Failure to run after a few hours

[domomg]

Hi, I've been playing with maestro-ios-device for a couple of hours, everything worked well.

Then in the afternoon I suddenly had this issue and couldn't make it work anymore.

I've attempted:

1. full xcode reinstallation
2. full, clean maestro reinstallation (manually removed all the traces and reinstalled a fresh copy)
3. maestro-ios-device reinstallation

But no luck.

Starting maestro-ios-device apparently works, the tool compiles and the maestro driver app deploys on the physical iPhone correctly (and i get the "Automation running" overlay).

The issue appears the moment I try to run maestro, I get these logs:

from maestro-ios-device:

INFO[0018] new client connected conn="&forward.ConnListener{listener:(*net.TCPListener)(0x140003b8080), quit:(chan interface {})(0x140003ba000)}"
INFO[0018] could not connect to phone conn="&net.TCPConn{conn:net.conn{fd:(*net.netFD)(0x1400038a180)}}" err="Failed connecting to service, error code:2" phonePort=22087
INFO[0018] new client connected conn="&forward.ConnListener{listener:(*net.TCPListener)(0x140003b8080), quit:(chan interface {})(0x140003ba000)}"
INFO[0018] could not connect to phone conn="&net.TCPConn{conn:net.conn{fd:(*net.netFD)(0x1400038a480)}}" err="Failed connecting to service, error code:2" phonePort=22087

when running maestro:

/Users/test/.maestro/maestro-iphoneos-driver-build/driver-iphoneos/Build/Products

The stack trace was:
java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException: /Users/test/.maestro/maestro-iphoneos-driver-build/driver-iphoneos/Build/Products
at java.base/sun.nio.fs.UnixException.translateToIOException(UnixException.java:92)
at java.base/sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:106)
at java.base/sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:111)
at java.base/sun.nio.fs.UnixFileAttributeViews$Basic.readAttributes(UnixFileAttributeViews.java:55)
at java.base/sun.nio.fs.UnixFileSystemProvider.readAttributes(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:148)
at java.base/java.nio.file.Files.readAttributes(Files.java:1851)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileTreeWalker.getAttributes(FileTreeWalker.java:220)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileTreeWalker.visit(FileTreeWalker.java:277)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileTreeWalker.walk(FileTreeWalker.java:323)
at java.base/java.nio.file.FileTreeIterator.(FileTreeIterator.java:71)
at java.base/java.nio.file.Files.walk(Files.java:3918)
at java.base/java.nio.file.Files.walk(Files.java:3973)
at xcuitest.installer.IOSBuildProductsExtractor.writeBuildProducts(IOSBuildProductsExtractor.kt:110)
at xcuitest.installer.IOSBuildProductsExtractor.extract(IOSBuildProductsExtractor.kt:38)
at xcuitest.installer.LocalXCTestInstaller.startXCTestRunner(LocalXCTestInstaller.kt:195)
at xcuitest.installer.LocalXCTestInstaller.start$lambda$3(LocalXCTestInstaller.kt:117)
at maestro.utils.Metrics.measured(Metrics.kt:48)
at xcuitest.installer.LocalXCTestInstaller.start(LocalXCTestInstaller.kt:99)
at xcuitest.XCTestDriverClient.restartXCTestRunner(XCTestDriverClient.kt:40)
at ios.xctest.XCTestIOSDevice.open(XCTestIOSDevice.kt:26)
at ios.LocalIOSDevice.open(LocalIOSDevice.kt:27)
at maestro.drivers.IOSDriver.open$lambda$3(IOSDriver.kt:77)
at maestro.utils.Metrics.measured(Metrics.kt:48)
at maestro.utils.Metrics.measured$default(Metrics.kt:42)
at maestro.drivers.IOSDriver.open(IOSDriver.kt:76)
at maestro.Maestro$Companion.ios(Maestro.kt:620)
at maestro.cli.session.MaestroSessionManager.createIOS(MaestroSessionManager.kt:428)
at maestro.cli.session.MaestroSessionManager.createMaestro(MaestroSessionManager.kt:213)
at maestro.cli.session.MaestroSessionManager.newSession(MaestroSessionManager.kt:104)
at maestro.cli.session.MaestroSessionManager.newSession$default(MaestroSessionManager.kt:65)
at maestro.cli.command.TestCommand.runShardSuite(TestCommand.kt:458)
at maestro.cli.command.TestCommand.access$runShardSuite(TestCommand.kt:77)
at maestro.cli.command.TestCommand$handleSessions$1$results$1$1.invokeSuspend(TestCommand.kt:413)
at kotlin.coroutines.jvm.internal.BaseContinuationImpl.resumeWith(ContinuationImpl.kt:33)
at kotlinx.coroutines.DispatchedTask.run(DispatchedTask.kt:104)
at kotlinx.coroutines.internal.LimitedDispatcher$Worker.run(LimitedDispatcher.kt:111)
at kotlinx.coroutines.scheduling.TaskImpl.run(Tasks.kt:99)
at kotlinx.coroutines.scheduling.CoroutineScheduler.runSafely(CoroutineScheduler.kt:585)
at kotlinx.coroutines.scheduling.CoroutineScheduler$Worker.executeTask(CoroutineScheduler.kt:802)
at kotlinx.coroutines.scheduling.CoroutineScheduler$Worker.runWorker(CoroutineScheduler.kt:706)
at kotlinx.coroutines.scheduling.CoroutineScheduler$Worker.run(CoroutineScheduler.kt:693)

I can't find any reference to maestro-iphoneos-driver-build or driver-iphoneos anywhere on my filesystem, nor they are inside the .maestro directory, what's going on?

Even a clean reinstall of everything doesn't solve the issue, what am I missing here?

[omnarayan]

Thanks for the detailed report! I can see what's happening here.

The Problem

The stack trace shows Maestro looking for:

maestro-iphoneos-driver-build/driver-iphoneos/Build/Products

This is Maestro's built-in iOS driver path, not maestro-ios-device. This means Maestro isn't connecting to maestro-ios-device at all — it's trying to use its native (simulator-only) XCUITest installer.

The Fix

When maestro-ios-device starts successfully, it prints the exact command to use:

✅ Ready! Run:
   maestro --driver-host-port 6001 --device YOUR_UDID --app-file /path/to/app.ipa test flow.yaml

Make sure you're using --driver-host-port 6001 when running Maestro:

maestro --driver-host-port 6001 --device YOUR_UDID --app-file /path/to/app.ipa test flow.yaml

⚠️ Without --driver-host-port, Maestro ignores maestro-ios-device entirely and tries to build/install its own XCUITest runner.

Why it worked before then stopped

Most likely you had --driver-host-port 6001 in your earlier commands and accidentally dropped it. The "Automation running" overlay confirms maestro-ios-device successfully deployed the runner — but Maestro CLI won't connect to it without that flag.

---

Let me know if this solves it!