Common Issues

1. Although the app runs in the iPhone Simulator from Xcode it doesn't run when launched from appium.

Make sure that Carthage is installed.

brew install carthage

2. When running iOS apps through the simulator, ensure that all of the following desired capabilities are set.

{
    deviceName: "string",
    platformName: "iOS",
    platformVersion: "string",
    automationName: "XCUITest",
    app: "string"
}

The platformVersion should be a string containing the version of the iPhone Simulator being used.

3. Only the Android Command line tools are installed (Not Android Studio), however, after installing the necessary platform tools, system installs and creating an android virtual device. Running emulator @EmulatorName produces a Library Not Found or File or directory not found error.

The version of the Android sdk tools you are using contains a bug. To overcome this, the emulator needs to be run directly from the installation directory. Run the following commands:

cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/emulator (or your equivalent ANDROID_HOME directory)
emulator @EmulatorName

4. When using the IntelliJ IDE to write your test. The run button is disabled.

Right click on the {ProjectName}/src/test/java folder and select run all. Additionally, if you wish to run a single test, this can be done by right clicking on the function signature of the test and selecting run {TestName}

5. Since Appium requires an app file, how do I test an iOS app that I downloaded from the internet.

With the project open in Xcode, go to Product-> Build For-> Testing. A .app file will be generated under the Products folder of the application. Selecting this file will reveal it's full path in the right hand panel of Xcode. This can be provided to Appium as the value of the app parameter.