What does the Xcode 4.2 preference "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices" do?

Asked 1/9, 2011 at 5:25 Answered 24/3, 2012 at 9:40

In Xcode 4.2, there is a new preference under the General tab called "iOS Device Discovery" with the checkbox option "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices."

What does this option do? Once checked, how can we use this new capability?

Communize answered 1/9, 2011 at 5:25 Comment(1)

how come Xcode 5.1 does not have this feature in the general tab? – Mendie 20/6, 2014 at 20:30

115

Plug your device into your machine.
Go to iTunes -> device -> Summary page and check the "Sync with this XXXX over Wi-Fi" option
In XCode, XCode menu -> Preferences -> General check the "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices"
Unplug your Device
On the device, go to Settings -> General -> iTunes Wi-Fi Sync and click "Sync Now"
In XCode, to go to Organizer -> Devices and cross your fingers.

Step 5 is what did it for me. I've been struggling for days unable to get my devices to appear, but when I wirelessly synced them from the device itself, the little wirelessly connected symbol popped up in the Organizer in XCode. Hopefully it will work you too.

Edit: The device has to awake for XCode to see it. When my device sleeps, it vanishes off the Organizer

Edit: This feature allows you to do all actions you could do on a device plug into your machine via a USB cable... only now without the cable. I've found this very useful to build to local testers with almost no effort on their part, run instruments like Leaks or Zombies to help track down pesky issues while your test is still comfortable sitting at their desk (instead of tethered to your machine).

Edit: This feature is no longer available as of Xcode 4.3.1 It will re-appear later when it has less issues (they are estimating in version 4.4).

2/2012 - This feature is still gone as of Xcode 4.6. There is currently no sign of it returning in near future, if ever.

10/2013 - Xcode 5.0 is here and there is still no sign the feature will return. We can pretty much assume it's dead for the foreseeable future at this point.

9/2014 - I have a report that wifi device capability does exist in Xcode 6.0. The hypothesis is having a device which is set up to wirelessly sync with iTunes. I have started testing, but so far have been unable to get positive results. Thanks to Steven Kramer for raising this possibility and the image.

Xcode device list including wifi devices

Therese answered 22/10, 2011 at 2:36 Comment(15)

thanks but what does it allow you to do? push dev builds wirelessly connected devices? how are the 'wirelessly connected devices supported'? thanks – Circumcision 8/11, 2011 at 17:15

Thanks for the great info here. Everything worked except getting the build running on the device - Anyone else getting: error: failed to launch '.../builds/Debug-iphoneos/xxx.app/xxx' -- not connected to remote gdb server. I can see it copying everything over... just not launching. – Chalmers 21/2, 2012 at 19:18

@Chalmers is your device jailbroken? – Taxi 3/3, 2012 at 11:56

I have 4.3.1 installed but I don't see the checkbox, nor are my iOS 5 devices showing up. Can anyone else confirm if the checkbox was removed? – Narcosis 9/3, 2012 at 18:38

Chris, yes the feature has been removed in Xcode 4.3.1. According to a comment in this response (https://mcmap.net/q/242354/-wireless-debugging-in-xcode4-2) because of problems with the functionality. – Greenlee 14/3, 2012 at 14:31

For those still running a version of Xcode with this feature: Roughly 60% of my crashes were from having this feature on. Another 30% were from corrupted DerviedData. The last 10% was everything else wrong with Xcode. I'm really glad this feature is gone for now. I hope they manage to fix it, though. :) – Interrogation 21/4, 2012 at 0:38

07/02/2013 - the feature still gone in xcode 4.6 ! hopefully we'll get this feature back soon – Striper 6/2, 2013 at 22:14

Not even In XCODE 6 Beta! – Minority 18/6, 2014 at 19:4

The feature is in the GM (6.0) but doesn't work: error 0xE8000016. – Kissel 25/9, 2014 at 7:32

@Steven - Could you please elaborate? I don't see a place to turn on the feature and it doesn't pick up my devices on the same wifi network automatically. Even if the feature is non-functional, I'd like to document it fully. – Therese 25/9, 2014 at 14:40

It's as erratic as it ever was, but it works ( ibin.co/1bagYcUwh511). I think that if you have the device syncing over Wifi in iTunes It Just Works. Some rebooting of devices and restarts of Xcode could be in order. There's no setting to be made otherwise. It's sort of useful, because the organizer shows the device and everything in there works. Xcode is 6.0, device is iOS 8.0. – Kissel 25/9, 2014 at 20:59

If you do a context menu click on the device in the Organizer, you might see the option to "Connect to this device over Wi-Fi". I do, for a few devices. – Kissel 7/10, 2014 at 14:9

Still getting 0xE8000016 in Xcode 6.3 beta... Stay strong my fellow cord-haters! – Serrate 11/2, 2015 at 8:50

Any clue from this link: developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DeveloperTools/… – Selmaselman 16/7, 2016 at 9:50

FINALLY! Xcode 9 supports wireless debugging: "Choose any of your iOS or tvOS devices on the local network to install, run, and debug your apps" developer.apple.com/xcode – Serrate 5/6, 2017 at 20:38

In some future Xcode release, the "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices" option will allow you to debug your apps on your devices without connecting them to a USB port of your development Mac. I find this feature isn't ready for production use yet, but you may have better luck with it. Here is what you need to do to set it up:

Connect your device using USB, start iTunes, check "Sync with this iPod/iPhone/iPad over Wi-Fi" under its entry in Devices.
Start Xcode. Open the Devices tab of the Organizer window, and verify that your device has a green dot beside its name.
Disconnect your device from your Mac; verify that iTunes still sees it and can sync with it wirelessly.
Check "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices" under Xcode's Preferences. Wait a few seconds.
Your device should now have a green Wi-Fi symbol beside it. If not, toggle the "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices" checkbox off/on or restart Xcode, iTunes, and/or your device until it does.
You should now be able to select the device in the Scheme pop-up menu. Try selecting it and start debugging your app wirelessly. Good luck!

In my case, Xcode is able to install new development builds on the device, but it is not yet able to reliably run & debug it. Both LLDB and GDB have lots of trouble connecting to the device. Sometimes they do succeed, but it's not reliable enough for convenient development.

Authorship answered 7/11, 2011 at 21:51 Comment(2)

Hi all I am finding this pop up while running wirelessly. "Don't know how to run try "help target"" – Iselaisenberg 8/3, 2012 at 14:20

I don't see the "Support Wirelessly Connected Devices" in Xcode Prefs .... where might it be? – Listless 15/2, 2015 at 15:46

Please note that if you are using XCode 4.3, they have have removed wireless support, so following these steps will be in vain. Someone else also figured out they have silently removed the wirelessly connected devices feature: http://www.thomashajcak.com/wireless-support-in-xcode-4-3/

Flageolet answered 24/3, 2012 at 9:40 Comment(0)

This allows the device to appear in the organizer if the device and computer are on the same wireless network even when not plugged in via a usb cord.

Bimah answered 14/10, 2011 at 14:23 Comment(3)

It may seem pretty obvious, but I haven't been able to get it to work either. I checked off the box, I tried quitting and restarting XCode. I tried it when devices were plugged as well as when they were just sitting on my desk. I've yet been able to get XCode to notice a device without the USB cord. – Therese 14/10, 2011 at 20:46

@dbd You might also need to enable wireless syncing in iTunes for that device. – Bimah 14/10, 2011 at 20:48

Ok, I tried that. I read about stuff on the Apple Forums. It seems like you do have to enable it in iTunes, but I still couldn't get it to work. Lots of people seem to be having the same issue. Some say it work intermittently. So... we'll just call it a feature in progress unless someone can help us get it to work consistently. – Therese 15/10, 2011 at 2:3

Another use for this switch is to address when Xcode is showing 100% CPU utilization when wireless syncing is enabled. By disabling wireless sync support, Xcode will only use hard wired devices for code deployment.

Circumscribe answered 21/10, 2011 at 20:56 Comment(0)

go to itunes, press sync, the device will be "re-connected", wait for a few sec, it should be showed in xcode

Epigraphy answered 22/10, 2011 at 4:13 Comment(0)

Recommended topics

Hot tags