Why the .app failed to install on device from Appium, but can be installed through Xcode?

Support
1

Mac 10.11
Xcode 7.2 iOS9.2 Build target iOS9.0
Appium 1.4.13

Issue:
I can generate a debug build signed with developer certificate in Xcode, and install the app successfully on my real device.
Then I copy the .app to a path, in Appium GUI, point the app path to the .app path, input necessary information, then launch, success
Then run my test in eclipse, got below log in Appium GUI:

info: [debug] The following desired capabilities were provided, but not recognized by appium. They will be passed on to any other services running on this server. : appium-version
info: [debug] App is an iOS bundle, will attempt to run as pre-existing
info: [debug] Creating new appium session cbe9d3ba-f42f-4c7a-b21f-87eb5e7132ea
info: [debug] Removing any remaining instruments sockets

info: [debug] Cleaned up instruments socket /tmp/instruments_sock
info: [debug] Auto-detecting iOS udid…
info: [debug] Not auto-detecting udid, running on sim
info: [debug] Could not parse plist file (as binary) at /Applications/Appium iOS.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/com.ibm.lotus.sametime/en.lproj/Localizable.strings
info: Will try to parse the plist file as XML
info: [debug] Could not parse plist file (as XML) at /Applications/Appium iOS.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/com.ibm.lotus.sametime/en.lproj/Localizable.strings
warn: Could not parse app Localizable.strings assuming it doesn’t exist
info: [debug] Creating instruments
info: [debug] Preparing uiauto bootstrap
info: [debug] Dynamic bootstrap dir: /Users/rachel/Library/Application Support/appium/bootstrap
info: [debug] Dynamic env: {“nodePath”:"/Applications/Appium iOS.app/Contents/Resources/node/bin/node",“commandProxyClientPath”:"/Applications/Appium iOS.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/submodules/appium-uiauto/bin/command-proxy-client.js",“instrumentsSock”:"/tmp/instruments_sock",“interKeyDelay”:null,“justLoopInfinitely”:false,“autoAcceptAlerts”:false,“autoDismissAlerts”:false,“sendKeyStrategy”:“grouped”}

info: [debug] Dynamic bootstrap code: // This file is automatically generated. Do not manually modify!
…
info: [debug] Dynamic bootstrap path: /Users/rachel/Library/Application Support/appium/bootstrap/bootstrap-3eedab70f65297b9.js
info: [debug] Reusing dynamic bootstrap: /Users/rachel/Library/Application Support/appium/bootstrap/bootstrap-3eedab70f65297b9.js
info: [debug] Attempting iOS device log capture via libimobiledevice idevicesyslog

info: [debug] Creating iDevice object with udid 814d53f77e5c5ecf2eca376ae3696dffa692cec8

info: [debug] App is not installed. Will try to install the app.

info: [IOS_SYSLOG_ROW ] Mar 17 17:08:22 Ya-min-teki-iPad syslog_relay[709] : syslog_relay found the ASL prompt. Starting…

info: [debug] Cleaning up appium session

error: Failed to start an Appium session, err was: Error: Installing com.ibm.lotus.sametime failed

info: [debug] Error: Installing com.ibm.lotus.sametime failed
at /Applications/Appium iOS.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/node_modules/node-idevice/main.js:159:6
at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:742:7)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:110:17)
at maybeClose (child_process.js:1015:16)
at Socket. (child_process.js:1183:11)
at Socket.emit (events.js:107:17)
at Pipe.close (net.js:485:12)

info: [debug] Responding to client with error: {“status”:33,“value”:{“message”:“A new session could not be created. (Original error: Installing com.ibm.lotus.sametime failed)”,“origValue”:“Installing com.ibm.lotus.sametime failed”},“sessionId”:null}
info: <-- POST /wd/hub/session 500 3666.325 ms - 202
info: [IOS_SYSLOG_ROW ] Mar 17 17:08:24 Ya-min-teki-iPad mobile_installation_proxy[180] : 0x1f197000 handle_connection: Could not receive request from host.

I don’t have any idea about this error, could anyone advise me? Thank you!

2

From the log it looks like you are trying to run the real device code (which is compiled for ARM processor) on a Simulator (X86 processor). Is this what you are trying to do? If so you’ll either need to get a version of the app that is compiled to run on the Simulator or you’ll have to configure Appium to run this on a real device.

If this is failing on a real device please post your capabilities.

3

@wreed Thank you, please help take a look:
Here is my capabilities:
/*For device/
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability(CapabilityType.BROWSER_NAME, “iOS”);
capabilities.setCapability(“platformName”, “Mac”);
capabilities.setCapability(“deviceName”, “iPad 2”);
capabilities.setCapability(“platformVersion”, “9.0”);
capabilities.setCapability(“appium-version”, “1.4.13”);
String appBID=“com.ibm.lotus.sametime”;
capabilities.setCapability(“app”,appBID);
//capabilities.setCapability(“language”,“es”);
// support Chinese
capabilities.setCapability(“unicodeKeyboard”, “True”);
capabilities.setCapability(“resetKeyboard”, “True”);
try{
driver = new IOSDriver (new URL(“http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub”),capabilities);
}catch(MalformedURLException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}

4

Can you tell me what appBID represents? What does it expand to?

5

@wreed the appBID is the bundle identifier of the app I want to test…

6

Can you try setting it to the path to the app that you want to test?

7

Wow, it works! Thank you very much! @wreed

1 Like
8

i am getting the following error when trying to install the app through appium…help me out

[debug] [iOS] Creating iDevice object with udid 4dd7e471d61bbcd88c4050ef054a46b2b77846c8

[debug] [iOS] App is not installed. Will try to install.

[iOSLog] [IOS_SYSLOG_ROW] Sep 22 19:11:42 iPhone mobile_installation_proxy[227] : 0x16e2d3000 handle_connection: Could not receive request from host.

[MJSONWP] Encountered internal error running command: Error: Installing /Users/office/Documents/app/phoenix-reader.app failed
at /Applications/Appium.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-ios-driver/node_modules/node-idevice/main.js:159:6
at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:193:7)
at emitTwo (events.js:100:13)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:185:7)
at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:850:16)
at Socket. (internal/child_process.js:323:11)
at emitOne (events.js:90:13)
at Socket.emit (events.js:182:7)
at Pipe._onclose (net.js:475:12)

9

Even i am getting this same error… pasting it below… ( i am trying the automation for iOS native app)

[debug] [iOS] App is not installed. Will try to install.

[MJSONWP] Encountered internal error running command: Error: Installing /var/folders/rf/f4vlhjks42l40bcs9fl19_l00000gn/T/2016828-1057-13yy5xd/Payload/ExamSoft.app failed
at /Applications/Appium.app/Contents/Resources/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-ios-driver/node_modules/node-idevice/main.js:159:6
at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:193:7)
at emitTwo (events.js:100:13)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:185:7)
at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:850:16)
at Socket. (internal/child_process.js:323:11)
at emitOne (events.js:90:13)
at Socket.emit (events.js:182:7)
at Pipe._onclose (net.js:475:12)