Disabling ARC on Specific Files in XCode

Disabling ARC on Specific Files in XCode 08/17/2011

ARC (Automatic Reference Count) was introduced with XCode 4.2. This means that you no longer have to release, autorelease, or retain in your code. This makes it easier when writing code but a little difficult when importing or copying code snippets from existing code written for older versions. You might get errors such as
'release' is unavailable: not available in automatic reference counting mode
or
ARC forbids explicit message send of 'release'
or
ARC forbids explicit message send of 'autorelease'

To avoid these errors, you can disable arc for your imported files. Here is how:

1. Click on your project in the Project Navigator, and then on the Target.

2. Under "Build Phases", expand "Compile Sources".

3. Click on the file you want to edit and type in -fno-objc-arc. It should appear in the "Compiler Flags" column.

Tags: IOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod, ARC, Automatic Reference Count, disable, turn off, XCode, Cocoa, Objective-C

Comments

landon

10/19/2011 21:06

thanks lee, your solution saved me. we've been building an app using phonegap and 2 files were killing me because of arc.

Michael

10/24/2011 12:40

I tried this solution but cant seem to get it to work. After I insert the compiler flags and build the app it keeps crashing in the dealloc methods. If I trying to convert to project to ARC even with the compiler flags the same errors come up as if the flags werent there. Furthermore Xcode removes the flags afterwards. Did I miss something?

Towhid

12/06/2011 21:20

Hi, Thanks.....Saved lots of time.....

mudface

12/20/2011 13:54

Thanks for the tip!

Mohamed Hamdi

01/03/2012 02:31

Many thansk

wzbozon

01/03/2012 16:22

thanks, this is useful

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01/10/2012 22:37

Under "Build Phases", expand "Compile Sources".

sss

02/12/2012 22:54

tnx pal

Gabriel Koen link

02/20/2012 17:20

Yet another thank you!

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