React Native Change Default iOS Simulator Device

Specify a simulator using the --simulator flag.

These are the available devices for iOS 14.0 onwards:

npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 8"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 8 Plus"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 11"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 11 Pro"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 11 Pro Max"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone SE (2nd generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 12 mini"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 12"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 12 Pro"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 12 Pro Max"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 13 Pro"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 13 Pro Max"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 13 mini"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone 13"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPod touch (7th generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad Pro (9.7-inch)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad (9th generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad Air (4th generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (5th generation)"
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPad mini (6th generation)"

List all available iOS devices:

xcrun simctl list devices

There is currently no way to set a default.

React Native Docs: Running On Simulator


There are multiple ways to achieve this:

  1. By using --simulator flag
  2. By using --udid flag

Firstly you need to list all the available devices. To list all the devices run

xcrun simctl list devices

This will give output as follows:

These are the available devices for iOS 13.0 onwards:

== Devices ==
-- iOS 13.6 --
    iPhone 8 (5C7EF61D-6080-4065-9C6C-B213634408F2) (Shutdown) 
    iPhone 8 Plus (5A694E28-EF4D-4CDD-85DD-640764CAA25B) (Shutdown) 
    iPhone 11 (D6820D3A-875F-4CE0-B907-DAA060F60440) (Shutdown) 
    iPhone 11 Pro (B452E7A1-F21C-430E-98F0-B02F0C1065E1) (Shutdown) 
    iPhone 11 Pro Max (94973B5E-D986-44B1-8A80-116D1C54665B) (Shutdown) 
    iPhone SE (2nd generation) (90953319-BF9A-4C6E-8AB1-594394AD26CE) (Booted) 
    iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (9247BC07-00DB-4673-A353-46184F0B244E) (Shutdown) 
    iPad (7th generation) (3D5B855D-9093-453B-81EB-B45B7DBF0ADF) (Shutdown) 
    iPad Pro (11-inch) (2nd generation) (B3AA4C36-BFB9-4ED8-BF5A-E37CA38394F8) (Shutdown) 
    iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (4th generation) (DBC7B524-9C75-4C61-A568-B94DA0A9BCC4) (Shutdown) 
    iPad Air (3rd generation) (03E3FE18-AB46-481E-80A0-D37383ADCC2C) (Shutdown) 
-- tvOS 13.4 --
    Apple TV (41579EEC-0E68-4D36-9F98-5822CD1A4104) (Shutdown) 
    Apple TV 4K (B168EF40-F2A4-4A91-B4B0-1F541201479B) (Shutdown) 
    Apple TV 4K (at 1080p) (D55F9086-A56E-4893-ACAD-579FB63C561E) (Shutdown) 
-- watchOS 6.2 --
    Apple Watch Series 4 - 40mm (D4BA8A57-F9C1-4F55-B3E0-6042BA7C4ED4) (Shutdown) 
    Apple Watch Series 4 - 44mm (65D5593D-29B9-42CD-9417-FFDBAE9AED87) (Shutdown) 
    Apple Watch Series 5 - 40mm (1B73F8CC-9ECB-4018-A212-EED508A68AE3) (Shutdown) 
    Apple Watch Series 5 - 44mm (5922489B-5CF9-42CD-ACB0-B11FAF88562F) (Shutdown) 

Then from the output you can select the name or the uuid then proceed as you wish.

  1. To run using --simulator run:
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone SE"
  1. To run using --udid flag run:
npx react-native run-ios --udid 90953319-BF9A-4C6E-8AB1-594394AD26CE

I hope this answer helped you.


You can create an alias at your ~/.bash_profile file:

alias rn-ios="react-native run-ios --simulator \"iPhone 5s (10.0)\""

And then run react-native using the created alias:

$ rn-ios


You can also use npm for this by adding an entry to the scripts element of your package.json file. E.g.

"launch-ios": "react-native run-ios --simulator \"iPad Air 2\""

Then to use this: npm run launch-ios

Tags:

React Native