Xcode Simulator: how to remove older unneeded devices?

Question

I\'m running Xcode 4.3.1 iOS-Simulator which originally only supports iOS 5.1.

I need to test my code with iOS 4.3, so I used Xcode\'s \"Install\" feature to install

Answer 1

Command+Space

Type 'simulator'

open the old beta simulator you no longer need.

right-click on it in the dock, then choose Options>'Show in Finder'

Close the app, then remove it from the folder.

:)

Answer 2

October 2020 update

As was mentioned, you can use xcrun to do a few things:

• xcrun simctl list devices or xcrun simctl list --json to list all simulators
• xcrun simctl delete <device udid> to delete specific device
• xcrun simctl delete unavailable to remove old devices for runtimes that are no longer supported

More things you can do with xcrun (see code snippet)

- `xcrun simctl boot <device udid>` to launch (multiple) simulators
- `xcrun simctl io booted recordVideo — type=mp4 ./test.mp4` to record simulator video
- `xcrun simctl io booted screenshot ./screen.png` to make screenshot of simulator
- `xcrun simctl openurl booted https://google.com` to open URL in simulator
- `xcrun simctl addmedia booted ./test.mp4` to upload photo or video file (for photos app)
- `xcrun simctl get_app_container booted <your apps bundle identifier>` to find the app container (where identifier is like *com.bundle.identifier*)
- `xcrun simctl help` to explore **more** commands

Original Answer

September 2017, Xcode 9

Runtimes

You will find them here:

/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles/Runtimes

Devices

To delete devices go here:

~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices

Much easier to delete them use Xcode: Xcode->Window->Devices and Simulators

Helping Xcode "forget" about runtimes and prevent from re-installing them - delete .dmg file(s) here:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode/Downloads

I hope it will help someone

Answer 3

following some of the answers here, deleting some simulators from my Xcode Menu > Window > Devices > Simulators did nothing to help my dying disk space:

however, cd ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS\ DeviceSupport and running du -sh * I got all of these guys:

2.9G    10.0.1 (14A403)
1.3G    10.1.1 (14B100)
2.9G    10.3.2 (14F89)
1.3G    10.3.3 (14G60)
1.9G    11.0.1 (15A402)
1.9G    11.0.3 (15A432)
2.0G    11.1.2 (15B202)
2.0G    11.2 (15C114)
2.0G    11.2.1 (15C153)
2.0G    11.2.2 (15C202)
2.0G    11.2.6 (15D100)
2.0G    11.4 (15F79)
2.0G    11.4.1 (15G77)
2.3G    12.0 (16A366)
2.3G    12.0.1 (16A404)
2.3G    12.1 (16B92)

All together that's 33 GB!

A blood bath ensued

see more details here

Answer 4

Some people try to fix it using one way, some the second. Basically, there are 2 issues, which if you check them out & solve both - in 99% it should fix this issue:

1. Old device simulators located at YOUR_MAC_NAME (e.g. Macintosh) -> Users -> YOUR_USERNAME (daniel) -> Library -> Developer -> Xcode -> iOS Device Support. Leave there, the newest one, as of today this is 13.2.3 (17B111), but in future it'll change. The highest number (here 13.2.3) of the iOS version indicates that it's newer.

2. After this list your devices in Terminal by running xcrun simctl list devices. Many of them might be unavailable, therefore delete them by running xcrun simctl delete unavailable. It'll free some space as well. To be sure that everything is fine check it again by running xcrun simctl list devices. You should see devices only from the newest version (here 13.2.3) like the screenshot below shows.

As a bonus which is slightly less relevant to this question, but still free's some space. Go to YOUR_MAC_NAME (e.g. Macintosh) -> Users -> YOUR_USERNAME (e.g. daniel) -> Library -> Developer -> Xcode -> Archives. You'll see many archived deployed application, most probably you don't need all of them. Try to delete these ones, which are not being used anymore.

Using these 2 methods and the bonus method I was able to get extra 15 GB of space on my Mac.

PS. Simply deleting simulators from Xcode by going to Xcode -> Window -> Devices and Simulators -> Simulators (or simply CMD + SHIFT + 2 when using keyboard shortcut) and deleting it there won't help. You really need to go for the described steps.

Answer 5

Another thing you can do is to change the Deployment target to the highest value. This will prevent the Scheme Menu from displaying older versions.

To do this go to: Target->Summary then change the Deployment Target.

Answer 6

Run this command in terminal to remove simulators that can't be accessed from the current version of Xcode (8+?) in use on your machine.

xcrun simctl delete unavailable

Also if you're looking to reclaim simulator related space Michael Tsai found that deleting sim logs saved him 30 GB.

~/Library/Logs/CoreSimulator