Disable Automatic Reference Counting for Some Files

Question

It is not very intuitive how to disable ARC on MULTIPLE files, for a while I was do it one by one until a figured out how to do that.

1. Select desired files at Target/Build Phases/Compile Sources in Xcode (CMD+click or Shift+click)
2. PRESS ENTER (double click will reset the selection, so it does't work)
3. Type -fno-objc-arc
4. Press Enter or Done

The public ARC docs, while not directly clear on this point, seem to suggest that as long as each class is either all ARC or all manually-managed, the classes can be integrated into a single program.

You only can't mix ARC and non-ARC in a single class; the document says that sending retain, release, autorelease, or retainCount messages by any means (including timers and delayed performs, which use @selector) is banned in ARC code. So you can't do non-ARC in an ARC class (because the necessary messages are banned) and you can't do ARC in a non-ARC class (because ARC adds syntax elements that are invalid without ARC).

The same document is a bit clearer on whether you can integrate non-ARC libraries/frameworks into an ARC program: Yes. It doesn't mention whether you can use ARC libraries/frameworks in a program where all your code is non-ARC, but given all of the above, the implication seems to be yes.

If you want to disable Automatic Reference Counting for some Files then its really simple to do just follow the steps.You add compiler flags in Targets -> Build Phases -> Compile Sources.

The flag used is -fno-objc-arc press enter after writing it.! You have to double click on the right column of the row under Compiler Flags. Hope it helps Thanks :)

It is possible to disable ARC for individual files by adding the -fno-objc-arc compiler flag for those files.

How can I disable ARC for a single file in a project?