How to enable native resolution for apps on iPhone 6 and 6 Plus?

194
votes

Xcode 6 GM now includes simulators for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and by default they run apps in a scaled mode.

To enable the new screen size I tried adding [email protected] which seems to do a part of the trick since the app now fails to run at all, with the error "Unable to run app in Simulator – An error was encountered while running (Domain = LaunchServicesError, Code = 0)".

Has anyone figured out how to get an app actually run in the 6/6+ resolution?

8
iosios8ios-simulatorxcode6iphone-6
As others have said, the trick is to add a launch image of the right size to your project. I wrote up a quick guide of how to add a launch image so that you can display iPhone 6 resolution here. – matthewpalmer
this worked for me stackoverflow.com/questions/25755443/… – johndpope
The naming of images is different for iphone 6/6+. For me just adding the launch image for 6 and 6+ worked perfectly. Look at this answer for the correct naming convention: stackoverflow.com/a/27473877/1568532 – fellowworldcitizen
Is there any alternative instead of using LaunchScreen? – Vaibhav Jhaveri

8 Answers

220
votes

You can add a launch screen file that appears to work for multiple screen sizes. I just added the MainStoryboard as a launch screen file and that stopped the app from scaling. I think I will need to add a permanent launch screen later, but that got the native resolution up and working quickly. In Xcode, go to your target, general and add the launch screen file there.

Launch Screen File

116
votes

If you are using asset catalogs, go to the LaunchImages asset catalog and add the new launch images for the two new iPhones. You may need to right-click and choose "Add New Launch Image" to see a place to add the new images.

The iPhone 6 (Retina HD 4.7) requires a portrait launch image of 750 x 1334.

The iPhone 6 Plus (Retina HD 5.5) requires both portrait and landscape images sized as 1242 x 2208 and 2208 x 1242 respectively.

104
votes

I've made basic black launch screens that will make the app scale properly on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+:

iPhone 6 Portrait

iPhone 6 Plus Portrait

If you already have a LaunchImage in your .xcassett, open it, switch to the third tab in the right menu in Xcode and tick the iOS 8.0 iPhone images to add them to the existing set. Then drag the images over:

enter image description here

52
votes

I didn't want to introduce an asset catalog.

Per the answer from seahorseseaeo here, adding the following to info.plist worked for me. (I edited it as a "source code".) I then named the images [email protected] and [email protected]

<key>UILaunchImages</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>UILaunchImageMinimumOSVersion</key>
        <string>8.0</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageName</key>
        <string>Default-667h</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageOrientation</key>
        <string>Portrait</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageSize</key>
        <string>{375, 667}</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>UILaunchImageMinimumOSVersion</key>
        <string>8.0</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageName</key>
        <string>Default-736h</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageOrientation</key>
        <string>Portrait</string>
        <key>UILaunchImageSize</key>
        <string>{414, 736}</string>
    </dict>
</array>
21
votes

Note that iPhone 6 will use the 320pt (640px) resolution if you have enabled the 'Display Zoom' in iPhone > Settings > Display & Brightness > View.

8
votes

Do the following (see in photo)

  1. Goto asset catalog

  2. right-click and choose "Add New Launch Image"

    • iPhone 6 -> 750 x 1334
    • iPhone 6 Plus -> 1242 x 2208 and 2208 x 1242

enter image description here

3
votes

An error was encountered while running (Domain = LaunchServicesError, Code = 0)

Usually this indicates that installd returned an error during the install process (bad resources or similar).

Unfortunately, Xcode does not display the actual underlying error (feel free to file dupes of this known bug).

You should check ~/Library/Logs/CoreSimulator/CoreSimulator.log which will log the underlying error for you.

0
votes

If you are using asset catalog, and have multiple targets both using same asset catalog file, be sure that this file has checked both targets in the right panel in xcode.

That was my problem.

enter image description here