Insights

Size Analysis Insights point out opportunities to reduce your iOS app's size. They spot patterns like duplicate files, oversized media, or unneeded assets, and list exactly what to fix along with the estimated size savings.

iOS Insights

Below are a list of available insights for iOS builds, followed by more details about each insight:

Strip Debug Symbols

What it is: Debug info and symbols are only used during development and should not be shipped to users.

How to fix: Strip symbols from release builds and instead use debug symbols in separate dSYM files for crash reporters.

In Xcode ensure your release configuration sets the Debug Information Format build setting to DWARF with dSYM.

The strip command can then remove the extra information:

strip -rSTx AppBinary -o AppBinaryStripped

To automate stripping in your project after building, add a Run Script phase that skips non-release builds and leaves Apple-signed frameworks untouched:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

echo "Starting the symbol stripping process..."

if [ "Release" = "${CONFIGURATION}" ]; then
  echo "Configuration is Release."

  # Path to the app directory
  APP_DIR_PATH="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${EXECUTABLE_FOLDER_PATH}"
  echo "App directory path: ${APP_DIR_PATH}"

  # Strip main binary
  echo "Stripping main binary: ${APP_DIR_PATH}/${EXECUTABLE_NAME}"
  strip -rSTx "${APP_DIR_PATH}/${EXECUTABLE_NAME}"
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Successfully stripped main binary."
  else
    echo "Failed to strip main binary." >&2
  fi

  # Path to the Frameworks directory
  APP_FRAMEWORKS_DIR="${APP_DIR_PATH}/Frameworks"
  echo "Frameworks directory path: ${APP_FRAMEWORKS_DIR}"

  # Strip symbols from frameworks, if Frameworks/ exists at all
  # ... as long as the framework is NOT signed by Apple
  if [ -d "${APP_FRAMEWORKS_DIR}" ]; then
    echo "Frameworks directory exists. Proceeding to strip symbols from frameworks."
    find "${APP_FRAMEWORKS_DIR}" -type f -perm +111 -maxdepth 2 -mindepth 2 -exec bash -c '
    codesign -v -R="anchor apple" "{}" &> /dev/null ||
    (
        echo "Stripping {}" &&
        if [ -w "{}" ]; then
            strip -rSTx "{}"
            if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
                echo "Successfully stripped {}"
            else
                echo "Failed to strip {}" >&2
            fi
        else
            echo "Warning: No write permission for {}"
        fi
    )
    ' \;
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Successfully stripped symbols from frameworks."
    else
        echo "Failed to strip symbols from some frameworks." >&2
    fi
  else
    echo "Frameworks directory does not exist. Skipping framework stripping."
  fi
else
  echo "Configuration is not Release. Skipping symbol stripping."
fi

echo "Symbol stripping process completed."

Because Xcode generates dSYMs from the unstripped binary, list the dSYM as an Input File so the script runs after Xcode finishes generating it:

${DWARF_DSYM_FOLDER_PATH}/${DWARF_DSYM_FILE_NAME}/Contents/Resources/DWARF/${EXECUTABLE_NAME}

Duplicate Files

What it is: Finds identical files bundled more than once.

How to fix: Use dynamic frameworks to share assets between multiple targets. Here's an example a post walking through how to do this for an SPM project.

Image Optimization

What it is: Surfaces PNG, JPEG, or HEIC assets that can be minified or converted.

How to fix: Pick one of these workflows, then replace the source asset with the optimized version. If you convert to HEIC, update the asset catalog reference.

Option 1: Use Imagemin (CLI)

# Install imagemin-cli
npm install -g imagemin-cli

# Optimize PNG with quality 85
npx imagemin input.png --plugin=pngquant --pngquant.quality=0.85-0.85 > output.png

# Optimize JPEG with quality 85
npx imagemin input.jpg --plugin=mozjpeg --plugin.mozjpeg.quality=85 > output.jpg

Option 2: Use ImageOptim (GUI)

Download ImageOptim for macOS, drag your images into the window, and let it recompress them with lossy settings.

Option 3: Convert to HEIC

Open the image in Preview, choose File → Export, pick HEIC, and save. Replace the original file and update any references.

Alternate Icon Optimization

What it is: Alternate app icons are only ever shown on the home screen which requires 180x180 pixels. These images can be downsized to 180x180 and then upsampled back to 1024x1024 to reduce size.

How to fix: Run one of the scripts below to resize to homescreen quality and save an optimized copy. Then update the alternate icon entry in your .xcassets catalog (and Info.plist if you change the filename).

1. Save the script as optimize.sh.
2. Run source optimize.sh.
3. Call optimize_icon YourIcon.png.

#!/bin/bash
optimize_icon() {
    local input="$1"
    local output="$(basename "$input" | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//')_optimized.heic"

    [ ! -f "$input" ] && echo "❌ File not found: $input" && return 1

    echo "🔄 Optimizing $(basename "$input")..."

    sips --resampleWidth 180 "$input" \
      --out /tmp/icon.png >/dev/null 2>&1 || return 1
    sips --resampleWidth 1024 /tmp/icon.png \
      -s format heic -s formatOptions 85 \
      --out "$output" >/dev/null 2>&1

    rm /tmp/icon.png

    if [ -f "$output" ]; then
        local saved=$(( ($(stat -f%z "$input") - $(stat -f%z "$output")) / 1024 ))
        echo "✅ Saved ${saved}KB → $output"
    else
        echo "❌ Optimization failed"
        return 1
    fi
}

Update the Info.plist alternate icon entry to point at the new .heic file.

Loose Images

What it is: Finds scaled @1x/@2x/@3x images stored outside of asset catalogs. This prevents app thinning from removing variants not needed for the user's device.

How to fix: Move each image set into an asset catalog in Xcode.

Small Files

What it is: Each file on iOS takes up a minimum of 4KB due to the filesystem's block size. Files smaller than this limit will take up more storage on disk than expected. Every file inside the app also has code signature overhead which can add up with many files.

How to fix: Group small files into asset catalogs, archives, or databases so multiple entries share the same file on disk.

Unnecessary Files

What it is: Files such as READMEs, docs, scripts, configs, and similar build leftovers do not need to be included in the app bundle.

How to fix: Drop these files from the Copy Bundle Resources phase or exclude them with EXCLUDED_SOURCE_FILE_NAMES before archiving.

Large Images

What it is: Image assets larger than 10 MB are not recommended to be bundled in your app. Often times images are only shown to a subset of users and could instead be shown on-demand. Large images also take up considerable amount of memory when displayed and can lead to Out of Memory crash reports.

How to fix: host and load the image with a CDN. Also check if the image has been minified and is in the appropriate format for the best compression.

Large Videos

What it is: Video assets larger than 10 MB are not recommended to be bundled in your app. Often times videos are only shown to a subset of users and could instead be shown on-demand.

How to fix: host and stream the content instead of bundling it, or re-encode them with H.264 or HEVC at a lower bitrate or resolution.

Minify Localized Strings

What it is: Xcode localized strings files often include translator comments, whitespace, binary encodings, and other non-runtime text that can be safely stripped.

How to fix: Start with low-effort cleanup, then automate comment stripping if you still ship large payloads.

Option 1: Keep the format lean

• Use the newer String Catalog to store strings in a more efficient format. Ensure STRINGS_FILE_OUTPUT_ENCODING = binary to get an efficient encoding that automatically strips whitespace and comments.

Option 2: Strip comments automatically

If strings are encoded as text, these files can have extra comments and whitespace that ship with the bundle. They help during translation but take space in production. A typical comment may look like:

/* Title for the expired code alert. */
"code_expired" = "Code Expired";

You can automatically strip comments by adding a Run Script build phase that converts each .strings file to JSON, rewrites it without comments, and leaves a compact UTF-8 file behind:

1. In Xcode, open Build Phases → + → New Run Script Phase and place it after the localized resources build step.
2. Set the shell to your Python 3 binary (for Homebrew on Apple Silicon: /opt/homebrew/bin/python3).
3. Paste the script below.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import os
import subprocess

def minify(file_path: str) -> None:
    subprocess.run(["plutil", "-convert", "json", file_path], check=True)

    with open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as source:
        data = json.load(source)

    with open(file_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as target:
        for key, value in data.items():
            target.write(f'"{key}" = "{value}";\n')

for root, _, files in os.walk(os.environ["BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR"], followlinks=True):
    for filename in files:
        if filename.endswith(".strings"):
            path = os.path.join(root, filename)
            print(f"Minifying {path}")
            minify(path)

This script strips comments and blank lines after the files are generated, so keep the original annotated copies under version control for translators.

Option 3: Integrate SmallStrings library

SmallStrings can result in savings up to 90% of the original localization size, but is only recommended for apps with a lot of translations due to the effort required.

Main Binary Export Metadata

What it is: Binaries that act as entrypoints for your app, such as your main app binary or watchOS app binary, are not linked against by other binaries. This means the export trie information is unnecessary and can be removed.

How to fix: Maintain a minimal allowlist so only required entry points stay exported.

1. Create a text file in your project, for example Config/ExportedSymbols.txt
2. Add _main on its own line
3. If you rely on other dynamic lookups, list those symbols too
4. In Xcode, set Build Settings → Linking → Exported Symbols File to the new file’s path

Xcode now limits the export trie to just that allowlist.

Hermes Debug Info (React Native)

What it is: Debug information is only needed during development and should not be shipped to users.

How to fix: Enable Source maps when building your release app.