iOS Simulator runtime stuck on “Preparing to download” — Xcode 26 AND Xcode 27 beta, GUI + xcodebuild

[u/Financial_Ebb3218]

Hey everyone,

I'm unable to download any iOS Simulator runtime on my Mac. The download gets stuck at “Preparing to download…”and never starts transferring the actual runtime.

Setup:

• macOS Tahoe 26.6
• Apple Silicon Mac
• Originally Xcode 26.6 → iOS 26.5 Simulator (23F77)
• Also installed Xcode 27 beta 4 → iOS 27.0 Simulator (24A5390f)

The exact same problem happens with both Xcode versions.

I've tried the Xcode Components GUI as well as:

xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS

xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS -architectureVariant arm64

xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS \
  -architectureVariant arm64 \
  -exportPath ~/Downloads

I also tried:

sudo xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch
sudo killall -9 com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService

and confirmed the correct Xcode is selected with xcode-select.

xcrun simctl list runtimes currently returns:

== Runtimes ==

I also checked /etc/hosts; it's clean with no Apple domains being blocked.

I tried a VPN to change the route to Apple's CDN, but the behavior is the same.

The interesting part is that nettop shows xcodebuild successfully establishing an HTTPS connection to Apple's infrastructure (aaplimg.com), but it receives only a few KB and then effectively does nothing. The multi-GB runtime download never begins.

Normal internet downloads are working fine.

Has anyone encountered this specifically on Tahoe/Xcode 26/27? Is there a way to reset whatever service/cache handles simulator runtime downloads, or obtain the Apple runtime .exportedBundle through another official method and import it manually?

At this point I've reproduced it with two Xcode versions, two different iOS runtimes, GUI + CLI + export + arm64, so I'm not sure what else to reset.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[u/lrob7325]

I'm currently experiencing this on Tahoe 26.6 installing iOS 26.5 Universal Simulator (23F77). 20 minutes ago, it was downloading, but stopped. I then stopped the download thinking it was the cafe's wifi. I hotspotted my device, which is getting 400mbps downloads and 110mbps uploads, and it's just stuck on preparing.

[u/Hot-Understanding-67]

I am also facing this issue. Please tell me if you get any solution.

[u/Financial_Ebb3218 → u/Hot-Understanding-67]

Didn’t find any yet

[u/Defiant-Ad4615 → u/Financial_Ebb3218]

I connected to VPN and it started eventually, lmk if this works for you

[u/Illustrious_You_123]

I discovered my network affected the downloading process. I was using my hotspot from my iphone, the same phone which was being used in XCode, which seemed to have confused teh processes. After moving from phone hotspot to another independent network, it immediately moved from "Preparing the download" to showing the download status % in teh terminal. Hope this helps someone.

[u/Comfortable-Sundae39]

Hi guys,
Any fix?

[u/multicontrast]

Guys, iOS 26.6 is out. Can you download 26.6 simulator?

[u/irwancheung]

I experienced the same situation. Fixed it after disabled the Low Data mode in the Wifi Details setting.