launchd_sim crashing: could not create temporary state directory

Question

The issue is fixed with recent update of Mac OSX.

I am using Xcode 8 on Mac Mini running OSX El Capitan (10.11.6). When I deploy my app

Answer 1

This error indicates that launchd_sim is unable to create its temporary state directory (/private/tmp/com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDevice....launchd_sim).

This can happen if /private/tmp is deleted or has changed permissions.

There have been a high volume of reports of this issue lately. The reason appears to be that the restricted bit is getting set on /private/tmp, which is why some users have reported that disabling SIP acts as a workaround for this issue.

The correct fix is to remove the restricted bit from that path. If you boot your system into recovery mode and launch Terminal, you should be able to do this with:

chflags norestricted /Volumes/.../private/tmp

or a larger hammer:

rm -rf /Volumes/.../private/tmp
mkdir /Volumes/.../private/tmp
chmod 1777 /Volumes/.../private/tmp
chown root:wheel /Volumes/.../private/tmp

Answer 2

The problem is, for some reason, your system has orphaned launch_sim processes.

The solution is to:

1. quit the simulator
2. open Activity Montior and search for sim.
3. manually Force Quit any launch_sim, ScriptAgent, or instruments processes.

Answer 3

These commands did the trick for me:

sudo chown root:admin /tmp; sudo chmod 1777 /tmp
sudo chown root:wheel /private/tmp; sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp