When it comes to testing and debugging of mobile applications, the important element is target devices. Well, if you have the possibility to connect iPhone or iPad directly to your development machine, you don’t have to worry. But what if you needed to inspect an app running on a device that couldn’t be physically connected to your Mac? Remote debugging will probably be the best option in that case.
If you are wondering how to debug iOS apps on a device wirelessly or even remotely, in this article you’ll find out about the most convenient ways to do that.
FlexiHub is designed to virtualize USB devices, (like iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.) and redirect them over the network. The solution works across LAN, Ethernet, and the Internet.
With FlexiHub, you will have access to the iPhone or iPad despite any distance between the Mac running Xcode and the device itself. FlexiHub will become a useful addition to those teams that are working remotely but still need to perform iPhone USB debugging.
What is more, FlexiHub works across a wide range of platforms including Mac, Windows, and Linux. This means that you will be able to connect a device to any of them and run iOS remote debugging on a single Mac with Xcode.
That’s it. Now you can access the remote iOS device from your local computer as though it were directly connected to your machine.
We have also made a brief video to demonstrate a hands-on experience of connecting iOS devices to Mac for remote debugging:
Note: For best performance with iOS devices, it is recommended to use a direct connection in FlexiHub, which involves machines with the public IP addresses on both sides. If the iOS device is connected over WAN for remote debugging, for latency decrease it is essential to deploy a tunnel server.
Wireless debugging has become a reality thanks to the new feature available since Xcode 9.
This feature eliminates the need to always connect and disconnect the device for app installation and debugging.
However, you should bear in mind that, despite its many advantages, this method has some drawbacks:
To set up iPhone, iPad, follow these steps:
Now, Xcode will pair with your device. If Xcode can connect with the device over the network, a network icon will appear next to the device in the left column.Now you are ready to start remote debug of iOS apps.
