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Getting Started

Charles for iOS requires iOS 10 or later. Once you have installed Charles for iOS from the App Store, please open the app and follow the steps below to get started. 

  1. Switch the Use Proxy switch on
  2. You will be prompted to allow Charles to install a VPN profile, allow this. See below for more information about how Charles uses VPN.
  3. Open the Charles app again and switch Use Proxy on if it is not already. 
  4. Open Safari and browse to a website, eg. www.charlesproxy.com
  5. Open the Charles app and you will see the Current Session shows that you have recorded some Hosts and Requests.
  6. Tap on the Current Session cell to view the recording. Note that because the www.charlesproxy.com website uses https you cannot see the request and response details yet. 

The next step is to install the Charles CA Certificate so that you can debug your device’s https requests and responses. 

  1. From the main screen of Charles, tap the Settings button in the top-left of the screen to open the Settings screen.
  2. Tap on SSL Proxying. 
  3. In the CA Certificate section you can see the current status on Charles’s CA Certificate. It should read “Not trusted”, if you have the proxy turned on.
  4. Read the instructions at the bottom of the screen, then follow those instructions to install and trust the certificate. Once you are complete the certificate status will read “Trusted”
  5. You can now repeat the test in Safari above and observe that there is a separate host, without a padlock, containing the requests and responses that you can now inspect.