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I have an issue that I can only assume is with Xcode, where my apps take forever to run and crash the phone/restart about 75% of the time. I tried using older versions of the code that I'd saved instead, but they had the same effect, which they didn't use to have about a month ago.

I've looked up every single possible way to solve this issue for the past few weeks have haven't found anything, so I want to completely uninstall Xcode and clear all settings; but I can't find a way to do this. I can uninstall it, but when I reinstall it, it still has all of my old settings and lists of projects etc. How can I completely uninstall it?

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2
  • I did end up solving it, and it didn't have to do with Xcode specifically, but required the device I was using be cleared. Commented Sep 21, 2015 at 18:11
  • 1
    Found that if you have an emoji in the pathname of where Xcode is stored, the Xcode simulators after iOS 11 don't run correctly. I put my Xcode into a folder with a bunch of related aliases. The folder was named "🕷" so it's path was /Applications/Development/🕷/Xcode.app. This caused only the new simulators to hang. The old ones ran fine as before. Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 15:20

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
254

For complete removal old Xcode 7 you should remove

  1. /Applications/Xcode.app
  2. /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist
  3. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist
  4. ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode
  5. ~/Library/Application Support/Xcode
  6. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode
  7. ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator
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9 Comments

In xcode8 timeframe, change #3 and #4 to end with com.apple.dt.* since Instruments and other xcode components are also writing plists
and ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator, can be cleaned as: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/33419301/coresimulator-folder-very-big-ok-to-delete-content
Something Important: you can delete anything under /Library/Developer/ directory, such as CommandLineTools and CoreSimulator, EXCEPT PrivateFrameworks subfolder; or else your newly installed Xcode will crash until you put it back. Just be careful about the system directory.
@AakashDave Copy from your friend's mac, haha.
I had to delete this too rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/XCTestDevices
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86

For a complete removal of Xcode 10 delete the following:

  1. /Applications/Xcode.app
  2. ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode
  3. ~/Library/Developer
  4. ~/Library/MobileDevice
  5. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist
  6. /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist
  7. /System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.XcodeExtensionSupport.bom
  8. /System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.XcodeExtensionSupport.plist
  9. /System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.XcodeSystemResources.bom
  10. /System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.XcodeSystemResources.plist
  11. /private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.Xcode.bom

But instead of 11, open up /private/var/in the Finder and search for "Xcode" to see all the 'dna' left behind... and selectively clean that out too. I would post the pathnames but they will include randomized folder names which will not be the same from my Mac to yours.

but if you don't want to lose all of your customizations, consider saving these files or folders before deleting anything:

  1. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/CodeSnippets
  2. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/FontAndColorThemes
  3. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/KeyBindings
  4. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Templates
  5. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist
  6. ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles
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2 Comments

shoot I also deleted the downloaded .xip file
AppStore doesn't work after that...
50

  1. Open Storage Management

    • Go to  > About This Mac > Window > Storage Management
    • Or, hit ⌘ + Space to open Spotlight and search for Storage Management.

  2. Select Applications on left pane.

  3. Right click on Xcode on the right pane and select delete.

This will remove XCode from the installed applications list of your Mac's App Store.

Update: This worked for me on macOS Sierra 10.12.1.

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7 Comments

Might need to add some info around what versions of OS X this is valid for, don't see it as of 10.11.6
I don't remember whether it moved Xcode.app to Trash. But the above process removed XCode from AppStore.
"This will remove XCode from AppStore." Really?
@AlexanderVolkov From App Store on your Mac. My installation somehow got corrupted, and I was unable to uninstall or re-install the software. Even installation from the DMG file kept failing, because it is marked as installed in App Store.
On 10.13.3 the delete option is there but it does not do anything
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Before taking such drastic measures, quit Xcode and follow all the instructions here for cleaning out the caches:

How to Empty Caches and Clean All Targets Xcode 4

If that doesn't help, and you decide you really need a clean installation of Xcode, then, in addition to all of the stuff in that answer, trash the Xcode app itself, plus trash your ~/Library/Developer folder and your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist file. I think that should just about do it.

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11

FOR UNINSTALLING AND THEN BEING ABLE TO REINSTALL XCODE 9 CORRECTLY

I followed the topmost answer for deleting Xcode 7 and found a major error, deleting ~/Library/Developer will delete an important folder called PrivateFrameworks, which will actually crash Xcode everytime you reinstall and force you to have to get your friends to send you the PrivateFrameworks folder again, a complete waste of time seeing if you needed to uninstall and reinstall Xcode urgently for immediate work purposes.

I have tried editing the topmost answer but see no changes so below is the modified steps you should take for Xcode 9:

Delete

/Applications/Xcode.app

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.* (Generally anything with com.apple.dt. as prefix is removable in the Preferences folder)

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode

~/Library/Application Support/Xcode

Everything in /Library/Developer directory except for /Library/Developer/PrivateFrameworks

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3 Comments

I think you mean remove /Library/Developer except for /Library/Developer/PrivateFrameworks, PrivateFrameworks doesn't appear to exist for me in the home folder version of Library/Developer also note, that /Users/USERNAME/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives contains the xcode archives (as in archives of what you have built) so you might want to save that
Yeah for some PrivateFrameworks is there and if delete will cause crash if you need to reinstall Xcode afterwards, guess my instructions can be misread but I meant delete everything except for PrivateFrameworks
mgrandi is correct /Library/Developer is different than ~/Library/Developer. The former contains PrivateFrameworks folder not the latter.
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This answer should be more of a comment against Dawn Song's comment earlier, but since I don't have enough reputation, I'm going to write it as an answer.

According to the forum page

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/11313

"In general, you should never just delete the CoreSimulator/Devices directory yourself. If you really absolutely must, you need to make sure that the service is not runnign while you do that. eg:"

# Quit Xcode.app, Simulator.app, etc sudo killall -9 com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService rm -rf ~/Library/*/CoreSimulator

I definitely ran into this issue after deleting and reinstalling Xcode.

You might encounter a problem trying to connect the build to a simulator device. The thread also answers what to do in that case,

gem install snapshot fastlane snapshot reset_simulators
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Comments

-12

Run this to find all instances of Xcode in your filesystem:

for i in find / -name Xcode -print; do echo $i; done

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1 Comment

This may show unexpected things if there are any file name clashed e.g like I have several folders called Xcode Projects and this would print them out.

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