Can I delete data from the iOS DeviceSupport directory?

Question

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?

Castile

the same solution worked for xCode 8.3.3. It was old iOS versions taking up space NOT old device simulators. – Lerner

Answer 1

The ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport folder is basically only needed to symbolicate crash logs.

You could completely purge the entire folder. Of course the next time you connect one of your devices, Xcode would redownload the symbol data from the device.

I clean out that folder once a year or so by deleting folders for versions of iOS I no longer support or expect to ever have to symbolicate a crash log for.

Omalley

just as few as 41GB of data there, it does not make sense! So it's a good idea to remove mostly unused iOS versions as explained here! thanks – Brooks

Note that the documentation is downloaded only from a real attached device. If you get a crash report from a client device with a different iOS version as yours, you won't be able to read the crash report if that version is not in "iOS DeviceSupport". – Che

Or just delete ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport/*/Symbols/System/Library/Caches/* — still recovers a significant chunk of storage, but you still have the legacy device support there, should you later need it. – Benbena

One of the greatest answers on Stack Overflow - did this and instantly purged 40 GB of storage – Mathura

I work with a lot of iPads; did this and cleared out more than 60gb. – Yerga

Thank you so much! The whole size inside ~/Library/Developer/Xcode for me is 94 GB, but iOS DeviceSupport takes up almost all of it. This helps me reclaim around 90 GB by deleting un-needed directories of those infrequent used devices. Thanks again. – Fania

So will I get everything back when I reconnect my device, even my old symbolicated crash logs? – Laufer

I just tested it (by moving the folder, recreating it with Xcode, and then diffing). And no, I didn't get everything back. (Note: I've only ever set up one device (my iPhone) for development with Xcode. For me, this folder only contained folders, each named according to an iOS version & build, eg, "13.4.1 (17E262)".) I lost the folders for older versions of iOS that I guess my iPhone had. I also lost the value of the DateCollected key in the Info.plist file inside the folder of the current version of iOS that my iPhone has. I don't know about crash logs because my iPhone has none on it. – Laufer

Is it possible to change the iOS DeviceSupport default folder location? I want it to point to an external drive and save some memory on main drive.. – Barvick

Answer 2

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 )

5. 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
   

6. 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 (dead)

Archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20180828053353/https://ajithrnayak.com/post/95441624221/xcode-users-can-free-up-space-on-your-mac

I got back about 40GB!

Olga

I'm using Xcode 8.1 and I've deleted the content of Archives, CoreSimulator, DerivedData, iOS DeviceSupport and Products (as I was not managing any of my product anymore). I also got back aprox. 40GB. BUT Xcode started doing excessed CPU work without any reason. I'll provide more feedback over time. – Preachment

And I was wondering where did all of my free space go. Deleting all of these (besides some archives I actually needed) gave me 42GB of space back. Thanks for this answer! – Disenthrone

since a big part of this answer is copied from the quoted website, please add proper attribution: stackoverflow.com/help/referencing – Ursi

For SwiftUI previews I suggest: xcrun simctl --set previews delete all This command frees a tons of GB... – Due

That source link forwards to a spam site – Biancabiancha

@ow3n, for the last couple of years, it was accessible, but now it redirects to other sites. I added it just because of the source of truth. – Olga

@JamshedAlam gotcha. How about the archived version instead? web.archive.org/web/20180828053353/https://ajithrnayak.com/post/… – Biancabiancha

@ow3n, updated, appreciate your help! – Olga

Answer 3

I wrote a small command-line utility based on the great answer by @JamshedAlam for those who are tired of deleting the contents of those folders manually. Check it out here if you think it would help you.

Walrath

Answer 4

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

Inhalant