Is it safe to run Xcode from an external drive?

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I’m currently facing a disk space limitation on my Mac.

I’ve already freed up some storage by following the suggestions shared in a previous post, which helped partially, but the issue is not fully resolved and space is still a bottleneck for my workflow.

To move forward, I’d like to ask a very concrete question:

Is it safe and supported to move Xcode to an external hard drive (SSD), use it from there, and simply connect the drive whenever I need to work with Xcode?

Specifically:

Are there known issues with performance, stability, or updates?
Are there components that must remain on the internal disk to avoid unexpected behavior?
Is this a reasonable long-term setup, or just a temporary workaround?

I want to make sure I’m not setting myself up for hidden problems down the road.

Thanks in advance for any clarification or best practices you can share.

Answered by Etresoft in 872885022

Is it safe and supported to move Xcode to an external hard drive (SSD), use it from there, and simply connect the drive whenever I need to work with Xcode?

Yes. Absolutely.

Are there known issues with performance, stability, or updates?

Nope. Apps can run from any visible location.

Are there components that must remain on the internal disk to avoid unexpected behavior?

Nope. Xcode is self-contained.

Is this a reasonable long-term setup, or just a temporary workaround?

Neither. It can't possibly work. The Xcode app itself is quite small. Moving it will do absolutely nothing to solve any storage problems.

The problem with Xcode is the "Developer" folder. On my computer that's 34 GB for "Developer" in my home folder. There's another one in "Library" that's 80 GB. And in the System "Library" folder, there's an iOS Runtime folder for another 211 GB.

And this isn't even my primary development machine. This is my backup and test rig.

You need a minimum 1 TB boot drive for Xcode. Sorry.

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Answer 1

Etresoft OP

1d

Accepted Answer

Is it safe and supported to move Xcode to an external hard drive (SSD), use it from there, and simply connect the drive whenever I need to work with Xcode?

Yes. Absolutely.

Are there known issues with performance, stability, or updates?

Nope. Apps can run from any visible location.

Are there components that must remain on the internal disk to avoid unexpected behavior?

Nope. Xcode is self-contained.

Is this a reasonable long-term setup, or just a temporary workaround?

Neither. It can't possibly work. The Xcode app itself is quite small. Moving it will do absolutely nothing to solve any storage problems.

The problem with Xcode is the "Developer" folder. On my computer that's 34 GB for "Developer" in my home folder. There's another one in "Library" that's 80 GB. And in the System "Library" folder, there's an iOS Runtime folder for another 211 GB.

And this isn't even my primary development machine. This is my backup and test rig.

You need a minimum 1 TB boot drive for Xcode. Sorry.

1

Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

16h

It’s better to reply as a reply, rather than in the comments; see Quinn’s Top Ten DevForums Tips for this and other titbits.

I can’t move the Developer folder to an external SSD, right?

I don’t think you can move the whole thing, but you can move bits via Xcode > Settings > Locations.

Oh, one last thing. If you do put Xcode, or any Mac app, an an external drive, it’s a good idea to use a native volume format, so APFS or HFS Plus. While other volume formats, like FAT32, should work, I’ve definitely seen folks bump into problems doing that.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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Answer 3

Etresoft OP

14h

Alright, thanks! So I can’t move the Developer folder to an external SSD, right?

To be honest, I've never tried doing anything like replacing the Developer folder with a symbolic link.

In many cases, when there is something special about a folder, like special system protections, or it's being managed by a system daemon, you can't do that. But I don't know about the Developer folder.

I had forgotten about the Locations setting. In my case, I could use that to move 17 GB on this machine.

But the iOSRuntime is the big problem. At one point during the summer, this folder went crazy and completely filled my SSD with 300 GB of data. I had to hack it via SIP. A later build fixed that.

This is just one of those problems that can be easily solved with money. A problem solvable with money isn't a real problem.

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