Reset or delete iOS simulators from Terminal with simctl

By EgeTech LTD · October 6, 2026 · 2 min read

Simulators fill up quietly. Every app you run, every test account you sign in with and every downloaded file stays inside a virtual device until you remove it. The good news: Xcode ships with a tool for this, simctl, and it is safer than touching the folders yourself.

See your simulators first

xcrun simctl list devices

You get every device, its state (Shutdown or Booted) and its UDID, the long identifier you will use in the commands below. To check how much space they take:

du -sh ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices

Each simulator has its own folder in there, named after its UDID.

Erase the data but keep the simulators

This resets every simulator to a fresh install. Apps, logins and files are gone, the devices stay:

xcrun simctl shutdown all
xcrun simctl erase all

Shut them down first: a booted simulator cannot be erased. To erase only one, use its UDID instead of all:

xcrun simctl erase 3F2A1C7E-9B0D-4C55-8E21-0A5D7C3B9F11

Inside the Simulator app you can do the same for the current device with Device → Erase All Content and Settings…

Delete simulators you do not use

Delete one device:

xcrun simctl delete 3F2A1C7E-9B0D-4C55-8E21-0A5D7C3B9F11

Delete the unavailable ones. After an Xcode update, simulators built for an older SDK stay behind and show as unavailable. This removes every device the current Xcode no longer supports:

xcrun simctl delete unavailable

Delete all of them. xcrun simctl delete all removes every simulator. You can create the ones you need again, so it is less drastic than it sounds, but you lose all their data.

Remove one app from one simulator

xcrun simctl uninstall booted com.yourcompany.yourapp

booted means the simulator that is running right now. Use a UDID to target another one.

Why not just delete the folder?

You can find the Devices folder in Finder and drag it to the Trash, and it frees the space. The problem is that CoreSimulator keeps its own list of devices. If the folders vanish behind its back, the list and the disk disagree, and you can end up with simulators that fail to boot or do not show up. simctl changes both together.

Rule of thumb: erase when you want a clean slate, delete unavailable after every Xcode update, delete for devices you will never use again.

What it costs

• Erase: apps and data inside the simulators are gone. Fine for test data, painful if you had a long-lived test account or a seeded database.
• Delete: the device is gone. Creating a new one takes seconds in Xcode.
• Your source code and projects are never touched.

The big simulator files live elsewhere: see how to delete Xcode simulator runtimes. For the rest of Xcode’s clutter, start with DerivedData and the full developer checklist.