Issues with Safari dev tools + WKWebView + local URL + iOS 18 simulator

When I'm inspecting a WKWebView in a simulator and the WKWebView loads a local URL with a port number, I've found that most features of Safari dev tools that worked in iOS 17 are broken in iOS 18. Here are the steps I'm taking:

  1. Set up a WKWebView with isInspectable = true that loads a local URL, e.g. https://www.local.mydomain.com:3000
  2. Install a self-signed SSL certificate on a simulator for www.local.mydomain.com
  3. Run my app on the simulator
  4. The WKWebView loads successfully
  5. In Safari on my Mac, I can select the WKWebView and open dev tools to inspect it

If the simulator is on iOS 17, this works fine, no issues.

But if the simulator is on iOS 18, Safari dev tools are mostly broken. I can tell that there is a connection to the WKWebView because the Network tab logs the requests that I expect. But I cannot use any of the other dev tools features: Elements, Sources, Console, etc.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a workaround?

Also if the simulator is on iOS 18 and the WKWebView loads an external URL, it's fine. As far as I can tell, the issues are only with a local URL

Issues with Safari dev tools + WKWebView + local URL + iOS 18 simulator
 
 
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