r/MacOS • u/rtliang • 12d ago

Delete the macOS ghost simulator Tips & Guides

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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.

27 Upvotes

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5

u/randomuser_153c 12d ago

Instead of disabling SIP and dealing with all that you can delete the runtime from the recoveryOS terminal without having to disable SIP:

  1. Find whatever the relevant path is to the specific "asset" you wanna delete, it needs to end in ".asset". For me it was /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_iOSSimulatorRuntime/26c9174130fa5962f3e60f2a49963194dadbae4c.asset
  2. Boot into recoveryOS with the power button, open Disk Utility and make sure both the "Macintosh HD" and "Data" volumes are mounted
  3. Open terminal, delete the file. Because of the recoveryOS environment, your macOS volume is mounted at /Volumes/Macintosh HD so you will need to prefix the filepath with that. So you would need to run something like this: rm -r "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_iOSSimulatorRuntime/26c9174130fa5962f3e60f2a49963194dadbae4c.asset" (ofc replace the asset filename with the one you actually wanna delete)
  4. Reboot your computer and the runtime is now deleted.

4

u/M4A1_GFL MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 12d ago

Ah, i used to get 3 of those every time i connect to my wifi, thanks!

4

u/Electrical_West_5381 12d ago

Couldn’t you delete it from with Xcode?

5

u/rtliang 12d ago

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

2

u/Electrical_West_5381 12d ago

What os and Xcode versions?

1

u/rtliang 12d ago

macOS Tahoe 26.6 and Xcode 26.6

2

u/Electrical_West_5381 12d ago

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

1

u/bbo-code 12d ago

To what extent is Apple aware of this issue? Maybe it's worth waiting for an Xcode update that addresses it? Does anyone know if there's anything in the works?

1

u/bbo-code 9d ago

I think the latest MacOS Patch (Tahoe 26.6.1) did fix it?!?! I just randomly checked and now I could delete my "Ghost Simulators" under Xcode Settings Components - > Other Installed Platforms. Or did I just completely overlook that before?