2026-01-23 flutter

Debugging Flutter iOS from Windows: a real device workflow (Flutter 3.x)

Every few weeks, the same pain point resurfaces: “I’m on Windows. I want to debug my Flutter iOS app on a real iPhone. Do I really need a Mac?” A fresh r/FlutterDev post proposes a pragmatic workaround: offload the iOS build to macOS in GitHub Actions, then install and attach for debugging from Windows: https://www.reddit.com/r/FlutterDev/comments/1qkm5pd/develop_flutter_ios_apps_on_windows_with_a_real/…

The open-source project behind it is https://github.com/MobAI-App/ios-builder.

Split the problem: build on macOS, debug from Windows

iOS has two hard constraints:

Xcode tooling runs on macOS.
Real device install and signing have rules that you cannot bypass from Windows.

But Flutter debugging is mostly “attach to a running app and talk to the VM service”. That means you can decouple build/install from the developer loop, as long as you can get a debug-capable app onto the device.

The flow described in the post is:

Trigger a macOS CI job that produces an .ipa.
Download the artifact to Windows.
Install it on a physically connected iPhone (via a bridge app).
Run flutter attach from Windows to get hot reload and DevTools.

A minimal GitHub Actions build that produces an IPA

This is not the whole story (signing is its own rabbit hole), but it shows the key idea: a macOS runner builds and uploads an artifact.

name: ios-ipa
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
        with:
          channel: stable
      - run: flutter pub get
      - run: flutter build ipa --debug --no-codesign
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: ios-ipa
          path: build/ios/ipa/*.ipa

Whether --no-codesign is acceptable depends on how you plan to install. Many real device paths still require signing at some stage, even for debug flows.

The Windows-side loop: install, then attach

Once the app is installed and running on the iPhone, the Flutter part becomes normal:

# From Windows
flutter devices
flutter attach -d <device-id>

Hot reload works because you are attaching to a debug session, not because you built on the same machine.

Know the tradeoffs up front

This workflow is useful, but it is not magic:

Signing is still real: you will deal with certificates, profiles, or a third-party installer path.
You still need a device: simulators do not run on Windows.
Your CI job becomes part of your dev loop: optimize build times and cache dependencies.

If you want the original write-up and the repo that triggered this, start here: https://github.com/MobAI-App/ios-builder. For official Flutter guidance on iOS debugging, keep the platform docs nearby too: https://docs.flutter.dev/platform-integration/ios/ios-debugging