---
title: "Installing simulator runtimes from the command line – Donny Wals"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/installing-simulator-runtimes-from-the-command-line-donny-wals-pfp9stvqp
source_url: https://www.donnywals.com/installing-simulator-runtimes-from-the-command-line
type: article
source: "Donny Wals"
published: 2026-06-09T13:53:26.285Z
updated: 2026-06-09T13:53:43.943Z
tags: ["ios", "cli", "xcode"]
reading_time: 3
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# Installing simulator runtimes from the command line – Donny Wals

**[Donny Wals](https://daily.dev/sources/donnywals)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

When the Xcode GUI fails to download iOS simulator runtimes (stuck on 'fetching download information'), you can use the command line instead. Running `xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS` works in most cases, but if it reports 'No matching downloadable found', you need to explicitly specify the architecture variant with `xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS -architectureVariant arm64`. To download all platforms at once, use `xcodebuild -downloadAllPlatforms -architectureVariant arm64`. Make sure the correct Xcode version is selected via `xcode-select` before running these commands.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.donnywals.com/installing-simulator-runtimes-from-the-command-line>

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---

Tags: [#ios](https://daily.dev/tags/ios), [#cli](https://daily.dev/tags/cli), [#xcode](https://daily.dev/tags/xcode)

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