I wanted to release an app I worked on and quickly change the project name. I usually duplicate projects before doing things like this but this time - because this procedure always worked on Xcode as I found it way more reliable than e.g. Eclipse - I didn't, which I immediately regretted.
Opened Xcode again and now I am seeing this
I guess all the linking is gone now which is why Xcode doesn't "find" the files anymore. Renaming the remaining project stem to the old name gives
couldn’t be moved to because an item with the
same name already exists
and also manual renaming of folders won't work as the .xcodeproj is gone.
The project is written in Objective-C, and all the classes are still persistent, but the effort of adding all the xib's, referencing the outlets, setting architectures, etc will become the nightmare of my life. I do have a half-way recent backup but everything I did to make the app store-ready today will be gone.
Any ideas on how to rescue my project?
EDIT: What Xcode is now showing on the welcome screen is a project called "project" (literally) and it has the usual compass icon but with a white instead of a blue background referring to the path <project folder>/<new project name>/ and below that "white" project there is a folder icon with the new name pointing to <project folder>.
I also made a snapshot before, of course it now says "Unable to read snapshots" in the "restore from snapshots" window.
Ok what I now did is renaming ALL references from the old project name to the new one. I even changed file names. I used Xcode's CMD+SHIFT+F and TextWrangler's "replace" function and thankfully I still had the .xcodeproj from yesterday's backup so from there I could copy it into the new project and rename stuff. There are still some things that don't work perfectly, for example auto layout doesn't "stretch" contents over the screen (it stays on iPhone 4s size, even on 6 plus simulator), I needed to set the scheme again and Launch Images / Icons got lost but I can look over that. The only thing I am afraid of now is that the final build might miss out a symbol or something like that so I eventually have a corrupt file in the App Store, but man it's a beta version, how much worse can it get anyway?
Thanks to everyone recommending me to even backup the broken project, I did this even before you said it but because I think it's a valuable advice I wanted to put it in my answer as well.
It's a shame that stuff like this can happen, I've been backing up my work on a daily basis and my project never got corrupted - until now.
Related
I recently acquired a newer MacBook to run the most recent iOS and Xcode versions. I copied a project folder to the new Mac and opened it with Xcode 11.4 (was 10.1 on old Mac). I get 14 errors all related to "Failed to render and update auto layout status for ..VeiwController". The simulator runs fine, but the main storyboard doesn't render the button icons properly. I can add new constraints to the buttons to show them properly but the errors don't go away. I assume I have lost some info/files related to autolayout when I copied folders. I have read about similar issues. Most talk about using Github or some other 3rd party for maintaining files. Is there any other way to get this done? It seems like updates computers/software should be simpler.
Since reporting this, I have used the same process of copying folders of all other projects and have had no problems. But one project, the largest and most complex continues to have 14 rendering errors and always the displayed err message "An internal error occurred. Editing functionality may be limited." The strange thing is going in and out of viewing Main.storyboard several times gets rid of the errors eventually. Unfortunately, the errors always come back when I open the project. And sometimes they go away, then come back randomly in the same session.
So the answer to "whats the simplest way to copy a project folder to new computer is just that - Copy the project folder! But thats the wrong question for this problem.
Xcode 6 never gets past "Loading" when I try to create a new project. I actually was able to create a new project yesterday, but I decided to just ditch it completely (deleted). Clearly there must be a bad file somewhere, possibly related to the project I deleted, since I also see the same stalling behavior now with Xcode 5.1, which has worked fine for creating new projects in the past. Xcode 6 has worked fine when starting with an already existing project and still appears to do so. I did not see this exact problem in your data base, though one person saw the project creation freeze before reaching the stage I get to. Their solution was to delete Xcode and every possible file related to it, which I'm a little squeamish about, since I don't want to affect existing projects, and don't have an understanding of what the various files are for.
Deleting the DerivedData of Xcode should fix the issue. You can do this by heading to ~/Library/Developer/XCode/DerivedData (with a Finder window open press cmd+G) and deleting all the subfolders of it.
This is embarrassing, but if it could happen to me, maybe it could happen to someone else. The problem was that the window that came up after the second step in defining the type of project to be created, the one in which you choose where to save the project's files, extended off the bottom of the screen, so that only the very tops of the buttons were visible. Eventually, I realized the one to the far right might be the one to click to continue. Which it was. Feel free to delete this question.
While I was working on this Xcode project, compile and run an app, the two files suddenly gone!!!
It was working fine and I run the app a few times already. Anybody has any clue why is it happening?
My Mac is warning for Disk Space recently. Would it be something related?
Please help...I have been working on the project for a few weeks already. Anyway I could recover what I lost? I archive it a few hours ago into an IPA, can I recover the lost files from there?
Thanks a lot.
EDIT-------------------------------------
The Files are gone and I have to work for 12 hours to get my app back to running as it was before.
I think the problem was that my Mac was out of Disk Space, and when I tried to run, the AutoSave from Xcode failed to save. And for some reason the failure caused Xcode the delete the file when saving failed.
Learning from the lesson. I will do what folks here suggested from now on:
1) Time Machine
2) Git
3) Periodic zip the project and put on Dropbox and an external hard disk
4) Always ensure there's enough disk space
Thanks all. Hope nobody else would have to go through what I went through.
1) Are you using "Time Machine"? If not, consider this a wake-up call.
2) Use Spotlight (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of your Macintosh menu) to find those missing files.
3) Once you do find them, delete the old files and re-add them to your project, making sure the "Target Membership" checkboxes are set.
Disk space warning is a good indication that things of this sort could happen. Some say you need to have %50 of the disk free. Whether it's true or not, filling the disk to the point system warning is a serious sign that you should free up enough space.
Sometimes a restart can magically 'find' a file, but I'm sure you tried that already. I'd try to find it in the project folder, or on the disk itself and not through XCode.
Most chances are the files are there, but XCode cannot see them for some reason.
Have you looked in the projects directory?
Also are you using source control (Locally or git) ?
I had the same problem, some of my views on the storyboard disappeared after Xcode crashed. After looking for a while for an answer I noticed the view still shows on the hierarchy panel. checking its properties I noticed that Xcode had changed my width and height properties to 0. Once I restored them, the view shows again. Long story short, check the properties, if the width and height are 0 the view becomes invisible.
I'm pretty green, but I'm trying to modify a simple program to fit my own needs. You may remember the "BirdWatching" app from "Your Second iOS App: Storyboards" in the iOS Developer's Library.
Anyway, I've refactored most of the names, etc., successfully (it still worked), but then I tried to get rid of a file that kept appearing, even though its name had been expunged (or so I thought) through refactoring. Shows up in the Assistant Editor, right next to the file to which it was refactored.
Now I've got a mess. I tried to move the entire project into it's own folder, but now the compliler won't recognize the info-plist file (says it doesn't exist, and two other files are showing up in red, depending on their position in the navigator. However, it's the WMDG-info.plist that the complier complains about. Specifically, it appears to be following the old path to the file, even after it's been moved and re-added.
I've tried quitting and restarting xCode, re-adding the files, etc. I've searched under every keyword I can think of, but can't find a solution.
Please help!
Thanks!
--Tim
I'm at a complete loss as to what I did to cause this:
For the second time since I started using XCode about a month ago (my first time seriously using it after taking one class several years ago) I try to run my project and the next thing I know I have errors because I have duplicate references. I looked at the project and it appeared that most of the files in my project had duplicated themselves, however I discovered that they are not duplicate files just duplicate references. This happened to me today when I tried to build on an actual iphone for the first time but it also happened to me a few weeks ago while using the simulator. Neither time do I recall doing anything unusual. I have built and tested the project probably 100+ times and normally all goes ok. I was able to fix it the first time but I think I have made it worse this time and am probably going to add the files back into a new project. My co-worker also mentioned this happening to him (he has about as much experience with xcode as I do). He told me he ended up with files nested in folders (groups?) nested in other folders about 20 deep.
My question is this: Does anyone know what I may have done to cause this. I would really like to avoid this problem in the future since it is proving to be quite a headache. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
E.T.A. xcode version 4.6.2 (possibly an earlier version the first time it happened)
Try this instead:
Highlight all the duplicate files
Right click on one of the files and press "Delete"
When prompted for which delete option, click "Remove Reference"
Also you asked for "any advice".
If you aren't already using git source control in your Xcode projects, start now.
You can spot many mistakes like this earlier and fix them more easily using git.
When you add files as a copy, the Xcode project navigator shows added files with an A and modified files with an M.
If the file is inside a closed group folder, the folder shows an A.
If you add a reference without a copy the project navigator won't show an A but MyApp.xcodeproj will show M.
In Xcode you can discard a change before committing it.
In the case below, you would discard changes to all added or modified files.
Typically you review and commit changes frequently.
Using a gui tool such as SourceTree, you have a good chance of spotting an accidental change before you commit. For example, you can see changes to the project file.
If you accidentally commit an unintended change, you can go back later and reverse a commit.
By committing frequently, you have more control over which changes you undo and which ones you keep.
References:
http://www.raywenderlich.com/13771/how-to-use-git-source-control-with-xcode-in-ios-6
http://git-scm.com/doc (scroll down to see videos)
http://www.sourcetreeapp.com
http://gitimmersion.com
I had the same 20 deep nesting of my main folder of images. If its not a bug its very strange behaviour. I just backed it all up !! Then I opened the folder in finder, found the point at which it was starting to nest and deleted it.
I did a rebuild, but I don't think Xcode even noticed. It made no difference to the size of my app so Xcode was not putting unnecessary files in the binary.
This happened to me when I imported a file. Suddenly I had two nested directories containing what looked like copies of all my files. The compiler complained about duplicate classes.
I found a solution, but it's a ball-ache and a time sink.
1: Click on your project in the navigator to open up the project settings in the main view.
2: Open the 'Compile Sources' accordion entry.
(This allows you to see which files are being used in the compilation process.)
3: Find any duplicates in here and delete them.
(At this stage your project should compile again.)
4: In your navigator view, slow-double-click one of the files that's duplicated there. This should allow you to rename it. Change the name (not the extension) slightly.
5: You should notice that the copy becomes red. Select it and hit delete.
(This avoids the delete operation removing the file from the 'Compile Sources')
6: Rename the original file back to its original name again.
7: Repeat from 4 until done, or until bored.
8: Explain to your boss why a simple copy change took half a day.
This process can be optimised up by first renaming all duplicated files, then deleting the duplicates all at once. However this means that you can't test for successful compilation between steps, which allows you to narrow the culprit down to a single file. And takes even more time.
If compilation fails, ensure all the files you need are still in the 'Compile Sources' section, as this process can cause them to be lost from there. The compiler will normally give some reasonable errors about missing classes and variables, but a missing AppDelegate will produce a more confusing error.