[Troubleshooting] iOS Simulators are no longer available in Rider on Mac
iOS simulators dissappearing might be related to several issues on it's own. They might be:
- Not listed at all;
- Greyed out.
Thus, it might be useful trying troubleshooting steps listed below first:
From Rider's Side
Since the 18.2 simulator+simulator runtime is not available in xcode anymore, please install the simulator with the following steps.
- Download the iOS 18.2 simulator runtime on Apple Developer;
- Execute the following command in the terminal to install it manually:
xcodebuild -importPlatform <path_to_iOS_18.2_Simulator_Runtime.dmg>
- Or invoke using the command:
xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS -exportPath ~/Downloads -buildVersion 18.2.
Or install 18.2 simulator from Xcode settings:
-
Delete .idea folder
Find it in the Help > Diagnostic Tools > Special Files and Folders > PROJECT StorePath. Delete it in the physical path mentioned and restart Rider;
- Try EAP
Download the EAP version using this link. EAP is usually packed with all sort of differen inprovements, hence, it might hit a known issue.
-
Clear Caches
Clear the caches via File | Invalidate caches => Invalidate and restart.
From Rider and Xcode
-
Check if the Xcode and Rider tools paths are matching
Go to Rider > Settings > Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment > Apple Platforms > Xcode path. Make sure this path is the same with the Xcode > Settings > Locations > Command Line Tools. If it differs, change one of them to the proper one.
From system/Xcode side
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Launch the app in the Xcode
Check if the same app might be launched in the Xcode. If it is not, further Xcode troublshooting is reuired.
-
Update Xcode
Make sure that the Xcode is up-to date in App Store or in Xcode > Settings > Platforms.
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Make sure required Simulators are downloaded
Use the Xcode documentation to add simulators if required.
-
Try another version
Use instaructions from this StackOverFlow thread.
-
Kill the process;
Sometimes, there might be a stuck process or update. Thus, use either Activity Monitor, Terminal or simply reboot the machine.
-
Re-install the iOS Platform;
Go to Xcode > Settings > Platforms > right click on the iOS platform > Delete. Once the platform deleted, press + sign in the lower left corner of the same menu and choose the iOS platform to install.
-
Reinstall Xcode
Use these instructions.
If nothing of the above steps help or prevoius version works only, please contact Support (Help > Contact Support) so we could investigate it further.
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This problem has been recently happening very often with the latest builds. I have tried all the above suggestions but none of them have helped. See the image below.
Hello Dbagno ,
Could you please also try removing the .idea folder and restarting Rider?
I have done this many times. The only thing that works is deleting the whole folder and re-downling it from the cloud.
Wow, does Rider actually work with .net Maui and iOS on Mac? There is just one issue after another since 2024.3 I believe this all ties in with this issue? https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RIDER-117599/Could-not-load-the-framework-IDEDistribution-on-MacOS-15.0
In situations where Rider shows no simulators/devices the following steps may help to resolve the issue.
1. Examine the idea.log
Look into the log for : Cannot read plist file: /Users/{user}/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jetbrains.AppCode.BridgeService.plist where {user} is your username. You will most likely see a “No such file or directory” exception followed by a “Permission denied” exception when Rider tries to write the file.
If you see this then steps (2) to (5) may resolve the issue for you. If not, try the above suggestions.
2. Verify permissions in the ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder
3. Modify permissions to the ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder
4. Delete unavailable simulator devices
5. Invalidate Rider caches and restart
File | Invalidate caches => Invalidate and restart.Since upgrading to Rider 2024.3 I'm not unable to deploy my .NET 8 MAUI application to an iOS simulator. It builds fine but the moment it tries to launch to a simulator I get, Error running ‘MauiAppNNN’, Failed to find ‘mlaunch’. What the hell is going on??!?!?! Can I please rollback Rider? I want the previous version. I've tried everything including reinstall all the dotnet workloads, reinstalled XCode etc… but this error is just stopping me :(
Long Ph You can download JetBrains Toolbox, from there Rider → three dots → available versions and you should see previous versions.
Matthew's suggestion worked for me. It's a permissions issue. It would help if this type of permissions errors surfaced to the GUI itself
Good afternoon. The same problem. None of the described solutions helped. I haven't tried a full reinstall yet.
JetBrains Rider 2024.3.5
Build #RD-243.24978.27, built on February 6, 2025
Xcode Version 16.2 (16C5032a)
Good morning,
I have a similar issue as described above. After migrating the MAUI app to .NET 9, I cannot associate Ios Simulators with Rider anymore. I tried all the above suggestions, but nothing worked.
Rider: 2024.3.5
Xcode: 16.2 (16C5032a)
Everything works fine on Android Emulator.
Does anybody have any other clue?
What the heck is going on with Rider? For more than a year iOS development on Mac is broken in some form or another. I can only run release simulators, debug never works, and it seems half of other users have the options just greyed out. This is a bit crazy how long bugs for one of the core features is just being left unfixed.
The workarounds above did not work for me. It seems that the current Rider version does not support Xcode 16.2 well.
I think the problem is that Xcode 16.2 installs iOS runtime 18.2 but IOS simulator 18.3.1, not 18.2.
Rider does not seem to like this and xcode does not let you install 18.2 Simulator.
So I managed to get this fixed by downloading manually IOS 18.2 simulator runtime from Apple Developer Portal, then installing it using terminal (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/installing-additional-simulator-runtimes).
A workaround for me was:
- Download iOS 18.2 simulator runtime from here: https://developer.apple.com/download/all/?q=Xcode
- Run this command in Terminal: xcodebuild -importPlatform /Users/{Your User}/Downloads/iOS_18.2_Simulator_Runtime.dmg
Hope this helps
“Cannot find Xcode simulators”. I have tried all the suggestions on this page. Nothing works. This is using latest versions of .net SDK and Xcode. I can run an app I create in Xcode, I can run the app from Rider in Android emulator. The iOS simulators are not being found.
Me too. I am in Hell. I needed to get some other iOS versions for the sims for testing and once I installed them, it said the simulators were invalid. Then I went on a wild goose chase trying to get things back to normal, removing and reinstalling things, rebooting, etc. And I have landed on “Cannot find XCode simulators” now. There should at least be some better directions on how to resolve this. I've tried everything in the article, multiple times.
I only get the issue with xcode 16.2
Downgrading xcode to 16.1 and the simulators all appear in the list again
Of course this isn't a suitable workaround if I want to target the latest MAUI version, which requires 16.2 to build the app.
none of this works so whats next to try? Xcode 16.2 doesnt work. XCode 16.1 shows simulators, but alas my workloads and sdks require XCode 16.2
Does anyone at Rider Team have this working on XCode 16.2? Are you guys able to create .net 9 MAUI app with XCode 16.2 and run simulators?
Yah, I'm not sure why people even suggest that going to 16.1 is an option as you can only use release versions, debug does not work.
Putting this here because the answers that worked for me are above, but aren't after other people said nothing works because they were updated answers.
The issue is the 18.3.1 simulator in xcode. I confirmed this while working with my team. It was working for all of us but one guy, and I noticed his components shows “iOS 18.2 + iOS 18.3.1 Simulator” while the rest of us just had iOS 18.2. I clicked the update button in mine, and once it was done, my simulators in Rider went away after I invalidated the cache (closing and reopening might have also done it?).
He downgraded to XCode 16.1, which used iOS 18.1, and his simulators came back. I followed the directions above and manually downloaded the iOS 18.2 Simulator dmg, and as soon as I ran the import command the simulators were instantly back in Rider.
Looks like Jetbrains needs to add support for the 18.3.1 simulator, and Apple needs to not mismatch the version of thier simulator to the iOS component….
Thanks for sharing Steve. Were you able to run the Debug version of the iOS simulator? As I can get to the point of running a release simulator, but that isn't really that helpful.
Vkroust comment above worked for me.
Uninstall the new 18.2+18.3.1 update then
A workaround for me as suggested by Vkroust was:
- Download iOS 18.2 simulator runtime from here: https://developer.apple.com/download/all/?q=Xcode
- Run this command in Terminal: xcodebuild -importPlatform /Users/{Your User}/Downloads/iOS_18.2_Simulator_Runtime.dmg
Hope this helps
Thank you raver99 && Vkroust ! Your solution worked perfect.
All of the workarounds above don't work for me. I use XCode 16.2 and the latest release rider version and also tried the 2025 EAP Version, still not seeing any simulators in the list.
Yah, I spent two full days trying the various suggestions and installing and installing via xcodes.app … I can run the release simulator but never the debug simulator.
Does anyone at Jetbrains read these forms? As fun as it is talking in circles with everyone. I think 5 months without a response is some pretty serious bullshit.
I have the same issue since I update the Xcode simulator runtime to 18.3.1. Since then, I've reinstalled a couple of Xcodes and simulator runtimes as described above. I've reinstalled Rider and tested the EAP version. No success.
The Rider log says:
So, yes, Rider detects the iOS 18.2 runtime but does not seem to support it (which it does and did before, of course). I don't have the 18.3.1 installed right now.
I've omitted the actual “build preferences” above. For iOS 18.2, for example, they look like this:
What am I looking at here?
Rider does not support the new Simulator 18.3.1 for iOS ?!
I has been publish an app to app store and they replay me an issue in iOS 18.3.1
and for that i can not test the app on iOS 18.3.1 from Rider it does not supported.
I had the same issue today, and the fix from Vkroust worked for me!
Support
but Simulator 18.2 does not running iOS sdk 18.3.1 ?! the issue in 18.3.1 ?
how can i run it on 18.3.1 ?
I also tried everything without success. The fix from Vkroust does not work for me.