11

I'm developing an app using a MacBook with screen resolution of 1280x800.

When I tried to debug with the iPhone 6 Plus Simulator, my screen was unable to show the full simulator window even if I tried command+3 to scale it to 50%.

Is there any way to solve this problem other than buying a new screen with higher resolution?

AstroCB
  • 12,337
  • 20
  • 57
  • 73
user3216945
  • 127
  • 1
  • 7
  • 1
    No, there is no way to make the simulator smaller ten 50%. – rckoenes Sep 18 '14 at 14:56
  • 1
    The iPhone 6+ at 50% is 621x1104. Putting the iPhone 6+ in landscape is the only way to make it fit in 1280x800. I find the screen on my 27" iMac too small sometimes for development. I can't imagine doing it on such a tiny screen. – rmaddy Sep 18 '14 at 15:10
  • If you make it so that your interface doesn't rotate in landscape, then rmaddy's suggestion may work out, if you're willing to rotate your entire MacBook in the opposite direction. – ArtOfWarfare Sep 18 '14 at 15:12
  • plug another screen in and have it go across multiple screens? – AnthonyLambert Sep 18 '14 at 15:14
  • Thank you all for your replies. I guess it's time to get a larger display or a new mac :( It's sad though cause my MacBook still runs quite smoothly. – user3216945 Sep 19 '14 at 16:47
  • No.There is no such provision to reduce the size of iPhone 5+ simulator by by pressing cmd + 3. The only approach is to scroll the content of simulator and view it. – Jayprakash Dubey Oct 21 '14 at 09:05

6 Answers6

15

No. The simulator uses the actual resolution of the phone to make it as close as possible to having the actual device for testing.

You can, however, see the rest of the screen by scrolling up and down like this:

iPhone 6 Plus Simulator on a 13" Retina MacBook Pro

(iPhone 6 Plus on a 13" Retina MacBook Pro)

AstroCB
  • 12,337
  • 20
  • 57
  • 73
13

This issue is fixed in Xcode 6.3.1. You can scale down to 25% of actual resolution.

  1. Run you app on Simulator
  2. Select Window -> Scale (choose percent to be scaled)

Shortcut keys :

Command Key + 1 : 100%
Command Key + 2 : 75%
Command Key + 3 : 50%
Command Key + 4 : 33%
Command Key + 5 : 25%

Screenshot for above steps

Jayprakash Dubey
  • 35,723
  • 18
  • 170
  • 177
6

If you're aware that this will reduce the rendering quality of the iOS Simulator window, you can open up your Terminal and scale the simulator, e.g. to 40%

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iphonesimulator SimulatorWindowLastScale "0.4"

To change the current scale, just use the menu commands in "Window > Scale" or press cmd+1, cmd+2, cmd+3.

Edit:
Quit the Simulator before applying this setting
(it's the last scale used, so quitting and updating the preferences is the main trick here).

Tested with Xcode 6 on Mac OS 10.9.5 / iOS 8.0.2 SDK
and Xcode 6 on Mac OS 10.10 / iOS 8.1 SDK

Edit2:
While it did not work on Yosemite a couple of times, it just worked fine again. Maybe a reboot is required now and then.

auco
  • 9,329
  • 4
  • 47
  • 54
  • hm, did you quit the simulator before calling this command in the terminal? Because it works for me with Xcode 6, iOS 8.0.2 SDK – auco Oct 21 '14 at 19:31
  • 1
    Not working. I'm using iOS 8.1 iPhone 6 Plus Simulator. – Jayprakash Dubey Oct 27 '14 at 05:55
  • 1
    After updating to Yosemite, I also see that this does not work anymore. The com.apple.iphonesimulator is still correct though. – auco Oct 27 '14 at 16:28
  • Actually, while it did not work on Yosemite / iOS 8.1 SDK a couple of times, it just worked fine again. Maybe a reboot is required now and then. – auco Oct 31 '14 at 05:06
  • 1
    Works for me, just quit simulator, type command than run simulator and it's smaller; Changing CMD+1, CMD+2, CMD+3 breaks that so need to type every time I want that. Thanks ! – Leszek Zarna Mar 13 '15 at 09:18
2

A Program like Quick Res allows you to simulate other resolution. This way you can see the entire screen on a low resolution screen, by setting it to 2560x1400 for instance.

However it's not optimal, but it makes it easier to debug iPhone 6+ on a low res screen.

chrs
  • 5,906
  • 10
  • 43
  • 74
0

Press cmd+4. It works well for iphone 6 plus simulator

Vinayak Parmar
  • 608
  • 10
  • 18
0

Now, you can zoom-out to 25% of actual device size. Use shortcut key cmd+1->100%, cmd+2->75%, cmd+3->50%, cmd+4->33%, cmd+5->25% for zoom out.