Which app does app ID in /Application folder belong to?

Question

I was able to get bundle identifiers for all apps installed on iOS simulator by going to directory

~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/[DeviceID]/data/Containers/Data/Application/

but how do I know which app the ID belongs to? Are there names? Why are all IDs numerical? Are they randomly generated and different on each sim?

Answer 1

I don't know why it is random number. Why apple use this kind of mechanism, But you can get application bundle identifier by using below step.

Step:1

Goto: ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/[DeviceID]/data/Containers/Data/Application/

Step:2

Select Any application > Open .com.apple.mobile_container_manager.metadata.plist file.

Step:3 Value for MCMMetadataIdentifier is identifier for your application you can also see in below screenshot.

Answer 2

Short answer: just parse hidden file for bundle id ...

~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/< device id >/data/Containers/Data/Application/< app id >/.com.apple.mobile_container_manager.metadata.plist

Answer 3

Why are all IDs numerical? Are they randomly generated and different on each sim?

I believe they’re different on every device, and that the idea is to make it more difficult for malware to figure out whether and where a given app is on the device.