168

This is my case:

let passwordSecureTextField = app.secureTextFields["password"]
passwordSecureTextField.tap()
passwordSecureTextField.typeText("wrong_password") //here is an error

UI Testing Failure - Neither element nor any descendant has keyboard focus. Element:

What is wrong? This is working nice for normal textFields, but problem arise only with secureTextFields. Any workarounds?

Bartłomiej Semańczyk
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  • I get the [same error for a UIView that conforms to the UIKeyInput protocol](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35740068/xcode-ui-test-uikeyinput-typetext). – ma11hew28 Mar 02 '16 at 18:47
  • and the weird part is if i try like this it works XCUIApplication().webViews.secureTextFields["Password"].tap() XCUIApplication().webViews.secureTextFields["Password"].typeText("Welcome") – aurilio Aug 27 '18 at 12:11
  • It might be the case that you have set the accessibility identifier but you haven't set isAccessibilityElement = true – soumil Jan 02 '20 at 18:52
  • I've added an answer to a similar question here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/59637897/2585413. My issue was that I had other UIWindows in existence with bad .windowLevel values – nteissler Jan 08 '20 at 00:20
  • An answer to a similar question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/65335238/1837959 – storoj Dec 17 '20 at 05:42

28 Answers28

345

This issue caused me a world of pain, but I've managed to figure out a proper solution. In the Simulator, make sure I/O -> Keyboard -> Connect hardware keyboard is off.

Artem Novichkov
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Ted Kaminski
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  • I believe this is the real answer. UI recording is very fussy, so there might be many reasons for a problem (typical Apple...), but I got the same error and this fixed it. What it means is that you have to poke the keys on the simulator, can't use the ones on your mac or recording will fail. – shmim Dec 04 '15 at 21:48
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    This has fixed the issue. But it is very poor workaround as we cannot apply it automatically for CI. – Stanislav Pankevich Jan 13 '16 at 14:39
  • This only fixes it if you only have one test. Soon as I wrote a second one, saw the same error. – Rob Apr 02 '16 at 21:18
  • For me, disabling only one option didn't help; what worked was this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/a/37052122/682912 – Vish May 10 '16 at 05:02
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    If you run your tests on CI (Jenkins etc.) You can set the following parameters in a script before running your tests. "defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard 0" – charlyatwork May 12 '16 at 07:26
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    This doesn't solve the problem for me. I can clearly see the textfield obtaining focus, with the keyboard up, but the testing framework can never enter text using the typeText: method – Michael Jan 03 '17 at 19:35
  • Ran into this after upgrading to Xcode 11. This worked for me. Have not upgraded CI to Xcode 11 so don't know if the defaults disabling bit will work. – Mike Collins Oct 01 '19 at 18:42
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    Worked for me on Xcode 11, but unchecking _Connect hardware keyboard_ may not be enough. One has additionally to ensure that the software keyboard is really shown (I had actually the situation where no hardware keyboard was connected, and no software keyboard was shown, even if the textField had focus, and the cursor was blinking). – Reinhard Männer Oct 09 '19 at 13:36
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    I ran into this on Xcode 11 as well. Fixes locally, but how can this be set in CI? – jherg Oct 31 '19 at 18:32
  • @seeya where would you say to place the script? I tried placing it in the scheme of my test case for pre-actions in test and build options but no luck. – nr5 Feb 26 '20 at 17:20
  • I have added a full script below which disables hardware keyboard for any selected simulator https://stackoverflow.com/a/62929963/1590911. – Hasaan Ali Jul 16 '20 at 07:52
  • I managed to fix this by performing `defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard -bool false` before running tests on a CI, but this doesn't work for "parallel testing", it seems that the "clones" Simulators doesn't inherit the `ConnectHardwareKeyboard` setting. Did anyone manage to make it work with parallel testing? – francybiga Oct 06 '20 at 09:16
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    For some reason I need to toggle the `I/O > Keyboard > Connect Hardware Keyboard` option from off to on and then off again to make it work every time after restarting XCode and the simulator. – Marco Boerner Jan 13 '21 at 13:00
36

Recently we found a hack to make solution from accepted answer persistent. To disable Simulator setting: I/O -> Keyboard -> Connect hardware keyboard from command line one should write:

defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard 0

It will not affect a simulator which is running - you need to restart simulator or start a new one to make that setting have its effect.

Artem Novichkov
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AlexDenisov
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  • @netshark1000 that may be changed with the newer version of Xcode, I will check it. – AlexDenisov May 26 '16 at 10:26
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    extremely helpful, I needed the opposite where keyboard is always enabled, but yeah this is great thanks. I ended up going with `defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard -bool true` , but its the same concept. – Laser Hawk Nov 21 '16 at 19:26
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    I created a script on build phases to do it. But I needed kill all simulators, so I did that: `killall "Simulator"; defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard 0;` – Wagner Sales Jul 28 '17 at 14:25
  • @WagnerSales doesn't seem to work anymore, do you know has the key changed? – Simon McLoughlin Jun 26 '20 at 11:11
20

I have written a small extension (Swift) which works perfect for me. Here is the code:

extension XCTestCase {

    func tapElementAndWaitForKeyboardToAppear(element: XCUIElement) {
        let keyboard = XCUIApplication().keyboards.element
        while (true) {
            element.tap()
            if keyboard.exists {
                break;
            }
            NSRunLoop.currentRunLoop().runUntilDate(NSDate(timeIntervalSinceNow: 0.5))
        }
    }
}

The main idea is to keep tapping an element (text field) before the keyboard is presented.

Antoine
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Oleksandr
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14

Stanislav has the right idea.

In a team environment, you need something that will automatically work. I've come up with a fix here on my blog.

Basically you just paste:

UIPasteboard.generalPasteboard().string = "Their password"
let passwordSecureTextField = app.secureTextFields["password"]
passwordSecureTextField.pressForDuration(1.1)
app.menuItems["Paste"].tap()
ricardopereira
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RyanPliske
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  • Thanks for sharing your solution. Unfortunately it is not working for me right now. I am having Xcode 7.2 (7C68), what you? See other solution that we found for CI: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32184837/ui-testing-failure-neither-element-nor-any-descendant-has-keyboard-focus-on-se/34812979#34812979. – Stanislav Pankevich Jan 15 '16 at 14:21
  • Excellent. Tried 'app.secureTextFields["PasswordTextField"].press(forDuration: 1.1)' instead of 'app.secureTextFields["PasswordTextField"].doubleTap()' This problem occurs when editing multiple tetxfields – Shrikant Phadke May 25 '22 at 10:06
11

Another cause of this error is if there is a parent view of the text field in which you are trying to enter text that is set as an accessibility element (view.isAccessibilityElement = true). In this case, XCTest is not able to get a handle on the subview to enter the text and returns the error.

UI Testing Failure - Neither element nor any descendant has keyboard focus.

It isn't that no element has focus (as you can often see the keyboard up and blinking cursor in the UITextField), it is just that no element it can reach has focus. I ran into this when attempting to enter text in a UISearchBar. The search bar itself is not the text field, when setting it as an accessibility element, access to the underlying UITextField was blocked. To resolve this, searchBar.accessibilityIdentifier = "My Identifier" was set on the UISearchBar however the isAccessibilityElement was not set to true. After this, test code of the form:

app.otherElements["My Identifier"].tap()
app.otherElements["My Identifier"].typeText("sample text")

Works

user3847320
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7

It occurred with me for many times. You have to disable Keyboard Hardware and Same Layout as OSX in your Simulator

Hardware/Keyboard (disable all)

After that keyboard software won't dismiss and your tests can type text

Disable Hardware

Fernando Martínez
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7

In my case this Hardware -> Keyboard -> Connect Hardware Keyboard -> Disable didn't worked for me.

But when I followed

1) Hardware -> Keyboard -> Connect Hardware Keyboard -> Enabled and run the app
2) Hardware -> Keyboard -> Connect Hardware Keyboard -> Disable.

It worked for me

BharathRao
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5
func pasteTextFieldText(app:XCUIApplication, element:XCUIElement, value:String, clearText:Bool) {
    // Get the password into the pasteboard buffer
    UIPasteboard.generalPasteboard().string = value

    // Bring up the popup menu on the password field
    element.tap()

    if clearText {
        element.buttons["Clear text"].tap()
    }

    element.doubleTap()

    // Tap the Paste button to input the password
    app.menuItems["Paste"].tap()
}
Anthony
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5

Use a sleep between launching the app and typing in data in textfields like this:

sleep(2)

In my case I was keeping getting this error every time and only this solution helped my out.

Kingalione
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    The problem is if you have a large number of UI Tests that perform something like an initial login, this will add a huge overhead to your CI test run. – Corbin Miller Nov 21 '17 at 19:31
4

This maybe help: I just add a "tap" action before the error; that´s all :)

[app.textFields[@"theTitle"] tap];
[app.textFields[@"theTitle"] typeText:@"kk"];
4

Record case however you want, keyboard or without keyboard attached. But do the following before playing test.

This following option (connect hardware keyboard) should be unchecked while playing test.

enter image description here

umairhhhs
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4

Works for me:

extension XCUIElement {
    func typeTextAlt(_ text: String) {
        // Solution for `Neither element nor any descendant has keyboard focus.`
        if !(self.value(forKey: "hasKeyboardFocus") as? Bool ?? false) {
            XCUIDevice.shared.press(XCUIDevice.Button.home)
            XCUIApplication().activate()
        }
        self.typeText(text)
    }
}
Sameer Technomark
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3

[Reposting Bartłomiej Semańczyk's comment as an answer because it solved the problem for me]

I needed to do Simulator > Reset Contents and Settings in the simulator menu bar to make this start working for me.

Community
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rogueleaderr
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  • Resetting the simulator helped me, too. Interestingly the problem did only occur in the simulator while the same test (tap texfield followed by typing characters) ran fine on a device. – Christian Dec 01 '15 at 07:26
2

I ran into this issue and was able to fix it in my scenario by taking the solution posted by @AlexDenisov and adding it to my pre-actions for run & test.

Pre-Action Run Script

Bruno Bieri
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CodeBender
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2

The above answers solved it for me when running UI tests while the simulator UI is in the foreground (when you could see the changes in the simulator window). However, it did not work when running them in the background (which is how fastlane ran them, for example).

I had to go to Simulator > Device > Erase All Content and Settings...

To be clear, I manually disabled-enabled-disabled the Hardware Keyboard in the Simulator Settings, set defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ConnectHardwareKeyboard 0, and then erased content and settings.

AlexMath
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1

Sometime text fields are not implemented as text fields, or they're wrapped into another UI element and not easily accessible. Here's a work around:

//XCUIApplication().scrollViews.otherElements.staticTexts["Email"] the locator for the element
RegistrationScreenStep1of2.emailTextField.tap()
let keys = app.keys
 keys["p"].tap() //type the keys that you need
 
 //If you stored your data somewhere and need to access that string //you can cats your string to an array and then pass the index //number to key[]
 
 let newUserEmail = Array(newPatient.email())
 let password = Array(newPatient.password)
 
 //When you cast your string to an array the elements of the array //are Character so you would need to cast them into string otherwise //Xcode will compain. 
 
 let keys = app.keys
     keys[String(newUserEmail[0])].tap()
     keys[String(newUserEmail[1])].tap()
     keys[String(newUserEmail[2])].tap()
     keys[String(newUserEmail[3])].tap()
     keys[String(newUserEmail[4])].tap()
     keys[String(newUserEmail[5])].tap()       
1

The following is from a Swift 5.4, SwiftUI app scenario which would fail UI Testing.

app.cells.firstMatch.tap()
// transition from list view to detail view for item
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.tap()
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.typeText("7620") // :FAIL:

Test: Failed to synthesize event: Neither element nor any descendant has keyboard focus.

Solution: Tap Again

A second tap() was found to pass.

app.cells.firstMatch.tap()
// transition from list view to detail view for item
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.tap()
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.tap()
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.typeText("7620") // :PASS:

However, .doubleTap() and tap(withNumberOfTaps: 2, numberOfTouches: 1) would still fail.

Solution: Await TextField Arrival, Then Tap

Sometimes a view transition needs to expressly await the TextEdit arrival. The approach below awaits the arrival of the targeted TextEdit field.

XCTestCase.swift extension:

extension XCTestCase {
    func awaitArrival(element: XCUIElement, timeout: TimeInterval) {
        let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "exists == 1")
        expectation(for: predicate, evaluatedWith: element) 
        waitForExpectations(timeout: timeout)
    }

    func awaitDeparture(element: XCUIElement, timeout: TimeInterval) {
        let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "exists == 0")
        expectation(for: predicate, evaluatedWith: element) 
        waitForExpectations(timeout: timeout)
    }
}

Example use:

app.cells.firstMatch.tap()
// transition from list view to detail view for item
awaitArrival(
    element: app.textFields.matching(identifier: "balance_textedit").element, 
    timeout: 5)
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.tap()
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.typeText("7620") // :PASS:

Solution: waitForExistence, Then Tap

Use the waitForExistence(timeout:) method provided by XCUIElement.

app.cells.firstMatch.tap()
// transition from list view to detail view for item
app.textFields.matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.waitForExistence(timeout: 5)
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.tap()
app.textFields
    .matching(identifier: "balance_textedit")
    .element.typeText("7620") // :PASS:
marc-medley
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0

Your first line is just a query definition, which doesn't mean that passwordSecureTextField would actually exist.

Your second line will dynamically execute the query and try to (re)bind the query to UI element. You should put a breakpoint on it and verify that one and only one element is found. Or just use an assert:

XCTAssertFalse(passwordSecureTextField.exists);

Otherwise it looks ok, tap should force keyboard visible and then typeText should just work. Error log should tell you more info.

JOM
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0

Don't messed up, There problem caught the reason is you are recorded your testing time your app will connection hardware keyboard while your automatic testing time simulator takes only software keyboard. so for how to fix this issues. Just use software keyboard on your recording time. you can see the magic.

codercat
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0

The problem for me was the same as for Ted. Actually if password field gets tapped after login field and hardware KB is on, software keyboard will dismiss itself on second field tap, and it's not specific to UI tests.

After some time messing around with AppleScript, here's what I came up with(improvements are welcome):

tell application "Simulator"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        try
            tell process "Simulator"
                tell menu bar 1
                    tell menu bar item "Hardware"
                        tell menu "Hardware"
                            tell menu item "Keyboard"
                                tell menu "Keyboard"
                                    set menuItem to menu item "Connect Hardware Keyboard"
                                    tell menu item "Connect Hardware Keyboard"
                                        set checkboxStatus to value of attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" of menuItem
                                        if checkboxStatus is equal to "✓" then
                                            click
                                        end if
                                    end tell
                                end tell
                            end tell
                        end tell
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        on error
            tell application "System Preferences"
                activate
                set securityPane to pane id "com.apple.preference.security"
                tell securityPane to reveal anchor "Privacy_Accessibility"
                    display dialog "Xcode needs Universal access to disable hardware keyboard during tests(otherwise tests may fail because of focus issues)"
                end tell
        end try
    end tell
end tell

Create a script file with code above and add it to necessary targets(probably UI tests target only, you may want to add similar script to your development targets to re-enable HW keyboard during development). You should add Run Script phase in build phases and use it like this: osascript Path/To/Script/script_name.applescript

NathanOliver
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Timur Kuchkarov
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0

We encountered the same error when setting the accessibilityIdentifier value for a custom view (UIStackView subclass) containing UIControl subviews. In that case XCTest was unable to get the keyboard focus for the descendent elements.

Our solution was simply to remove the accessibilityIdentifier from our parent view and set the accessibilityIdentifier for the subviews through dedicated properties.

shadowhorst
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Another answer, but for us the problem was the view was too close to another view that a Gesture recognizer on it. We found we needed the view to be at least 20 pixels away (in our case below). Literally 15 didn't work and 20 or more did. This is strange I'll admit, but we had some UITextViews that were working and some that were not and all were under the same parent and identical other positioning (and variable names of course). The keyboard on or off or whatever made no difference. Accessibility showed the fields. We restarted our computers. We did clean builds. Fresh source checkouts.

David J
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0

No Need to turn on/off keyboard in I/O. Don't use .typeText for secureTextField, just use

app.keys["p"].tap()
app.keys["a"].tap()
app.keys["s"].tap()
app.keys["s"].tap()

Bonus: You get keyboard sound click :)

shim
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zdravko zdravkin
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0

Finally, I wrote a script which edits the Simulator's .plist file and sets the ConnectHardwareKeyboard property to false for the selected simulator. You heard it right, it changes the property for the specifically selected simulator inside "DevicePreferences" dictionary rather than editing the global property.

First, create a shell script named disable-hardware-keyboard.sh with the following contents. You can place it within "YourProject/xyzUITests/Scripts/".:

echo "Script: Set ConnectHardwareKeyboard to false for given Simulator UDID"

if [[ $1 != *-*-*-*-* ]]; then
    echo "Pass device udid as first argument."
    exit 1
else
    DEVICE_ID=$1
fi

DEVICE_PREFERENCES_VALUE='<dict><key>ConnectHardwareKeyboard</key><false/></dict>'
killall Simulator # kill restart the simulator to make the plist changes picked up
defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator DevicePreferences -dict-add $DEVICE_ID $DEVICE_PREFERENCES_VALUE
open -a Simulator # IMPORTANT

Now follow these steps to call it with passing the selected simulator's udid as an argument:

  1. Edit your Xcode scheme (or UI tests specific scheme if you have one)
  2. Go to: Test > Pre-actions
  3. Add new script by tapping "+" symbol > "New Run Script Action".
  4. Important: Inside "Provide build settings from" dropdown choose your main app target, not the UI tests target.
  5. Now add the following script in the text area below.

Script inside Test>Pre-actions:

#!/bin/sh
# $PROJECT_DIR is path to your source project. This is provided when we select "Provide build settings from" to "AppTarget"
# $TARGET_DEVICE_IDENTIFIER is the UDID of the selected simulator
sh $PROJECT_DIR/xyzUITests/Scripts/disable-hardware-keyboard.sh $TARGET_DEVICE_IDENTIFIER

# In order to see output of above script, append following with it:
#  | tee ~/Desktop/ui-test-scheme-prescript.txt

Time to test it:

  1. Launch simulator
  2. Enable hardware keyboard for it
  3. Run any UI test with keyboard interaction. Observe the simulator restarts and the hardware keyboard is disabled. And the test's keyboard interaction is working fine. :)
Hasaan Ali
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Long story short: hardware keyboard input in iOS Simulator seems to broken for a long time.

The thing is that -[UIApplicationSupport _accessibilityHardwareKeyboardActive] private method from com.apple.UIKit.axbundle sometimes returns NO even though it should return YES (when a text input view is firstResponder, and the cursor is blinking, which literally means that the hardware keyboard is active).

Put this code anywhere in the app to make iOS Simulator believe that if Software Keyboard is inactive then the hardware one is active.

    
#if TARGET_OS_SIMULATOR
__attribute__((constructor))
static void Fix_UIApplicationAccessibility__accessibilityHardwareKeyboardActive(void) {
    {
        static id observer = nil;

        observer = [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserverForName:NSBundleDidLoadNotification
                                                          object:nil
                                                           queue:nil
                                                      usingBlock:^(NSNotification * _Nonnull note) {
            NSBundle *bundle = note.object;
            if ([bundle.bundleIdentifier isEqualToString:@"com.apple.UIKit.axbundle"]) {
                Class cls = objc_lookUpClass("UIApplicationAccessibility");
                SEL sel = sel_getUid("_accessibilityHardwareKeyboardActive");
                Method m = class_getInstanceMethod(cls, sel);
                method_setImplementation(m, imp_implementationWithBlock(^BOOL(UIApplication *app) {
                    return ![[app valueForKey:@"_accessibilitySoftwareKeyboardActive"] boolValue];
                }));
            }
        }];
    }
}
#endif
storoj
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0
    emailTextField.tap() // add this line before typeText
    
    emailTextField.typeText("your text")
-1

Had the same issue with Securetextfields. The connect hardware option in my Simulator was of, but still ran into the issue. Finally, this worked for me (Swift 3):

 let enterPasswordSecureTextField = app.secureTextFields["Enter Password"]
    enterPasswordSecureTextField.tap()
    enterPasswordSecureTextField.typeText("12345678")
Rads
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-1

What fixed this problem for me was adding a 1 second sleep:

let textField = app.textFields["identifier"]
textField.tap()
sleep(1)
textField.typeText(text)