Have a peculiar problem I'm not able to solve. Working on an app with a mapview in the max zoomed out globe level. For some reason this morning Xcode froze/crashed when I was working and I had to force quit to get it back up. Then a new issue of graphical artifacts on the space section of the Mapview showed up.
This Tuesday has now been spent in full on trying to solve this to no avail.
I created a new project for iOS/iPadOS and added a similar map implementation. It works fine.
I used Claude to help me after a few reinstalls of Xcode with this. I asked claude to summarize - this is what has been done:
Claude generative AI summary starts here----------
Here's a complete summary of everything attempted:
The Problem SwiftUI tvOS app with MapKit globe view showing severe rendering artifacts — corrupted pixels surrounding the globe. Started after Xcode crashed while the tvOS simulator was actively running. iOS simulator, macOS Maps app, and all native apps work perfectly. Only tvOS simulator MapKit is affected.
Hardware Confirmed Fine
- Geekbench 6 Metal GPU score: 124,666 (normal for M1 Max)
- Apple Diagnostics (Apple Silicon method): No issues found
- macOS Maps globe renders perfectly
Everything That Was Attempted
Simulator resets:
- Erased all simulator content and settings
- Created brand new simulator devices
- Deleted derived data
- Killed CoreSimulator service
Runtime reinstalls:
- Removed and reinstalled tvOS platform runtime multiple times
- Tested on Xcode 26.3 and 26.4 beta — same issue on both
- Installed fresh tvOS runtime after full Xcode reinstall
Cache clearing:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.CoreSimulator~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.iphonesimulator.savedState- All Metal shader caches in
/private/var/folders/including:com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRenderingServices.SimMetalHostcom.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRenderingServices.SimRenderServercom.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorServicecom.apple.iphonesimulatorcom.apple.dt.Xcodecom.apple.dt.xcodebuildcom.apple.CoreSimulator.simctl
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/XcodeToMetalToolchainIndexMapping.plist~/Library/Developer/Xcode/SDKToSimulatorIndexMapping.plist~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
Full Xcode reinstall:
- Deleted Xcode completely
- Removed
~/Library/Developer - Removed all Xcode-related caches and preferences
- Fresh install from Mac App Store
APFS simulator volume cleanup (required disabling SIP):
- Discovered 138GB of orphaned APFS simulator volumes in
/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Volumes/that were protected by SIP and couldn't be deleted normally - These volumes were left in a corrupted/limbo state from the original Xcode crash
- Temporarily disabled SIP via Recovery Mode
- Successfully deleted all orphaned volumes
- Re-enabled SIP
- Reinstalled fresh tvOS runtime
Metal Toolchain:
- Found three leftover Metal Toolchains (17A324, 17A5241c, 17A5295f) in Xcode settings
- Cleared toolchain index mapping file
- Reinstalled fresh Metal Toolchain with new tvOS runtime
Current State
- Fresh Xcode installation
- Fresh tvOS runtime
- All simulator volumes cleared
- SIP re-enabled
- Issue still persists
What Has NOT Been Checked
/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Cryptex/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Images/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles
Conclusion This is almost certainly a bug triggered by the hard Xcode crash corrupting something at a level that has survived complete reinstallation of Xcode and all simulator components. The corruption is somewhere in a system-level component that normal developer tools cannot reach. Requires Apple Developer Technical Support or escalation via Feedback Assistant with the full timeline and screenshots.
For Apple's reference:
- Machine: MacBook Pro M1 Max
- Xcode: 26.3 / 26.4 beta (both affected)
- Started: After hard Xcode crash while tvOS simulator was actively rendering MapKit globe
- Affected: tvOS simulator MapKit globe only
- Not affected: iOS simulator, macOS Maps, all native apps
----------(Claude generative AI summary ends here) -----------
Anyone seen this before? Absolutely wild. Can't think of more things to try. Been eyeing a new Macbook for a while. Strange coincidence that the new M5 Macbook Pros dropped today :D But in sum it does not seem like a GPU issue since the same rendering works on the iOS sim.
Thanks!