I recently deleted some of my key IOS game files in Xcode by accident. Before deleting the said files, I uploaded my IOS game to my iPad as a test and it worked. I still have the working app on my iPad but I don't have the necessary files to run the game on my mac. Is it possible to extract the Xcode game files, that I lost, from my working game app on my iPad, and then add them into my Xcode project so that my game is restored?
The files that I lost took me many hours to program and it would be very helpful if I could find a way to retrieve them. Thanks!
Whilst it's possible to access files inside your applications documents folder, it's not possible to retrieve Swift source files or indeed .sks SceneKit files, as they are compiled into the .app bundle.
You can download the app container and see what's salvageable though.
For information on how to do that, check out this answer.
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I am writing a PDF file on an iPhone running iOS 11, using Cordova File Plugin (in Ionic). The file is created successfully (e.g. in a location like file:///var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/CDFC4E19-082F-4878-9168-F4A735CDAFEB/Documents or file:///var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/DA918690-B345-438A-B26D-2EA21D618341/Library/Cloud), but then I can't find the file on the iPhone. I have tried setting the directory to cordova.file.documentsDirectory as well as cordova.file.syncedDataDirectory. When I run the Files app on the iPhone, it shows no recent documents, nor any documents at all. I can't find the file on the phone to view it outside of my app.
Where do I have to save the file to make it findable outside of the app?
I think I've answered this myself. Viewing a PDF that an app created is just not a thing on iOS, as useful as that may be. You can of course do that on Android, which is far more useful. It appears that to view the PDF, you have to use iTunes on an iMac to download the file from the phone. Jumping through those Apple hoops, which I am slowly becoming accustomed to, I was able to view the file in the cordova.file.documentsDirectory location.
I'm not sure what this problem is related to. I have an iOS app I have been working on for about a year in Xcode. It works beautifully when testing locally in simulator or on devices. I tried emailing the whole folder to a developer today and holy smokes! the app folder size is 29 GB!! So I investigate and see that the app is apparently creating copies of itself again and again inside folder after folder. Each folder has all the files of the app plus a folder that has the files of the app and so on....
It may be related to Dropbox as well, as I attempted to link the main app folder to Dropbox a while ago. I looked in my Dropbox account but there's only one folder there (with date modified not showing).
I am afraid of breaking my app as well if I start deleting stuff, although I do think that the active one I am opening is the most top one when I go to the app in Xcode.
What could be causing this?
Please see attached screenshot:
I am working on a library with a very verbose logger module that, on iOS, writes xml logs to NSDocumentDirectory in a consistent file tree. I want to come up with a way for the user of this library to easily access these logs.
I know it is simple to programatically retrieve files from this directory, but is it possible to access this directory on an iOS physical device in any way from outside Xcode to retrieve these logs? I feel like I have seen it somewhere before, something in the manner of extracting the .ipa file and going into the package contents, but I could be wrong.
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This (Browse the files created on a device by the IOS application I'm developing, on workstation?) is how to do it with Xcode on a device, but I have to assume that there is some way we can create that gets the logs off of a device for a user.
is it possible to access this directory on an iOS physical device in any way from outside Xcode to retrieve these logs?
It is possible to expose the Documents directory by enabling iTunes file sharing. When file sharing is enabled through this method, the contents of Documents directory would be visible to the user in iTunes, which can also be exported. The documents would also be visible for export through some third party desktop apps like iExplorer.
Here is the link to Apple documentation. You may also refer this thread to understand how this is done.
If you're using a simulator (apparently your task doesn't seem to need te real device) you are in luck.
You should go to a folder similar to this one:
/Users/[YOUR_USER_NAME]/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/[RANDOM_HASH_YOU_SHOULD_DISCOVER]/data/Containers/Data/Application/[RANDOM_HASH_2_YOU_SHOULD_ALSO_DISCOVER]
Once there, with finder, you'll get the "documents" folder of the simulator and the app you're trying to retrieve your logs from.
You might say: I don't know which 2 RANDOM_HASHES should I go to.
Yes, you're right. If you have MANY simulators installed and or being used, it might be tricky to discover which one is the one you're trying to debug.
The same thing with your APP, your app will live in another RANDOM_HASH folder, and you should browse them, one by one, and then discover your documents folder.
Someone needed to solve this "mess" and created a Xcode Alcatraz Extension that leads you to the exact live simulator and APP you're debugging in any given moment, and then you don't need to guess which 2 random_hash paths you need to navigate to.
If Xcode + Alcartaz plugin extension manager is somewhat out of your reach, you might need to google it. It's not a difficult process.
PS: That magical Alcatraz Extension is named "XCodeWay" (in case you are brave enough to install Alcatraz onto your copy of XCode).
EDIT: Useful link to get Alcatraz: http://alcatraz.io/ Follow its easy instructions and you're done.
EDIT2: If Xcode cannot be used, then the last question in this other thread might come in handy: Browse the files created on a device by the IOS application I'm developing, on workstation?
(Still, an external application in your users machine will be needed )
I have an iPad app that downloads PDF and audio files. I though these might be in the .ipa file (I used this thread ipad - extract images from application?) but I didn't see anything there.
Is there some way to find where these might be stored on a Mac (after syncing)?
Normally in many apps the media files will be downloaded to documents directory of app, which is inside the sandbox for the app. Simply telling when you instal a app OS will create a sand box, and all the data will be inside this sand box and only that particular app will have access to this data. So you will not be able to copy data.
Hope this answers your question.
The IPA is an application only. Once it is installed on your iPad, it becomes a "package". It does contain the data within that package with some apps that store locally. There is no Apple supported way to get to this data directly. Think of it like this. The IPA is kind of like a blueprint for a program. Like a blueprint for a shelf, I could build the shelf but the books wouldn't be stored in the blueprint. Only the shelf. When you install the app, the iPad builds your "shelf".
I'm working on an iOS game. I have access to mac, xcode, etc. The issue is that my artists and designers do not. I would like to give them an ipa and have them able to unzip, modify assets, and then rebuild and test the ipa without have to use a mac or xcode. The ipa doesn't need to be installable on any iOS device other than their test device. Is this possible?
I read a little bit about codesign that comes with xcode, but that appears to only run on a mac - are there alternatives? It looks like Marmalade (and maybe UDK) provides this functionality (resigning on a pc) to their users, but I don't want to use those engines.
Ultimately I am simply looking for a way for an artist or designer to test out their changes without requiring them to rebuild the ipa from xcode or a mac - any ideas? Is there a system for allowing artists or designers to add files to an iDevice that an app can access to self patch it's assets?
The best solution I could come up with was to use Dropbox's iOS API as a patch interface to download files into the document folder. Then whenever I go to load a file from my installed folders, I first check to see if the new asset exists within the patch folder and if so I use that file instead. A fairly basic concept that appears to be working surprisingly well for iOS devices.