This app could not be installed at this time in Xcode Simulator

Question

My simulator gives this error everytime i reinstall my app. Could not hardlink copy /Users/username/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/F1CC399F-FAB0-4B9E-BE2A-3335069C0382/data/Containers/Bundle/Application/D70FA1A9-4192-443A-9322-7FF757F2FE1F/myapp.app to /Users/username/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/F1CC399F-FAB0-4B9E-BE2A-3335069C0382/data/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installd.staging/temp.D4fFgW/extracted/Payload/myapp.app with manifest /Users/username/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/F1CC399F-FAB0-4B9E-BE2A-3335069C0382/data/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installd.staging/temp.D4fFgW/extracted/com.apple.deltainstallcommands.com.myapp

As a fix i am reseting the emulator which is very time consuming. Is there a quick fix for this problem.

Answer 1

Make sure you have a valid CFBundleVersion in your Info.plist, otherwise the first install may succeed but update installs will fail.

This often presents as the "failed to hardlink copy" error but clears up after deleting the app and re-installing, or sometimes it works the first time you reboot but fails every attempt after.

If you are already in this state make sure you delete the app (using xcrun simctl uninstall <device name or identifier> <bundle ID> or by holding down on the icon, then clicking the X just like you would on a physical device).

Common errors include accidentally deleting the value from your Info.plist, a failure in some kind of automated script (eg that auto-increments the number), or defeating Xcode's processing of the Info.plist (which normally does $(BUILD_SETTING_GOES_HERE) style replacements).

When debugging issues I recommend you always check the basics first! Are you sure your Info.plist is correct? If you've never actually looked at it after it has gone through a build how do you know?

1. Right-click the target under Products in Xcode
2. Select Show in Finder
3. Right-click your app bundle
4. Select Show Contents.
5. Open Terminal and type plutil -p
6. Drag the Info.plist from the finder window and drop it onto Terminal. This will paste the path to the file.
7. Hit enter. Now look for CFBundleVersion. If it isn't a valid semantic or numeric version then you'll need to fix that.

edit: There is a bug in Xcode 11 Beta 1 where an attempt to install will fail, then it keeps failing with the same error even after you fix your Info.plist. This is due to NSBundle caching. Restart the affected Simulator and the next install should work.

Answer 2

Try uninstalling the app from the simulator and reinstalling it

Answer 3

In my case there were some non-ascii characters in the app's name (like "é"). I had to delete the app every time when I wanted to build again. But then I realised that if I remove the non-ascii characters, the problem disappears.