[xcode] Can I delete data from the iOS DeviceSupport directory?

After going through and cleaning my disk with old things that I didn't need anymore, I came across the iOS DeviceSupport folder in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode which was taking nearly 20 GB.

A similar question has been asked before, but since then many things have changed and I would like an up-to-date answer.

As long as I have the version I use for testing, can I delete the older/unused versions without breaking anything?

iOS DeviceSupport contents

This question is related to xcode xcode8 delete-file temporary-files

The answer is


More Suggestive answer supporting rmaddy's answer as our primary purpose is to delete unnecessary file and folder:

  1. Delete this folder after every few days interval. Most of the time, it occupy huge space!

      ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
    
  2. All your targets are kept in the archived form in Archives folder. Before you decide to delete contents of this folder, here is a warning - if you want to be able to debug deployed versions of your App, you shouldn’t delete the archives. Xcode will manage of archives and creates new file when new build is archived.

      ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives
    
  3. iOS Device Support folder creates a subfolder with the device version as an identifier when you attach the device. Most of the time it’s just old stuff. Keep the latest version and rest of them can be deleted (if you don’t have an app that runs on 5.1.1, there’s no reason to keep the 5.1.1 directory/directories). If you really don't need these, delete. But we should keep a few although we test app from device mostly.

    ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport
    
  4. Core Simulator folder is familiar for many Xcode users. It’s simulator’s territory; that's where it stores app data. It’s obvious that you can toss the older version simulator folder/folders if you no longer support your apps for those versions. As it is user data, no big issue if you delete it completely but it’s safer to use ‘Reset Content and Settings’ option from the menu to delete all of your app data in a Simulator.

      ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator 
    

(Here's a handy shell command for step 5: xcrun simctl delete unavailable )

  1. Caches are always safe to delete since they will be recreated as necessary. This isn’t a directory; it’s a file of kind Xcode Project. Delete away!

    ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode
    
  2. Additionally, Apple iOS device automatically syncs specific files and settings to your Mac every time they are connected to your Mac machine. To be on safe side, it’s wise to use Devices pane of iTunes preferences to delete older backups; you should be retaining your most recent back-ups off course.

     ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
    

Source: https://ajithrnayak.com/post/95441624221/xcode-users-can-free-up-space-on-your-mac

I got back about 40GB!


Yes, you can delete data from iOS device support by the symbols of the operating system, one for each version for each architecture. It's used for debugging. If you don't need to support those devices any more, you can delete the directory without ill effect


Examples related to xcode

Undefined Symbols error when integrating Apptentive iOS SDK via Cocoapods Xcode 12, building for iOS Simulator, but linking in object file built for iOS, for architecture arm64 iPhone is not available. Please reconnect the device Make a VStack fill the width of the screen in SwiftUI error Failed to build iOS project. We ran "xcodebuild" command but it exited with error code 65 The iOS Simulator deployment targets is set to 7.0, but the range of supported deployment target version for this platform is 8.0 to 12.1 Xcode 10.2.1 Command PhaseScriptExecution failed with a nonzero exit code Git is not working after macOS Update (xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools) Xcode 10: A valid provisioning profile for this executable was not found Xcode 10, Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code

Examples related to xcode8

Linker Command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation), Xcode 8, Swift 3 Xcode: Could not locate device support files Xcode 8 shows error that provisioning profile doesn't include signing certificate Xcode error: Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.0' Correctly Parsing JSON in Swift 3 How can I delete derived data in Xcode 8? CGRectMake, CGPointMake, CGSizeMake, CGRectZero, CGPointZero is unavailable in Swift How to create dispatch queue in Swift 3 Hide strange unwanted Xcode logs Can I delete data from the iOS DeviceSupport directory?

Examples related to delete-file

Ansible: How to delete files and folders inside a directory? Can I delete data from the iOS DeviceSupport directory? Python3 project remove __pycache__ folders and .pyc files How do I delete files programmatically on Android? Delete files or folder recursively on Windows CMD How to delete a folder and all contents using a bat file in windows? How to delete a file or folder? How to remove a directory from git repository? Linux delete file with size 0 Java 'file.delete()' Is not Deleting Specified File

Examples related to temporary-files

Can I delete data from the iOS DeviceSupport directory? git ignore vim temporary files Creating temporary files in Android How to create a temporary directory and get the path / file name in Python How to prevent vim from creating (and leaving) temporary files? How can I create a temp file with a specific extension with .NET?