As an iOS developer you need to periodically update your Xcode, on your own machine and on your CI/CD server if you automate your development workflow. There are multiple ways to do this so do not waste your time and use the fastest way possible.

Forget Mac App Store, use Apple Developer Portal

As far as I can tell, they are the same. The size difference might be due to additional files Xcode from the App Store doesn't download by default, that Xcode from the site might have. I have Xcode from the App Store; the first time I opened it it asked to download the Mobile Device Framework to proceed. Download from the Mac App Store is incredibly slow and sometimes not even available for days after release (like 11.2.1). The place to go is the Apple Developer Portal where you can find all the Xcode versions, including the betas. Currently and officially, Xcode is only available through Mac App Store or iTunes, but still Mac users can download xcode without app store and without Apple ID for free. Although, xCode software is only compatible with macOS, but still Windows users can download, install and run PC version of xcode through virtual machine software like VMware / VirtualBox on computers / laptops.

As far as I can tell, they are the same. The size difference might be due to additional files Xcode from the App Store doesn't download by default, that Xcode from the site might have. I have Xcode from the App Store; the first time I opened it it asked to download the Mobile Device Framework to proceed. The Xcode IDE combined with the Swift programming language make developing apps easy and fun. What's New In This Version: Xcode 12 includes Swift 5.3 and SDKs for iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14.

Installing Xcode from the Mac App Store might seem like a convenient way to do so but it is too slow and inflexible. You cannot use the Mac App Store to install multiple version of Xcode at the same time if you need them, like when testing with a Xcode beta for an upcoming iOS release. Download from the Mac App Store is incredibly slow and sometimes not even available for days after release (like 11.2.1).

The place to go is the Apple Developer Portal where you can find all the Xcode versions, including the betas.

Faster download with aria2

Downloading Xcode from the Apple Developer Portal is faster than using the Mac App Store, but it can be made even better. You just need to use the right tools.

Install aria2 from Homebrew and uses this Ruby script from Ian Dundas:

This script downloads the given Xcode by URL from the Apple Developer Portal, but uses up to 16 separate connections to do so. You will see a significant download speed improvement.

Make sure you use the “More” site at https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ even for downloading the latest version of Xcode.

When copying the ADCDownloadAuth cookie make sure you copy the correct value, Safari adds all kinds stuff around it when you just use “copy value”.

Faster install with xip and deleting previous Xcode first

When you install the Xcode xip file you need to extract it. You can double click it in Finder and wait or you can use

Using xip from the command line is much faster because it does not verify the file signature like double clicking in Finder. Of course this is a potential security risk, so it is up to you to decide if it is worth it.

Another trick is not to drag the extracted Xcode.app to /Applications immediately but delete the existing /Applications/Xcode.app first. I guess this is related to Finder first getting the list of those thousands of files in the Xcode.app before the update.

See also

Hey LindsayS89,

Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.

It looks like the Xcode download isn't completing and you've tried some good troubleshooting steps.

Does the application download appear in Launchpad? If so, try to delete it and then restart the download from the Mac App Store.

Follow these steps while you are logged in with an administrator account:

1. Enter Launchpad.
   
2. Click and hold on an icon until you see all icons jiggle.
   
3. Click the 'x' button in the upper-left of the Mac App Store app icon you want to delete.
   

   Note: If you do not see an 'x' button, either the app is not from the Mac App Store or you are logged in as a standard user.
   

4. Click 'Delete' in the confirmation dialog to delete the app.
   

Xcode 12.4 Download

(From OS X Lion: How to remove Mac App Store apps that appear in Launchpad. The advice works for OS X El Capitan as well.)

Xcode 12 Download

Best Regards.

Download Xcode 12 Without App Store Download

Nov 28, 2015 10:21 AM