On device watchOS debugging impossible

App & System Services Core OS Beta watchOS

Created Jun ’15

Replies 21

Boosts 2

Views 18k

Participants 14

It doesn't seem to be possible for me to debug on device wtih my apple watch. I can run my develpment app normally, but Xcode just can't seem to attach to a debugging session.

I've read the relase notes and have tried:

1) deleting the app/apps from devices and trying again

2) ensuring "Show App on Watch" is on for dev app

3) restarting all of: watch, phone, xcode, mac.

4) unpairing / pairing again

No dice.

When I click Run on the [AppName] WatchKit App scheme, the status window says "Running [AppName] WatchKit App on [Phone name]". It stays like that for about 45 seconds. Then it says "Finished running [AppName] WatchKit App on [Phone name]".

It really seems like the Phone->Watch connection is just way too slow. When I launch Xcode, it takes about 2 minutes before it considers my Phone+Watch pair as eligible for this scheme. During this initial 2 minutes, if I look into Window->Devices I don't see my watch listed even though I can clearly see it is paired.

I'm going to turn this into an official bug report, but I thought I'd check to see if I'm overlooking something obvious first since this is such a fundamental use case.

Device is an iPhone 5, by the way.

Boost

GGiebler OP

Jul ’15

Here's what works (sometimes) for me:

1. Delete the app from the iPhone and wait for it to uninstall it from the watch.

2. Power down the watch and iPhone. Close Xcode completely.

3. Power up the watch and iPhone. Wait until they both are running.

4. Run Xcode and wait for the watch to show as paired. You can speed that up by rearranging icons in the watch app on the phone.

5. Run your watch app and wait up to 5 minutes.

6. If step 5 fails, repeat step 5 several times.

7. If that doesn't work, repeat the whole process from step 1 a few times.

8. If that doesn't work, work on other projects until the next beta comes out.

BJamUT OP

Jul ’15

+1 Very frustrating. I can't get any app extension that is built with Xcode 7.0 beta 3 (7A152u) to run on WatchOS 2.0 beta 3 (13S5293f) at all. Always just the spinning dots. I'm trying everything that is mentioned (unpairing/repairing, rebooting both devices, resetting data, etc.) So far nothing has worked. We can't develop anything on beta 3. 😟

Carbamide OP

Jul ’15

I filed radar 21783061 detailing this problem. I'm seeing the same thing.

KellyM OP

Oct ’15

@Everyone,

I'm seeing this problem on Xcode Version 7.0.1 (7A1001) with ios 9.0.2 (iphone 6plus) and 38mm watch Version 2.0 (13S344).

I upgraded my devices this am and repaired the iphone and watch. I then tried to debug using my watch scheme. It worked

once and then consistently failed. Each time, the watchkitextension took a long time to connect and displayed a running message in

Xcode window. However, the watch displayed spinning circles and never responded.

Does anyone know if radars filed were fixed?

KGBird OP

Oct ’15

Debugging on the watch first began working for me with the release of watchOS 2.0 and iOS 9 and has been working ever since. I was never sure what all of a sudden made everything work. One thought I had is that my Mac and phone/watch were not connected to the same Wi-Fi network. I have a dual band router and was on the 2.5 GHz on the phone/watch and 5 GHz on my Mac. They are all on the same network now but I was never sure if that made a difference. Under Window > Devices make sure you can see both your phone and your watch and in particular, look at the watch console output. That might help. In the past I used the Apple Watch app on the phone to uninstall and then install the app again and that cleared things up. Heck, I even have had to do that in the Simulator. I've done Option Clean to more fully clean and even deleted DerivedData. Sometimes those actions "clear" things up. I wish I knew what made things work for me now because debugging never worked for me until we got the final bits for watchOS 2 and iOS 9. I should also mention that the debugger has been working with/on my watchOS 2 app. I haven't tried debugging my old watchOS 1 app.

GabrielBrodersen OP

Aug ’21

Same problem here. Xcode says running for minutes, although it is clearly not. Even if you turn off the Apple Watch, it is still running...