Oct 03 2008

How to Uninstall Xcode

Published by john at 2:22 am under Xcode

  
  

A friend in San Francisco, Rodney Aiglstorfer, was recently jumping through hoops to get Xcode to cooperate with his iPhone. There’s nothing more aggravating than having your application running within the simulator and getting stuck downloading to a device.

At one point in the process he opted to remove the Xcode developer tools and start the configuration from the beginning. Which leads to the tip: should you ever find the need to remove Xcode, run the following from within a terminal window to make it happen:

sudo <Xcode>/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all

<Xcode> is the directory where the tools are installed. For typical installations the full path is /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools

Easy enough, just make sure this is what you really intend to do as once it’s gone, it’s gone.

39 responses so far

39 Responses to “How to Uninstall Xcode”

  1. # Matt Cassarinoon 20 Mar 2009 at 2:37 pm

    Thanks, this worked for me.

  2. # Chatinon 03 Apr 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks, my macbook got 2gb back :)

  3. # Jakeon 08 Apr 2009 at 6:13 am

    Thanks, too bad Mac can’t have help as simple as this listed on their support page or in the uninstall instructions that come with the software!

  4. # willon 11 Apr 2009 at 5:35 pm

    worked for me too, cheers..

  5. # Marianoon 13 Jun 2009 at 10:43 am

    Worked GREAT!

  6. # Ryanon 25 Jun 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Worked, thank you.

  7. # Lexon 07 Jul 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Worked for me as well!

  8. # Paulon 23 Jul 2009 at 8:14 am

    Brilliant. I was having trouble installing the latest iPhone SDK till I got rid of last Xcode install. Apple support said they were unable to replicate the issue!

  9. # Anthonyon 03 Aug 2009 at 10:10 pm

    Thanks! I actually got my hard drive down to 0KB free. (Actually, it says “Zero KB” at that point) Cleaning off Xcode was perfect, and couldn’t have been easier.

  10. # Garrett Winderon 11 Aug 2009 at 10:16 pm

    Well well, that was easy. Thanks so much!

  11. # mongoleon 12 Aug 2009 at 1:53 am

    the documentation, about removing xcode is in the Developer folder as pdf file. There you can find exactly this command line ;-)

  12. # Digital Aguaon 25 Aug 2009 at 12:50 pm

    mongole,

    The command line can be accessed with the Terminal Application.

    /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

  13. # megaoyeon 30 Aug 2009 at 12:43 pm

    thank you so much!!!!

  14. # jacksonon 01 Sep 2009 at 5:55 am

    hi Paul, i got problem installing SDK 3.0, keep saying file cannot mount, not recognized, can help?

  15. # TY Limon 12 Sep 2009 at 9:59 am

    Cool! It Works for me! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! U’re the best!

  16. # Carol J.V. Fisheron 27 Oct 2009 at 6:09 am

    I have the same problem as jackson; after a 10-hour download, it’s now saying “the following disk images failed to mount”… I’m trying to install XCode 3.1.2. Suggestions?
    Thanks…

  17. # houmanon 28 Oct 2009 at 3:57 am

    Worked like a charm.
    Thanks mate, it was very helpful.

  18. # Ryanon 13 Nov 2009 at 11:32 am

    Worked great. Thanks a ton. That’s 2 GB I’m happy to have back.

  19. # padfooton 15 Nov 2009 at 8:34 am

    Thanks! A really good tip!

  20. # gregmoraon 15 Nov 2009 at 10:30 pm

    Thanks =) I need to get rid of Xcode in order to install iPhone Dev (that also includes xcode)

  21. # sebbrocheton 12 Dec 2009 at 9:56 am

    For me with XCode from Mac OS X 10.4 CD pack, this is the one to call:
    sudo /Developer/Tools/uninstall-devtools.pl –mode-all

    IMPORTANT: If you are going to install a previous version of the
    Developer Tools, be sure to restart the machine after installing.

  22. # Tomon 08 Jan 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Worked great!!! Thanks

  23. # Reed Olsenon 06 Feb 2010 at 11:05 pm

    Awesome – thanks!

  24. # Erikon 11 Feb 2010 at 5:11 pm

    when i paste
    sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools –mode=all
    into a terminal window, it gives me this: “WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
    typing when using sudo. Type “man sudo” for more information.”

    then asks me for a password, but when i try to type, nothing happens- any ideas? I’m using 10.5.8 on a G5

  25. # johnon 11 Feb 2010 at 5:13 pm

    Hi Erik,

    If you type the system/admin password, that should start the uninstall process.

  26. # Erikon 11 Feb 2010 at 5:43 pm

    thanks, John- that worked- nothing visible happened when i typed, but it accepted the password and uninstalled xcode

  27. # Jeffon 11 Feb 2010 at 11:19 pm

    I tried this (on 10.6.2) and got the following error message:

    ERROR: Can’t locate uninstaller script /Library/Developer/3.0/uninstall-devtools
    ERROR: Can’t locate uninstaller script /Library/Developer/Shared/uninstall-devtools
    Can’t determine system version.

    Any suggestions?

  28. # Asharon 13 Feb 2010 at 12:42 pm

    Thanks!

  29. # Rickyon 17 Mar 2010 at 5:32 am

    Thanks!! i got 2 GB back from my macbook pro!

  30. # meon 19 Mar 2010 at 6:31 pm

    thanks

  31. # markdudeon 30 Mar 2010 at 7:37 pm

    I feel necessity to thank you also, just before i use this command, because I know it will work. You are the Chuck Norris of xcode.

  32. # Miss Blakeon 02 Apr 2010 at 7:10 pm

    Jeff, I’m with you on that! Same system, same error. Somebody help?

  33. # Pocjocon 09 Apr 2010 at 8:19 am

    Thanks!

  34. # Brendanon 15 Apr 2010 at 12:06 am

    Thanks man. This worked perfectly.

  35. # Rossion 18 Apr 2010 at 2:53 pm

    Thanks so much for this.. i downloaded this program unaware of what it was and regretted it when i did.. thanks for this!

  36. # Michaelon 06 May 2010 at 11:26 am

    This works but I have multiple installations of XCode (various beta’s along the way). How do I remove specific installations and leave the latest?

  37. # Timon 27 May 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Thanks worked great

  38. # bobbyon 01 Jul 2010 at 9:12 am

    I downloaded the xcode 3.2.3 because I was start learning C on the Mac. The problem was that the book I was using used xcode 3.1 and I’m a beginner so I got confused when it wanted to use the standard tool from the command line utlility since that format isn’t available in the 3.2.3
    So I copy and pasted that line into the terminal and from what I assume, it got rid of xcode cause I couldn’t find it. I didn’t restart the computer and just reinstalled the xcode 3.2.3 and nothing changed only this time when I tried to get rid of it the same before, it said that there is no such file or directory

    what should I do??

  39. # BanyanTreeon 30 Jul 2010 at 4:59 pm

    thanks.

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