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I open my project in Xcode 6.1. When I try to run the project, the button is grayed out. When I try to go to Product > Clean, the option is grayed out. When I look at the list of simulators, all I get is My Mac instead of the usually iOS Device. How do I get my simulators to come back?

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  • Check in Menu Xode->Preferences->Download, if there are all possible simulators. Check your target, is it correct. Commented Nov 1, 2014 at 15:28
  • I tried a few answers, but non worked. Then I restarted my Mac and everything was back to normal. Not sure if all I needed was a restart or if the changes + the restart was necessary Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 21:06
  • Sometimes only the restart of XCode/Mac will do Commented Jul 3, 2018 at 5:06

46 Answers 46

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Make sure that the project you are trying to run has deployment target equal to or less then the SDK version of your Xcode. In my case I tried to run a project which was built using iOS8.4 but I have Xcode6.1 with SDK version 8.1

I changed the deployment target to 8.1 and it start showing me simulators.

P.S before doing this, make sure that your code and external libraries are compatible with your new deployment target, else you have to update your Xcode.

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4 Comments

This happened when my xCode version updated, and new simulators loaded, but the simulator service was still running. This will correct it: sudo killall -9 com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService
In my case, my system version does not support some iOS versions. To check this just run this command (xcrun simctl list runtimes) in terminal. When I run this I got these results: iOS 9.3 (9.3 - 13E233) - com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-9-3 (unavailable, The iOS 9.3 simulator runtime is not supported on hosts after macOS 10.14.99.) iOS 10.0 (10.0 - 14A345) - (unavailable, The iOS 10.0 simulator runtime is not supported on hosts after macOS 10.14.99.) iOS 10.3 (10.3.1 - 14E8301) - (unavailable, The iOS 10.3 simulator runtime is not supported on hosts after macOS 10.15.99.)
downgrading deployment targets from iOS 12 to 10 in Podfile and Xcode worked for me.
Correct. iOS versions lower than deployment target are hidden🤦‍♂️
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Try This, It worked like a charm! for me,

Follow below step

1) Clean Derived Data as show below,

 rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/

OR

 Xcode---> Preferences--->Location--->Derived Data

Derived Data

2) In Deployment Info change Deployment Target

It's equal to or less then the SDK version of Xcode

enter image description here

3) Quit Xcode

enter image description here

4) Reopen Xcode you will see list of simulators

enter image description here

Hope this answer will help for someone.

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1 Comment

Why this happening, is there any reason they don't want to show the simulator list?
119

I could not find any solution that would fix my issue. All simulators were there for all projects but the one that I needed them.

Solution:

Build Settings -> Architectures -> Supported Platforms:

changed from iphoneos to iOS

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4 Comments

Also on Unity. It made the simulators show up but it still wouldn't build. The solution was to go to the Unity Editor and set Unity -> Build settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> Target SDK = Simulator SDK
This alone solved it for me
Holy heck, man. Yes. Changing to Simulator SDK is the ONLY thing that works if you're using Unity. Also, works easily after that. Just build to a different output folder.
Still relevant in 2024
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Click on the project name (Right to the Run button). Three options will appear.

  1. Edit scheme
  2. New scheme
  3. Manage scheme

You can click on "New scheme" and then click on "OK" in popup window.

You will have simulators list back.

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2 Comments

This worked for me. But I run into same problem when I try to change iPhone in simulator, and then this same scheme doesn't work any longer even if I go back to the previous simulator. I have to do New Scheme once again. I am using Xcode 12.2. There is still some bug somewhere in Xcode.
Also Worked for me with Xcode 14.1 !
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Also check the iOS Deployment Target under build settings.

Somehow the Deployment Target gets set to most latest SDK that won't have available simulators.

Select the available SDK version and simulator list should be back available again. Cheers!

enter image description here

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28

Cmd below solved my problem:

$ sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

In my case, I upgraded to Xcode 8 and downloaded another version 7.3.1 later (renamed it to "Xcode 7.3.1"), then cannot get the simulator list in Xcode 8.

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Tried this and "edit scheme" thing mentioned earlier, neither worked out. So I was curious and tried to run the simulator itself. Got this error: Unable to determine simulator device to boot. I followed the suggestion by thegreenpizza at this post and it worked. stackoverflow.com/questions/24011986/…
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In my case i'd accidentally deleted ios devices in system Finder -> Library->Devices->Core simulator

So, the simulators are not listed in the Xcode project except ios device.

I solved this by adding ios simuulators from Xcode->Window->Devices->Add simulators

enter image description here

Hope it'll help someone.

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17

For those coming from Unity, even if you manage to make them show up (by changing Build Settings > Supported Platforms to iOS it would not run in the simulator.

Instead, you need to select this Simulator SDK :

enter image description here

And make sure something other than Metal exist.

enter image description here

Then the simulator device list will be there from start.

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2 Comments

Just a note that the "Target SDK" setting listed above is under Build Settings -> Player Settings -> iOS (little iphone icon on the menu) -> Other Settings -> Target SDK in the Unity UI
Kinda defeats the point of a simulator if you have to select a target device. Whilst this does seem to be a way, it didn't work for me because none of the plugin libraries i'm using were compiled for Simulator use. So ultimately pointless waist of time. Also, note that this will trigger an asset reimport FYI.
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Solution: Build Settings -> Architectures -> Supported Platforms: changed from iphoneos to iOS

Confirmed works in Xcode Version 9.0 (9A235)

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10

Deployment Target version change to a lower one helped for me:

Window -> Devices and Simulators -> Simulators. Check what are the latest versions of existing simulators.

simulators

Then go to your project's Target. Under Deployment Info, change Target to the version you saw the latest within your simulators. Mine was set to iOS 13.6 when the simulator was iOS 13.5 only.

deployment-target

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8

check in your project's build settings , make certain you select Latest iOS (iOS 8.1).

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8

If you renamed Xcode.app since first launch, the iOS Simulator becomes unavailable. This is mentioned in the Xcode 6.1 Release Notes:

Renaming Xcode.app after running any of the Xcode tools in that bundle may cause iOS Simulator to be no longer be available. Either rename Xcode.app back to what it was when first launched or restart your Mac. (16646772)

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8

Go to Window then Devices and press the plus button at the bottom left to add a device and select the simulator which are required.This worked for me.

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7

Sometimes the simulator you have might not be the simulator specified in Build Settings. Make sure that simulator package is downloaded for your IOS Deployment Target

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6

If Your problem is due to multiple (versions of) xcode

Then follow following steps

1. Cleaning Derived Data Go to Xcode preferences -> Select location tab -> select little gray arrow on /Users/apple/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData. You will be redirect to folder From there select Derived Data folder and Delete.
enter image description here

2. Completely Quite The Xcode and reopen

This will solve your problem. Happy coding :)

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5

Looks like Xcode hides that menu when the window is a certain size. You have to make your window quite large before it comes back.

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1 Comment

Of all the solutions, this was what solved it for me: resize the silly window. XCode 16.2 (9.5 years into the future).
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Same Problem happened with me.. When I updated from Xcode 8 Beta 3 to Xcode 8 Beta 4, But I resolved it by this way..

  1. Go to Window -> Devices

you can see all Devices and Simulators here

  1. Just right click on any device or simulator
  2. Tick on Show in Destination Menu (Even it is already checked, then click it twice, It may be refresh things)

If above does not work.. as if you do not see any simulators, then..

  1. Change(degrade) the minimum deployment target of app to 8.3(not necessary)
  2. restart xcode

It worked for me.. Hope will be helpful for someone later..

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5

Quite Xcode and Open it again, it will show. For me it's worked.

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5

Just check your Deployment Target where XCode support it or not.

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5

In my case the problem was in Architectures parameter. It was set to arm64 I just changed the value to Standard Architectures (arm64, armv7) - $(ARCHS_STANDARD) Then pod install enter image description here

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1 Comment

This one did the trick for me, thank you.
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Small but a effective solution. In my case i updated to my xcode to 9.2 version and simulators disappeared.

I found this solution and it worked for me and for others also.

**

Just quit your xcode and restart again. You will have simulators.

**

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4

If you updated Xcode to 12.1. Completely quit Xcode and it will install components.

enter image description here

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4

I had the same problem with xCode 14.0.1. Replacing the target architecture from "arm64" to "$(ARCHS_STANDARD)" brought back the list of simulators.

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3

I still had my iOS Device, but all my simulators were gone.

I tried every suggested solution I could find on stackoverflow.

Eventually, I deleted the Xcode app and downloaded it again from the App Store. After installation, the simulators were back.

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3

I just needed a good, old fashioned restart the computer. When uninstalling and reinstalling XCode didn't do the job, I restarted out of pure frustration....lo and behold! After a restart, everything was as it should be.

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I was really sweating it as I read thru these answers (while downloading Xcode in the background). I decided to give your answer a shot as it was low risk and I have a habit of NOT restarting for long periods. Sadly, solutions for the Mac are becoming more similar to THE solution for Windows: reboot. Happily though, it worked! Thank you!
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If you just updated Xcode, you may need to restart your computer before simulators become available again.

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Product->Destination->Destination Architecture->Show Both

After that, you see all simulators

enter image description here

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2 Comments

The question is about Xcode 6.1. Apple Silicon didn't exist at that time.
And what so? You think that currently we haven't problem with "hidden" simulators? And one more, in case what i post, in start was hidden not only rosetta simulators, for example i can't see any simulators with 14.x IOS
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I ran into another situation where this can occur. I work with a team we use Xcode server for continuous integration. The server wasn't seeing any simulators, but only for one project. I eventually determined that this was due to the fact that the version of Xcode on our server was one release earlier, and the Xcode project was set to build to the newest version available. Simply updating Xcode solved the issue for us.

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2

I had this happen to me after an update to a new Xcode. Running

xcode-select --install

fixed it for me.

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2

After upgrading to Xcode 10.3, the list of simulators was empty. I rebooted and it was resolved.

This doesn't necessarily answer the OP's specific question, but this was the first place I ended up in researching my Xcode 10.3 upgrade issue.

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I just upgraded to 10.3 and faced the same issue. Alternatively, you can run the command shown in the answer provided by @riik stackoverflow.com/a/56832489
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