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Within the iOS Simulator, is it possible to access the App Store?

That is, can I install the App Store application within the Simulator and download applications through it to the iOS Simulator? If so, how?

Brad Larson
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Alaa Eldin
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5 Answers5

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It's a simulator not an emulator. Even if there was an App Store in the Simulator, none of the apps in the store would work since they are compiled for ARM CPUs while the Simulator runs x86 code.

Stephen Darlington
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    whats the difference between Simulator and Emulator? – John Riselvato May 31 '12 at 20:44
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    @JohnRiselvato In this case, the Simulator looks like iOS from the API point of view (though without 100% coverage) but is not binary compatible. An emulator would, at the very least, be binary compatible. – Stephen Darlington Jun 01 '12 at 07:31
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    Looking at this answer almost after a decade when it was published, makes me think maybe in another decade all CPU's will support both X86 and ARM. – Inderjeet Singh Feb 19 '21 at 09:49
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    @Goldy Apple doesn't care about x86 anymore. I mean, not _much_, given that there may be no 2021 Intel model Macs. – Paul Stelian Aug 09 '21 at 19:23
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Sorry it is not available! The simulator will only allow you to install programs from Xcode. I am not sure why they restrict this - but I am also not sure why you would want to use the Simulator for this purpose.

idmean
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Grouchal
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    I want to check the installed applications on iphone, so I had to have some installed applications on SDK. – Alaa Eldin Nov 15 '11 at 14:51
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    "I am not sure why they restrict this" Because they want you to by an iPhone or iPad – smac89 Aug 11 '16 at 02:58
  • @smac89 that makes no sense. What would be the advantage of having an iPad on your Desktop? In my case I wanted to test a web application via an iPad, this is a very valid use case for having the store accessible. Especially if you want to test it on a w3c compliant browser like Firefox. – sijpkes Feb 16 '18 at 02:46
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Interacting with iOS Simulator: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/iOS_Simulator_Guide/InteractingwiththeiOSSimulator/InteractingwiththeiOSSimulator.html

Note: You cannot install apps from the App Store in simulation environments.

Mars Robertson
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    The link above seems to redirect to https://help.apple.com/simulator/mac/current/#/ now. The documentation you had linked to seems to have been archived here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/iOS_Simulator_Guide/InteractingwiththeiOSSimulator/InteractingwiththeiOSSimulator.html – Ben Barnard Jul 14 '20 at 11:29
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You can put application in your simulator. But you cannot run it. They have restricted users to run applications. I found where the .app files are. Machintosh HD - Application - Xcode - Contents - Developer - Platforms - iPhoneSimulator.platform - Developer - SDKs - iPhoneSimulator.sdk - Applications All applications are in there but, I can't run them. However, I succeeded to install .app files. In .ipa file, there is 'payload' folder, and .app file is in there. All you need is just copy it and paste it in Applications folder. Then you can see the icon on your simulator. But, it will not work.

pch
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Probably wont work, but if you have an IOS device and copy an app onto your computer, you might be able to run it on IOS simulator, as you can run your own apps.

Neo
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