Let’s get started…Ģ) Go to your “/Applications” folder, create a new directory for your current Xcode installation, name it something like “Xcode73”, move “Xcode.app” into the new directory, and (temporarily) rename “Xcode.app” to “Xcode7.3.app”. (I’ll also show you that I still have Xcode 6.4 installed on the same Mac.) We’ll be taking advantage of the fact that MacOS apps are single self-contained bundles, and while Xcode does use some common files stored on your system, applications don’t have the kind of overly complicated structures as found in OS’s like Windows (ah, like the registry). Assume you’ve got Xcode 7.3 already installed, that this version is your current go-to development platform, but you want to also install Xcode 8.2.1 on the same Mac.

This article contains the steps I’ve used for successful side-by-side Xcode installations. If you update Xcode through the App Store app, you often run into problems, and the default installation process will trash your older Xcode versions.

Download older versions of xcode