Direct download any Xcode

October 28, 2018 • 3 min read

Table of Contents

Install Xcode Command Line Tools
Install Homebrew and wget
Install and get cookies.txt from your browser
Get Xcode direct download link
Start download
Install Xcode

Downloading Xcode from the App Store, or even the .xip file while using a browser, regardless of which one it is, can be a pain when your connection is not as stable and fast as others' and when the download can be interrupted at any time and you're most likely going to have to restart the whole download.

This just happened to me and I'm writing this as a note-to-self but also to share this with others who might be facing a similar situation.

Here's what I did to download it…

Install Xcode Command Line Tools

It is a small package of ~183Mb which I think it's enough to be downloaded via your browser.

Go to Developer Downloads site
Sign in with your Apple ID if you need to
Search for the command line package you want to download (I'm going to use the latest stable Command Line tools for Xcode 10 and macOS Mojave).
Press the link on the right side and wait for download to complete
Once downloaded, install it as any other .dmg package.

Install Homebrew and wget

I used Homebrew to install wget. There might be another way, but this is how I did it. 😅

Open Terminal
Run

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Follow the prompted steps
Once done, run

brew install wget

Install and get cookies.txt from your browser

Download for Google Chrome (Don't have a link for other browsers, sorry)
Visit the Developer Downloads site again.
Click the cookies.txt icon
In the top part you will see a link that says 'click here'. Click it to download the cookies.txt file
Save it wherever you want

Get Xcode direct download link

Visit the Developer Downloads site once more.
Select the Xcode version you want to download (I'm going to download Xcode 10).
Right-click the link on the right side an select "Copy link address"
Alternatively, visit this StackOverflow answer for links to all Xcode versions.

Start download

Open Terminal and go to the location of your cookies.txt file.
Now run

wget --load-cookies=cookies.txt -c https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_10/Xcode_10.xip

Replace the link at the end with the one you want for the file you want to download which you got in last step.
Wait for the download to finish.

Notes:

Add -b to the download command to run it in the background, although it is easier to check progress and state without it.
The -c option in the command allows you to continue with the download even if you close your terminal, or cancel the process, or restart your laptop, etc.