How can I install a ipa file to my iPhone simulator

Question

I have an iphone simulator running on my Mac    I have a  ipa file  can you please tell me how can I install it on the simulator

User · Answer

UPDATE  For Xcode 8 0  you need to follow below Steps    Download application from iTunes Select downloaded app  right click show in finder Copy  ipa file to Desktop  rename it to  zip file  Extract that  zip file and you will get directory with application name Check that directory you will find app file in Payload folder  copy this app file Go to   Library Developer CoreSimulator Devices   FYI  Library folder is hidden by default in mac  you can see hidden file using below command   defaults write com apple finder AppleShowAllFiles YES  killall Finder  System Library CoreServices Finder app   Now here you ll see many directories with long hexadecimal names  these all are simulators   To find your desired simulator  sort these directories using  Arranged By   Date Modified     Select that simulator file and go to below location     lt HEXADECIMAL-SIMULATOR-STRING gt  data Containers Bundle Application  Create new folder name with  lt download-app-name gt  and paste app file in that folder Open Terminal and run below command to install this application   xcrun simctl install booted  lt APP FILE PATH gt     Example  lt APP FILE PATH gt  will be looks like below     Library Developer CoreSimulator Devices  lt HEXADECIMAL-SIMULATOR-STRING gt  data Containers Bundle Application  lt APP NAME gt

User · Answer

You cannot run an ipa file in the simulator because the ipa file is compiled for a phone s ARM architecture  not the simulator s x86 architecture   However  you can extract an app installed in a local simulator  send it to someone else  and have them copy it to the simulator on their machine   In terminal  type   open   Library Application  Support iPhone  Simulator   Applications   This will open all the applications folders of all the simulators you have installed  Each of the applications will be in a folder with a random hexadecimal name  You can work out which is your application by looking inside each of them  Once you have found out which one you want  right click it and choose  Compress      and it will make a zip file that you can easily copy to another computer and unzip to a similar location

User · Answer

I found an  ipa file that I wanted using iTunes and copied it over to my desktop   After that I changed the extension to  zip and extracted it    Next I found the Payload folder and moved the application inside to my desktop    Finally I moved that application to my iPhone simulators applications folder found at    HD   Applications   Xcode app  right click - Show Package Contents    Contents   Developer   Platforms   iPhoneSimulator platform   SDKs   iPhoneSimulator6 0 sdk   Applications   Hope this helps   Note  Some apps crash more often than others

User · Answer

You can run the application file of project in simulator - not  ipa file   You can get it from   Libraries-- gt Applicationsupport-- gt iphone simulator-- gt 4 3 its ur simulator version -- gt applications-- gt then u can see many files like 0CD04F     find out your application file through open it   You can copy the file to your system which system simulator u need run   location Libraries-- gt Applicationsupport-- gt iphone simulator-- gt 4 3 its your simulator version -- gt applications-- gt   Then open the simulator 4 3  its your simulator version where you pasted   You can see the application installed there     Getting from other people   Please tell them to find out Libraries-- gt Applicationsupport-- gt iphone simulator-- gt 4 3 its ur simulator version -- gt applications-- gt then you can see many files like 0CD04F     from their system and receive that file from them   After they have got the file  please copy and paste the file in to your system  Libraries-- Applicationsupport-- iphone simulator-- 4 3 its your simulator version -- applications--  paste the file here    Then you can see the app is installed in your system simulator and you can run it after clicking the file

User · Answer

Update for Xcode 9 4 1  Hope my answer is getting seen down here as this took me a while to figure out but I just got it working  First of all you need to build and run the App on your simulator  Then you open the Activity Monitor  Double click the name of your App to find its content   In the next screen open the Open Files and Ports tab and find the line with MyAppName app MyAppName   Copy the link but make sure to stop at the MyAppName app  Do not copy the path following it  Control click onto the finder icon and select Go to folder    Paste the path and click enter  You will see your MyAppName app file  Copy it to the Desktop and zip it  Move it to your desired 2nd computer and unzip the file  Build a random project to have a simulator open  Lastly  Literally drag and drop the App from your Desktop into your Simulator  You will see the install and the App opens and does not crash

User · Answer

You can t  If it was downloaded via the iTunes store it was built for a different processor and won t work in the simulator

User · Answer

With Xcode 6   It s very possible to build and install on a simulator   I did it by copying the debug build configuration  I called it SimRelease for my example below  in the project settings  I changed the architectures to i386 and x86 64  not sure how necessary this was   but key difference to change between the copied build configuration is build for active architecture set to NO  After that a couple simple command line tools will do the rest   xcodebuild -scheme YOUR SCHEME -configuration SimRelease -sdk iphonesimulator8 1   Depending on where you have your DerivedData set you need to go find the outputted  app folder  Once you ve found it you can simply install it on any simulator device  To find the device UUID s open Xcode and go to Window- Devices you ll see the list of the device instances and you can grab the UUID s  For a trivial script you could grab all of them from     Library Developer CoreSimulator Devices  and install on every device   From there the simple command to install on a device is    xcrun simctl install DEVICE ID APP FOLDER LOCATION  Here s a simple shell script to take the app and install it on every device   app dir  1 current dir   pwd  cd   Library Developer CoreSimulator Devices  devices   ls -d     cd   current dir  for device in  devices do     device id   device        xcrun simctl install   device id    app dir  done   Hope this helps  Took me a while to figure out the best way to do it

User · Answer

Step to run in different simulator without any code repo  -  First create a  app by building your project under project folder in Xcode  and paste it in a appropriate location  See pic for more clarity      Download Xcode  Create a demo project and Start simulator in which you want to run the app  Copy the  app file in particular location ex  - Desktop   cd Desktop and Run the command  xcrun simctl install booted appName app     App will be installed in the particular booted simulator

User · Answer

First of all  IPAs usually only have ARM slices because the App Store does not currently accept Simulator slices in uploads   Secondly  as of Xcode 8 3 you can drag  amp  drop a  app bundle into the Simulator window and it will be installed  You can find the app in your build products directory   Library Developer Xcode DerivedData projectname-xyzzyabcdefg Build Products Debug-iphonesimulator if you want to save it or distribute it to other people   To install from the command line use xcrun simctl install  lt device gt   lt path gt    device can be the device UUID  its name  or booted which means the currently booted device

User · Answer

In Xcode 6  and iOS8  you can do the simple steps below   Paste  app file on desktop  Open terminal and paste the commands below   cd desktop  xcrun simctl install booted xyz app Open iPhone simulator and click on app and use   For versions below iOS 8  do the following simple steps   Note   You ll want to make sure that your app is built for all architectures  the Simulator is x386 in the Build Settings and Build Active Architecture Only set to No    Path  Library- Application Support- iPhone Simulator- 7 1  or another version if you need it - Applications Create a new folder with the name of the app Go inside the folder and place the  app file here

User · Answer

Copy From Here  - Run the application in the Xcode  - Select Finder go to Go and click on select Library Library Application Support iPhone Simulator 7 0 3-64 Applications - Select 32 bit folder Copy your application   Paste To Here  -  Applications Xcode-Beta app Contents Developer Platforms iPhoneSimulator platform Developer SDKs iPhone Simulator  SDK Applications - Paste here and run the simulator

User · Answer

For Xcode 10  here s an easy way that worked for me for a debug IPA  development profiles    Unzip the IPA to get the Payload folder   Within the Payload folder is the app executable  Drag and drop the app to an open simulator   You might see a green add button when you drag it over the simulator    It should install that app on that simulator

[iphone] How can I install a .ipa file to my iPhone simulator

UPDATE: For Xcode 8.0+ you need to follow below Steps:

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