Hello,
I am encountering an issue with user-generated files stored in the Documents directory on an iPhone 11 running iOS 18.2.
The problem occurs as follows:
1.The app generates and saves files in the Documents directory using FileManager.
2.These files are successfully saved and remain accessible while the app is running.
3.After restarting the app, the files appear to have been deleted from the Documents directory.
I have confirmed that:
1.The files are being saved to the correct location (Documents directory) and can be accessed during the current app session and from iExplorer.
2.The app is not explicitly deleting these files during shutdown or restart.
3.This behavior is consistent across multiple app restarts.
Delve into the world of built-in app and system services available to developers. Discuss leveraging these services to enhance your app's functionality and user experience.
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I am needing to add/delete shortcuts in our app without using the Add to Siri button. But have been stymied at every turn. The most recent example is some code that uses an "AppShortcutCenter" call, supposedly added in iOS 17. But there is no such thing as that which I can find. What gives, and what's needed to do custom shortcuts on demand programmatically?
There's a 128mb limit for donating items to core spotlight. As far as I understand, there's a warning that shows in the Xcode console when either approaching or hitting that limit. It would be great if there was an API to check the current status of available storage for QA purposes to see if we're either donating too much or can donate more. Thanks!
I've been testing the Live CallerID feature using the Apple-provided local server example - live-caller-id-lookup-example. I've been running a local server with tunneling using ngrok for the initial setup. Everything was working perfectly with the following setup:
@main
final class CallerID: LiveCallerIDLookupProtocol {
var context: LiveCallerIDLookupExtensionContext {
LiveCallerIDLookupExtensionContext(
serviceURL: URL(string: "https://example-tunnel.ngrok.io")!,
tokenIssuerURL: URL(string: "https://example-tunnel.ngrok.io")!,
userTierToken: Data(base64Encoded: "BBBB")!
)
}
}
However, after I updated the URLs to the production ones, I encountered an issue:
@main
struct CallerID: LiveCallerIDLookupProtocol {
var context: LiveCallerIDLookupExtensionContext {
LiveCallerIDLookupExtensionContext(
serviceURL: URL(string: "https://example.net/")!,
tokenIssuerURL: URL(string: "https://example/issue")!,
userTierToken: Data(base64Encoded: "BBBB")!
)
}
}
The problem is that during calls or when updating PIR parameters, the application still attempts to connect to the initial ngrok tunnel URLs instead of using the new production URLs. I can confirm this because the logs on my local server show incoming requests, indicating that the application is still referencing the old ngrok tunnel URLs.
Steps I’ve taken to resolve the issue include:
Deleting and reinstalling the application.
Using reset(forExtensionWithIdentifier:)
Unfortunately, these attempts have not been successful. I even extracted the binary of the app and extension to inspect the strings, confirming that the correct production URLs are present.
The server was started with the following command:
PIRService --hostname 127.0.0.1 service-config.json
Could this be some sort of caching bug on the iOS side, or am I missing something?
Run on Xcode
Unchecked Scheme -> Run -> 'Debug excitable' is fine.
But, I need the debug log, how to fix?
after doing the "Reset all settings" in settings app. After the reset, our app isn't in the notifications menu and in "allow # to access" list, isn't the notifications option either. Reinstall seems to do the job but that's not an optimal solution.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
I am writing a SwiftData/SwiftUI app in which the user saves simple records, tagged with their current location. Core Location can take up to 10 seconds to retrieve the current location from its requestLocation() call.
I the main app I have wrapped the CLLocationManager calls with async implementations. I kick off a Task when a new record is created, and write the location to my @Model on the main thread when it completes.
A realistic use of the share extension doesn't give the task enough time to complete.
I can use performExpiringActivity to complete background processing after the share extension closes but this needs to be a synchronous block. Is there some way of using performExpiringActivity when relying on a delegate callback from something like Core Location?
Hi Devs,
I’ve created an app intent shortcut for our Best Buy app. This shortcut is visible on iOS 17.2 and later. However, I’ve marked it to support iOS 16+ as shown below:
import AppIntents
@available(iOS 16.0, *)
struct LaunchIntent: OpenIntent {
why we are not able to see shortcuts for iOS 16?
Hi, could you please help on the following points :
Does iOS supports HCE Felica emulation support in Japan?
Does iOS supports Felica card emulation using NFC & SE platform ?
Thanks
For important background information, read Extra-ordinary Networking before reading this.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Don’t Try to Get the Device’s IP Address
I regularly see questions like:
How do I find the IP address of the device?
How do I find the IP address of the Wi-Fi interface?
How do I identify the Wi-Fi interface?
I also see a lot of really bad answers to these questions. That’s understandable, because the questions themselves don’t make sense. Networking on Apple platforms is complicated and many of the things that are ‘obviously’ true are, in fact, not true at all. For example:
There’s no single IP address that represents the device, or an interface. A device can have 0 or more interfaces, each of which can have 0 or more IP addresses, each of which can be IPv4 and IPv6.
A device can have multiple interfaces of a given type. It’s common for iPhones to have multiple WWAN interfaces, for example.
It’s not possible to give a simple answer to any of these questions, because the correct answer depends on the context. Why do you need this particular information? What are you planning to do with it?
This post describes the scenarios I most commonly encounter, with my advice on how to handle each scenario.
IMPORTANT BSD interface names, like en0, are not considered API. There’s no guarantee, for example, that an iPhone’s Wi-Fi interface is en0. If you write code that relies on a hard-coded interface name, it will fail in some situations.
Service Discovery
Some folks want to identify the Wi-Fi interface so that they can run a custom service discovery protocol over it. Before you do that, I strongly recommend that you look at Bonjour. This has a bunch of advantages:
It’s an industry standard [1].
It’s going to be more efficient on the ‘wire’.
You don’t have to implement it yourself, you can just call an API [2].
For information about the APIs available, see TN3151 Choosing the right networking API.
If you must implement your own service discovery protocol, don’t think in terms of finding the Wi-Fi interface. Rather, write your code to work with all Wi-Fi interfaces, or perhaps even all Ethernet-like interfaces. That’s what Apple’s Bonjour implementation does, and it means that things will work in odd situations [3].
To find all Wi-Fi interfaces, get the interface list and filter it for ones with the Wi-Fi functional type. To find all broadcast-capable interfaces, get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with the IFF_BROADCAST flag set. If the service you’re trying to discover only supports IPv4, filter out any IPv6-only interfaces.
For advice on how to do this, see Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs.
When working with multiple interfaces, it’s generally a good idea to create a socket per interface and then bind that socket to the interface. That ensures that, when you send a packet, it’ll definitely go out the interface you expect.
For more information on how to implement broadcasts correctly, see Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips.
[1] Bonjour is an Apple term for:
RFC 3927 Dynamic Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses
RFC 6762 Multicast DNS
RFC 6763 DNS-Based Service Discovery
[2] That’s true even on non-Apple platforms. It’s even true on most embedded platforms. If you’re talking to a Wi-Fi accessory, see Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory.
[3] Even if the service you’re trying to discover can only be found on Wi-Fi, it’s possible for a user to have their iPhone on an Ethernet that’s bridged to a Wi-Fi. Why on earth would they do that? Well, security, of course. Some organisations forbid their staff from using Wi-Fi.
Logging and Diagnostics
Some folks want to log the IP address of the Wi-Fi interface, or the WWAN, or both for diagnostic purposes. This is quite feasible, with the only caveat being there may be multiple interfaces of each type.
To find all interfaces of a particular type, get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with that functional type. See Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs.
Interface for an Outgoing Connection
There are situations where you need to get the interface used by a particular connection. A classic example of that is FTP. When you set up a transfer in FTP, you start with a control connection to the FTP server. You then open a listener and send its IP address and port to the FTP server over your control connection. What IP address should you use?
There’s an easy answer here: Use the local IP address for the control connection. That’s the one that the server is most likely to be able to connect to.
To get the local address of a connection:
In Network framework, first get the currentPath property and then get its localEndpoint property.
In BSD Sockets, use getsockname. See its man page for details.
Now, this isn’t a particularly realistic example. Most folks don’t use FTP these days [1] but, even if they do, they use FTP passive mode, which avoids the need for this technique. However, this sort of thing still does come up in practice. I recently encountered two different variants of the same problem:
One developer was implementing VoIP software and needed to pass the devices IP address to their VoIP stack. The best IP address to use was the local IP address of their control connection to the VoIP server.
A different developer was upgrading the firmware of an accessory. They do this by starting a server within their app and sending a command to the accessory to download the firmware from that server. Again, the best IP address to use is the local address of the control connection.
[1] See the discussion in TN3151 Choosing the right networking API.
Listening for Connections
If you’re listening for incoming network connections, you don’t need to bind to a specific address. Rather, listen on all local addresses. In Network framework, this is the default for NWListener. In BSD Sockets, set the address to INADDR_ANY (IPv4) or in6addr_any (IPv6).
If you only want to listen on a specific interface, don’t try to bind to that interface’s IP address. If you do that, things will go wrong if the interface’s IP address changes. Rather, bind to the interface itself:
In Network framework, set either the requiredInterfaceType property or the requiredInterface property on the NWParameters you use to create your NWListener.
In BSD Sockets, set the IP_BOUND_IF (IPv4) or IPV6_BOUND_IF (IPv6) socket option.
How do you work out what interface to use? The standard technique is to get the interface list and filter it for interfaces with the desired functional type. See Interface List and Network Interface Type in Network Interface APIs. Remember that their may be multiple interfaces of a given type. If you’re using BSD Sockets, where you can only bind to a single interface, you’ll need to create multiple listeners, one for each interface.
Listener UI
Some apps have an embedded network server and they want to populate a UI with information on how to connect to that server. This is a surprisingly tricky task to do correctly. For the details, see Showing Connection Information for a Local Server.
Outgoing Connections
In some situations you might want to force an outgoing connection to run over a specific interface. There are four common cases here:
Set the local address of a connection [1].
Force a connection to run over a specific interface.
Force a connection to run over a type of interface.
Force a connection to run over an interface with specific characteristics. For example, you want to download some large resource without exhausting the user’s cellular data allowance.
The last case should be the most common — see the Constraints section of Network Interface Techniques — but all four are useful in specific circumstances.
The following sections explain how to tackle these tasks in the most common networking APIs.
[1] This implicitly forces the connection to use the interface with that address. For an explanation as to why, see the discussion of scoped routing in Network Interface Techniques.
Network Framework
Network framework has good support for all of these cases. Set one or more of the following properties on the NWParameters object you use to create your NWConnection:
requiredLocalEndpoint property
requiredInterface property
prohibitedInterfaces property
requiredInterfaceType property
prohibitedInterfaceTypes property
prohibitConstrainedPaths property
prohibitExpensivePaths property
Foundation URL Loading System
URLSession has fewer options than Network framework but they work in a similar way: Set one or more of the following properties on the URLSessionConfiguration object you use to create your session:
allowsCellularAccess property
allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess property
allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess property
Note While these session configuration properties are also available on URLRequest, it’s better to configure this on the session.
There’s no option that forces a connection to run over a specific interface. In most cases you don’t need this — it’s better to use the allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess and allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess properties — but there are some situations where that’s necessary. For advice on this front, see Running an HTTP Request over WWAN.
BSD Sockets
BSD Sockets has very few options in this space. One thing that’s easy and obvious is setting the local address of a connection: Do that by passing the address to bind.
Alternatively, to force a connection to run over a specific interface, set the IP_BOUND_IF (IPv4) or IPV6_BOUND_IF (IPv6) socket options.
Revision History
2025-01-21 Added a link to Broadcasts and Multicasts, Hints and Tips. Made other minor editorial changes.
2023-07-18 First posted.
Hello!
It's my first time posting in this forum. Apple Intelligence is enabled by default in Workspace ONE (WS1). I was wondering if Apple Intelligence can access or process corporate data within (WS1) corporate apps, which are containerized?
Thank you!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
Hello
I'd like to be able to rotate an mapkit.ImageAnnotation.
From this post on Stack Overflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78686475/need-to-style-a-mapkit-js-marker-annotation/78702266#78702266 I understand that it's possible, for example, to the following: map.annotations[0].element.style.cursor = "pointer"; and this works for me.
However, I need to do something like the following, but it doesn't work: map.annotations[0].element.style.transform = "rotate(90deg) ";
Any ideas how a mapkit.ImageAnnotation and mapkit.MarkerAnnotation can be rotated?
Thanks in advance
Sam
We're experiencing an unusual issue with SKProductsRequest in our app's in-app purchases. Despite confirming that all our product IDs are correct, the invalidProductIdentifiers property of SKProductsResponse sometimes contains all the requested product IDs. Here are the specifics:
The issue occurs randomly and is not persistent.
For instance, around 2024-12-26 -8.0 01:06:04, this problem occurred 3 times in quick succession.
The didFailWithError method of SKRequestDelegate is not triggered, reporting no errors.
Some users report that after encountering this issue, it resolves itself after about an hour.
However, other users have reported this problem persisting for several days.
We have repeatedly verified the correctness of our product IDs. Given the intermittent nature of the problem, we suspect this might be an issue on the App Store server side. We're looking for suggestions to resolve or mitigate this issue to improve the reliability of in-app purchases in our application.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue? Or does anyone have suggestions that could help us further diagnose and resolve this problem?
Hi everyone,
I have a simple question regarding App Intents. I have an intent that defines a few parameters, one of which is a Date. When the user is prompted for input, I’d like the date picker to start at a specific value (e.g., tomorrow) instead of the default current date.
Is there a way to set an initial/default value for the date parameter in an App Intent?
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
https://idmsa.apple.com/IDMSWebAuth/signin?path=%2F%2Fforums%2Fpost%2Fquestion%3Flogin%3Dtrue&language=US-EN&instanceId=EN&appIdKey=25138a77e3499638936f018102a53961c923f72b517d4a4d6aee9f09529baca9&rv=4
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Subject/Title:
Critical SKAdNetwork Attribution Failures (Bug Type: 237, Failure Type: 1201 in ASDErrorDomain)
Issue Summary
We are encountering repeated SKAdNetwork attribution failures (failureType: 1201 in ASDErrorDomain) for ad impression events processed through the ad network mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork. These failures are causing significant revenue losses, as ad impressions are not being properly attributed to installs.
The issue occurs across multiple campaigns and involves both SKAdNetwork API 3.0 and 4.0, suggesting a systemic problem with attribution validation or network communication.
This problem is critical as it disrupts advertisers’ ability to track conversions, optimize campaigns, and allocate budgets effectively.
Technical Details
Key Logs:
Below are anonymized samples of the failed SKAdNetwork events:
Log Sample 1 (Failure):
{
"bug_type": "237",
"timestamp": "2025-01-07 22:49:15.00 -0500",
"os_version": "iPhone OS 18.2.1 (22C161)",
"roots_installed": 0,
"incident_id": "78523BD9-1F58-4738-B526-8A8A63203214"
}
{
"advertisementStoryId": "3D2E7EBB-1A57-4DF8-9375-2C465F423038",
"apiVersion": "3.0",
"eventType": "adImpression",
"resultType": "finalized",
"anonymous": true,
"failureType": 1201,
"failureDomain": "ASDErrorDomain",
"clientEventId": "0F456623-584F-4913-BBD3-C3FD1219D104",
"os": "iOS",
"topic": "xp_amp_skad_perf",
"adType": "app",
"adNetworkId": "mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork",
"eventTime": 1736305200000,
"osBuildNumber": "22C161",
"hardwareFamily": "iPhone",
"api": "SKAdNetwork"
}
Log Sample 2 (Failure):
{
"bug_type": "237",
"timestamp": "2025-01-07 22:49:15.00 -0500",
"os_version": "iPhone OS 18.2.1 (22C161)",
"roots_installed": 0,
"incident_id": "0CBF612D-F0D9-449E-A34E-DE2DB92BEC0D"
}
{
"advertisementStoryId": "946E568C-D2C1-478F-BFF3-4996C48F9B39",
"apiVersion": "3.0",
"eventType": "adImpression",
"resultType": "finalized",
"anonymous": true,
"failureType": 1201,
"failureDomain": "ASDErrorDomain",
"clientEventId": "1A3D48FB-4452-4FD8-BB25-1195470A53DC",
"os": "iOS",
"topic": "xp_amp_skad_perf",
"adType": "app",
"adNetworkId": "mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork",
"eventTime": 1736298000000,
"osBuildNumber": "22C161",
"hardwareFamily": "iPhone",
"api": "SKAdNetwork"
}
Log Sample 3 (Success Example for Comparison):
{
"bug_type": "237",
"timestamp": "2025-01-07 22:49:15.00 -0500",
"os_version": "iPhone OS 18.2.1 (22C161)",
"roots_installed": 0,
"incident_id": "BFEAC86B-8195-4DB0-96FF-2028107256AD"
}
{
"advertisementStoryId": "946E568C-D2C1-478F-BFF3-4996C48F9B39",
"apiVersion": "3.0",
"eventType": "adImpression",
"resultType": "finalized",
"anonymous": true,
"clientEventId": "F6265488-E0FB-448A-A406-3F7254BCA9D7",
"os": "iOS",
"topic": "xp_amp_skad_perf",
"adType": "app",
"adNetworkId": "mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork",
"eventTime": 1736294400000,
"osBuildNumber": "22C161",
"hardwareFamily": "iPhone",
"api": "SKAdNetwork"
}
Failure Details:
Failure Type: 1201
Failure Domain: ASDErrorDomain
Ad Network ID: mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork
API Versions Affected: 3.0, 4.0
Timeframe of Failures: All logs occur within 2025-01-07 22:00:00 UTC to 23:00:00 UTC.
Environment:
OS Version: iOS 18.2.1 (Build 22C161).
Device Type: iPhone (hardwareFamily: iPhone).
App Configuration: Includes the ad network ID in the Info.plist under SKAdNetworkItems.
Impact Details
Financial Loss:
Based on failure rates, we estimate $20–$65/day per advertiser for small campaigns and $75–$375/day per advertiser for larger campaigns.
If 100 advertisers are affected, daily losses range from $2,000–$37,500.
Over a week, losses could exceed $70,000 to $262,500 or more.
Operational Impact:
Advertisers cannot track installs or optimize campaigns, leading to inefficient ad spending and potential budget reallocation to other networks.
Damaged trust between advertisers and the ad network.
Reputation Risk:
Continued failures harm the credibility of the SKAdNetwork framework, critical in a post-ATT (App Tracking Transparency) ecosystem.
Steps to Reproduce
Serve an ad impression through the ad network mj797d8u6f.skadnetwork.
Monitor SKAdNetwork attribution for that impression.
Observe repeated failures (failureType: 1201) despite the resultType: finalized status.
Recommendations for Investigation
Attribution Timeout:
Verify if these failures stem from delayed responses or missed attribution windows.
Ad Network Configuration:
Confirm the ad network’s integration complies with SKAdNetwork API 3.0 and 4.0 requirements.
Infrastructure Review:
Investigate potential bottlenecks or failures in Apple’s attribution servers (ASDErrorDomain) or communication delays.
Contact Details
Name: [Your Full Name]
Role: [Your Role] (e.g., Ad Network Analyst/Developer)
Organization: [Your Company Name]
Email: [Your Email Address]
Phone: [Your Phone Number]
Submission Instructions
You can submit this report via the following channels:
Apple Feedback Assistant: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/
Bug Reporting Tool: https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/
Apple DTS: https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
I am developing a macOS word-processing app that should be distributed via the Apple App Store. Some of the app's functions like generating HTML and PDF exports should be automatable via Shortcuts and via shell scripts.
To support the latter, I plan to include a command line tool inside the app that can be called from the Terminal or a shell script. The tool should be able to instruct the main app to then perform the desired commands.
A well-known AppStore app that uses this design is BBEdit which also contains multiple command line tools that offer functionality from the main app to users of the Terminal.
My technical questions now are:
Should the command line tool executable be sandboxed and if yes, how?
Even after many trials, I have not found a way to make a working sandboxed command line tool. If a sandboxed tool is started from the Terminal, it is immediately terminated with an exception in _libsecinit_appsandbox.cold.12. I am aware of the Apple developer documentation article Embedding A Helper Tool In A Sandboxed App, but it addresses a different architecture in which the helper tool is started from the main app and therefore is able to inherit its sandbox.
BBEdit is only sandboxing the main app, but not its embedded command line tools and is still allowed in the App Store. Is this the way to go for me as well or does BBEdit get some special treatment in the App Store?
How can the command line tool pass the permission to access files to the main app?
As my main app is sandboxed, it needs explicit permission from the user to be able to access files. Users of a command line tool give this permission by providing file paths as arguments. How can I pass these permissions along to the main app? BBEdit is able to do this even when the user has not given it full-disk access. I know that it is using Apple Events for the communication between the command line tool and the main app, but I am not sure how this allows to pass permissions. Can anyone shed light on how to implement a solution here?
Thanks!
I am developing an application that processes a video file stored on a server. I use URLSessionDataTask with a delegate handler to download the file.
It is not necessary to download the entire file at once. Instead, I can load small chunks of the file as needed. This approach helps minimize memory consumption.
I am trying to design a network layer that supports this behavior. Ideally, I would like to have an interface similar to:
func readMoreData(length: Int) async throws -> Data
Problems I Encountered:
It seems that URLSessionDataTask does not allow controlling how many bytes will be downloaded. It always downloads the entire request.
If I call suspend on URLSessionDataTask, the network activity does not stop, and the file keeps downloading.
If I upgrade the dataTask to a StreamTask, the file still downloads, though reading bytes can be done through the StreamTask API.
I would prefer behavior similar to AsyncHTTPClient (a Swift Server library) or Network Framework. These frameworks allow controlling the number of bytes downloaded at a time. Unfortunately, they do not fit the specific requirements of my project.
Am I correct in understanding that controlling the download process is not possible with URLSessionDataTask?
As a possible solution, I am considering using HTTP Range Requests, though this would increase the number of additional server requests, which I would like to avoid.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
Please allow me to confirm the Server Notifications V2 specification.
I am aware that if withdrawal an Apple account that has a subscription, the subscription will eventually be cancelled.
Regarding Server Notifications V2 notifications with a notificationType of EXPIRED, am I correct in thinking that they will be sent when the subscription expires even if the Apple account is withdrawal?
Speech Framework
I've been checking for SFSpeechRecognitionMetadata to determine the end of a sentence when using Voice Recognition.
Yet it doesn't detect small pauses but only large ones, so that I've transcribed basically an entire paragraph before going onto the next one.
Besides implementing your own timer, are there any other ways to have more natural pauses to detect the end of sentences, similar to the browser's Web Speech recognition? Since it's in Safari, I assume there should be some similar feature that can be equivalent in MacOS.