Fixing Xcode 9 issue: "iPhone is busy: Preparing debugger support for iPhone"

Question

I'm looking for more information on the message below. Xcode 9 seems to be hanging for a couple minutes already...

How can I tell Xcode 9 to quickly recognize my previously used device updated to iOS 11?

.Alex’s iPhone is busy: Preparing debugger support for .Alex’s iPhone
Xcode will continue when .Alex’s iPhone is finished.

Answer 1

For me, none of the above answers worked.
In my case, the system time was manually set, and off by one hour. The problem disappeared after I went to "Settings > General > Date & Time" and set the time to "Automatically".

Answer 2

My issue was that the device time was incorrect. After correcting it and restarting the device, my problem was solved.

Answer 3

In my case it was my apple watch that caused the issue. Xcode was trying to pair with my watch, but didnt seem to succeed.

So i disconnected my watch by turning off bluethooth, after that the problem was solved.

Answer 4

This is a suggestion when I open the details:

Please delete apps signed with your free account from this device to remain under the limit.

So I've deleted 1 app from the iPhone, then the new app installed successfully.

Answer 5

I spent like 10 or more hours trying all the answers and none worked for me! From here can be read this too:

This usually means that Xcode is busy copying debug symbols from the device. This can be impacted by...

But it worked for the other, newer phone, so my issue was located to a question: "why XCode can't copy..." - whatever he needs?

• because it is an error at the motherboard around the microphone, not the device itself, and that's why some apps are working, like registering a video ( without sound) and other apps like Talking Tom not. I have changed the phone owner, changed the privacy settings, unlugged, unpaired, rebooted: none worked. -and on that phone it will work after the motherboard it is replaced.

So sometimes can be a hardware issue.

Answer 6

** Solution : Shutdown your Apple Watch [x], unplug cable and then plug it again. Reason: You can try this solution if you don't develop an apple watch application, because Xcode is looking for an apple watch developer sdk. **

Thinking it would be apple watch related, I turned off the watch, then restarted my phone for all connections to be closed. This way, I was able to connect to my phone without any problems. but a few days ago I was desperately turning my phone off and on while trying to fix this problem. the problem was not fixed. Instead of checking the devices, I think it is necessary to focus on what the problem is. Apple officials have to explain something about this.

Answer 7

Today, I have faced the issue and tried out everything mentioned here and different pages as well. Nothing worked for me.

Lastly, I have reset the iPhone, then tried building the application and finally it worked for me.

Answer 8

On your iPhone:

Settings > Developer > Clear Trusted Computers

Wait a few seconds, it's all.

Answer 9

Do this Two Task to solve your problem:

First Go to Xcode then -> Preferences -> Accounts then below click the plus icon to add apple id it must me same as your iphone device apple id.

Second Just change the cable if first solution can not work

Answer 10

Restarting Xcode worked for me (quit and start again).

What didn't work for me:

• waiting for an hour on one device
• waiting for an hour on another device
• restarting devices
• unpairing/pairing devices

Answer 11

I've faced the same problem because of a cable. I changed my third party USB/lighting cable into original Apple cable, and it worked.

Answer 12

There are multiple solutions for this:

Solution 1: Patiently wait for 10 to 15 minutes. Have a tea or roam around ;-)

Solution 2: Disconnect device from the system. Restart both iPhone and Xcode and then rebuild again.

Solution 3:

1. Go to Windows → Devices and Simulators (Shortcut key: cmd+shift+2)

   

2. You’ll see iPhone device connected to system with message

   iPhone is busy: Preparing debugger support for iPhone

3. Click on plus button (+) present in bottom-left corner.

   

4. This will show the device connected to system. Click on Next button.

   

5. Thereafter you’ll see ‘device setup was successful’. Click on Done button.

   

Solution 3 worked for me!

Solution 4:

Unpair your device and then pair it again. Thereafter follow Step 3.

Answer 13

The Best way:

1. Disconnect the Iphone.
2. Clean xcode by command+ shift + k or by going to Product -> Clean

Connect again

Run again

Answer 14

My setup

• macOS 10.14.6
• iOS 13.2.3
• Xcode 11.2

Tried all the "speedrun" tips up till 2019-11-24 without luck. The wait seemed inevitable but incredibly long in my case:

with a freshly upgraded iOS version.

I then found this comment on reddit which makes the most sense:

This is required when you connect a device with an iOS version that the respective computer's Xcode didn't see before. It saves them in /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport and it does take a while. Don't restart Xcode as it will not help you, just wait for it to finish.

It takes quite some time because these debugger support files occupy a lot of space (29 GB for me), though you can safely delete any version from there, and if you connect a device with that version again, it will re-save it from scratch.

So if you just upgraded your iOS, then the "from scratch" part could take longer than usual, also depending on your network condition. In my case, it is definitely much much longer than the "10-15min" other people claimed. I measure it by hours.

A lot of tricks seem to have worked but they neglect the fact that time goes on as you try things while Xcode keeps working on the setup in the background, and quite possibly resumes its job whenever you do a restart/reboot cycle.

This led me to noticing that my Xcode version is just one step behind the iOS point release. After upgrading my Xcode, it worked.

But it took longer because I removed the iOS DeviceSupport folder by following a tip!

So here are my suggestions:

• Check your Xcode version down to the minor version to make sure it should actually support the iOS version.
• Check your Mac's free disk space to make room for newly generated device support content under ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport as this tip suggested.
• Check if you have connected your device to a fast-enough USB port, as this tip suggests.
• Wait till Xcode finishes "preparing for debugging".
• If it doesn't finish in a few seconds or minutes, keep waiting.
• DO NOT remove any folder as some tips may suggest. Removal would simply make you wait longer!

Answer 15

Xcode 10.3 Solution

The following error messages apply:

iPhone is busy: Preparing debugger support for iPhone Xcode will continue when iPhone is finished.

An error was encountered while attempting to communicate with this device. (The service is invalid.) Please try rebooting and reconnecting the device. (0xE8000022).

---

Follow the steps in Jayprakash Dubey's post above

and

• Close Xcode;

• Delete contents of DerivedData folder ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData

• Restart Xcode & iPhone

• Pair Xcode & iPhone again

• & run application

Answer 16

I had the same problem on macOS 10.14.5 using Xcode 10.2.1. After none of the solution here worked for me I restarted the Mac and this did the trick...

Answer 17

For me it Worked after following the below steps

Step-1 Go to Devices and Simulator

Step-2 Deselect Show as run destination and Connect via network Options

Wait for Few seconds to Load the Xcode, If you want you can restart Xcode also.

Step-3 Follow the same steps and got to Devices and Simulators

Tick back both the options and it will be normal to install your app back.

Answer 18

I have been using my iPhone X to debug via Network and suddenly had this problem.

Disable "Connect via network" and try again with USB. This trick worked for me.

Answer 19

In my case, iTunes was open, so

1 - open iTunes

2 - access you phone

3 - click to disconnect your phone

Now the device is ready on XCode

Hope it helps....

Answer 20

Clean : Shift-Command-K is what works for me.

Answer 21

• Unpaired my iPhone
• Removed my USB cable and reconnected it (Do make sure that you unplugged the USB and plugged it back in)
• Paired the iPhone.

(3 important steps)

Answer 22

below solution worked for me, follow steps to resolve your issue:

Step 1: Cancel Running

Step 2 : open Window menu and select Devices and Simulators

Step 3 : Unpair the iPhone

Step 4 : Removed iPhone USB cable and reconnect to the system

Step 5 : Pair the iPhone when you connect then you will be asked to Trust or Don't Allow, Please click Truct on your iPhone and enter your passcode (Pin Code)

Note : I performed all the above steps they worked for me. The issue of my device debugger gone.

Below is the Screenshot of Devices and Simulators Menu

Answer 23

Simple solution:

• Open Window -> Devices and Simulators
• Unpair iPhone on the side list
• Unplug and plug again the USB cable
• Press Trust in the prompt message in the device!
• Then it should work! It worked for me

Answer 24

I left AppCode open while Xcode was trying to process the device, closing it solved the problem. Maybe can be one of the possible issues.

Answer 25

If running beta software and you update the OS, make sure to get the latest Xcode beta also. This fixed it for me.

Answer 26

I realised I had less than 100 MBs of free space on my disc. Freeing up disk space solved the issue for me!

Answer 27

TL;DR: Settings > General > Profile & Device Management > (Under DEVELOPER APP category) click my email address that happens to be my Apple ID > Trust Developer

This might not be relevant to anyone else, as I am new to iOS development and this was my first attempt to install an application on my phone, but I'll provide the answer as it wasn't yet listed.

I went through restarting my phone, restarting Xcode, unplugging and plugging back in, clean building, and even removed the device from the Devices and Simulators menu. However, I believe the cause for me was that I hadn't added my developer certificate to the listed of trusted certificates on my device.

I am on iOS 10.3.3 so the navigation and wording in Settings on the phone might be slightly different, but the final step I took before this issue was fixed was to trust my developer certificate as an individual developer on my phone.

To do that, go Settings > General > Profile & Device Management > (Under DEVELOPER APP category) click my email address that happens to be my Apple ID > Trust Developer

Whether or not that was the cause of my problem, I am unsure. This was, however, the last step that I took before the app ran on my phone successfully after doing all of the other steps listed above.

Answer 28

For those looking for solution with Apple TV, I just experience the exact problem "Apple TV is busy: Preparing debugger support for Apple TV” with Apple TV 4K with my Macbook Air (Early 2015)

The solution is not to unpair or restart devices. But to switch network. I brought it to a faster and more open network and it works perfectly.

Answer 29

When you plug a New device which is having iOS 11, Xcode 9 will Prepare Debugger Support for that device, At this time you should Wait to complete it.

Then run the project in that device it will run smoothly.

If you didn't keep patience while creating Debugger Support then it will throw the error mentioned in the question.

Answer 30

I had this problem because I hadn't given iTunes permissions to run on the computer. (I don't use iTunes for music, so I had foolishly just hit "decline" in annoyance whenever the EULA dialog box came up.)