Run react-native application on iOS device directly from command line?

Is it possible to run react-native application on an iOS device directly from the command line like we do on simulator with react-native run ios --simulator "iPhone 5s"?

The following worked for me (tested on react native 0.38 and 0.40):

npm install -g ios-deploy
# Run on a connected device, e.g. Max's iPhone:
react-native run-ios --device "Max's iPhone"

If you try to run run-ios, you will see that the script recommends to do npm install -g ios-deploy when it reach install step after building.

While the documentation on the various commands that react-native offers is a little sketchy, it is worth going to react-native/local-cli. There, you can see all the commands available and the code that they run - you can thus work out what switches are available for undocumented commands.

First install the required library globally on your computer:

npm install -g ios-deploy

Go to your settings on your iPhone to find the name of the device.

Then provide that below like:

react-native run-ios --device "______\'s iPhone"

Sometimes this will fail and output a message like this:

Found Xcode project ________.xcodeproj
Could not find device with the name: "_______'s iPhone".
Choose one of the following:
______’s iPhone Udid: _________

That udid is used like this:

react-native run-ios --udid 0412e2c230a14e23451699

Optionally you may use:

react-native run-ios --udid 0412e2c230a14e23451699 -- configuration Release

Run this command in project root directory.

1>. List of iPhone devices for found the connected Real Devices and Simulator. same as like adb devices command for android.

xcrun xctrace list devices

OR

xcrun instruments -s devices

2>. Select device using this command which you want to run your app

Using Device Name

react-native run-ios --device "Kool's iPhone"

Using UDID

react-native run-ios --udid 0412e2c2******51699

wait and watch to run your app in specific devices - K00L ;)

Actually, For the first build, please do it with Xcode and then do the following way:

1. brew install ios-deploy
2. npx react-native run-ios --device

The second command will run the app on the first connected device.

If you get this error [email protected] preinstall: ./src/scripts/check_reqs.js && xcodebuild ... using npm install -g ios-deploy

Try this. It works for me:

1. sudo npm uninstall -g ios-deploy
2. brew install ios-deploy

Just wanted to add something to Kamil's answer

After following the steps, I still got an error,

> error Could not find device with the name: "....'s Xr"

After removing special characters from the device name (Go to Settings -> General -> About -> Name)

> Eg: '

It Worked !

Hope this will help someone who faced similar issue.

Tested with - react-native-cli: 2.0.1 | react-native: 0.59.8 | VSCode 1.32 | Xcode 10.2.1 | iOS 12.3

Got mine working with

react-native run-ios --device="My’s iPhone"

And notice that your iphone name, the apostrophe s ' might be different. Mine is using this ’

To automate this for any physical device, you could try using:

npx react-native run-ios --device=$(xcrun instruments -s devices | grep -v '(Simulator)' | tail -1 | sed 's/ (.*//')

Note: This uses the last listed device from xcrun that is not listed as a simulator. The device name is parsed from the xcrun instruments string pulling all characters that appear before the first (.

This works fine if you only have one apple device plugged in and its name does not include ( in it.

Otherwise, you may just want to run:

xcrun instruments -s devices

Pick your device (up to the version is the device name you should use).

Then run:

npx react-native run-ios --device='yourDeviceName'

For you to run on specific ios device run

yarn ios --simulator "iPhone 8" if you are using yarn or
npx react-native run-ios --simulator="iPhone SE (1st generation)"

I had same issue. Command npx run-ios then select Physical Device worked after renaming device name in Settings->General->About->Name. I used name with only letters without spaces and special symbols.