I’m a Windows developer and have built an Ionic hybrid app, which I could easily inspect using chrome://inspect during Android development. Now that I need to deploy to iOS, I’ve moved to a Mac. How do I debug an iOS app on Mac with similar capabilities? Is there an equivalent to Chrome’s inspect tools for iOS development on macOS?
Oh, I’ve been in your shoes! Moving from Windows to Mac for iOS development can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes smooth. To debug an iOS app on Mac, the closest thing you’ll find to Chrome’s inspect tools is Safari’s Web Inspector. Here’s the deal: once you connect your iPhone or iOS simulator and enable Web Inspector in iOS Safari settings, you can open Safari on your Mac, then go to Develop > [Device Name] > Your App, and voila! You’ll have the ability to inspect it just like Chrome DevTools.
From my experience, this tool was extremely handy for debugging layout issues and tracking JS console errors in my Ionic app. It gives you access to inspect the DOM, console logs, network activity, and more. It’s not as robust as Chrome, but it certainly gets the job done for hybrid apps.
I totally get what you’re going through, ad the same adjustment when I made the switch to Mac from Windows. Here’s what I did to debug an iOS app on Mac: first, you need to enable remote debugging through Safari. On your iOS device, head to:
Settings > Safari > Advanced > Web Inspector (enable)
Then, in Safari on your Mac, go to Preferences and make sure the Develop menu is enabled. Once that’s set up, plug your device into your Mac, open your Ionic app (running in WebView, via Capacitor or Cordova), and you can inspect it live using Safari’s developer tools.
It’s not Chrome’s dev tools, but it does offer DOM access, JS debugging, and even network monitoring. It’s a solid alternative for debugging, especially when transitioning from a Windows dev environment.
Yeah, I went through the same thing when I switched over to Mac for iOS development. If you’re using Capacitor or Cordova with Xcode, you can easily debug an iOS app on Mac by launching the app on either a simulator or a real device. Once it’s running, just connect Safari’s Web Inspector to the WebView of your app. Personally, I found using Xcode logs alongside Safari DevTools gave me a much clearer view—especially when I had to dig into native plugin issues or hybrid-webview communication.
Pro tip: If your app ever shows a blank screen or has weird behavior, don’t panic. Check the Xcode logs first, they’re usually where the real debugging begins!