simtime

Utilities for setting and clearing the iOS Simulator status bar time across all currently running (booted) simulators. Useful for consistent screenshots, demos, and UI tests.

Features

• Set a fixed clock time on every booted iOS simulator (simtime.py).
• Clear status bar overrides on every booted iOS simulator (simclear.py).
• Works with multiple simulators at once.

Requirements

• macOS with Xcode installed (includes the iOS Simulator).
• Xcode command line tools with xcrun available.
• Python 3.8+.

You can verify simctl availability with:

xcrun simctl help status_bar

Quick Start

1. Boot one or more iOS simulators (for example):

open -a Simulator
# or boot a specific device
xcrun simctl boot "iPhone 15"

2. Set a fixed clock time (24‑hour HH:MM):

python3 simtime.py 09:41

3. Clear the status bar override when finished:

python3 simclear.py

Scripts

• simtime.py

  • Sets the status bar time for each booted iOS simulator via xcrun simctl status_bar <UDID> override --time <HH:MM>.
  • Validates basic time format HH:MM (24-hour).
  • Skips non‑iOS devices and only affects booted simulators.

• simclear.py

  • Clears the status bar override for each booted iOS simulator via xcrun simctl status_bar <device> clear.
  • Only affects booted simulators.

Examples

• Set time to 02:25 across all booted simulators:

python3 simtime.py 02:25

• Clear time/status bar override across all booted simulators:

python3 simclear.py

Notes

• These scripts override only the status bar time; they do not change the simulator’s system clock or timezone.
• If no simulators are booted, the scripts will print a helpful message and exit.
• Device matching in simctl can use either UDID or name; using UDID avoids ambiguity when multiple devices share the same name.

Troubleshooting

• xcrun: error: unable to find utility "simctl" → Ensure Xcode and its command line tools are installed, then run xcode-select --install or select the correct developer path via sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app.
• "No running iOS simulators found" → Launch one with open -a Simulator or xcrun simctl boot <device>.
• Time format must be HH:MM (e.g., 09:41).

Why

Consistent clock time is often required for screenshots, marketing assets, documentation, and visual diffs in UI testing. These utilities make that repeatable across multiple simulators with a single command.