How to run iPhone emulator WITHOUT starting Xcode

Question

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

User · Answer

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}

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

No need to do anything on the commandline   Just use spotlight to run simulator app

User · Answer

In XCode 7  the location is now    Applications Xcode app Contents Developer Applications Simulator app   Run it from the command line    open -a Simulator   Hope that helps somebody

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

From Terminal you have to run   open -a Simulator

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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 De  veloper 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

User · Answer

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

[xcode] How to run iPhone emulator WITHOUT starting Xcode?

In case you were trying to open multiple distinct simulators at once:

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