Xcode 26.0.1 keeps crashing, freezing, and losing UI connections on small projects (Assistant Editor arrows crash, storyboard drag causes beachball, outlet/IBAction circles disappear) on macOS 26.0

The developer forum is the best spot to discuss Xcode bugs, as is the developer feedback for reporting Xcode bugs and crashes, and the Apple developer support team. (There’s an Apple organizational partition here.) You will want to report this to Apple Developer Support, and then try either an older or a newer Xcode. Xcode itself can (usually) deal with multiple installed versions, including the command-line tools.

Statistically-generated corpora-tuned text can nicely double the effort on the folks answering questions around here. Not only do we get to answer the question, we also then get to explain why the statistically-generated corpora-tuned text is, as is too often the case, somewhat or completely wrong.

A third-party app developer lacking familiarity with a SIGSEGV segmentation fault is certainly possible (and resources for learning do exist, see image below), but third-party developers are going to have difficulty doing much with a segmentation fault deep within Xcode anyway, given the Xcode source code is not available to third-party developers. This includes the contents and implications of the text in the Xcode or other crash logs, too. Useful for our own apps and particularly where we can symbolicate, and less useful (or far more reverse-engineering effort) for debugging the apps of others.

LLLActive wrote:

As beginner in coding, dump XCode Editor for the mean time?

That implies the existence of something better than Xcode. The fact that Xcode frequently crashes and infuriates its user doesn't necessarily imply that 3rd party alternatives would be better. I commonly see reports from people using tools other than Xcode where they struggle with really basic operations that Xcode does easily.

A fundamental part of learning to code is discipline. A beginner has to keep at it, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. To make any progress, a developer must learn to avoid the "shiny new things" that will continually pop into view. Otherwise, they'll spend their lives in a futile chase.

One of the most important "shiny new things" to avoid is new operating system updates. Look at the marketing for Apple's operating systems for "26". It's literally "shiny new things". I recommend letting other people spin their wheels dealing with bugs. Apple will periodically update the minimum OS and Xcode version required for submission to the App Store. That is the version that developers should be using primarily. Once a developer earns enough money for a new computer, that should be invested on a device to run the latest OS/Xcode version, but only as a test/backup device. Then, when the time comes to upgrade the primary device to the new minimum versions, the now-experienced developer will be able to handle that.

The Xcode forum for developers is here: Xcode | Apple Developer Forums

The Apple developer program feedback is here: Bug Reporting - Apple Developer

If Xcode 26.0.1 is unstable, see if Xcode 16.4 works better, or consider using developer access and check for a beta.

When you report this to developer support, providing a concise reproducer can be helpful.

Since I downloaded Version 26.0.1 (17A400) after on hour or so the beachball is displayed, a window is then displayed and I am told I am running out of memory and I have to force quit Xcode, it does not crash with a crash report but just freezes with the beach ball turning in circles.

It has happened when I was using the inbuilt ChatGPT AI to check my code.

M4 Mac mini 16GM memory, storage 2TB

All the previous versions ran vey well. (10 years plus).

austinwellsdev wrote:

You can likely find crash reports in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.

Open your terminal and run these commands:

cd ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

ls -la

Or just run the Console app. This is literally its only function.

to convert them to .txt format

textutil -convert txt ~/Desktop/MyDocuments/*.ips

Never, never, never do this.

I see a lot of EtreCheck reports. And EtreCheck is a difficult app because it runs differently on each computer. So I see a lot of EtreCheck crash reports too.

All these reports are just text files. They will open in any text editor. They do not need to be converted, reformatted, adjusted, or anything else. This will only corrupt them.

Some reading related to mixing AI tools and source code, here in the context of security bug reports:

• https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/01/02/the-i-in-llm-stands-for-intelligence/
• https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2025/07/14/death-by-a-thousand-slops/

Package up a source code reproducer of the Xcode crash, and send it to Apple Developer Feedback Assistant. Preferably not with AI involved.

Verify that Xcode 26.0.1 continues to bork after updating to macOS 26.0.1. If it does, see etresoft's answer…🤯

Although Xcode 26.1 is in beta, it is roulette in development…

austinwellsdev wrote:

I’m running Xcode 26.0.1 (build 24229) on macOS 26.0 (25A354) with a MacBook Pro Apple M4 Pro chip and 48GB of memory. I’m not working on large projects, yet Xcode has been very unstable for me.

Most recently, Xcode quit unexpectedly when I clicked the navigation arrow in the Assistant Editor. The crash report shows an EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)• in AppKit when handling selection changes via NSControllerConfigurationBinder. The crash stack points to Cocoa bindings being triggered by the Assistant Editor’s selection navigation.

This is just the latest in a string of issues:

Xcode often runs slow or freezes. For example, when dragging a UI element onto the storyboard, the IDE beachballs (spinning rainbow cursor), then eventually “catches up.”

• If I add new lines near an @IBAction or @IBOutlet, the circle connection indicators in the gutter vanish. They only reappear if I completely close and reopen Xcode.

• etc. etc...

I’m not working on large or complex projects, it feels like this is an IDE stability/performance issue rather than a resource problem. Has anyone else run into similar issues with the Assistant Editor crash, storyboard freezes, or disappearing connection indicators on Xcode 26?

Seems an Xcode issue, no.

ref: https://xcodereleases.com

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

ref: https://developer.apple.com/contact/

austinwellsdev wrote:

Has anyone else run into similar issues with the Assistant Editor crash, storyboard freezes, or disappearing connection indicators on Xcode 26?

Sure. Xcode is easily the most crash-happy app I have.

Rather than clicking navigation arrows, adding UI elements onto the storyboard, or adding new lines near an @IBAction or @IBOutlet, pause for a minute and consider the breathtaking beauty and design features of the new Liquid Glass toolbars. Marvel at how the square icon is shoved into the round button with a big shadow around it. Observe the translucent features of the glass control that must assuredly be there, in spite of the limitations of your own eyes to see it. Explore the new interactions where you hover the mouse pointer over the round shadow-blob button and it recedes into the background, in the exact opposite manner of good UI design over the past 20 years.

And then ask yourself, isn't this new user experience better than Xcode running without crashing long enough to develop software to feed your family?

I've just installed 26.0.1 and I am now unable to complete any task without my M1 Mini Mac crashing within minutes of booting and then crashing again and rebooting. I've had no visible screen errors except for the mouse freezing before it blue screens and crashes.

I am not really facing crashes, just that InterfaceBuilder is unusable slow! I am using storyboards in an older project. The storyboard is rather small, but it's unusable slow. I klick somewhere, and then beachball. After a couple of seconds i can click on something else, beachball again! Its horrible!

@Apple, is there is anything I can provide to debug, let me know. But PLEASE fix this! It's unusable like that! Thanks a lot!!!

gbachmann wrote:

@Apple, is there is anything I can provide to debug, let me know. But PLEASE fix this! It's unusable like that! Thanks a lot!!!

Apple isn't here. This is a user-to-user support forum. Nobody here knows anything about your computer. Interface Builder is rather pokey. But what you describe does sound unusually slow. But perhaps you don't have a crazy, maxed-out computer running Xcode? Or maybe you're trying to run Xcode on an Intel machine? No way to know.

At least it sounds like you aren't using SwiftUI previews. Now that's slow!