Xcode 7.1 : Simulator can't be opened because the identity of developer cannot be confirmed

Question

I've upgraded my Mac OS X to 10.11.1 El Capitan. When I try to run app on Xcode 7.1 I'm getting an pop message stating "Simulator" can't be opened because the identity of the developer cannot be confirmed. Refer screenshot.

Why this message? I'm not able to test any app on Xcode 7.1.

Answer 1

Gatekeeper requires that every application downloaded from the internet is verified. Since you downloaded "Simulator" with Safari it has to be checked and added to a list of accepted applications. Here is a quick way to do that:

1. Run Terminal.app
2. Enter the following command sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app

I found the answer here.

Answer 2

Apple believes is security that's the reason only apps which you have downloaded from App Store can be opened.

Well, to open any app which you have downloaded and install from anywhere you need to allow permission. To do so:

1. Open 'System Preferences'
2. Go to 'Security & Privacy' and tap on 'General' tab
3. Click on 'Lock' icon which you can find on bottom left screen and type your administrator password.
4. The last step is to choose 'Anywhere' under 'Allow apps downloaded from:' and then again click on 'Lock' icon.
5. That's it. Now you can run any apps.

Enjoy!

Answer 3

Simulator.app is distributed by Apple and should be codesigned appropriately.

The dialog you are seeing indicates that the version you have did not pass Gatekeeper's codesignature checks.

Possible causes:

1. You made local modifications to Xcode.app or Simulator.app to invalidate Apple's code signature.
2. Disk corruption or maybe an error in transport caused some resources in Simulator.app to not be valid such that the signature is no longer valid.
3. You downloaded an unofficial copy of Xcode.app (or just Simulator.app) which has been modified by a 3rd party. Google "XcodeGhost" for information on why that's a bad idea.
4. The Simulator.app you are trying to open is not actually Xcode's.
5. A bug in Gatekeeper or OS X might be triggering a false result.

Please also update your question with the output of the following steps (assuming you've setup xcode-select appropriately) for additional support:

codesign -vvv -d $(xcode-select -p)/Applications/Simulator.app
codesign -vvv $(xcode-select -p)/Applications/Simulator.app

Answer 4

This happened to me when I ran a build script that launched the simulator directly, before actually opening Xcode.

When you open Xcode for the first time it will go through a verification process that takes a long time. After that completes, the contents of the bundle will be verified as well and you can use the simulator without the warning.

If you still have the warning after verification your version of Xcode might be compromised.

It is possibly a bug that gatekeeper doesn't warn you that the parent bundle has not been verified.