Why Safari shows "No Inspectable Applications" during remote debugging with iOS 6 device?

Question

When I connect my iOS 6 device for remote debugging for testing my mobile web application, The safari develop menu with my device name shows "No Inspectable Applications".

I have enabled web inspector ON in my device safari device settings.

Why this is happening?

Answer 1

Just wanted to share that as of 4/2024 I ran into this issue and, for me, the solution was using iOS 15 simulator instead of iOS 17 simulator. No idea why or if/how you can get it working again in iOS 17 simulator, but going back to iOS 15 simulator got Safari debug working again for me.

Xcode: 15.3 OSX: 14.4.1 (Sonoma)

Answer 2

In case anyone else is coming here like me... iOS 16.4 had changes the block this.

cordova-ios put in a fix in 6.3.0 (so upgrading might help some of you - https://github.com/apache/cordova-ios/pull/1300)

However, Ionic cordova apps can use the Ionic Webview, which was my issue. I finally found this...

Ionic app - Cordova - Safari Debug not working

...which linked to this...

https://github.com/ionic-team/cordova-plugin-ionic-webview/pull/677

After I manually made the change in the xCode project (CDBWKWebViewEngine.m file) I was FINALLY able to debug.

I still had settings on the device for debugging, the xCode schema set to debug, etc, but this was the missing link.

Answer 3

Starting from iOS 16.4 one has to manually mark the WKWebView as inspectable to allow Safari debugging:

#if DEBUG
       if #available(iOS 16.4, *) {
          webView.isInspectable = true
       }
#endif

Answer 4

I had the same problem with Safari 11.0.3 on High Sierra. The only thing that worked for me is installing Safari Technology Preview from here.

Answer 5

I went to Settings > Safari > Advanced and toggled the Web Inspector switch from on to off to on again. That did it for me!

Answer 6

After all the answers here failed to resolve the issue for me, I figured out that installing the Safari Technology Preview version worked well.

Install this beta of Safari, launch it, enable developer tools in advanced preferences, and your phone will appear in the develop bar (provided a page in mobile Safari is open).

Answer 7

Make sure you aren't connected to a VPN.

Answer 8

I was trying to get this working via the iOS simulator and none of the previously stated answers worked, even though I tried them all. Instead, running the following worked:

npm install -g ios-sim

After that, once I started the application, the simulator appeared under the Develop menu on Safari.

Answer 9

An update for iOS 9 (using OSX El Capitan):

On your mobile device under Settings -> Safari -> Fraudulent Website Warning = OFF [default = ON]

I also needed to re-connect the iPhone after changing this setting

This solved it for me.

Answer 10

If you just installed XCode 9, do not forget to install Safari 11, or you will see "no inspecable applications"

Answer 11

I had the same issue eventually I understand that the problem is with the Xcode settings.

To solve this issue:

Enable Safari Debug

First of all verify that on the device you have enabled the Safari debugger (on the device go to: Settings >> Safari >> Advanced >> Enable Debug; or iOS 9+ turn on: Settings >> Safari >> Advanced >> Web Inspector). If you've done this you will see your device in Safari >> Develop. if you see your device but you don't see your application under it, instead "no inspectable application", check your Xcode settings.

Xcode

1. Change Build Configuration:

Right click on the project name (under the play/run button) and select 'Edit Schema...', in the 'Edit Schema' window under 'Run' tab change the 'Build Configuration' to 'Debug' (instead of 'Release')

2. Change the Code Signing:

Click on the project name in the files tree, to display the project settings. Select the 'Build Settings' tab. Change the 'Provision Profile' to 'Automatic'. Change the 'Code Sign Identity' to 'iOS Developer'.

Note that changing the code signing will prevent you from release versions for production, however you will be able to debug your application.

Answer 12

If you have private browsing enabled in Settings > Safari, you will not be able to use remote debugging. If you turned off private browsing, it will work like a charm.

Answer 13

I resolved the issue with rebuilding the app with new key - certificate (p12) and provisioning profile. My developer account and certificates expired, so it just stopped recognizing my PhoneGap app in Developer menu.

Answer 14

In my case, I had Safari 10.0.2, running on El Capitan and when trying to run apps on the Simulator (iphone 7), I did not even have the Simulator option in the Safari's Develop menu. Updating to Sierra, solved the problem.

Answer 15

A few things to try:

1. On your iPhone/iPad, double-tap the Home button to bring up the list of running apps, close Safari (or appropriate Web App), then reopen

2. Quit/reopen Safari on the Mac

3. Unplug/plug back in iOS device

As a side note, I can attach to Safari with private browsing enabled on the iOS device.

Answer 16

I recently had problems debugging a UIWebView in desktop Safari – and it turns out the problem was with my Xcode configuration for the app. The most recent build had been provisioned for production, rather than for Testing. After re-building the app for Testing, it showed up once more in the Safari Debug menu :-)