Xcode: How to determine which DeviceSupport is useful?
When handling with MacBook storage problem,
I found that Xcode's bad storage management is very painful.
Seeing from the detail of DeviceSupport's item, it is about system library and Swift binary etc.
I know I should remove the older items. My question is how to know which item is currently using, in
/Users/usr/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS\ DeviceSupport?
So I could remove the useless DeviceSupport, and keep the useful.
Yes, Xcode keeps device support files for old devices and it's safe to delete them.
If you want to know which ones are still in regular use, you can check the 'Date Modified' attribute:
or you can connect your devices to your Mac and check the OS version / build number in the Devices window of Xcode:
The arm64e version is for iOS devices with the A12 chipset or above: see the Stack Overflow question Xcode arm64 Vs arm64e and the list of devices with those chipsets on Wikipedia:
- Apple A12
- Apple A13
- Reduce size of the Xcode application
You may delete all of them and install the necessary by going to Xcode preferences > Components > Simulators.
If you want to avoid the download by keeping the useful one,
- Connect the iPhone to the Mac.
- Open window menu > devices and simulators.
- See the iPhone model in "Devices tab". And close Xcode.
- Keep that model and delete the rest from "Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport" folder.
Even if you delete them all, Xcode will get the support files from iPhone itself:
- How to stop Xcode downloading iOS support package of my iPhone?