I really enjoy working with Xcode 6, but it has been quite annoying that the iOS Simulator changes the name of the directory it uses as data container each time you start it. There are a few manual method to find and get to the document container I had been using. I will describe them here. Because my apps tends to use a lot of files in data that I need to check while debugging, I also created a little tool that wraps the manual methods into a very useful (at least to me) and easy workflow. you can download the app here.

Manual logging

The easiest way is to add logging of the directory location on startup. I typically make it conditional to being in the simulator as to no clutter the log in a device. Here is what I typically add to the applicationDidFinishLaunching function.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
	NSLog(@"Simulator : %@", NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains( NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)[0]);
#endif
	//...
}

I then copy from the output of the console the directory and paste it into finder, terminal, emacs or your tool of choice

Simple. Efficient. Tedious

Needle in a haystack

A different approach would be to save a small file in the document directory on start up which then allows you to find that simulator without having to start the app and refer to the console. It would look something like this:

#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
    NSString * __rzSimNeedlePath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains( NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)[0];
    [[NSData data] writeToFile:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/.needle", __rzSimNeedlePath] atomically:YES];
#endif

If as above you save a file with the app identifier in the name as above, you can then later generically find that directory using a find command and then wrap that into your favourite scripting language

find ~/ -name .needle -print

LastLaunchServicesMap.plist

You can also find a file in the Library of the device directory of a simulator that contains the path of the last container. That file is under the path Library/MobileInstallation/LastLaunchServicesMap.plist. You can then print it using plutil -p LastLaunchServicesMap.plist, the key User contains information about each application in the simulator. Somehow it still seems to be missing some apps, but contains most of them.

Simulator Data Finder

To make my life easier, I built this app that leverages the last two methods to make it easy for you to find your simulators and files. The app can present you with a list of simulators and app as below. It then has a easy access button to finder, copy to clipboard or terminal for the path. It will try to find the directory using the LastLaunchServicesMap.plist file and if it still doesn’t find it, you can download this header file and add the following macro call in your applicationDidFinishLaunching,

You can download the app here. You can read here why I was unable to publish this app in the apple App Store which would have been more convenient.

One added bonus to the app is that it organises for easy access container you’d have downloaded from a device for a given app. It matches them by bundle identifier and currently looks for them in the download directory.