Troubleshooting Cocoapods Installation Error with XCode 15.1

27.12.2023 — cocoapods, xcode — 1 min read

Building and maintaining a React Native app can sometimes feel like a smooth sail. Other times, it's an adventurous journey through various errors and fixes.

Upon attempting to build my React Native app for iOS today, I was greeted with a pod install failure in Xcode 15.1. The error read:

NoMethodError - undefined method `=~' for ["-ObjC", "-w"]:Array

Cocoapods is usually a reliable tool in my development workflow, but also I encounter issues often enough when I update XCode.

After some research and googling through community discussions, I found the culprit: Ruby 3.2. A recent update had removed the =~ method for arrays, which was still being used by my version of Cocoapods (1.11.2). This method is typically used for matching regular expressions, and its sudden absence was causing the pod install process to fail.

Understanding the problem led me to a straightforward solution. I needed to update Cocoapods to a version compatible with Ruby 3.2. Here's how I did it:

Uninstall Cocoapods: First, I removed the outdated version of Cocoapods from my system using the command:

gem uninstall cocoapods

Install the Latest Cocoapods: Next, I installed the latest version, which at the time was 1.14, ensuring compatibility with Ruby 3.2:

gem install cocoapods

After installation, I ran pod install again, and to my relief, it worked perfectly! The build proceeded without a hitch, and I was able to continue with my development.