SwiftUI Previews - Disk space issue

UI Frameworks SwiftUI
handmadeapps OP
Created Jun ’21
Replies 7
Boosts 3
Views 6.6k
Participants 7

I'm seeing a lot of disk space (e.g. over 20 GB ) taken up by SwiftUI previews under this folder:

~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Previews

Arbitrarily deleting the contents of this folder seems to stop previews from working.

xcrun simctl delete unavailable does not seem to work on this folder, as well.

There is a device_set.plist file in the Simulator Devices sub-folder, and some of the sub-folders are not listed in this file.

In general, has anybody figured out a safe way to cleanup this folder or heard from an Apple engineer on what exactly goes on in there?

Does Xcode actually manage the contents of this folder by adding / deleting devices when you add / remove simulator runtimes?

Replies  7
Boosts  3
Views  6.6k
Participants  7
fbronner OP
Jun ’21

To clean it up I do the following...

I quit Xcode, delete that directory and load Xcode and previews work.

1
handmadeapps OP
Sep ’21

So, apparently there is an xcrun invocation that handles this:

xcrun simctl --set previews delete unavailable | all

This correctly cleans up the folder without crashing the Previews.

3
Mcrich23 OP
Oct ’21

That does'n work for me, terminal says Using Previews Device Set: '/Users/mcrich/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Previews/Simulator Devices'

2
dryPsycho OP
Feb ’22

the Previews folder is taking up 165 GB of my disk and the size is increasing every day, it is insane. Did anyone find a solution for this?

2
Mcrich23 OP
Feb ’22

I created a virtual drive on an external drive and made an apple script to close xcode and its programs, mount it in the correct spot, and re-open xcode.

0
GeekyChick OP
Jun ’22

Suggested by an Apple Frameworks engineer: xcrun simctl --set previews delete all My Previews folder was 110GB and went to 6GB. Everything seems to be working well.

6
jboi OP
Oct ’24

It's 2024, XCode 16 and this one is still working fine.

xcrun simctl --set previews delete all

0
SwiftUI Previews - Disk space issue
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