Reverting all Xcode settings to their original state

Question

I got my Xcode into a non-functional state when I can no longer start a search: once I press ⌘+F, Xcode hangs with a spinning pinwheel, and stops responding. Once this happens, my only option is to force quit and restart.

I tried looking for the saved settings in the workspace and project directories, but the recent search options that I am looking to delete appear to be stored elsewhere. I know that I could clear recent searches through the UI, but that would require bringing up the search dialog, which hangs Xcode.

I would like to reset Xcode to its original state. How do I do it without reinstalling Xcode?

Answer 1

This is the officially recommended way to delta Xcode 5's preferences, type in Terminal.app:

defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode

That should restore Xcode to the state of its first launch.

(for older versions of Xcode the command was defaults delete com.apple.Xcode, i.e. without the dt in the middle).

Answer 2

Reset all XCode settings from command line by running following commands then restart XCode:

defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode
rm -rf $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Developer/Shared/Xcode
rm -rf $HOME/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.dt.Xcode.savedState
rm -rf $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.*