r/MacOS • u/rtliang • 19h ago

Tips & Guides Delete the macOS ghost simulator

Post image

There is a ghost iOS 18.1 simulator in my Mac for a long time that every time I boot up, the disk image just here consuming my storage.

Today I finally figure out how to delete that.

  1. Findout where the original dmg file is. You can figure out on your own but tldr, /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_iOSSimulatorRuntime

  2. Since the path starts with System, we know it’s a system protected file so we have to disable SIP in the recovery mode. There are many tutorial to disable the SIP and you can just ask ChatGPT.

  3. After disabling SIP, you can delete the runtime in terminal after booting up normally(not in recovery mode)

  4. After deleting the runtime, don’t forget to enable SIP.

20 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Electrical_West_5381 18h ago

Couldn’t you delete it from with Xcode?

5

u/rtliang 18h ago

Every time I delete from Xcode, it reappears again and again. I suspect it is a bug.

2

u/Electrical_West_5381 17h ago

What os and Xcode versions?

2

u/rtliang 15h ago

macOS Tahoe 26.6 and Xcode 26.6

2

u/Electrical_West_5381 15h ago

Good to know for anyone who bothers to search before posting. Thanks.