Dive into the technical aspects of audio on your device, including codecs, format support, and customization options.

Audio Documentation

Posts under Audio subtopic

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How can I find the user's "Favorite Songs" playlist?
It sounds simple but searching for the name "Favorite Songs" is a non-starter because it's called different names in different countries, even if I specify "&l=en_us" on the query. So is there another property, relationship or combination thereof which I can use to tell me when I've found the right playlist? Properties I've looked at so far: canEdit: will always be false so narrows things down a little inFavorites: not helpful as it depends on whether the user has favourite the favourites playlist, so not relevant hasCatalog: seems always true so again may narrow things down a bit isPublic: doesn't help Adding the catalog relationship doesn't seem to show anything immediately useful either. Can anyone help? Ideally I'd like to see this as a "kind" or "type" as it has different properties to other playlists, but frankly I'll take anything at this point.
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270
Jul ’25
Homepod Crossfade
I’m running HomePod OS 26 on two HomePod minis and OS 18.6 on main HomePod (original) I’ve enabled Crossfade in the Home app. I’m playing Apple Music directly in the HomePod mini. Crossfade just doesn’t work on any HomePod. I can understand it not working on the HomePod - but why isn’t it working on the minis running OS 26? I’ve tried disabling and enabling Crossfade, rebooting HomePods etc but nothing?!
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270
Aug ’25
Displaying and working with Favorites in iOS app
New to iOS development and I've been trying to make heads or tails of the documentation. I know there is a difference between the data fields returned from songs from the user library and from the category, but whenever I search on the apple site I can't find a list of each. For example, Im trying to get the releaseDate of a song in my library, but it seems I'll have to cross-query either the catalog entry for the using song.catalogID or the song.irsc but when I try to use them I can't find a cross reference between the two. I'm totally turned around. Also trying to determine if a song in my library has been favorited or not? isFavorited (or something similar) doesn't seem to be a thing. Using this code and trying to find a way to display a solid star if the song has been favorited or an empty one if it's not. Seems like a basic request but I can't find anything on how to do it. I've searched docs, googled, tried. Does apple want us to query the user's Favorited Songs playlist or something? How do I know which playlist that is? I know isFavorited isn't a thing, just using it here so you can see what my intension is: HStack(spacing: 10) { Image(systemName: song.isFavorited ? "star.fill" : "star") .foregroundColor(song.isFavorited ? .yellow : .gray) Image(systemName: "magnifyingglass") }
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173
Oct ’25
iOS - record audio fails to record
Hi, I try to record audio on the iPhone with the AVAudioRecorder and Xcode 26.0.1. Maybe the problem is that I can not record audio with the simulator. But there's a menu for audio. In the plist I added 'Privacy - Microphone Usage Description' and I ask for permission before recording. if await AVAudioApplication.requestRecordPermission() { print("permission granted") recordPermission = true } else { print("permission denied") } Permission is granted. let settings: [String : Any] = [ AVFormatIDKey: kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC, AVSampleRateKey: 12000, AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 1, AVEncoderAudioQualityKey: AVAudioQuality.high.rawValue ] recorder = try AVAudioRecorder(url: filename, settings: settings) let prepared = recorder.prepareToRecord() print("prepared started: \(prepared)") let started = recorder.record() print("recording started: \(started)") started is always false and I tried many settings. Error messages AddInstanceForFactory: No factory registered for id <CFUUID 0x600000211480> F8BB1C28-BAE8-11D6-9C31-00039315CD46 AudioConverter.cpp:1052 Failed to create a new in process converter -> from 0 ch, 12000 Hz, .... (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 0 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame to 1 ch, 12000 Hz, aac (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 1024 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame, with status -50 AudioQueueObject.cpp:1892 BuildConverter: AudioConverterNew returned -50 from: 0 ch, 12000 Hz, .... (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 0 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame to: 1 ch, 12000 Hz, aac (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 1024 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame prepared started: true AudioQueueObject.cpp:7581 ConvertInput: aq@0x10381be00: AudioConverterFillComplexBuffer returned -50, packetCount 5 recording started: false All examples I find are the same, but apparently there must be something different.
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230
Oct ’25
AVAudioEngine failing with -10877 on macOS 26 beta, no devices detected via AVFoundation but HAL works
I’m developing a macOS audio monitoring app using AVAudioEngine, and I’ve run into a critical issue on macOS 26 beta where AVFoundation fails to detect any input devices, and AVAudioEngine.start() throws the familiar error 10877. FB#: FB19024508 Strange Behavior: AVAudioEngine.inputNode shows no channels or input format on bus 0. AVAudioEngine.start() fails with -10877 (AudioUnit connection error). AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession returns zero audio devices. Microphone permission is granted (authorized), and the app is properly signed and sandboxed with com.apple.security.device.audio-input. However, CoreAudio HAL does detect all input/output devices: Using AudioObjectGetPropertyDataSize and AudioObjectGetPropertyData with kAudioHardwarePropertyDevices, I can enumerate 14+ devices, including AirPods, USB DACs, and BlackHole. This suggests the lower-level audio stack is functional. I have tried: Resetting CoreAudio with sudo killall coreaudiod Rebuilding and re-signing the app Clearing TCC with tccutil reset Microphone Running on Apple Silicon and testing Rosetta/native detection via sysctl.proc_translated Using a fallback mechanism that logs device info from HAL and rotates logs for submission via Feedback Assistant I have submitted logs and a reproducible test case via Feedback Assitant : FB#: FB19024508]
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274
Jul ’25
Ducking MusicKit output when playing another sound
I am developing an app that uses MusicKit to play music and then I need to have spoken words played to the user, while ducking the audio coming from MusicKit (application music player) the built in Siri voices are not off sufficient quality so I am using an external service to create an mp3 file and then play this back using AVAudioSession Sample code below the problem I am having is that .duckOthers is not ducking the Application Music Player output Is this a bug or am I doing this wrong? // Configure audio session for system-wide ducking try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio, options: [.duckOthers, .mixWithOthers]) try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true) // Set the ducking level to maximum try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setPreferredIOBufferDuration(0.005) // Create and configure audio player self.audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(data: audioData) self.audioPlayer?.delegate = self self.audioPlayer?.volume = 1.0 // Ensure full volume for speech self.audioPlayer?.prepareToPlay() // Set the audio player's settings for maximum clarity self.audioPlayer?.enableRate = false self.audioPlayer?.pan = 0.0 // Center the audio self.audioPlayer?.play()
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48
Apr ’25
MPRemoteCommandCenter not updating play/pause button to proper state on iOS
So I'm using AVAudioEngine. When playing audio I become the 'now playing' app using MPNowPlayingInfoCenter/MPRemoteCommandCenter APIs. When configuring MPRemoteCommandCenter I add a play/pause command target via -addTargetWithHandler on the togglePlayPauseCommand property. Now I also have a play/pause button in my app's UI. When I pause playback from my app's UI (which means I'm the active app, I'm in the foreground), what I do is this: -I pause the AVAudioPlayerNode I'm using with AVAudioEngine. I do not, stop, reset, etc. the AVAudioEngine. I only pause the player node. My thought process here is that the user just pressed pause and it is very likely that he will hit 'play' to resume playback in the near future because My app is in the foreground and the user just hit the pause button. Now if my app moves to the background and if I receive a memory warning I presume it'd make sense to tear down the engine or pause it. Perhaps I'm wrong about this? So when I initially hit the play button from my app's UI I also activate my AVAudioSession. I do this in high priority NSOperation since the documentation warns that "we recommend that applications not activate their session from a thread where a long blocking operation will be problematic." So now I'm playing and I hit pause from my app's UI. Then I quickly bring up the "Now Playing" center and I see I'm the "Now Playing" app but the play-pause button is showing the pause icon instead of the play icon but I'm in the pause state. I do set MPNowPlayingInfoCenter's playbackState to MPNowPlayingPlaybackStatePaused when I pause. Not surprisingly this doesn't work. The documentation states this is for macOS only. So the only way to get MPRemoteCommandCenter to show the "play" image for the play-pause button is to deactivate my AVAudioSession when I pause playback? Since I change the active state of my audio session in a NSOperation because documentation recommends "we recommend that applications not activate their session from a thread where a long blocking operation will be problematic." the play-pause toggle in the remote command center won't immediately update since I'm doing it on another thread. IMO it feels kind of inappropriate for a play-pause button to wait on a NSOperation activating the audio session before updating its UI when I already know my play/paused state, it should update right away like the button in my app does. Wouldn't it be nicer to just use MPNowPlayingInfoCenter's playbackState property on iOS too? If I'm no the longer the now playing app/active audio session it doesn't matter since I'm not in the now playing UI, just ignore it? Also is it recommended that I deactivate my audio session explicitly every time the user pauses audio in my app (when I'm in the foreground)? Also when I do deactivate the audio session I get an error: AVAudioSessionErrorCodeIsBusy (but the button in the now playing center updates to the proper image). I do this : -(void)pause { [self.playerNode pause]; [self runOperationToDeactivateAudioSession]; // This does nothing on iOS: MPNowPlayingInfoCenter *nowPlayingCenter = [MPNowPlayingInfoCenter defaultCenter]; nowPlayingCenter.playbackState = MPNowPlayingPlaybackStatePaused; } So in -runOperationToDeactivateAudioSession I get the AVAudioSessionErrorCodeIsBusy. According to the documentation Starting in iOS 8, if the session has running I/Os at the time that deactivation is requested, the session will be deactivated, but the method will return NO and populate the NSError with the code property set to AVAudioSessionErrorCodeIsBusy to indicate the misuse of the API. So pausing the player node when pausing isn't enough to meet the deactivation criteria. I guess I have to pause or stop the audio engine. I could probably wait until I receive a scene went to background notification or something before deactivating my audio session (which is async, so the button may not update to the correct image in time). This seems like a lot of code to have to write to get a play-pause toggle to update, especially in iPad-multi window scene environment. What's the recommended approach? Should I pause the AudioEngine instead of the player node always? Should I always explicitly deactivate my audio session when the user pauses playback from my app's UI even if I'm in the foreground? I personally like the idea of just being able to set [MPNowPlayingInfoCenter defaultCenter].playbackState = MPNowPlayingPlaybackStatePaused; But maybe that's because that would just make things easier on me. This does feels overcomplicated though. If anyone can share some tips on how I should handle this, I'd appreciate it.
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688
Feb ’25
iOS AUv3 extension: no Icon shown in host
Hi, I'm working on an AUv3 project. The app itself displays my icon. However the Auv3 extension does not display any icon in any host app (AUM, Drambo, etc.0). I thought that the extension would inherit the host app icon but that it does not appear to be the case. I tried to add the icon as a 1024x1024 file to the extension target and the update my extension plist file withe a CFBundleIconFile key but no luck either. It must surely be really easy. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your help!
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130
May ’25
Distorted Audio When Recording External Mics With AVCaptureSession and AVAssetWriter
I’m working on a macOS app, written in Swift. My goal is to record audio from an external microphone, e.g., one connected via USB. For this, I’m using an AVCaptureSession and recording its output with an AVAssetWriter. This works perfectly in principle (and reliably with internal microphones, for example). The problem occurs after my app has successfully completed the first recording and I then want to make additional recordings (which makes me think it might be process-dependent, because it works again after restarting the app). The problem: Noisy or distorted-sounding audio files. In addition, the following error message appears in the Console from CoreAudio / its AudioConverter: Input data proc returned inconsistent 512 packets for 2048 bytes; at 3 bytes per packet, that is actually 682 packets It is easy to reproduce. This problem is reproducible even if I don’t configure the AVAssetWriter manually and instead let it receive its audioSettings using a preset from an AVOutputSettingsAssistant. I’m running on macOS 15.0 (24A335). I’ve filed a feedback including a demo project → FB15333298 🎟️ I would greatly appreciate any help! Have a great day, Martin
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864
Feb ’25
AVAudioRecorder records silence
We have application using PTT Framework to record audio messages when app is backgrounded. Right now we are using AVAudioRecorder for that purpose. And problem is one specific user has frequent issue - recorded audio contains only silence. I've checked almost everything I can imagine but didn't find any possible reason of issue. Conditions: AVAudioRecorder uses following configuration: [ AVEncoderAudioQualityKey: AVAudioQuality.low.rawValue, AVFormatIDKey : kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC, AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 1, AVSampleRateKey: 16000.0 ] App waits both didBeginTransmitting and didActivate audioSession from PTChannelManager (audio session has playback category at that moment) App does AVAudioSession category change to playAndRecord App gets routeChangeNotification with categoryChange and category = playAndRecord There is no any interruption notifications from AVAudioSession during recording There is no any error notification from AVAudioRecorder Any idea what exactly I do wrong? Is there anything else I should check? Thanks in advance. P.S. it looks like recording audio with AudioUnit has the same issue, but let's exclude it from question atm for simplicity.
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Mar ’25
AVAudioEngine. Select input device on macOS
Hello! I'm use AVFoundation for preview video and audio from selected device, and I try use AVAudioEngine for preview audio in real-time, but I can't or I don't understand how select input device? I can hear only my microphone in real-time So far, I'm using AVCaptureAudioPreviewOutput for in real-time hear audio, but I think has delay. On iOS works easy with AVAudioEngine, but on macOS bruh...
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437
Mar ’25
ScreenCaptureKit System Audio Capture Crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Bug Report: ScreenCaptureKit System Audio Capture Crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS Summary When using ScreenCaptureKit to capture system audio for extended periods, the application crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS in Swift's error handling runtime. The crash occurs in swift_getErrorValue when trying to process an error from the SCStream delegate method didStopWithError. This appears to be a framework-level issue in ScreenCaptureKit or its underlying ReplayKit implementation. Environment macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 Swift 5.8 ScreenCaptureKit framework Detailed Description Our application captures system audio using ScreenCaptureKit's audio capture capabilities. After successfully capturing for several minutes (typically after 3-4 segments of 60-second recordings), the application crashes with an EXC_BAD_ACCESS error. The crash happens when the Swift runtime attempts to process an error in the SCStreamDelegate.stream(_:didStopWithError:) method. The crash consistently occurs in swift_getErrorValue when attempting to access the class of what appears to be a null object. This suggests that the error being passed from the system framework to our delegate method is malformed or contains invalid memory. Steps to Reproduce Create an SCStream with audio capture enabled Add audio output to the stream Start capture and write audio data to disk Allow the capture to run for several minutes (3-5 minutes typically triggers the issue) The app will crash with EXC_BAD_ACCESS in swift_getErrorValue Code Sample func stream(_ stream: SCStream, didStopWithError error: Error) { print("Stream stopped with error: \(error)") // Crash occurs before this line executes } func stream(_ stream: SCStream, didOutputSampleBuffer sampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer, of type: SCStreamOutputType) { guard type == .audio, sampleBuffer.isValid else { return } // Process audio data... } Expected Behavior The error should be properly propagated to the delegate method, allowing for graceful error handling and recovery. Actual Behavior The application crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS when the Swift runtime attempts to process the error in swift_getErrorValue. Crash Log Details Thread #35, queue = 'com.apple.NSXPCConnection.m-user.com.apple.replayd', stop reason = EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x0) frame #0: 0x0000000194c3088c libswiftCore.dylib`swift::_swift_getClass(void const*) + 8 frame #1: 0x0000000194c30104 libswiftCore.dylib`swift_getErrorValue + 40 frame #2: 0x00000001057fba30 shadow`NewScreenCaptureService.stream(stream=0x0000600002de6700, error=Swift.Error @ 0x000000016b7b5e30) at NEW+ScreenCaptureService.swift:365:15 frame #3: 0x00000001057fc050 shadow`@objc NewScreenCaptureService.stream(_:didStopWithError:) at <compiler-generated>:0 frame #4: 0x0000000219ec5ca0 ScreenCaptureKit`-[SCStreamManager stream:didStopWithError:] + 456 frame #5: 0x00000001ca68a5cc ReplayKit`-[RPScreenRecorder stream:didStopWithError:] + 84 frame #6: 0x00000001ca696ff8 ReplayKit`-[RPDaemonProxy stream:didStopWithError:] + 224 Printing description of stream._streamQueue: error: ObjectiveC.id:4294967281:18: note: 'id' has been explicitly marked unavailable here public typealias id = AnyObject ^ error: /var/folders/v4/3xg1hmp93gjd8_xlzmryf_wm0000gn/T/expr23-dfa421..cpp:1:65: 'id' is unavailable in Swift: 'id' is not available in Swift; use 'Any' Swift._DebuggerSupport.stringForPrintObject(Swift.UnsafePointer<id>(bitPattern: 0x104ae08c0)!.pointee) ^~ ObjectiveC.id:2:18: note: 'id' has been explicitly marked unavailable here public typealias id = AnyObject ^ warning: /var/folders/v4/3xg1hmp93gjd8_xlzmryf_wm0000gn/T/expr23-dfa421..cpp:5:7: initialization of variable '$__lldb_error_result' was never used; consider replacing with assignment to '_' or removing it var $__lldb_error_result = __lldb_tmp_error ~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ Before the crash, we observed this error message in the console: [ERROR] *****SCStream*****RemoteAudioQueueOperationHandlerWithError:1015 Error received from the remote queue -16665 Additional Context The issue occurs consistently after approximately 3-4 successful audio segment recordings of 60 seconds each Commenting out custom segment rotation logic does not prevent the crash The crash involves XPC communication with Apple's ReplayKit daemon The error appears to be corrupted or malformed when crossing the XPC boundary Workarounds Attempted Added proper thread safety for all published properties using DispatchQueue.main.async Implemented more robust error handling in the delegate methods None of these approaches prevented the crash since it occurs at the Swift runtime level before our code executes. Impact This issue prevents reliable long-duration audio capture using ScreenCaptureKit. This bug significantly limits the usefulness of ScreenCaptureKit for any application requiring continuous system audio capture for more than a few minutes. Perhaps this issue might be related to a macOS bug where the system dialog indicates that the screen is being shared, even though nothing is actually being shared. Moreover, when attempting to stop sharing, nothing happens.
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646
Mar ’25
How to disable/hide Audio Controls on lock screen from WkWebView
Hi, I am trying to remove the audio controls for my app on the lock screen. Since I use WKWebView, there are 3 audio tags in my html and I play and pause em via JS. However, if I do not play any sound since app launch, there are no audio controls on the lock screen. But if I play one of those 3 files (they are even less then 3 Sec sound effects e.g. for buttons) the audio controls appears on lock screen. Note even when the sounds on pause() or not playing they were listed on the lock screen. What I have tried so far without success MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = [:] and ``try audioSession.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: []) try audioSession.setActive(false, options: .notifyOthersOnDeactivation)`` and UIApplication.shared.endReceivingRemoteControlEvents() Another problem is that the app scales with iOS system settings "display zoom". Is there a way to deny it? It is latest Xcode verion 16.3 and iOS 18. I have no background mode in my Capabilities. Nothing worked so far. Has anyone an idea? Greetings
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109
May ’25
ShazamKit supported for iOS apps that can run on Mac silicon?
I am having issues deploying my iOS app, that uses ShazamKit, to get working on a Mac with Apple silicon. When uploading the archive to App Store Connect I do get ITMS-90863: Macs with Apple silicon support issue - The app links with libraries that aren’t present in macOS: /usr/lib/swift/libswiftShazamKit.dylib Is ShazamKit not supported for iOS apps that can run on Macs with Apple silicon? Or is there something I should fix in my setup / deployment?
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1k
Jun ’25
Appleデバイスの内蔵楽器音について
iPhoneやiPadにおいて、画面上のボタンなどをタップした際に、特定の楽器音を発音させる方法をご存知の方いらっしゃいませんか? 現在音楽学習アプリを作成途中で、画面上の鍵盤や指板のボタン状のframeに、単音又は和音を割当て発音させる事を考えております SwiftUIのcodeのみで実現できないでしょうか 嘗て、MIDIのlevel1の楽器の発音機能があった様に記憶していますが、現在のOS上では同様の機能を実装してないように思えます 皆様のお知恵をお貸しください
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369
Mar ’25
Convert CoreAudio AudioObjectID to IOUSB LocationID
Is there a recommended way on macOS 26 Tahoe to take a CoreAudio AudioObjectID and use it to lookup the underlying USB LocationID? I previously used AudioObjectID to query the corresponding DeviceUID with kAudioDevicePropertyDeviceUID. Then I queried for the IOService matching kIOAudioEngineClassName with property kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey matching DeviceUID, and I loaded kUSBDevicePropertyLocationID from the result. This fails on macOS 26, because the IO Registry for the device has an entry for usbaudiod rather than AppleUSBAudioEngine, and usbaudiod does not include a kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey property (or any other property to map it to a CoreAudio DeviceUID). My use-case here is a piece of audio recording software that allows configuring a set of supported audio devices via USB HID prior to recording. I present the user with a list of CoreAudio devices to use, but without a way to lookup the underlying USB LocationID, I cannot guarantee that the configured device matches the selected device (e.g. if the user plugged in two identical microphones).
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517
Sep ’25
Is AVAudioPCMFormatFloat32 required for playing a buffer with AVAudioEngine / AVAudioPlayerNode
I have a PCM audio buffer (AVAudioPCMFormatInt16). When I try to play it using AVPlayerNode / AVAudioEngine an exception is thrown: "[[busArray objectAtIndexedSubscript:(NSUInteger)element] setFormat:format error:&nsErr]: returned false, error Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10868 (related thread https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/700497?answerId=780530022#780530022) If I convert the buffer to AVAudioPCMFormatFloat32 playback works. My questions are: Does AVAudioEngine / AVPlayerNode require AVAudioPCMBuffer to be in the Float32 format? Is there a way I can configure it to accept another format instead for my application? If 1 is YES is this documented anywhere? If 1 is YES is this required format subject to change at any point? Thanks! I was looking to watch the "AVAudioEngine in Practice" session video from WWDC 2014 but I can't find it anywhere (https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/747008).
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1k
Oct ’25