CPU Profiling with instruments fails to start

When trying to profile any process with the Instruments CPU Profiler I get this message: (Before run started) No allocated PMI record.

Not sure what to do here. I tried other instruments like time profile and that works fine so not sure what to do here... Didn't find any people having similar issues when googling so I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

Im using a m1 max 14 inch macbook pro with macOS 12.3 and instruments 13.0 (13A1030d)

  • Met the same problem for xcode 14.0.1. Anything I did wrong? Or is it a regression?

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Hi Ruben-elk!

We believe that this issue should be fixed in Instruments 13.3 (currently stable shipping version). Could you please try that out and let us know if it works for you?

Best,

Kacper

  • That did it. Thanks!

  • Hi Kacper, I'm using Instruments 14.0 and the issues still exists!

  • Met the same problem for xcode 14.0.1. Anything I did wrong? Or is it a regression?

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It's a very interesting situation - I encountered this error on my iPad running iOS 17.2.1, while my iPhone, which was on iOS 16.0.2, did not have this issue. However, after updating my iPhone to iOS 17.2.1, it started experiencing the same problem. This suggests that the issue might be related to processor profiling in the latest iOS versions.

Still an issue with Xcode 15.2 with my iPhone 15 Pro Max iOS 17.3

Same issue, MacOS 13.5 Instruments 2 (15C500b) with iOS 17.3 iPhone Xr. FB13595651

Well this is annoying. Just tried to profile for the first time in ages and it fails with this issue on both tvOS and iOS.

And this issue goes back a year, with no apparent solution.

How exactly is one supposed to develop when a basic tool like this is not working for so many people....?

  • Is this for real? Are there other alternative methods for profiling?

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michael101 wrote:

FB13595651

Thanks for filing that.

AFAICT this bug was fixed but the patch came unstuck )-: We’re tracking the new fix via michael101’s bug report. Unfortunately that fix hasn’t yet made it into any public or seeded release of iOS.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

@eskimo Is it possible to download the older/fixed version of instruments somewhere? And would it work with newer versions of Xcode?

Is it possible to download the older/fixed version of instruments somewhere?

That wouldn’t help. This is an issue in the OS itself.

Having said that:

  • Instruments is part of Xcode, and you can get older versions of Xcode from the Downloads area on the developer web site.

  • I generally recommend against trying to play mix’n’match like this.

But…


Have you tried with the latest iOS 17.5b1 seed (21F5048f)? I’ve good reason to believe that it’ll fix this problem.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

I haven't tried the 17.5b1 seed yet, but confirming it's still an issue on iOS 17.4 with Xcode 15.3. Time profiler works, but not CPU profiler with PMIs.