ld: framework not found Pods

Question

In Project Navigator in the folder Pods I had a Pods.framework in there which was red. It was also present in Linked Frameworks and Libraries. I removed both references and the error disappeared.

TL;DR

Remove Pods.framework in:

• Folder named Pods
• Linked Frameworks and Libraries

This is usually caused by having the .xcodeproj file open instead of .xcworkspace.

When you run 'pod install' for the first time, it will create an .xcworkspace file, which includes your original .xcodeproj and a Pods project. You'll need to close your .xcodeproj and open the .xcworkspace instead.

This is a common issue when creating a project through Xcode's new project wizard - I often forget that I'm not in a workspace, which is required to get Cocoapods to link correctly.

Xcode 9, 10, 11, 11.5

install https://github.com/CocoaPods/cocoapods-deintegrate

pod deintegrate

then

pod install

I cleared this error by deleting the red .framework files that were located in a folder Frameworks in the project navigator. I think this also automatically deleted corresponding red entries in the Linked Frameworks and Libraries section of the General settings.

I have been cleaning / reinstalling pods in order to fix another issue. Perhaps these red framework files and entries were just leftover from a previous pod install?