Xcode disk space requirements

Developer Tools & Services Xcode Xcode

pkclsoft OP

Created Sep ’15

Replies 22

Boosts 0

Views 87k

Participants 13

I've been trying to install Xcode 7 tonight with no real luck.

I'm running a Mac that generally has about 12 GB spare. I tried installing the Xcode 7.1 beta on a separate drive however it insists on installing all of the simulators on the primary hard drive, and it runs out of space.

So perhaps it's time to wipe Xcode and reinstall clean. This mac has a primary drive that started as Snow Leopard on a white macbook back in 2009. It's been backed up and updated regularly, and I wonder if this has left me with a lot of old cruft.

Acording to DaisyDisk I have:

/Applications/Xcode -> 3gb (Xcode 6)

/HD/Library/Developer -> 15.6gb

/HD/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator -> 13gb

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer -> 69.9gb - why?

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer/Xcode -> 53gb

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer/Shared -> 8.7gb

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator -> 8.1gb

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport -> 46.7gb - devices all the way back to 5.0.1

/HD/Users/me/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator -> 1.8gb

Really, do we need 4, or 5 folders of simulators, amassing almost 70gb of disk space?

Can I be brutal and remove:

/HD/Users/me/Library/Developer

/HD/Library/Developer

and then reinstall Xcode from scratch? will this actually give some space back?

Any help would be appreciated.

Peter

Answered by KMT in 56913022

12 GB spare is barely enough for the OS to create and utilize swap space. Remember that when installing Xcode, as an example, you need:

- space for the download/package

- space to unpack

- space to install

That could amount to from 8 ~ 12 GB as a rough estimate.

I'd at least double the free space, but still consider that cushion to be near minimum, and not for routine operation. I get nervous when I see less than 250 GB free on my 2 TB boot drive.

Rather than try to eke out room on your current HD, I'd invest in much larger HD, with room to grow over the next year or two, at least. Figure what you need and then double that number.

Good luck.

Boost

KMT OP

Feb ’16

>I'm disappointed in the common community response

I can only speak for myself when I remind you that as a developer, it's should be an economic decision, wrapped in pragmatism. HD costs are lower than ever and when biased against my dev time, there is no contest in terms of ROI, especially given that I can't order more time off Amazon, regardless of price.

Disk space is just another asset - don't let it control you. Respect yourself as a developer first, by taking appropriate advantage of modern tech while you prioritize housekeeping accordingly. Never squander your dev time needlessly.

plaasm OP

May ’16

Very helpful article here on how to recover space from Xcode

http://blog.neverthesamecolor.net/how-to-recover-disk-space-from-xcode/

neoscribe OP

Sep ’16

Thanks Dave! I agree, chastising folks who are looking for help isn't very helpful.

My laptop HD can't be upgraded and had a ton of useless xcode files consuming unnecessary disk space. Thanks to the blog that others have posted here, I was able to free up enough space to download and upgrade xcode. It appears that version I upgraded was a 4.5GB download, so I'm guessing that it requires about 4 times the spaces since I had to free up 20GB before it would install.

sergsmyk OP

Sep ’20

$: rm -fr ~/Library/Caches/storedownloadd
restart AppStore app

nrajanapple OP

Oct ’20

I had the same problem updating from Xcode 12 to Xcode 12.01 on a 13" MacBook Pro with 250 gb non-upgradable laptop.

The system had 31 GB storage after all the steps described here had been taken, apps deleted, Xcode moved to iCloud. Documents, pictures, large files all moved to iCloud. Moving Xcode to iCloud did not free up disk space as one would imagine.
Downloading of the Xcode 12.01 pix stopped after 7.09 GB had been downloaded.
Searching for Xcode on App store and clicking on the icon said something like "there's not enough space on your disk to install Xcode". A more helpful message would specify how much storage is needed.
The folder /Users/Shared had folders named "Relocated items" and "Previously Relocated items" that occupied 39 GB of storage. The read me in that folder explained that these files could not be moved into their original locations because of the upgrade. These are accumulated over successive upgrades and become huge.
Deleting the files in /Users/Shared provided a total of 81 GB of free storage. After installing Xcode 12.01 the system has 64.91 GB with apps taking up 16.42 GB.

fuuuckapple OP

Mar ’21

So I am still having this issue in 2021. I have seen the solution and it does not apply to me. I have 30GB free and a 1TB external hard drive will 100% of the space free. How the f can I download xcode? Really Apple, do you have to make all your software so hard to operate and a headache to deal with. I never use Apple because of this and now that I need to program in Swift I have to and run into all kinds of verbose errors when trying to install the correct software. How can I download xcode to my external HD? Apple if you're reading this you make POS software.

JustACleverKid OP

Sep ’21

{deleted}