Instruments

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Instruments is a performance-analysis and testing tool for iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS apps.

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Instruments Crash using swiftui instrument
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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1w
iPhone 17, IOS 26 - No option to enable ‘Processor Trace’
According to the documentation for Processor Trace, it should be available on the iPhone 16 or later. Going off of the Optimize CPU performance with Instruments WWDC session, the toggle for it should be under Developer > Performance, but I don’t see this option anywhere on my iPhone 17. I can’t run a Processor Trace in Instruments without this feature turned on, because it claims my iPhone’s CPU is unsupported. Has anyone else managed to enable Processor Trace on the A19 chips?
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717
Oct ’25
Instruments Malfunction
I’m reporting a severe reproducible issue in Instruments, specifically when using the SwiftUI instrument and opening Show Cause & Effect Graph. What happens: • Instruments becomes extremely laggy/unresponsive • The graph/detail area can turn solid magenta/pink • Memory usage rapidly increases (I observed around 18 GB, 25 GB, and up to 34 GB) • My Mac has crashed/restarted during this, or in other terms, had a kernel panic, where my Mac froze, and everything unresponsive. The Trackpad wouldn't even click. Important detail: • I could not find a generated kernel panic log after the crash/restart. Repro context: • SwiftUI iOS app profiled from Xcode • Trigger is specifically entering Show Cause & Effect Graph • Recordings can be short and still trigger it • Issue is much less severe or absent if I avoid that view What I already tried: • Rebooting • Short captures / fewer instruments • Clearing Xcode/Instruments caches/preferences • Retesting after cleanup • Reinstalling Xcode Is this a known Instruments regression? Is there a workaround besides avoiding Show Cause & Effect Graph? What exact diagnostics should I collect when no kernel panic file is generated? Specs: Xcode Version 26.3 (17C529) Instruments Version 26.3 (17C529) macOS Version 26.4 Beta (25E5223i) MacBook Pro 13-inch, M1, 2020, 16 GB RAM
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103
4h
Instrument Recording Failure - CPU counter failed
Hi, I’m encountering an issue while using xctrace & instruments to profile an application on macOS. Specifically, when trying to record a trace using the CPU Profiler template, I get the following errors: Failed to start the recording: configureHardwareCounters: Failed set kpc configuration: Operation not permitted. Unexpected failure: Couriers have returned unexpectedly. macOS Version: 15.3.1 Chip: Apple M4 Pro Xcode Version: Xcode 16.2
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741
Mar ’25
Using Processor Trace on Non-Xcode Built Binary
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.
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1.1k
Jan ’26
Instruments Crash using swiftui instrument
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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5
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0
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215
Activity
1w
CPU Counters: profile using L1, L2 events
Hi :wave: I am not sure that I use it right, I was not able to profile using these events: I am on a M1 Pro machine using macOS 15.5. I just wonder if these events are support on Apple Sillicon.
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2
Boosts
1
Views
170
Activity
Jun ’25
iPhone 17, IOS 26 - No option to enable ‘Processor Trace’
According to the documentation for Processor Trace, it should be available on the iPhone 16 or later. Going off of the Optimize CPU performance with Instruments WWDC session, the toggle for it should be under Developer > Performance, but I don’t see this option anywhere on my iPhone 17. I can’t run a Processor Trace in Instruments without this feature turned on, because it claims my iPhone’s CPU is unsupported. Has anyone else managed to enable Processor Trace on the A19 chips?
Replies
5
Boosts
1
Views
717
Activity
Oct ’25
SwiftUI Instrumentation Fails to start
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?
Replies
6
Boosts
1
Views
827
Activity
Jan ’26
Instruments Malfunction
I’m reporting a severe reproducible issue in Instruments, specifically when using the SwiftUI instrument and opening Show Cause & Effect Graph. What happens: • Instruments becomes extremely laggy/unresponsive • The graph/detail area can turn solid magenta/pink • Memory usage rapidly increases (I observed around 18 GB, 25 GB, and up to 34 GB) • My Mac has crashed/restarted during this, or in other terms, had a kernel panic, where my Mac froze, and everything unresponsive. The Trackpad wouldn't even click. Important detail: • I could not find a generated kernel panic log after the crash/restart. Repro context: • SwiftUI iOS app profiled from Xcode • Trigger is specifically entering Show Cause & Effect Graph • Recordings can be short and still trigger it • Issue is much less severe or absent if I avoid that view What I already tried: • Rebooting • Short captures / fewer instruments • Clearing Xcode/Instruments caches/preferences • Retesting after cleanup • Reinstalling Xcode Is this a known Instruments regression? Is there a workaround besides avoiding Show Cause & Effect Graph? What exact diagnostics should I collect when no kernel panic file is generated? Specs: Xcode Version 26.3 (17C529) Instruments Version 26.3 (17C529) macOS Version 26.4 Beta (25E5223i) MacBook Pro 13-inch, M1, 2020, 16 GB RAM
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
103
Activity
4h
Instrument Recording Failure - CPU counter failed
Hi, I’m encountering an issue while using xctrace & instruments to profile an application on macOS. Specifically, when trying to record a trace using the CPU Profiler template, I get the following errors: Failed to start the recording: configureHardwareCounters: Failed set kpc configuration: Operation not permitted. Unexpected failure: Couriers have returned unexpectedly. macOS Version: 15.3.1 Chip: Apple M4 Pro Xcode Version: Xcode 16.2
Replies
4
Boosts
2
Views
741
Activity
Mar ’25
An unknown error occurred launching the helper task
When running instruments or when debug memory in Xcode, I am getting same error as An unknown error occurred launching the helper task Xcode: Xcode16.3 OS: 15.5 Beta (24F5068b) Mac mini: Apple M2 Pro
Replies
2
Boosts
2
Views
415
Activity
May ’25
Using Processor Trace on Non-Xcode Built Binary
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.
Replies
8
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0
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1.1k
Activity
Jan ’26
Icon composer icon contains alpha channel upload error
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
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40
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6
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2.7k
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1h