iPhone not appearing in Develop menu in Safari
Asked Answered
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18

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On my "Develop" menu, in Safari, the iPhone no longer appears after updating Safari to the latest version, making it impossible to inspect and debug sites and apps.

I restarted the iPhone, killed and relaunched Safari, restarted my Mac too, but the issue is still there. Affects both Safari mobile and phonegap applications.

Anyone experienced the same problem?

Mariettemarigold answered 21/11, 2014 at 11:18 Comment(1)
Pretty sure that mobile Safari and the Finder and iTunes will all soon be removed from the corresponding Apple App Stores because they don't work properly. Therefore they will not pass Apple's exacting app review process designed to ensure that users are delighted, so Apple will remove them, just like they do with everybody else's apps. Because otherwise, it would be clear that Apple has a monopoly, and we all know that that's against the law, so that can't be true. This will mean that Apple will have to debug their code soon. (alarm goes off... waking up...).Ringdove
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Turns out, my issue was that the update to the latest iOS version disabled the "Web Inspector" settings on my iPhone. To re-enable it, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced.

Mariettemarigold answered 21/11, 2014 at 15:16 Comment(1)
IOS 11.3 reset this setting to default, you must re enable it Settings > Safari > Advanced >Eldridge
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105

FWIW, I tried all of these suggestions, and it worked briefly after resetting Privacy & Location settings but stopped working immediately after.

What ended up working as a long term solution was to turn both WiFi and Bluetooth off on the iPhone while connected to the Mac.

Aleron answered 4/11, 2019 at 21:17 Comment(11)
that makes no sense - but its the only thing that worked for me tooLamination
Me too, how dreadfully annoying. Fortunately I can reconnect wifi and the developer tools still work despite the phone disappearing from the Develop menu. Ridiculous!Vachel
Can also confirm, resetting just the privacy and location settings allowed my phone to show up under the develop menu in safari. It then asked me to "trust" the computer on my phone again. As soon as I did that it disappeared from the develop menu again. Turning off wifi and bluetooth made it reappear so can be used for debugging but it disappears again the moment wifi and bluetooth are turned back on on the phone. Definite one to add to the long iOS13/macOS Catalina bug list.Lice
Works like a dream. Thanks!Hynes
THANK YOU JOE! Had this issue for months and turning off both the Wifi and Bluetooth did the trick. I knew about resetting the Privacy & Location settings, but that only sometimes worked, if only briefly. I'm running MacOS Catalina 10.15.2, and iPhone 8 iOS 13.3.Signorina
Thank you for this one! I'm soon on the verge of Fairphone and Rasberry Pi :/Cherlycherlyn
FWIW: I didn't reset network settings, or location and privacy, but turning off Wifi/Bluetooth and having the phone connected using a lightning cable made the phone appear on Safari > Develop. I then selected the Safari > Develop > [iPhone] > Connect via Network option and I could now inspect, even with lightning cable removed.Launcher
This is the only thing that worked for me. Just a side note. If I have lighting cable plugged in and it does NOT show up in the develop menu. Just disable wifi/bluetooth on phone. Then you MUST quit completely out of safari then launch safari again and you will then see your device. Select your device and finally you can debug. You can also re-enable wifi and bluetooth. This is very annonying. Has anyone submitted a bug report on this?Malayan
i had to reset my privacy settings recently since my phone was asking me, if it should trust the computer each time i plugged it in. now this is solved. but on desktop in safari it is not showing up, when connecting. unless i uncheck wifi & bluetooth. wtf?Sika
I had to quit safari after doing this but then after restarting safari the phone shows up.Garrity
What kind sorcery is this? How does this work?Lionfish
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60

Turns out, my issue was that the update to the latest iOS version disabled the "Web Inspector" settings on my iPhone. To re-enable it, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced.

Mariettemarigold answered 21/11, 2014 at 15:16 Comment(1)
IOS 11.3 reset this setting to default, you must re enable it Settings > Safari > Advanced >Eldridge
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50

In our case we needed to reset the trust between iPhone & Mac. From iPhone Settings > General > Reset choose reset Privacy & Location and also Network Settings. The phone reboots, we reconnected to the laptop, tapped Yes to Trust this Computer and now Mac Safari can once again debug mobile Safari.

Brattishing answered 30/9, 2019 at 21:38 Comment(8)
This was exactly what I needed! After restarting my phone and mac multiple times, updating, turning settings off/on again it was just a matter of resetting Privacy & Location then Network Settings (which restarted my device). Then I had to turn on Web Inspector once again and I was connected!Estaestablish
This worked for me. Like you said, needed to reset both "Privacy & Location" as well as "Network Settings". Didn't work with just one of these resets; had to be both. Thank you!Regarding
For me with an iPhone XR and a Macbook Pro with official USB-C to USB-A and iPhone cable, changing only "Privacy & Location" worked.Megalith
Resetting Privacy & Location had no effect for me, only Network settings reset resolved the issue.Ritaritardando
Worked for me, iPhone XRMargy
@Regarding Resetting network settings is what did it for me! Legend!Professoriate
I spent hours rebooting , restarting Safari , toggle options in the IOS settings... so this did work for me too. Connection was broken after installing a Mac OSX/Safari update for Mojave 10.14.6 and simultaneously installing an IOS 13.3.1 update. Plugging in the phone did not inform about a trust problem (and ironically Xcode apps could be still deployed to this phone)Foursome
You are the MVP.Lachrymatory
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39

What helped for me was the following:

  1. Open Xcode
  2. On the Menu: Window -> Devices and Simulators
  3. Check the Connect via network checkbox. (If it is already selected then uncheck it and re-check)
Haynes answered 24/12, 2019 at 14:25 Comment(2)
so dumb. after catalina update this completetly broke but thankfully this fixed it. so insane how buggy these new max updates areDuodenary
This worked and I didn't have to reset any of my iPhone settings! Magnifico!Paraclete
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19

In my case, resetting only Privacy & Location did the job (but only temporarily, see update below!).

Try only resetting that before resetting your whole network settings for nothing!

Almost immediately after reset, the "Trust this Computer" popup appeared and after trusting my device appeared in the Develop menu.


Update:

I kept having regular issues with this (having to reset it multiple times per day, restarting Safari and a combination of other things) until I found the real fix here:

https://mcmap.net/q/240772/-ipad-is-not-showing-in-develop-menu-on-osx-safari

@BearSnowstorm:

One more tip to try - after trying many of the above suggestions I turned off "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi" in iTunes.

Voila! Got my iPhone into the Develop menu!

(for context, this is in Mojave 10.14.6, iOS 13.1.3, Safari 13.0.3)

My comment on that answer describes the same thing but updated for Catalina:

I had recurring issues with this and the only way I could make it work (sometimes) was to reset Location & Privacy, close Safari, unplug my device, etc. It was always a temporary fix though and the issues would come back very quickly. This however seems to work more permanently! I confirm what @Florian said: the setting was off by default for me, turning it on then off (after letting the sync finish) worked. On Catalina, this setting is named "Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi" under General when you select your iDevice in the Finder.

Reading that answer my instinct was that it could not possibly make a difference, but it does! I have had zero issues since I did this. Try it!

Apothecary answered 24/10, 2019 at 17:43 Comment(1)
Same. After resetting Privacy & Location on my iPhone, then restarting the phone, re-trusting on both ends, and restarting Safari a few times it finally popped up in the Develop menu. At first, when selecting 'iPhone X' from the Develop menu, it said 'connecting... no inspectable applications'. This resolved after restarting Safari a couple times.Jurywoman
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10

Some cables (even official Apple Lightning Connector) don't support this feature because of some damage inside. My Lightning Connector was able to charge the iPhone but prevented to use dev tools on the Mac. I used another cable to successfully connect to dev tools.

Purposely answered 21/6, 2016 at 9:31 Comment(4)
cable is problem in my case. Thanks.Microampere
In my case the problem was the MBP USB-C to USB adapter used to connect the iPhone through a Lightning-to-USB cable. Using a different adapter solved the problem.Particulate
I have iPad pro works , but iPhone doesn't , on exact same cable and same portCancroid
I had my cable connected through a couple USB hubs. Connecting directly to the Mac fixed it. Crazy.Finale
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Seems the front ports of my Mac Pro were not working correctly, plugged the cable on the keyboard port and I was able to connect to the dev tools.

Towrope answered 28/12, 2017 at 15:33 Comment(0)
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In my case, this was totally a network issue. Everything works well when I used 4G network. If I use my wi-fi, safari failed to detect my device.

Untidy answered 21/2, 2020 at 7:5 Comment(1)
Sometimes small answer saves thousand years of life :)Domitian
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3

In my case, I was working from home and had a VPN tunnel to my work that was redirecting all traffic through my company's network. Disabling that revealed the phone in the Develop menu again.

As an alternative, connecting with VPN and disabling WIFI and Bluetooth works.

Giro answered 19/12, 2019 at 18:30 Comment(2)
You shouldn't be getting downvoted. This was the only answer that helped me. Need to disconnect VPN on both mac and iphone.Lexis
thanks you! I've almost gave up, nothing helped, then yes it's vpnHoey
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Turning off wifi on the iPhone allows it to appear in the develop menu.

The best and permanent solution in Catalina is to open a new Finder window, select in sidebar, then check 'Show this iPhone when on wifi'.

To disable caches (and to avoid constantly having to delete website data) open your site in a new Private Window. Changes to stylesheets will then update as normal.

Skillless answered 1/5, 2020 at 14:39 Comment(0)
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I know all these tricks but after installing Catalina none of them worked. What DID work for me was Settings > Developer > Clear Trusted Computers. Strangely, the phone appears in the Safari Developer menu on the Mac, but the phone never asked to re-trust the computer!

The phone disappears again sometimes, but the same trick gets it back.

MacOS and iOS still look beautiful, but both are turning into a messy pigsty underneath. I sometimes wonder if Apple still even cares. :(

Outskirts answered 13/12, 2019 at 6:34 Comment(2)
The Settings > Developer > Clear Trusted Computers option isn't showing on my iPhone =(Nth
this did the trick for me! I love the variety of solutions on this issue... Apple sometimes like us to sufferOrthopteran
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1

My solution was simply to move the cable to a different USB port.

Candycandyce answered 28/1, 2020 at 14:26 Comment(0)
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I've tried with the reset of Privacy and Location but it didn't work. What worked for me was disabling the hotspot from the phone. With the hotspot active Safari doesn't shows the iPhone in the developer menu.

Verbenaceous answered 16/2, 2020 at 14:9 Comment(0)
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Crazy but true, when i disconnected bluetooth and tried to check under develop option, connected device was shown.

Swanhilda answered 26/8, 2020 at 16:3 Comment(0)
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In my case the only solution was to reboot my Macbook... stupid but effective solution

Hel answered 4/10, 2021 at 13:5 Comment(0)
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reboot fix everything,works for me.

Exploratory answered 18/10, 2021 at 12:43 Comment(0)
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In my case, i did this steps and it is working good.

  1. Removed cable from devices.
  2. In iPhone Settings -> Safari -> Advanced -> Enable Web Inspector
  3. Again iPhone Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Privacy and Reset Network. Restart phone.
  4. Plugin-in cable iPhone and mac. Click trust button on the mac and iPhone.

Now it is working good. Web inspector appears again in the Safari develop menu.

Protest answered 6/11, 2023 at 9:39 Comment(0)
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On my end i needed to update XCode. That did the trick.

Frontier answered 12/7 at 17:46 Comment(0)

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