How to change time and timezone in iPhone simulator?

Question

I'm guessing it uses your system timezone, so changing the TZ in System Preferences would probably do the trick

You can set the TZ environment variable in an Xcode Scheme to set the time zone just for that app.

You can use UTC, PST, EST, as well as place-based timezone names such as America/Los_Angeles. It's not well documented, but I suspect any time zone name should work.

It's not well documented, but the source is an Apple Developer Support rep on the developer forums.

Restart the Simulator after changing the system date time preferences and you shall see the changes reflected. It worked for me.

It would be useful if Apple provided a "Simulate date" as they provided a "Simulate Location" menu. What I do is set a breakpoint immediately after getting the date (saving it in a variable) and then modify the value. Or just modify the spot where I check for a date change and make it return true.

For the purpose of taking a screenshot, Apple finally made it possible to override time on the status bar of iOS simulator (since Xcode 11) by using simctl tool:

xcrun simctl status_bar "iPhone Xs" override --time "21:08"

Here is a solution available from iOS 13 and Xcode 11 at least. (did not test with previous versions) [Edit] This will change only the status bar as in the comments!

By default the iOS Simulator shows whatever the time is on your Mac, however, you can use Xcode’s command line to override that with this command in the terminal:

xcrun simctl status_bar "iPhone 11 Pro Max" override --time '9:41'

Replace the simulator name with the device you want to change.

For the status bar you have this overrides:

You may specify any combination of these flags (at least one is required):

--time <string>
     Set the date or time to a fixed value.
     If the string is a valid ISO date string it will also set the date on relevant devices.
--dataNetwork <dataNetworkType>
     If specified must be one of 'wifi', '3g', '4g', 'lte', 'lte-a', or 'lte+'.
--wifiMode <mode>
     If specified must be one of 'searching', 'failed', or 'active'.
--wifiBars <int>
     If specified must be 0-3.
--cellularMode <mode>
     If specified must be one of 'notSupported', 'searching', 'failed', or 'active'.
--cellularBars <int>
     If specified must be 0-4.
--batteryState <state>
     If specified must be one of 'charging', 'charged', or 'discharging'.
--batteryLevel <int>
     If specified must be 0-100.

The time can be any string. But if you want the device to show the date you will need use the ISO format. For example a valid ISO date string would be '2007-01-09T10:41:00+01:00'

Otherwise you can use the time parameter as a string and it will display whatever you pass in it.

With thanks to the original post by Paul Hudson Here's the link!

This is an old thread but it is closest to my question. I need to simulate time zone for Europe, this method works for me. Go to 'TimeZone' tap instead of 'Date&Time' tap. Uncheck the 'Set time zone automatically using current location' box and slide the vertical rectangle bar (with blue dot on it) to simulate your system time.