[macOS] Deprecation of simulator runtimes for Xcode 16.3 and older on macOS 15 on January 12th, 2026.

Breaking changes

The oldest runtimes existing in the image will be removed, namely:

"install_runtimes": [
    { "iOS": ["18.4"] },
    { "watchOS": ["11.2", "11.4"] },
    { "tvOS": ["18.2", "18.4"] },
    { "visionOS": ["2.3", "2.4"] }
]

Target date

Image deployment will start on Monday January 12th, 2026 and will take about 3 days.

The motivation for the changes

According to our support policy, we commit to supporting no more than three runtime sets for Xcode due to disk space limitations.

Possible impact

If your macOS 15 based workflow or pipeline uses one of the mentioned runtimes without prior configuration, it will stop working.

Platforms affected

Azure DevOps
GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

Mitigation ways

If your build uses one of the mentioned runtimes, you can install them on the fly using xcodebuild -downloadPlatform <iOS|watchOS|tvOS|visionOS> -buildVersion ${osversion}. See xcodebuild --help for details.

@erik-bershel

@erik-bershel Do you have an expected timeline for deprecating Xcode 16.4? Since Xcode 26.3 beta should be out soon and I assume you'll only be supporting Xcode 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 beta (iOS 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 runtimes respectively)?

Also, can you clarify whether you're just removing runtimes or Xcode 16.3 itself too? As in, will I need to download and switch to that Xcode manually if needed? I can see we have several versions of Xcode installed on the runner - https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/macos/macos-15-Readme.md#xcode

It will be removed on macOS 26 once #13406 is merged.

Yes, but what about macOS 15?

On the post it said Xcode 16.3 and below will be removed

Yes, but I'm asking for future plans. Xcode 16.3 and below is being removed, but I assume 16.4 will be removed once Xcode 26.3 is available? (Given the policy of supporting only the last 3 releases)

@theblixguy

Hey @theblixguy!

Do you have an expected timeline for deprecating Xcode 16.4? Since Xcode 26.3 beta should be out soon and I assume you'll only be supporting Xcode 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 beta (iOS 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 runtimes respectively)?

We don't expect Xcode 26.3 to be available on macOS 15.

Also, can you clarify whether you're just removing runtimes or Xcode 16.3 itself too?

Only runtimes.

That's bad news for Azure DevOps users.

Could we please keep Xcode 16.2 on MacOS 15? There were big breaking changes to Xcode 16.3 and we try to keep backward compatibility for now.

We are not removing Xcode itself. We understand how difficult it is to install it at runtime. Only the simulator runtimes will be removed.

This appears to have broken my AzDO build which is using Xcode 16.3 to compile for iphoneos. Not targeting or trying to run anything on a simulator.

Generating script.
Script contents:
xcodebuild -sdk iphoneos -configuration Release -workspace src/MyApp.xcworkspace -derivedDataPath derivedPath/ -scheme MyApp archive -archivePath derivedPath/MyApp.xcarchive CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=Yes CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=No

2026-01-13 16:46:06.054 xcodebuild[18283:50235] Writing error result bundle to /var/folders/00/r9fy_8g50c3cngpyqvp3822h0000gn/T/ResultBundle_2026-13-01_16-46-0006.xcresult
xcodebuild: error: Found no destinations for the scheme 'MyApp' and action archive.

Can we get that reverted?

Nope

@shaisha-tr the change was needed for xcode 26.2 on macos 15 image #13524

Indeed. We need more space to ship Xcode 26.2 which is required for .NET 10 builds and so on.

iOS 18.4 and Simulator - iOS 18.4 SDKs

That's SDKs exactly, not simulators. If you targeting to any device, it will require platform tools with simulator runtimes to be installed - that's a separate block in readme: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/macos/macos-15-Readme.md#installed-simulators

For anybody there, please, start with:

Mitigation ways

If your build uses one of the mentioned runtimes, you can install them on the fly using xcodebuild -downloadPlatform <iOS|watchOS|tvOS|visionOS> -buildVersion ${osversion}. See xcodebuild --help for details.

ci: ensure canary updater has dotnet runtime

ci: ensure canary updater sees dotnet

ci: allow uno-check to install android workload

ci: update ios simulator runtime

ci: allow uno-check to install android workload

Update iOS simulator to 18.6 in tests workflow (#1148)

ci: update iOS simulator runtime to iOS-18-5 and Xcode to 26.2

fix(ci): use Xcode 16.4 and align iOS deployment target to 16.0

Feat - IOS Support

Release - v0.10.0 (#28)

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[macOS] Deprecation of simulator runtimes for Xcode 16.3 and older on macOS 15 on January 12th, 2026. #13392

Breaking changes

Target date

The motivation for the changes

Possible impact

Platforms affected

Runner images affected

Mitigation ways

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[macOS] Deprecation of simulator runtimes for Xcode 16.3 and older on macOS 15 on January 12th, 2026. #13392

Description

Breaking changes

Target date

The motivation for the changes

Possible impact

Platforms affected

Runner images affected

Mitigation ways

Activity

theblixguy commented on Dec 10, 2025

theblixguy commented on Dec 10, 2025

theblixguy commented on Dec 10, 2025

erik-bershel commented on Dec 15, 2025

4brunu commented on Dec 15, 2025

jeroen commented on Dec 15, 2025

erik-bershel commented on Dec 15, 2025

jcmanke commented on Jan 13, 2026

4 remaining items

erik-bershel commented on Jan 15, 2026

erik-bershel commented on Jan 15, 2026

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