Reinstall iOS Simulators

TLDR; Use the following to completely destroy all your iOS Simulators and to create a new batch.

curl "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/cabeca/cbaacbeb6a1cc4683aa5/raw/8e17f39f5a7413fd0559c9e6808e01b6fb514422/simulator_populator" -o "simulator_populator.rb" && chmod +x simulator_populator.rb && ./simulator_populator.rb

While trying out the new Xcode 7 beta’s, this happened to me… a lot…

Looks like the different Xcode’s have varying ideas about when to install new devices and just go for safe. If you install a lot of new beta’s, this might look familiar to you.

While searching for the solution I came across the command line tool and options:

> xcrun simctl list
> xcrun simctl delete <device>
> xcrun simctl create <name> <device type id> <runtime id>

Using some regex witchcraft, I placed the entire list of device UUIDs in a file and deleted all my simulators and installed a couple of new ones. And of course, I vowed to create a script to avoid having to do this manually again.

Instead, I got the following tweet a while later;

Thanks @miguelcabeca for https://t.co/blruwarSo9! I finally have a nice list of simulators again. (cc @brunoscheele) pic.twitter.com/SxxuOqYnbk
— Thomas Visser (@thomvis) July 28, 2015

@miguelcabeca has gifted us with this wonderfull little script;

	#!/usr/bin/env ruby

	device_types_output = `xcrun simctl list devicetypes`
	device_types = device_types_output.scan /(.) $(.)$/

	runtimes_output = `xcrun simctl list runtimes`
	runtimes = runtimes_output.scan /(.) $.$ $(com.apple[^)]+)$$/

	devices_output = `xcrun simctl list devices`
	devices = devices_output.scan /\s\s\s\s(.) $([^)]+)$ (.)/

	devices.each do \|device\|
	puts "Removing device #{device[0]} (#{device[1]})"
	`xcrun simctl delete #{device[1]}`
	end

	device_types.each do \|device_type\|
	runtimes.each do \|runtime\|
	puts "Creating #{device_type} with #{runtime}"
	command = "xcrun simctl create '#{device_type[0]} #{runtime[0]}' #{device_type[1]} #{runtime[1]}"
	command_output = `#{command}`
	sleep 0.5
	end
	end

view raw simulator_populator hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Save that somewhere, make it executable and run it. You’ll have a nice clean list of iOS Simulators once more!