Instruments is crashing when the swiftui instrument is stopped (the session is finished) and the transfer begins from device to device:
Crashed Thread: 11 Dispatch queue: com.apple.swiftuitracingsupport.reading
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 4 Illegal instruction: 4
Terminating Process: exc handler [1633]
I've tried removing derived data, reinstalling xcode, updating xcode (I originally thought this might be the issue -- I needed to update to 26.2 from the 26 RC -- the update didn't fix crash or change the crash report), and restarting both devices.
I'm running Instruments/Xcode 26.2 on a MacBook Pro 15" (2018) running Mac OS 15.7.2 (24G325) with an iPhone 16 Pro Max running 26.2.
Hoping someone else might have seen this or could help me troubleshoot. I find the swiftui instrument be helpful and like to use it :) I can post a complete crash report as well.
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Hello,
I'm no macOS 26.1 I'm running through the example shown in the WWDC video "Optimizing CPU Performance with Instruments." After right-clicking a test, clicking "Profile...", and trying to run a processor trace I get the error in the subject.
I have processor trace enabled on the CPU via system settings. I confirmed this by disabling it and re-enabling it and noting the error that appears when this is disabled is different from the one I'm now getting.
This did previously work but I haven't tried since macOS 26 is released. Is there something new I need to be doing to my Xcode project settings in order for this to be working?
Topic:
Developer Tools & Services
SubTopic:
Instruments
I have been working on battery consumption analysis for my application, and as part of this effort, I wanted to understand how competitor apps behave under similar usage conditions.
To do this, I downloaded competitor apps from the App Store and attached them to Instruments via Xcode. I then executed a defined set of manual test scenarios to simulate real user behavior. During these tests, the iPhone was connected to a Mac and charging continuously, which meant that System Power Usage logs were not generated in Instruments.
However, I was able to capture detailed metrics such as:
Network usage
CPU load
GPU activity
Display and brightness impact
Other runtime performance characteristics
Since direct battery drain data was unavailable, I used derived analysis (with AI assistance) to estimate approximate power consumption based on the above metrics, assuming real-device (battery-powered) conditions.
According to Apple documentation, System Power Usage in Instruments is not directly tied to the device’s battery percentage. Instead, it appears to be computed using contributing factors such as CPU, network, display, and other subsystem activity. This raises a few important questions about data reliability and methodology.
Key questions:
How reliable are Instruments-based metrics (CPU, network, display, GPU) for estimating real-world battery consumption when the device is charging?
Can these metrics be safely used as a comparative baseline between competitor applications, even if absolute battery drain values are unavailable?
Is the System Power Usage instrument essentially a derived model based on subsystem activity, and if so, does it remain accurate when the device is not discharging?
From Apple’s perspective, is this a valid approach for relative power comparison, provided that:
The same device is used
OS version is identical
Test scenarios are consistent and repeatable
Based on these findings, would it be reasonable to proceed with instrumenting our own application, run the same scenarios, and draw conclusions using relative comparisons rather than absolute battery percentages?
The intent is not to claim exact battery drain numbers, but to establish a directionally correct and repeatable comparison that can guide performance optimizations in our own application.
I would like to understand whether this methodology aligns with Apple’s recommended practices, or if there are limitations or inaccuracies I should be aware of before relying on these results for decision-making.
Topic:
Developer Tools & Services
SubTopic:
Instruments
I am trying to perform swiftUI instrumentation on my ios app. whenever i hit the rocord button, the app launches on target device and closes with the error:
Failed to start the recording: Failed starting ktrace session.
How do i resolve this please?
When creating an icon using icon composer, I cant upload a build to testflight/App Store connect.
Running on device from Xcode works fine, but as soon as I archive and upload to App Store Connect, I get an error saying the icon contains an alpha channel
I am profiling a simple SwiftUI test app on my new iPhone through my new MacBook Pro and everything is version 26.2 (iOS, macOS, Xcode). I run Instruments with the SwiftUI template using all of the default settings and get absolutely zero data after interacting with the app for about 20 seconds. Using the Time Profiler template yields trace data. Trying the SwiftUI template again with the sample Landmarks app has the same issue as my app.
Hiya folks! I'm David and I work on rust-analyzer, which is a language server for Rust similar to sourcekit-lsp. I'm using the new Instruments profiling tooling functionality in Xcode 16.3 and Xcode 26 (Processor Trace and CPU Counters) to profile our trait solver/type checker. While I've been able to use the new CPU Counters instrument successfully (the CPU Bottleneck feature is incredible! Props to the team!), I've been unable to make use of the Processor Trace instrument.
Instruments gives me the error message "Processor Trace cannot profile this process without proper permissions". The diagnostic suggests adding the com.apple.security-get-task-allow entitlement to the code I'm trying to profile, or ensure that the build setting CODE_SIGN_INJECT_BASE_ENTITLEMENTS = YES is enabled in Xcode.
Unfortunately, I don't know how I can add that entitlement to a self-signed binary produced by Cargo and I'm not using Xcode for somewhat obvious reasons.
Here's some information about my setup:
Instruments Version 26.0 (17A5241e)
I'm on an 14" MacBook Pro with M4 Pro. It's running macOS Version 26.0 Beta (25A5295e).
I've enabled the "Processor Trace" feature in "Developer Tools" and even added the Instruments application to "Developer Tools".
As a last-ditch effort before posting this, I disabled SIP on my Mac. Didn't help.
To reproduce my issue:
Get Rust via https://rustup.rs/.
Clone rust-analyzer: git clone https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-analyzer.git.
cd rust-analyzer
Run cargo test --package hir-ty --lib --profile=dev-rel -- tests::incremental::add_struct_invalidates_trait_solve --exact --show-output. By default, this command will output a bunch of build progress with the output containing something like Running unittests src/lib.rs (target/dev-rel/deps/hir_ty-f1dbf1b1d36575fe).
I take the absolute path of that hir_ty-$SOME-HASH string (in my case, it looks like /Users/dbarsky/Developer/rust-analyzer/target/dev-rel/deps/hir_ty-f1dbf1b1d36575fe) and add it to the "Launch" profile. To the arguments section, I add --exact tests::incremental::add_struct_invalidates_trait_solve.
I then try to record/profile via Instruments, but then I get the error message I shared above.
Below is output of codesign -dvvv:
❯ codesign -dvvv target/dev-rel/deps/hir_ty-f1dbf1b1d36575fe
Executable=/Users/dbarsky/Developer/rust-analyzer/target/dev-rel/deps/hir_ty-f1dbf1b1d36575fe
Identifier=hir_ty-f1dbf1b1d36575fe
Format=Mach-O thin (arm64)
CodeDirectory v=20400 size=140368 flags=0x20002(adhoc,linker-signed) hashes=4383+0 location=embedded
Hash type=sha256 size=32
CandidateCDHash sha256=99e96c8622c7e20518617c66a7d4144dc0daef28
CandidateCDHashFull sha256=99e96c8622c7e20518617c66a7d4144dc0daef28f22fac013c28a784571ce1df
Hash choices=sha256
CMSDigest=99e96c8622c7e20518617c66a7d4144dc0daef28f22fac013c28a784571ce1df
CMSDigestType=2
CDHash=99e96c8622c7e20518617c66a7d4144dc0daef28
Signature=adhoc
Info.plist=not bound
TeamIdentifier=not set
Sealed Resources=none
Internal requirements=none
Any tips would be welcome! Additionally—and perhaps somewhat naively—I think I'd expect the Processor Trace instrument to just work with an adhoc-signed binary, as lldb and friends largely do—I'm not sure that such a high barrier for CPU perf counters is warranted, especially on an adhoc-signed binary.
what is the diff between INST_ALL and Instructions(FIXED_INSTRUCTIONS)?
also CORE_ACTIVE_CYCLE VS Cycles(FIXED_CYCLES)