Select iOS version >> select device.
The location of the 'open device' has changed in different Xcode versions so it may be at a different place
I created an automator app based on #trojanfoe's answer so you can launch iOS Simulator directly from your Dock https://github.com/tsdexter/ios-simulator-expo-utilities/
From Terminal just run this command:
ios-sim start
Or,add this to your ~/.profile to save yourself a few keystrokes:
alias ios="ios-sim start"
Not sure which version of Max OS X and Xcode this command became available. I'm running 10.10.3 and 6.3 respectively.