Xcode 6: Build hangs and Interface Builder Cocoa T

Question

I’m having an issue to which I haven’t been able to find a solution just by searching here or on Google.

I’m building a project which is shared by multiple developers. For some reason I’m the only one with this issue. I checked out the code several times and even re-installed Xcode.

So what happens is that when I build the project the build process hangs forever. A process called “Interface Builder Cocoa Touch Tool” runs and starts accumulating RAM until it reached the Mac’s limit (which is 16 GB). At this point, as soon as I see that I kill the process and the build fails.

On the Console App I see this:

2014-10-02 4:45:16.013 PM Interface Builder Cocoa Touch Tool[875]: BUG in libdispatch client: kevent[EVFILT_VNODE] add: "Bad file descriptor" - 0x9
2014-10-02 4:45:17.956 PM Interface Builder Cocoa Touch Tool[875]: assertion failed: 13F34: libxpc.dylib + 29453 [75E30F22-514B-3A20-B82C-EDA43AF5C35C]: 0x8d

On Xcode I see the build getting stuck on “Compiling 1 of 1 story board files”, or “Compiling 1 of 1 asset catalogs”.

Even if I stop the build, the “Interface Builder Cocoa Touch Tool” process will continue running and accumulating RAM.

I do see two warnings related to the story board:

Base.lproj/MainStoryboard.storyboard Frame for "Scroll View" will be different at run time.
Base.lproj/MainStoryboard.storyboard: warning: Unsupported Configuration: Prototype table cells must have reuse identifiers

And I see two warnings for the assets:

../Images-2.xcassets: A 57x57 app icon is required for iPhone apps targeting releases of iOS prior to 7.0
../Images-2.xcassets: A 57x57@2x app icon is required for iPhone apps targeting releases of iOS prior to 7.0

But I don’t think these are the cause.

Here are Xcode’s and the Mac’s information:

2.5 Ghz, Core i7 with 16 GB of Ram. Os X 10.9.5. Xcode 6.0.1.

Any help is more than welcomed.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I did a "binary search" to find which element was corrupting my .xib file.

Each time, I had to kill Xcode, delete Derived Data. Once I found the sub-view that was causing the problem, I removed and reconstructed it.

Answer 2

I believe the problem is related to the new font mechanism in interface builder. Remove all references to fonts in your project and I bet the problem goes away.

Answer 3

I am not using Storyboards but I think the problem here may be at a higher level and not related to storyboards. I faced the same problem (xcode hangs while trying to build the app, activity monitor shows interface builder using 99% CPU).

The following worked for me - In the .xcodeproj file, changing the iOS Deployment Target from 6.0 to 7.0 fixed it instantly.

Answer 4

I was getting the same "Compiling Storyboards" or "Compiling Asset Catalog" hang under Xcode 7.3.1. Activity Monitor showed multiple "Interface Builder Cocoa Touch Tool" processes running.

I was able to continue by:

1. Closing the offending storyboard
2. Closing the project
3. Restarting Xcode, but do not open the project
4. Open just the offending storyboard
5. Closing the storyboard and restarting Xcode
6. Open the project

Answer 5

In Xcode, right-click on the storyboard file and select Open As -> Source Code. In the source code editor, change the value of "useAutolayout" to "NO". Then, you should be able to open your storyboard as Interface Builder. I ran into this annoying issue. Now, all of my storyboard files created in Xcode 5 can be open in Xcode 6 now.

Answer 6

I fixed this issue by just resolved all warnings related to storyboard. For example: 1. I deleted unused prototype cell in TableView, because it will cause warning about something like "No reuse Identifier". 2. I deleted unused view controller.