Using Xcode 14 with iOS 17 simulator

As you probably noticed Apple dropped the concept of Device support files with XCode 15. This leads to problems with the officially unsupported but working mechanism of integrating the Device support files with older Xcode versions.

However one can still debug an Xcode older built app with new simulators but this will be a bit harder to achieve. This article shows how to do it.

Prerequisites

• Xcode 14.X
• Xcode 15
• iOS 17 simulator

Setup

In order to achieve this, one will need to successfully build a the developed app for Simulator app on Xcode 14.

After the successful build, you must locate your Product/<target name>.app file.

Note: Watch out for the correct command line tools in Settings > Locations of your Xcode 14 app. It needs to correspond to your “old” Xcode version.

After you locate your app file copy the path to your clipboard.

Open XCode 15 and tap Window > Devices and simulators

Run an iOS 17 simulator

Open a terminal window and run the following command

xcrun simctl install booted <path to your app file that you copied>

Now you have successfully installed the build on your iOS 17 simulator

Open your installed app on the Simulator

Then open Xcode 14 with the project go to Settings > Locations and change command line tools to version 15

Open Debug > Attach to process and select the name of your app target

Voila you have an Xcode 14 with a debug session on an iOS 17.X Simulator