Mobile Recorder not Working on Katalon 11.0.1

Mobile Testing
1

I am a MOBILE QA agent working with a developer. We haveinstalled Katalon 11.0.1 on our MAC mini and will be using it for MOBILE TESTING. We don’t have any tests to port over to this new version. Sadly, the developer installed “the latest and greatest” before I could stop him. The basic issue is Mobile Spy works but Mobile Recorder constantly crashes. We have spent two weeks on this and have exhausted our resources.

Mac mini: 2023 with Apple M2
macOS: Sequoia 15.7.4
Xcode: 26.3
Appium: 3.2.2
Java: 21.0.1
Desire Caps: Empty

I noticed in the Device Name list, Spy and Desired caps pulls down simulators and the device set by Xcode. This is the setup that works. But the Recorder lists the device with (USB) after it. Example: My Phone (00008150-001159XXXXXXXXX) (USB).

Thanks

[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;74m[XCUITestDriver@dd4e]e[0m {}
0c8aaf561b9874b528b9cb2e839201)
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Non-default server args:
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m { basePath: e[32m'/wd/hub'e[39m, loglevel: e[32m'info'e[39m, port: e[33m64779e[39m }
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Attempting to load driver uiautomator2...
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Attempting to load driver xcuitest...
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Appium REST http interface listener started on http://0.0.0.0:64779/wd/hub
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m You can provide the following URLs in your client code to connect to this server:
	http://127.0.0.1:000/wd/hub (only accessible from the same host)
	http://00.0.0.00:000/wd/hub
	http://000.000.00.000:000/wd/hub
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Available drivers:
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m   - uiautomator2@7.1.0 (automationName 'UiAutomator2')
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m   - xcuitest@00.00.0 (automationName 'XCUITest')
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Available plugins:
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m   - execute-driver@6.0.0
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m No plugins activated. Use the --use-plugins flag with names of plugins to activate
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m-->e[39m e[37mGETe[39m e[37m/wd/hub/statuse[39m e[90me[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m<-- GET /wd/hub/status e[39me[32m200e[39m e[90m4 ms - 199e[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m-->e[39m e[37mGETe[39m e[37m/wd/hub/statuse[39m e[90me[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m<-- GET /wd/hub/status e[39me[32m200e[39m e[90m1 ms - 199e[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m-->e[39m e[37mGETe[39m e[37m/wd/hub/statuse[39m e[90me[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m<-- GET /wd/hub/status e[39me[32m200e[39m e[90m0 ms - 199e[39m
e[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m-->e[39m e[37mPOSTe[39m e[37m/wd/hub/sessione[39m e[90m{"capabilities":{"firstMatch":[{"appium:app":"/Users/mobileqa2/Katalon Studio/rmAppSuitePro.ipa","appium:automationName":"xcuitest","appium:deviceName”:”abc 1126","appium:fullReset":true,"appium:mjpegServerPort":64790,"appium:newCommandTimeout":1800,"appium:noReset":false,"appium:platformVersion":"26.1","appium:udid":"00008150-001159A90C88401C (USB)","appium:waitForAppScript":"true;","appium:wdaLocalPort":0000,"platformName":"IOS"}]},"desiredCapabilities":{"appium:app":"/Users/user/Katalon Studio/myapp.ipa","appium:automationName":"xcuitest","appium:deviceName”:”abc 1126","appium:fullReset":true,"appium:mjpegServerPort":0000,"appium:newCommandTimeout":1800,"appium:noReset":false,"appium:platformVersion":"26.1","appium:udid":"00008150-001159XXXXXXXXX(USB)","appium:waitForAppScript":"true;","appium:wdaLocalPort":0000}}e[39m
e[38;5;123m[BaseDriver]e[0m The following arguments are not known and will be ignored: desiredCapabilities
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Attempting to find matching driver for automationName 'xcuitest' and platformName 'IOS'
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m The 'xcuitest' driver was installed and matched caps.
e[38;5;112m[Appium]e[0m Will require it at /Users/user/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver
e[38;5;22m[AppiumDriver@5920]e[0m Appium v3.2.2 creating new XCUITestDriver (v10.33.0) session
e[38;5;22m[AppiumDriver@5920]e[0m Checking BaseDriver versions for Appium and XCUITestDriver
e[38;5;22m[AppiumDriver@5920]e[0m Appium's BaseDriver version is 10.2.2
e[38;5;22m[AppiumDriver@5920]e[0m XCUITestDriver's BaseDriver version is 10.2.2
e[38;5;74m[XCUITestDriver@dd4e]e[0m The following provided capabilities were not recognized by this driver:
e[38;5;74m[XCUITestDriver@dd4e]e[0m   waitForAppScript
e[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;74m[XCUITestDriver@dd4e]e[0m Session created with session id: dx1x1x1x1x1-4a80-41b0-9f98-5xxxxxxxx
e[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;135m[XCUITest]e[0m Tunnel registry unavailable; using legacy devices listing instead. Original error: Tunnel registry port not found. Please run the tunnel creation script first
e[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;23m[DevCon Factory]e[0m Releasing connections for 00008150-001159XXXXXXXXX (USB) device on any port number
e[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;23m[DevCon Factory]e[0m No cached connections have been found
e[38;5;172m[db8e7071]e[0me[38;5;86m[HTTP]e[0m e[37m<-- POST /wd/hub/session e[39me[31m500e[39m e[90m219 ms - 1254e[39m
1 Like
2

Hi there, and thanks for posting in the Katalon community! :hugs:

To help you faster, please review our guide on Record Mobile Utility here:

Double-checking the steps and configurations might resolve the issue.

If the doc doesn’t help, feel free to provide more details, and a community member will assist you soon.

Thanks for being a part of our community!
Best,
Elly Tran

3

hi @rmappsuiteproqa

This smells like a compatibility + capability issue, not your setup.

From your log + description, a few red flags:

:red_circle: Root causes (most likely)

  1. Appium 3 + Katalon 11

    • Katalon still has partial/unstable support for Appium 3
    • Recorder relies heavily on internal wrappers → more fragile than Spy
      :backhand_index_pointing_right: Spy works, Recorder crashes → classic symptom

  2. Real device (USB) vs Simulator

    • Recorder picking UDID (USB) → real device

    • On iOS, Recorder is less stable on real devices, especially with:

      • new Xcode (26.x)
      • new iOS (26.x)
      • Appium 3

  3. Xcode 26 + iOS 26

    • Way too bleeding-edge for Katalon
    • Katalon usually lags behind Apple stack

  4. Capability issues

    • waitForAppScript → not recognized
    • malformed quotes in deviceName
    • (USB) inside UDID → :cross_mark: should NOT be there

:white_check_mark: What I’d do (fastest fix path)

Option A (recommended): downgrade stack

  • Appium → 2.11.x
  • Xcode → 15.x / 16.x
  • iOS → stable version (not 26)
    :backhand_index_pointing_right: This alone usually fixes Recorder

Option B (quick test)

  • Use Simulator only (no USB device)
  • See if Recorder works → confirms root cause

Option C (fix caps)
Clean your caps:

  • remove (USB) from UDID
  • remove waitForAppScript
  • fix quotes ("abc 1126")

:light_bulb: Reality check

Katalon Mobile Recorder is:

  • less maintained than Spy
  • sensitive to environment mismatch

Even in stable setups, many teams:
:backhand_index_pointing_right: use Spy + manual scripting instead of Recorder