How can I build for iOS 10 device with Xcode 7.3?

Question

I'm on Xcode 7.3 and I accidentally upgraded my phone to iOS 10. Now, I can't run my app on my device.

Could not find Developer Image

I searched online and found that you can make a symbolic link and copy some data over... but the answer was for the beta version.

I'm running the official iOS 10.

I don't want to use Swift 3 - it's going to break a lot of libraries . We're planning to release this week. — TIMEX, Sep 16 '16 at 00:51
Could be totally wrong but I'm pretty sure you can still use Swift 2 with the latest version of Xcode. Could be 100% wrong tho. Doesn't seem logical for Apple to do that. But could be wrong. — Charlie Fish, Sep 16 '16 at 00:52
Just have to make sure you don't use the migrations to Swift 3. — Charlie Fish, Sep 16 '16 at 00:53
I think the answer you found is same on both beta and official version. I guess the link you found is https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37945376/how-use-xcode-7-with-ios-10? — nynohu, Sep 16 '16 at 00:53
But @nynohu is correct. Beta shouldn't be THAT different then the official version. Personally I would suggest updating Xcode over this tho because of the fact that the integration is better and the link above isn't really a supported method by Apple. — Charlie Fish, Sep 16 '16 at 00:55
I updated mine too and the only way out is to update to the new Xcode and make sure your code is compatible with Swift 3. The iOS 10 image will be installed when you upgrade to the new XCode. — Christian Abella, Sep 16 '16 at 00:58
Can anyone confirm if this is legit? https://thatthinginswift.com/swift-2-xcode-8/ — TIMEX, Sep 16 '16 at 00:58
that is a good find @TIMEX. Atleast I would not have to change all my code for now. :) — Christian Abella, Sep 16 '16 at 01:25

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 16 '16 at 01:06

You can use Xcode 8 to work in Swift 2.3, so if your goal is to keep using Swift 2.x, upgrade to Xcode 8.

But you cannot use Xcode 7 against an iOS 10 device, so if you insist on continuing to use Xcode 7, you'll have to downgrade the device (somehow).

Moreover, Xcode 8 is incompatible with frameworks compiled in Xcode 7.x, so if that's your reason for not wanting to move up, you really need to downgrade the device.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Note, you can install app built with Xcode 7.3 on your iOS 10 device. You just can't run it via the debugger from within Xcode 7.3, nor take advantage of any new iOS 10 API. But if you just want to run the app on your device, build it for "Generic iOS Device" and then use the "Devices" window to drag and drop the app from your project's "Products" folder on to your device shown in the Devices window.

This is for a previous Xcode version, but I suspect it still is applicable with Xcode 7.3: https://stackoverflow.com/a/35044362/1271826
Yes, you can use Swift 2.3 in Xcode 8. You don't have to use Swift 3. Apple was very conscious of the fact that the Swift 3 was a large hurdle for some of us, so they tried to make it easy to continue to maintain your Swift 2 code in Xcode 8.

I'd suggest, though, making a copy of the project in case you don't like Xcode 8 and want to revert back to Xcode 7.3 ... You don't want to risk Xcode 8 making some unprompted change to your project that makes it unable to open in Xcode 7 ... I don't know of any such issues in Xcode 8 (other than the obvious Swift 3 conversion, which I assume you wouldn't do), but it's always a risk. So it would be prudent make a backup copy of your project just in case.
FYI, you can have Xcode 8 installed on the same machine you have Xcode 7 installed (though don't run both at the same time), so you can make a copy of your project (just to be safe) and try out Xcode 8, and if you're not happy, go back to Xcode 7. You can see the various downloadable versions by going to "Xcode" - "Open Developer Tool" - "More Developer Tools..." menu and you'll see all the Xcode versions out there.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 04 '16 at 15:46

All You need to do is get DeveloperDiskImage from Xcode 8 Download Xcode 8.

Now extract Xcode 8 Beta app and then copy DeveloperDiskImage for iOS 10 to your Xcode folder.

When you extract Xcode to Downloads/Xcode-beta.appcp -r /Users/fanruten/Downloads/Xcode-beta.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/10.0\ \(14A345\) /Applications/Xcode_7.2.1.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport

After copy DeveloperDiskImage, now you just need to restart Xcode, connect ios 10 device and see the magic works from your eyes........

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 04:50

To run your app in iOS 10 with Xcode 7.3 follow the following steps:

Go To Finder -> Applications -> Right Click on Xcode 8 -> select show package content -> Developer -> Platforms -> iPhoneOS.platform -> DeviceSupport -> Copy the latest version 10.1 folder and paste in the place i.e in the DeviceSupport folder of Xcode 7.3.

Restart Xcode.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 05:15

I am facing the same issue on Xcode 7.3 and my device version is iOS 10.

This error is shown when your XCode is old and the related device you are using is updated to latest version. First of all, install the latest Xcode version.

We can solve this issue by following the below steps:-

Open Finder select Applications
Right click on Xcode 8, select "Show Package Contents", "Contents", "Developer", "Platforms", "iPhoneOS.Platform", "Device Support"
Copy the 10.0 folder (or above for later version).
Back in Finder select Applications again
Right click on Xcode 7.3, select "Show Package Contents", "Contents", "Developer", "Platforms", "iPhoneOS.Platform", "Device Support"
Paste the 10.0 folder

If everything worked properly, your XCode has a new developer disk image. Close the finder now, and quit your XCode. Open your Xcode and the error will be gone. Now you can connect your latest device to old Xcode versions.

Thanks

How can I build for iOS 10 device with Xcode 7.3?

5 Answers5