How can I install USB Prober from the Developer SDK on Mac OS X?

USB Prober.app is not included in Xcode

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Search for iOUSBFamily and download the latest version on the developer page

Installing the package is not recommended as it will overwrite your installed kernel extension, and can cause kernel panics at startup if the version downloaded does not match the OS.

Instead, after downloading

  1. mount the downloaded .dmg.
  2. Within the folder without the suffix "-log" in the name, right click on the IOUSBFamily-xxx.x.x.pkg and select "Show Package Contents".
  3. Double click on Contents/Archive.pax.gz to unarchive. Unarchived files are typically placed in a folder named "Archive".
  4. Look within that for DevTools/Hardware/USB Prober.app.

All of those warnings that come with USB Prober scared me away. Instead, I used IORegistryExplorer, and it works fine for me in OS X 10.10.2.

• In ADC "Downloads", search for and download the "Hardware I/O Tools for Xcode - October 2013". (Change I/O to IO or the search won't match.)

• Open the downloaded disk image.

• You will find a "IORegistryExplorer.app" in the package.

• Connect your USB device.

• Launch IORegistryExplorer.app.

• You'll see an outline with hundreds of entries. To find the device you are looking for, you'll need to guess some search terms that describe it, and enter them into the search field. For example, I was looking for an RS-232C device, so I entered "RS".

• When you think you've found the entry for your device, disconnect it. If you are correct, the entry's text will become red strikeout, then if you plug it back in, a new entry will appear in green text, turning to black after a few seconds.