Clear iPhone simulator cookies

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I have an app that makes request to a REST service. Authentication is done using cookies. This already works.

What I have problems with is to test the case when the cookie is no longer valid and my code has to reauthenticate. To test this I have to wait until the cookie is invalid, which could take some time. To accelerate this I figured that if I delete the cookie it would have the same effect.

How to delete all cookies of an app on the iPhone simulator?

I already tried the following:

Deleting <app-dir>/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies doesn't work. It seems that my cookies are never written to this file.

Deleting all cookies in NSHTTPCookieStorage on app startup doesn't work either.

Cyrano answered 13/12, 2010 at 8:57 Comment(1)

Is there some reason resetting the simulator won't work for you? – Stringer 13/12, 2010 at 9:0

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The cookies are located at:

/Users/<YourUsername>/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/<iOSversion>/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies

You may need to quit out of Safari (in the fast app switching area) and then delete them so Safari won't have them in memory.

Alright answered 13/12, 2010 at 9:14 Comment(8)

That seemed to work only for SDKs prior 4.x. I have that file but it wasn't updated since spring. – Cyrano 13/12, 2010 at 9:55

Deleting Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies definitely works for me, se above. – Alright 13/12, 2010 at 10:37

Thx Matthew, you got me a step further. Your directories only work for Safari in my own app these dirs are .../4.2/Applications/<app hash>/Library/Cookies/. I deleted the .dat files that I didn't see before I reseted my simulator. After that my app doesn't save cookies between app starts anymore. Kind of what I need for testing. But it is definitely a strange behavior. – Cyrano 13/12, 2010 at 10:56

Ah, interesting, and definitely strange. Glad you found a solution, anyway. – Alright 13/12, 2010 at 11:3

The cookie file can be found at: > /Users/<username>/Library/Application\ Support/iPhone\ Simulator/4.2/Applications/<app_id>/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies – Orelle 10/3, 2011 at 11:36

@Balint Right, that's what my answer says. – Alright 10/3, 2011 at 13:14

There is no iPhone Simulator folder in Application Support. Where else could it be? – Ploughboy 24/1, 2018 at 17:6

@modiX This answer was from 2010. A lot has changed since then. Resetting the simulator is likely your best bet. If you need to delete single cookies while keeping other things in place, you should be able to find them in Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/DEVICEIDENTIFIERHERE/data/Library/Cookies. Replace "DEVICEIDENTIFIERHERE" with the 37-character UUID directory name for that device. You'll be able to spot the right one if you just sort by "Date Modified" in the Finder. – Alright 25/1, 2018 at 15:35

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YOU CAN RESET THE SIMULATOR

Launch the simulator.
Click the FIRST item on the "menu bar". It says "iOS Simulator"
A menu will appear. Go down three items to "Reset Contents and Settings"
Click "Reset" on the dialog which appears

iPhone Simulator Reset Cookies

Cuffs answered 13/12, 2010 at 9:12 Comment(4)

Resetting it is indeed likely the easiest route unless you don't want to reset everything else in the simulator. – Alright 13/12, 2010 at 9:38

That is not an option, I need to have the rest of my content not deleted. Though I could copy it back after reset. – Cyrano 13/12, 2010 at 9:43

No I have various files (e.g. sqlite dbs) that save user data which are necessary for my tests. – Cyrano 13/12, 2010 at 9:56

This answer seems to be out of date. See #2764233 – Ossie 26/9, 2019 at 21:47

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You'll probably find better luck doing this in the SDK code rather than modifying file systems. Try:

    //Delete previous cookies
    NSHTTPCookieStorage *cookieStorage = [NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage];
    for (NSHTTPCookie *each in [[[cookieStorage cookiesForURL:YOUR_URL] copy] autorelease]) {
        [cookieStorage deleteCookie:each];
    }

Aruwimi answered 13/12, 2010 at 13:29 Comment(1)

Works like charm. You save my day!! – Booster 28/7, 2011 at 7:34