How to inspect iOS Simulator network traffic on a Mac

See every HTTP and HTTPS request your app makes in the iOS Simulator, with decrypted bodies, in a few minutes and without changing your code.

Last updated 29 October 2026

The iOS Simulator uses your Mac's network, so a proxy running on the Mac sees everything the simulated app sends. You only need two things: a proxy that captures the traffic, and a certificate the simulator trusts so HTTPS can be decrypted. MinPin handles both.

1. Install MinPin and trust its certificate on the Mac

1. Download MinPin, drag it to Applications and open it. It is notarized, so it opens without a Gatekeeper warning.
2. Click Get Started in the Welcome window, then Install & Trust. MinPin generates its own root certificate on your Mac and adds it to your login Keychain. The private key never leaves your Mac.

2. Trust the certificate in the Simulator

1. Boot the simulator you want to debug.
2. Choose Certificate → Install on iOS Simulator… (⌘⇧I). The Setup window walks you through installing and trusting the certificate in every running simulator.

3. Capture and decrypt

1. Make sure recording is on (⌘R; the green dot blinks), then run your app.
2. Requests appear straight away. Switch the sidebar to Apps (⌘2) to group traffic by the app that sent it.
3. HTTPS hosts show as tunnels until you opt in. Right-click a request and choose Enable SSL to decrypt that host. MinPin never decrypts a host you did not choose.

Every decrypted request now shows its headers, body, timing and status. JSON is pretty-printed, images are previewed, and gzip, deflate, Brotli and zstd bodies are decompressed for you.

Common problems

• Requests appear but bodies are empty. SSL decoding is off for that host. Enable it as in step 3.
• The app shows a TLS or certificate error. The simulator does not trust the certificate yet. Run step 2 again with the simulator booted. Apps that pin their certificates will refuse any proxy; that is the pinning working as designed.
• Nothing appears at all. Check that recording is on. If another tool changed the Mac's proxy settings, see Troubleshooting.

Next steps

• Debugging on a real iPhone or iPad? See Proxy iOS & Android.
• Want to test your UI against a different response? See Mock an API response without changing your code.