Invalid active developer path on MAC OS X after installing Ruby

Question

I get this error:

xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Applications/Xcode.app), missing xcrun at: /Applications/Xcode.app/usr/bin/xcrun

This solution works, but the error occurs again after closing my terminal and reopening it; I then have to run the same commands every time I open a new terminal window.

How can I apply these changes such that they will save after closing the terminal window out?

Solution 1

I started getting the same error after updating to OS X El Capitan.
In my case, all I did was to install it:

sudo xcode-select --install

And it works fine for me.

Solution 2

[Update] The steps below are for OS X 10.10 (Yosemite). Those experiencing this because of an upgrade to 10.11 (El Capitan) seem need to only run sudo xcode-select --install as described in the accepted answer.

I found a suggestion here which indicated

sudo xcode-select -switch /

as the fix. However, this threw an error that the developer path was invalid.

Instead, for me, I modified this to

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/

(which is a mixture of the two referenced link solutions) and this worked.

[Edit]

Try using

xcode-select --print-path

to find your developer path if /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/ is still invalid for you.

Solution 3

I know this is quite old but I got the same issue and then I fixed it by doing couple more extra steps. Problem came when Terminal could not find the actual path of the Command Line Tools.

1. If you had Xcode and then removed it, then Terminal is referring to the Command Line Tools inside the Xcode folder. Try using this command and check what your path is, xcode-select --print-path. This would most likely print /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer.
2. Now to fix this, reinstall the command line tools for xcode. Initially remove any previous installations using sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools.
3. Then install the command line tools sudo xcode-select --install Now the final step, change the path for the CLT to the actual path using sudo xcode-select -switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/ this will fix it.

Solution 4

I resolved the issue with the below steps.

Xcode -> Preferences -> Locations -> Command Line Tools -> Select the command tool matching your Xcode version.

Solution 5

I started getting the same error after i update macOS Mojave to macOS Catalina.

I just installed few command lines in Terminal,

 1. $ sudo gem install cocoapods
 2. $ sudo xcode-select --install
 3. $ chsh -s /bin/zsh

Then,

Xcode -> Preferences -> Locations -> Command Line Tools and confirm you have current Xcode version selected there.

And it works fine with me. Thanks!!

View more solutions

Comments

[Charles Lillo]

Thank you for this! Ran into this issue after updating to the Xcode 7.0 beta

[Mikey]

invalid directory here

[TMKasun]

I'm also getting xcode-select: error: invalid developer directory '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/' Error,(I'm on MAC El Capitan)

[Admin]

@mikedroid Try using 'xcode-select --print-path' to find your path, and then replace the bit after '-switch' with that

[Admin]

@TMKasun Try using the advice I gave to mikedroid above (xcode-select --print-path)

[sevenseacat]

@DavidLambl didn't help. Still invalid directory.

[TMKasun]

@DavidLambl Thanks , I tried it but didn't work instead xcode-select --install worked for me.

[Admin]

@sevenseacat maybe try xcode-select --install as TMKasun and Joe pointed out?

[ItsGeorge]

This worked for me after an El Capitan upgrade. Thanks.

[Dani]

xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates

[Dani]

I tried using xcode-select --install but it prompted : xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates

[Srini]

Same issue here @DanutPralea, did yours get resolved?

[Srini]

@DanutPralea - Just use sudo Xcode-select -switch /, instead of using the developer path. I'm on Capitan and this worked for me.

[Shuvo]

For command line tools are already installed issue, this should work : 1. removing the old tools ($ rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools) 2. install xcode command line tools again ($ xcode-select --install). After these steps you will see a pop to install the new version of the tools.

[Incinerator]

This worked for me after updating to MacOS Mojave. I didn't have to use sudo though.

[Greg]

This solution worked for Mojave 10.14.6 with Xcode 10.2.1. Thanks.

[Nij]

This happens when you change path for Xcode. This solved my issue.

[ArtOfWarfare]

Have to restart IntelliJ after running this command before it stops displaying this error.

[hmali]

yeah... done with all three steps but the 4th one was missing.. 4th one did the trick for me :)

[Ryan]

I love how everyone is posting steps to follow and not a single one of them has diagnosed the problem first. Don't give people a hundred and one commands to screw up their computer state by trying. Diagnose THEN treat.

[Ryan]

I love how everyone is posting steps to follow and not a single one of them has diagnosed the problem first. Don't give people a hundred and one commands to screw up their computer state by trying. Diagnose THEN treat.

[Anjali Kevadiya]

It’s not a trial!! I face the same problem and i tried all above answers to resolve my issue but something was missing and I didn’t know what! And finally i come up with solution of my problem by my above answer and it worked perfectly for me! No one wants to waste people’s time. People answer what they have faced and how they over come to this issue.

[Tripti Kumar]

Worked well for MacOS Catalina v 10.15.1

[Bahman.A]

Can someone help me please, I can't install Xcode CLT because of this error "Can’t install the software because it is not currently available from the Software Update server.". I've tried all the suggested path reset approaches but didn't work. My main issue is that when I run npm install it complains about Xcode not available. I'm on macOS Catalina the latest version actually updated a minute ago. Thanks!

[Noname]

it helped me <3

[Chetan Prajapati]

Really @AnjaliKevadiya the all I need to do is last step only. And all done. Thanks.

[Mohammed Hasan]

This solution worked for me.

[Hanzala Raza]

Worked for me .. Thanks buddy <3