Developing and debugging my own apps on JailBroken iOS8.1 using XCode 6.1 without paying apple

A while back I used an app called JailCoder to enable me to run and debug my own apps on my jailbroken iPhone 5S without having to pay Apple for a full developer account. I’m still learning iOS development and I have nothing I want to submit to the app store, so I’m reluctant to pay the £100 that Apple wants to enable me to run my own code on my own device.

Given that XCode is free, and that £100 per year would gives me the ability to sell apps through the app store, I think it’s a bargain if you are actually planning to distribute apps, but for me just learning it seems a bit steep.

There don’t seem to be many tutorials out there telling you how to do this for iOS8.1 and XCode 6.1 (they are all a bit outdated), but this is what worked for me:

  1. On your Jailbroken device install AppSync Unified 5.2-1 (or later) from AngelXWind’s repo. Don’t use any other AppSync, and if you have others, be sure to remove them.
  2. Open /Applications/ and change AD_HOC_CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED to YES. You may need to duplicate it to the desktop, change it, save it, then drag and drop back into the original folder because OS X let you edit the file in place.
  3. If XCode was running, restart XCode.
  4. Change your Project and Target settings to “Ad Hoc Code Sign” in Build Settings
  5. Tell XCode to run app on iPhone. At this point XCode will put app on your iDevice, but can’t debug because it can’t attach to the process. The app will start then close immediately. You can now manually start the app on the phone now though.
  6. To enable debugging: In your project select File>New File Property List and create a file called “Entitlements.plist”. Add “Can be debugged” or “get-task-allow” (both do the same thing) and set the value to YES.
  7. Now change your Project and Target Code Signing Entitlements (In Build Settings) to “Entitlements.plist” (you have to type it in).

Now XCode can run and debug the app. Good luck

Note that some poeple have issues because they have other appsyncs installed. Remove all other appsyncs and install AppSync Unified from (you’ll have to add this repo to cydia)

Thanks to Karen and Linus for developing AppSync Unified.

This subreddit may be helpful