Mobile Phones iPhone & iOS How to Activate the iPhone Debug Console or Web Inspector Use Safari's web developer tools to study problematic websites by Scott Orgera Writer Scott Orgera is a former writer who covering tech since 2007. He has 25+ years experience as a programmer and QA leader, and holds several Microsoft certifications. our editorial process Facebook Twitter Scott Orgera Updated on December 14, 2020 reviewed by Jessica Kormos Lifewire Tech Review Board Member Jessica Kormos is a writer and editor with 15 years' experience writing articles, copy, and UX content for Tecca.com, Rosenfeld Media, and many others. our review board Article reviewed on Mar 27, 2020 Jessica Kormos iPhone & iOS Switching from Android Tweet Share Email What to Know Activate Web Inspector: Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced and move the Web Inspector toggle switch to the On position.Activate on early versions of iOS: Access the Debug Console through Settings > Safari > Developer > Debug Console.Use Web Inspector: Connect your iPhone to a Mac, then enable the Develop menu in the Safari Advanced Preferences. This article explains how to open the iPhone debug for Safari. Instructions apply to iPhones with iOS 12 through iOS 6 and Macs with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) and later. Activate Web Inspector on iPhone iOS 6 and Later The Web Inspector is disabled by default since most iPhone users have no use for it. However, developers can activate it in a few short steps. Here's how: Tap the Settings icon on the iPhone Home screen. On an iPhone with an early version of iOS, access the Debug Console through Settings > Safari > Developer > Debug Console. Whenever Safari on the iPhone detects CSS, HTML, and JavaScript errors, details of each are displayed in the debugger. Scroll down and tap Safari to open the screen that contains everything related to the Safari web browser on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Advanced. Move the Web Inspector toggle switch to the On position. Connect iPhone to Safari on a Mac To use the Web Inspector, connect your iPhone or another iOS device to a Mac that's running the Safari web browser. Plug your device into the computer using a cable. With Safari open, do the following: Click Safari in the menu bar and choose Preferences. Click the Advanced tab. Select the Show Develop menu in menu bar check box. Exit the settings window. In the Safari menu bar, click Develop, then select Connect Web Inspector. Your attached iPhone or other iOS device appears in the Develop drop-down menu. With Web Inspector open, developers can inspect all the resources on a web page. The Web Inspector window contains editable HTML and notes regarding the styles and layers of the web page in a separate panel. With Safari 9 and OS X Mavericks (10.9), Apple introduced Responsive Design Mode in Web Inspector. Developers use this built-in simulator to preview how web pages scale to different screen sizes, resolutions, and orientations. What Is Web Inspector? Before iOS 6, the iPhone's Safari web browser had a built-in Debug Console that developers used to find web page defects. Recent versions of iOS use Web Inspector instead. Web Inspector is used by web developers to modify, debug, and optimize websites on Macs and iOS devices. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit