How to Control the Status Bar in iOS Simulator

Need to quickly change the iOS Simulator’s status bar for screenshots or testing? You can do it with the simctl command-line tool. Here’s a quick look.

The Basic Command

The core command to manipulate the status bar is:

xcrun simctl status_bar <device> override <options>

• <device>: Use booted for the currently running simulator, or a specific simulator UDID (get a list with xcrun simctl list devices).
• <options>: These are key-value pairs for what you want to change.

Common Status Bar Overrides

Here are some of the most common things you’ll want to do:

1. Set the Time

Classic Apple screenshot time? Easy. The 9:41 AM time is a nod to when Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone.

# Set time to 9:41 AM
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --time "9:41"

2. Cellular Data Network Type

Show 5G, LTE, 4G, etc.

# Show 5G
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --dataNetwork "5g"
# Show LTE
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --dataNetwork "lte"

(Other options: 4g, 3g, wifi)

3. Wi-Fi Indicator

Control Wi-Fi appearance.

# Show Wi-Fi connected with 3 bars
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --wifiMode active --wifiBars 3

• --wifiMode: searching, active, failed
• --wifiBars: 0 to 3

4. Cellular Signal

Control cellular bars.

# Show 4 bars of cellular signal (LTE)
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --cellularMode active --cellularBars 4 --dataNetwork "lte"

• --cellularMode: notSupported, searching, failed, active, limited
• --cellularBars: 0 to 4

5. Battery State and Level

Set battery appearance.

# Battery 100% and charging
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --batteryState charging --batteryLevel 100

# Battery 20% and unplugged
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --batteryState discharging --batteryLevel 20

# Battery 10%, unplugged, and low power mode
xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --batteryState discharging --batteryLevel 10 --lowPowerMode 1

• --batteryState: charging, charged, discharging
• --batteryLevel: 0 to 100
• --lowPowerMode: 1 (on), 0 (off)

Putting It All Together (Screenshot Mode)

For that perfect App Store screenshot, Apple generally recommends showing a clean status bar with full Wi-Fi or cellular signal, a full battery, and no carrier name. The 9:41 AM time is also a common touch.

xcrun simctl status_bar booted override \
    --time "9:41" \
    --dataNetwork "wifi" \
    --wifiMode active \
    --wifiBars 3 \
    --operatorName "" \
    --batteryState charged \
    --batteryLevel 100

Clearing Overrides

To go back to the normal status bar:

xcrun simctl status_bar booted clear

Shortcut for Recommended State

To make this even faster, you can create a shell alias. For example, if you’re using zsh, add this to your ~/.zshrc file:

alias setcleanstatus='xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --time "9:41" --dataNetwork "wifi" --wifiMode active --wifiBars 3 --operatorName "" --batteryState charged --batteryLevel 100'

Then, after running source ~/.zshrc, you can just type setcleanstatus in your terminal. You could create a similar alias like clearstatus for the clear command.

Quick Troubleshooting

• simctl not found? Use xcrun simctl or check your Xcode command-line tools setup (xcode-select -p).
• “Unable to find a booted device”? Make sure your simulator is running. Or, use its UDID.
• Overrides not working? Double-check option names with xcrun simctl status_bar --help. Ensure the simulator is active.

That’s it! Quick and actionable simctl commands for status bar mastery.