I have ios UI tests that are build with command xcodebuild -workspace ... -scheme ... -configuration ... -derivedDataPath ... -destination ... -testPlan ... build-for-testing Then I run them with xcodebuild -destination ... -resultBundlePath ... -parallel-testing-worker-count ... -xctestrun ... test-without-building I also have following settings in testplan "maximumTestRepetitions" : 3, "testRepetitionMode" : "retryOnFailure", With xcode 16.4 tests were retried on failure up to 3 times, but migrating to xcode 26.2 seems to change this behavior and tests are no longer retried. Is it expected behaviour and I should manually add params like -test-iterations 3 -retry-tests-on-failure into xcodebuild test-without-building command? Here is xcresult - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xHgiZnIK_lptDSUf-fCyEnT9zYubZlCf/view?usp=sharing And testrun file -https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aBi2sTjy8zFYtgYn1KA60T8gwD_OnBCF/view?usp=sharing

I have created a virtualised Mac machine where I am running the latest Xcode version 16.4 with macOS Sequoia as the base image. While running XCTest tests, I am observing a clear difference in behaviour between virtualised and non-virtualised setups. Below is the command I am using to run the tests: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcodebuild -xctestrun /Users/ltuser/290103613/xcui.xctestrun -destination "platform=iOS Simulator,id=79A5F8CC-4A2E-4C91-895D-AE97E25CB824,arch=arm64,OS=18.0" test-without-building "-only-testing:ClassName/MethodName/testName" -derivedDataPath /Users/ltuser/290103613/Archive -verbose IDELogLevel=debug IDETestLogLevel=debug ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=YES Observed Issue On virtualised hosts: Every XCTest is executed twice This happens for both passed and failed tests The behaviour is consistent across all virtualised machines On non-virtualised (bare-metal) Macs: Tests execute only once, as expected Debugging Steps Taken Multiple destination suspicion Initially, I noticed the following warning: --- xcodebuild: WARNING: Using the first of multiple matching destinations: { platform:iOS Simulator, id:0FFB9082-94AB-4D0A-A731-CC4452BDD4E7, OS:17.0, name:iPhone 15 } { platform:iOS Simulator, id:0FFB9082-94AB-4D0A-A731-CC4452BDD4E7, OS:17.0, name:iPhone 15 } This raised suspicion that tests might be running twice due to multiple matching destinations. Destination narrowed down I then explicitly restricted the destination to a single simulator UDID, after which: The warning disappeared However, the issue still persists Tests continue to run twice on virtualised hosts Version Comparison Xcode 16.4 + macOS Sequoia (virtualised) → Tests run twice Xcode 15.x (same setup otherwise) → Tests run once Questions Has anyone else faced this issue with Xcode 16.x on virtualised macOS? Is this a known issue with Xcode 16 + Virtualisation? Is there any recommended workaround or configuration change to avoid duplicate test execution? I am currently blocked on this issue and would appreciate confirmation on whether this is an Xcode or virtualisation-related problem. Thank you.

On iOS 18, when XCUITest encounters an "Application has not loaded accessibility" error after the 60 second timeout, it performs an undocumented auto-recovery ("Setting up automation session") instead of halting the test as documented. This leaves the XCUITest framework in a corrupted state, causing subsequent tests in the same session to fail with unexpected behavior. Expected Behavior (per Apple documentation): Any failure in the launch sequence will be reported as a test failure and the test will be halted at that point. Actual Behavior: XCUITest waits 60 seconds for accessibility to load Logs "Application has not loaded accessibility" error Instead of halting, performs "Setting up automation session" (auto-recovery) Test continues with corrupted framework state Subsequent tests in the same session fail with phantom element queries Steps Run XCUITest suite on a real iOS 18 device Have an app with moderately heavy initialization (e.g., synchronous network operations during bootstrap) Observe intermittent "accessibility not loaded" errors When error occurs, subsequent tests fail with unexpected behavior Test Logs Evidence First test (accessibility failure + recovery): t = 11.11s Wait for accessibility to load t = 71.14s Capturing diagnostic spindump t = 76.24s Assertion Failure: Application 'com.example.app' has not loaded accessibility t = 76.26s Setting up automation session ← Undocumented recovery t = 77.29s Tear Down Second test (corrupted state): t = 35.01s Tap "signin-button" t = 35.55s Waiting for "bannerButtonStackFirstItem" ← Query NOT in test code! t = 40.58s Assertion Failure: Failed to find element The second test executes element queries that do not exist in its source code, indicating leaked/corrupted state from the previous test's failed recovery. Note: The tearDown() method terminates the app but cannot reset the internal state of the XCUITest framework itself, so corruption persists across tests. We are observing this behavior consistently on iOS 18 real devices. We would like to know: Is this a known issue with XCUITest on iOS 18? Is anyone experiencing similar "accessibility not loaded" failures followed by auto-recovery? Is the "Setting up automation session" recovery behavior intentional or a bug? Is there a recommended workaround to prevent framework state corruption between tests?

I am seeing a regression with XCUIDevice.shared.appearance = .dark in UI tests that only affects xcodebuild, not Xcode’s UI test runner. Setup • UI tests written using XCTest • Dark mode forced in setUp() using: XCUIDevice.shared.appearance = .dark • Tests target an iOS simulator • Same test target, same scheme Expected behavior The app launches in Dark Mode for UI tests, as it did previously. Actual behavior • When running UI tests from Xcode (Product > Test), Dark Mode is applied correctly. • When running the same UI tests via xcodebuild test, Dark Mode is ignored and the app launches in Light Mode. • No test failures, no warnings, no logs indicating the appearance override was skipped. Regression details • This used to work on older iOS versions when running via xcodebuild. • The regression appears after updating iOS simulators (exact version boundary still unclear). • No relevant changes were made to the test code, scheme, or CI configuration. • xcodebuild otherwise launches and runs UI tests normally. Notes • The issue is specific to XCUIDevice.shared.appearance. • Other UI test functionality behaves as expected. • This makes CI results inconsistent with local Xcode runs and breaks visual assumptions in snapshot and layout-based tests. Question Is this a known regression or an intentional behavior change in recent iOS / Xcode versions? If intentional, what is the supported way to reliably force Dark Mode in UI tests when running via xcodebuild? This currently makes xcodebuild-based CI UI testing unreliable compared to Xcode’s test runner.

Since I moved to Xcode 26.1 and Xcode 26.2 then, my UI tests all fail only for iOS 26+, for both simulator and real device. Everything worked perfectly with Xcode 26.0, and the code base of the application under test and the test cases are the same. With Xcode 26.0, the tests pass for iOS 26+ and iOS < 26, for both simulator and real device. In addition, even the Accessibility Inspector tool fails to display the view hierarchy for iOS 26+ with Xcode 26.2. With Xcode 26.0, whatever are the devices and the OS versions, the tool was able to display the view hierarchy. Otherwise the tool is empty even if the device and app are selected. This failing tests issue occurs both on my local environment and on GitHub Actions runners, excluding the hypothesis I have troubles with my own side. The error message for failing tests explains the element cannot be found anymore. Given for example the test case: @MainActor func testMakeScreenshotsForDocumentation_Button() { let app = launchApp() goToComponentsSheet(app) waitForButtonToAppear(withWording: "app_components_button_label", app) tapButton(withWording: "app_components_button_label", app) tapButton(withWording: "Strong", app) takeScreenshot(named: "component_button_", ACDC.buttonX, ACDC.buttonY, ACDC.buttonWidth, ACDC.buttonHeight, app) } the goToComponentSheet(app) line shows the error: ActionsDocumentationScreenshots.testMakeScreenshotsForDocumentation_Button() In details the function: /// Opens the page of the components, i.e. tap on the 2nd of the tab bar @MainActor func goToComponentsSheet(_ app: XCUIApplication) { app.tabBars.buttons.element(boundBy: 1).tap() } with the following error on the app.tabBars line: .../AppTestCase.swift:157 testMakeScreenshotsForDocumentation_Button(): Failed to tap Button (Element at index 1): No matches found for Descendants matching type TabBar from input {(Application, pid: 1883)} I have the feeling with Xcode 26.2 (and Xcode 26.1) the view hierarchy is not accessible anymore for both XCUITest framework and Accessibility Inspector tool. Note I have on my side macOS Tahoe 26.1 (25B78) and my GitHub Actions runner are on macOS 26.0.1 (25A362). When I used Xcode 26.0 I was on macOS Tahoe 26.1 (25B78) . Any ideas? 🙂

Hi there, ever since I updated to Xcode 26.1, I have been seeing Record UI Button that is showing up on the left hand side which I believe is a new feature. Is there a way to hide this button ? I am using Vim bind with relative line numbers, and now I can't see which line number I am in when writing test cases...

We have multiple Jenkins jobs running UI Tests on a Mac with a device attached. This works most of the time but sometimes the tests don't run and the xcreport generated has an error like: BCOVBRDCoverageUITests-Runner encountered an error in BCOVBRDCoverageUITests failed with: Failed to install or launch the test runner. (Underlying Error: Failed to create directory on device 'Brightcove's iPhone 14 Plus' (00008110-000C54912246401E) to hold runtime profiles for application with bundle ID 'com.brightcove.BCOVBRDCoverageUITests.xctrunner': (null). (Underlying Error: The system failed to get the path on the remote device for the provided domain. (Underlying Error: The connection was interrupted.))) Has anyone else run into this? Any ideas on how to get around it? Kicking off another job after seeing this behavior works fine. The failures seem to be random or we haven't noticed a pattern yet.

I've been working on UI Tests for a month or two and things have been great. But I believe there was a recent update to Xcode [running Version 26.2 (17C52)] and since then about 80% of the time when I try to view the test results so I can see the screenshots and video, Xcode crashes hard and I have to open it again. I've tried cleaning the Build folder and Derived Data and all sorts of stuff like that. Restarted Xcode, restarted my computer, etc. Any idea of how I can avoid these crashes?

We’re facing an issue with Xcode 26.1 where code coverage is not being generated. All our test cases run and pass successfully, but the .xccovreport / .xccovarchive files are never produced. Code coverage is enabled in the scheme, and this setup used to work correctly in earlier Xcode versions. We are trying to determine whether this is a configuration issue on our end or a possible Xcode 26.1 bug. Is anyone else experiencing the same problem with code coverage in Xcode 26.1? Any insights or workarounds would be appreciated.

The buttons in the navigation bar are not available in the element tree after iOS 26 upgrade of the test phones. The same IPA version, the same XCode version, but different trees on different phones. There is no way to automate UI testing for these missing buttons. # ios 18 NavigationBar, 0x108e0c3c0, {{0.0, 47.0}, {390.0, 44.0}}, identifier: 'Profile' Button, 0x108e0c500, {{8.0, 47.0}, {43.0, 44.0}}, identifier: 'UserProfileSceneViewController_profile_back_button', label: 'chevronLeftIcon' StaticText, 0x108e0c640, {{169.3, 58.0}, {51.3, 22.0}}, label: 'Profile' Button, 0x108e0c780, {{339.0, 47.0}, {43.0, 44.0}}, identifier: 'UserProfileSceneViewController_settings_bar_button', label: 'Settings' # ios 26 NavigationBar, 0x13d63c8c0, {{0.0, 47.0}, {428.0, 54.0}}, identifier: 'Profile' StaticText, 0x13d63ca00, {{188.3, 58.0}, {51.3, 22.0}}, label: 'Profile'

Failed to generate code coverage report when doing Swift Testing on iPhone device, but it's ok in UI testing or running on "My Mac(Designed for iPad)". I have enable code coverage in test plan. My app can't run on simulator due to frameworks limitations. Platform: Mac mini M2 w/ macOS15.7, iPhoneXR 18.6.2 Xcode version: 26.1 & 16.0 error msg: Failed to download profiles from paths ["/private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/76A1F9BC-98C8-4349-998B-0FC030DEE3EC/tmp/3A424286-872D-40AD-B4CA-65B232B57EB4"] on device 'iPhoneXR' for application with bundle ID 'xxx.xxxx.xxxx' to directory /Users//Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/-bosqsqmqiqwweldrfrtgsfpnhroht/Build/ProfileData/00008020-00042C2A3E38002E: Failed to retrieve the file node for tmp/3A424286-872D-40AD-B4CA-65B232B57EB4. (Underlying Error: Failed to retrieve the file node for tmp/3A424286-872D-40AD-B4CA-65B232B57EB4)

After upgrading to Xcode 16.4, the navigation arrow icon in the Report Navigator is no longer appearing for failed test cases within XCResult bundles. This icon, which allows developers to directly navigate to the specific line of code that caused a test failure, is now missing. This significantly hinders the debugging process for test automation engineers. Details: Xcode Version: 16.4 (issue started after upgrade) Test Framework: XCTest Test Environment: iOS simulators Execution Method: The tests are executed on a Jenkins CI/CD server XCResult Analysis: The generated .xcresult bundle is downloaded from the Jenkins server and opened locally on a Mac also running Xcode 16.4. Observed Behavior: The navigation arrow icon is missing, and there is no direct way to jump to the failure line from the report. This issue appears to be a regression introduced in Xcode 16.4, as the navigation arrow was consistently present in previous versions. Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

I am developing an app that allows the user to ask it to process the clipboard contents and do something with it. In developing a XC UI Test, I find the app stops while it waits for the user to give permission. That breaks the automation. I tried: let springboard = XCUIApplication(bundleIdentifier: "com.apple.springboard") let allowButton = springboard.buttons["Allow Paste"] But that does not work. Is there a way to tell the framework to automatically give the test permission to access the Paste clipboard (or to allow me to write tests to grant this)?

Hello Apples, Noticed that after iOS 26.1 update the Xcode simulator seems to be prompting to login with Apple ID arbitrarily while working on some UI tests. This does not happen with previous iOS 26.0 or 26.0.1 but is now causing trouble when launching the app or uninstalling at teardown. The current other issue with the uninstallation being sticky and taking a long time (waiting for springboard to become idle) is not helping either. The dialog seems to appear a bit unreliably to be able to handle it correctly. Have tried both manual springboard dialog mapping and handling as well as an interruption monitor. The latter only seems to work for the first dialog which appears but then ceases to function so not much help… Anyone else seeing this and are there any knowledge or good workarounds? Or should we just roll back to testing with previous OS versions and cross fingers for iOS 26.2? Bottom line we cannot login with an Apple ID while running tests on a simulator… As bonus noticed the simulator background images are not working? Thanks! BR, ARu_ (Senior QE)

Since Xcode 26 our tests are crashing due to the Main Thread not being able to deallocate WKNavigationResponse. Following an example: import Foundation import WebKit final class WKNavigationResponeMock: WKNavigationResponse { private let urlResponse: URLResponse override var response: URLResponse { urlResponse } init(urlResponse: URLResponse) { self.urlResponse = urlResponse super.init() } convenience init(httpUrlResponse: HTTPURLResponse) { self.init(urlResponse: httpUrlResponse) } convenience init?(url: URL, statusCode: Int) { guard let httpURLResponse = HTTPURLResponse(url: url, statusCode: statusCode, httpVersion: nil, headerFields: nil) else { return nil } self.init(httpUrlResponse: httpURLResponse) } } import WebKit import XCTest final class ExampleTests: XCTestCase { @MainActor func testAllocAndDeallocWKNavigationResponse() { let expectedURL = URL(string: "https://galaxus.ch/")! let expectedStatusCode = 404 let instance = WKNavigationResponeMock() // here it should dealloc/deinit `instance` automatically } Here the call stack: Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 CoreFoundation 0x101f3dd54 CFRetain.cold.1 + 16 1 CoreFoundation 0x101e14860 CFRetain + 104 2 WebKit 0x10864dd24 -[WKNavigationResponse dealloc] + 52

Fails to gather code coverage and throws this error Showing All Messages Failed to merge raw profiles in directory /Users//Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Receiver-ekqrbpsaciuxmlfslviajhoecyat/Build/ProfileData/0B0C6B69-FD46-4801-B106-56B7FCD44370 to destination /Users//Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Receiver-ekqrbpsaciuxmlfslviajhoecyat/Build/ProfileData/0B0C6B69-FD46-4801-B106-56B7FCD44370/Coverage.profdata: Aggregation tool '/Users/shwethamugeraya/Downloads/Xcode 2.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/llvm-profdata' failed with exit code 1: warning: /Users/shwethamugeraya/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Receiver-ekqrbpsaciuxmlfslviajhoecyat/Build/ProfileData/0B0C6B69-FD46-4801-B106-56B7FCD44370/2F4EFBF7-1CCF-4E9E-8FD6-482EEDB98B6C-34646.profraw: raw profile version mismatch: Profile uses raw profile format version = 4; expected version = 8 PLEASE update this tool to version in the raw profile, or regenerate raw profile with expected version. error: no profile can be merged

Looking for a way to overcome this issue when starting UI tests that used to be working: Source was stale 337 times within the last 500 ms (12 (latestGeneration) != 22 (lastKnownShmemState)): CFPrefsPlistSource<0x600003004c60> (Domain: com.apple.Accessibility, User: kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, ByHost: No, Container: ###/data, Contents Need Refresh: Yes) ... Failed to initialize for UI testing: Error Domain=XCTDaemonErrorDomain Code=18 "Timed out waiting for AX loaded notification" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Timed out waiting for AX loaded notification} Message from debugger: killed The environment is Xcode 16.3 with iOS Simulator 18.0. Not using the latest Simulator 18.4 because of another bug with network requests: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/777999

Xcode is throwing an error when attempting to report test coverage after running unit tests. Showing All Messages Failed to merge raw profiles in directory /{my project dir}/DerivedData/{my project name}/Build/ProfileData/A98EC493-3AB4-4B1C-B7FC-BC5D77B23EE3 to destination /{my project dir}/DerivedData/{my project name}/Build/ProfileData/A98EC493-3AB4-4B1C-B7FC-BC5D77B23EE3/Coverage.profdata: Aggregation tool '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/llvm-profdata' failed with exit code 1: warning: /{my project dir}/DerivedData/{my project name}/Build/ProfileData/A98EC493-3AB4-4B1C-B7FC-BC5D77B23EE3/997F01E3-3735-4897-AE00-31EBB0A9E8D3-57885.profraw: invalid instrumentation profile data (file header is corrupt) error: no profile can be merged Anyone else seeing this issue?

I have an environment variable set in an xctestplan for a set of unit tests that I access like so: let testType = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment[TARGET_TEST_TYPE_KEY] This is always is always returning nil when I run my unit tests in Xcode 26, but seems to work as expected in Xcode 16.4. Were there any changes in Xcode 26 that changes how this works? Thanks in advance.

I run some tests for an iOS app, connecting the iPhone to my mac where the code resides. I notice that it fills the iPhone from system data, until the iPhone is full. I tried everything to remove the system data (I assume some logs from the XCode testing): reset network, restart the iPhone, remove the tested app, etc. Nothing works. I am stuck with having to erase all data on the iPhone and reinstall from scratch, which is very tedious. Any suggestions ? Thanks!