Xcode on external drive?

Question

Xcode on external drive?

Now that macOS officially supports installing large App Store apps on external drives. I was wondering has anyone here tried running Xcode from an external ssd? I am not very into swift development yet but I would like to try it sometime, like as a hobby. I already have the command line tools installed and some homebrew utilities for actual work I need to do.

Is it better to have it directly on the system? Considering it's a full IDE and not just any other app is all im saying. Or does it not make a difference? My external ssd is fast enough (not thunderbolt), like Microsoft office for example opens and runs fine. Ideally I would just put everything on my internal drive, but I only have <30% space left...

MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Posted on Jan 26, 2025 4:09 AM

Reply

Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,262 points

Jan 26, 2025 9:24 AM in response to questions_asker_0564

questions_asker_0564 wrote:

Now that macOS officially supports installing large App Store apps on external drives. I was wondering has anyone here tried running Xcode from an external ssd? I am not very into swift development yet but I would like to try it sometime, like as a hobby. I already have the command line tools installed and some homebrew utilities for actual work I need to do.

Is it better to have it directly on the system? Considering it's a full IDE and not just any other app is all im saying. Or does it not make a difference? My external ssd is fast enough (not thunderbolt), like Microsoft office for example opens and runs fine. Ideally I would just put everything on my internal drive, but I only have <30% space left...

Xcode must be installed on your Mac’s startup disk...

Make your external drive the startup disk you can install Xcode on an external drive.

System Settings to set the startup disk:

ref: Xcode - Support

https://developer.apple.com/support/

Reply