Xcode Interface Builder is showing "No selection" for all files

Question

No matter what I've got selected in Interface Builder, the Inspector did apparently not register the selection and only showed "No selection".

I tried opening and closing files, restarting Xcode and even rebooting my Mac. No change! What the heck is going on?

Other projects work just fine. It's just this project...

score 133 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '15 at 16:56

133

This was driving me crazy for a long time. I found nothing here on Stackoverflow about this, and not by googling either, initially.

Luckily, after googling a couple of different ways, I finally found the simple solution here.

Snipped from that site:

Here’s how you can fix it in two steps without even having to restart Xcode:

Select another file (which isn’t an Interface Builder type) in the current tab with the issue.

Open a new tab and select the Interface Builder file which was having the problem.

Shame on you, Apple!

answered Dec 19 '15 at 16:56

Marius Waldal

9,537
4
30
44

3

This issue still occurs randomly even on XCode 9.4 and yet this solution still works haha! Cheers! – AdamM Jun 11 '18 at 08:23
8

Still relevant in 2018, xcode 10. Many thanks! And yes like @Himan Dhawan said, shame on you Apple! – JohnV Oct 16 '18 at 09:27
Had the same issue, selecting another file which is not IB type in the current tab solved. – Santhosh Reddy Apr 03 '19 at 08:58
Wow. Happened to me right now in 12.5.1. Cheers for the solution – Ghighi Eftimie Aug 04 '21 at 18:31

score 24 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:52

24

In Xcode 8.3, the preferred solution doesn't appear to work. My solution, similar to travdu, was to click the "Show the version editor" button (the two arrows pointing left and right), then back to the "Show the Standard editor". Doing that fixed it for me.

edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:52

shim

9,289
12
69
108

answered Apr 02 '17 at 00:09

Tim Newton

1,463
1
13
13

You save my life. – LinShiwei Jul 03 '17 at 08:30
Fantastic that this bug still exists – Marius Waldal Jul 23 '17 at 13:28
This is the one that fixed it for me ! – AnthoPak Mar 27 '18 at 08:47
Yeah, You can do it with any combination of these 3 icons :) – travdu Mar 28 '18 at 14:12
Still exists (for xcdatamodel anyway), this fix works, those above do not – dawid Apr 16 '18 at 06:07
It's 2021 and you just saved my life. I was going nuts because I couldn't open my xcodeproj file to edit my build settings, after updating Xcode. This did the trick. Thank you very much sir. – Ricardo Yubal Oct 20 '21 at 23:10

iHarshil · Answer 3 · 2019-12-04T06:32:58.333

18

MOST SIMPLE SOLUTION:

(For each of those who has tried all the above options like me, try this once):

Switch to the LaunchScreen.storyboard from your Main.storyboard
See if you can access all the Inspectors on right side in LaunchScreen.storyboard .

if yes,

Switch back to Main.storyboard

Always work for me! Hope this also help to someone. Thanks!

EDIT 1:

Above solution works for xib only projects too.

edited Dec 04 '19 at 06:32

answered Dec 01 '18 at 05:29

iHarshil

739
10
22

1

Worked for me on a xib only project too. I opened the LaunchView.xib – BooRanger Dec 03 '19 at 16:15

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 29 '16 at 11:21

14

There is also possibility in Xcode 7.3.1. to switch between "Standard editor" and "Assistant editor" in the upper right corner to "deal" with this bug.

answered Jun 29 '16 at 11:21

travdu

331
3
9

The accepted answer usually helped me before. However today I saw this problem in a specific version of data model, this answer fixes the problem while the accepted one doesn't. XCode 9.2. – reTs Mar 13 '18 at 10:34

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 14 '21 at 11:32

4

Very Simple Solution Work for me

1- Open Any ViewController

2 Command+T, for New Tab

3- Open again storyBoard in that New Tab

Then It will Work

Thank You

answered Dec 14 '21 at 11:32

M Murteza

1,629
15
10

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 25 '19 at 09:07

1

Open the file in the new tab and it will work fine

answered Sep 25 '19 at 09:07

novice

461
4
12

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:53

0

If the above solutions don't work, try adding an object (e.g a label) onto the main storyboard. Brought all the inspectors back for me with Xcode 7.3.

edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:53

shim

9,289
12
69
108

answered Aug 13 '17 at 11:33

cosmo

83
1
1
7

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:53

0

I just experienced that the "Utility Area doesn't display anything" symptom, with Xcode version 9.0. Thanks for the tips! In my case, after I closed all the files displayed in the Assistant Editor, you would think it is totally not related, but it worked again! (Before that, I tried to restart Xcode, restart iOS, none of them was working.)

edited Oct 26 '21 at 17:53

shim

9,289
12
69
108

answered Oct 26 '17 at 17:29

jingyul

91
1
2

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 23 '18 at 16:08

0

I just run into the same issue. And I see there is solution already but it could help others: make sure you are in the Main.storyboard and not in the LaunchScreen.storyboard

Hope it helps!

answered Mar 23 '18 at 16:08

Kejsi Struga

550
6
21

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 28 '18 at 11:49

0

The bug is weird. And all answers didn't help me. The following steps were useful for me:

go to project file.
Click on the button near "Launch Images Source"

After that Xcode shows assets in the proper way.

answered Apr 28 '18 at 11:49

Anton Kashpor

1,255
2
18
34

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 24 '18 at 14:36

For me the bug was caused by missing interface restoration. I think it happens when I open the project file where the Assets editor was open last time. If I close the tab which containts the Assets editor, quit Xcode then open the project again, works fine.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 22 '19 at 10:58

0

After trying above all tricks, I just made a copy somewhere of the file which has the issue and deleted that file from Xcode. Opened it directly from there and file seemed good. Dragging it to the project solved this heinous issue.

answered Jul 22 '19 at 10:58

Muhammad Zaheer

123
1
10

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 09 '20 at 10:08

0

none of the above answers worked for me, what worked was, there is a filter text box in bottom right and for some reason some random text was typed in that, just clearing that text box fixed the issue.

answered Jun 09 '20 at 10:08

junaid malik

39
10

Xcode Interface Builder is showing "No selection" for all files

13 Answers13

Linked