iOS devices and Charles

Prerequisites

• Install Charles
• Make sure you have setup the Charles Root certificate on your Mac before you proceed to the next step

Check Wi-Fi networks

Make sure your Mac and iOS device are on the same Wi-Fi network

Find your Mac’s local IP address

Open Charles -> Help -> Local IP address.

Make note of the IP address as you will need to enter it into your device later

Navigate to device’s Wi-Fi proxy screen

On iOS device, tap Settings -> Wi-Fi -> tap the correct Wi-Fi network -> Configure Proxy -> select “Manual”

Configure proxy settings

This step will proxy all of your device’s internet traffic through your Mac

• Server: this is your Mac’s local IP address
• Port: 8888

Accept incoming network traffic from your device

On your device, open Safari and go to www.google.com

Return to your Mac. You should now see a prompt from Charles. Click “Allow”

Encrypted traffic from your device should now appear in Charles

Download Root certificate for iOS device

Return to the device, open Safari and go to chls.pro/ssl.

Tap “Allow” to download the root certificate

Install Root certificate

On the device, tap Settings -> General -> Profile -> Tap the Charles Proxy certificate -> Install

If you want to learn more about Root certificates, this is a good article

Trust Root certificate

On the device, tap Settings -> General -> Certificate Trust Settings -> Enable the toggle/switch for the Charles Proxy certificate

Turn on SSL proxying to view traffic in plain text

Return to your Mac, right click the network request you are interested in and click the “Enable SSL Proxying” option

I am using the iOS “Weather” app in this example

Kill and re-open the app

Kill and re-launch the Weather app. You should now see the network traffic in plain text!

Having problems?

See article about common iOS problems