I am developing an iOS camera app that can record video directly to external storage connected to an iPhone. To detect whether an external USB storage device is connected and to obtain its URL, I am considering using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession. However, when checking support using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession.isSupported, I observe that it returns true only on Pro model iPhones, and false on non-Pro models in my environment. I have reviewed Apple’s official documentation, but I could not find any clear description of the supported devices or requirements (for example, whether this API is limited to Pro models or requires specific hardware capabilities). I would appreciate any information regarding the following points: ●The actual requirements for AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession to be supported Device limitations (Pro vs non-Pro models) Hardware requirements (USB controller, external recording capability, etc.) iOS version dependencies ●Whether support for non-Pro models is planned in the future Tested environments iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.7.1) → isSupported == true iPhone 16e (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone 17 (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone Air (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false If anyone has observed similar behavior or has official information from Apple regarding this API, I would greatly appreciate your insights.

I am developing an iOS camera app that can record video directly to external storage connected to an iPhone. To detect whether an external USB storage device is connected and to obtain its URL, I am considering using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession. However, when checking support using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession.isSupported, I observe that it returns true only on Pro model iPhones, and false on non-Pro models in my environment. I have reviewed Apple’s official documentation, but I could not find any clear description of the supported devices or requirements (for example, whether this API is limited to Pro models or requires specific hardware capabilities). I would appreciate any information regarding the following points: ①The actual requirements for AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession to be supported Device limitations (Pro vs non-Pro models) Hardware requirements (USB controller, external recording capability, etc.) iOS version dependencies ②Whether support for non-Pro models is planned in the future Tested environments iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.7.1) → isSupported == true iPhone 16e (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone 17 (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone Air (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false If anyone has observed similar behavior or has official information from Apple regarding this API, I would greatly appreciate your insights.

Hi everyone, I’m seeing recurring internal AVFoundation camera logs on iOS 26.2 and I’m trying to understand whether this is expected behavior or a regression in the capture pipeline. These logs appear shortly after starting an AVCaptureSession, while video frames are being delivered, and also when the camera is stopped or the capture session is torn down. <<<< FigXPCUtilities >>>> signalled err=-17281 at <>:302 <<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "err == 0 " at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:569) - (err=-17281) Even in this clean, minimal setup, the same logs appear on iOS 26.2 The exact same logic did not produce these logs on iOS 18.x. To rule out issues caused by my own code, GPT created a minimal SwiftUI example from scratch. My primary interest is to perform real-time processing on the video frames delivered by the camera (via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput), for tasks such as analysis, computer vision, or custom frame handling, while simultaneously displaying the live preview. Thanks in advance for any insight. Example Code

I’m writing to report a serious usability regression in the iOS 26 Photos app. Folders can still be created and albums can still be assigned to them, but folders can no longer be opened to view the albums they contain. A container that cannot be opened is not a container, and this breaks a fundamental information architecture model that has existed in Photos for well over a decade. This change disproportionately harms users who maintain large, intentional photo libraries—travel archives, projects, professional work, or long-term personal documentation—where hierarchy and ordering are essential. Search and automated surfacing are not substitutes for deliberate structure. Removing the ability to browse folder → album hierarchy on iOS strips users of control while still exposing the UI for folder creation, which is internally inconsistent. If this behavior is intentional, it should be clearly documented and the folder UI removed to avoid misleading users. If it is not intentional, it needs urgent correction. At minimum, iOS should retain parity with macOS Photos for basic navigation of folders and albums. This is not a niche request; it is a regression in core functionality.

Hi everyone, I'm developing a camera application that requires precise, predictable control over the focus system. I'm encountering unexpected behavior with face-driven autofocus in continuous autofocus mode. Issue: When using AVCaptureDevice.FocusMode.continuousAutoFocus, the system continues to prioritize faces for focus even after attempting to disable face-driven autofocus with: device.automaticallyAdjustsFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false device.isFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false Observations: The behavior is inconsistent across different scenes. In well-lit/properly exposed scenes: focus persistently locks onto faces, ignoring my configuration. . In underexposed scenes: the intended focus behavior is more consistently respected.

Environment Device: iPhone 15 Pro iOS: iOS 18.0 Framework: AVFoundation App type: Custom camera app using AVCaptureSession + AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer I’m seeing an intermittent but frequent issue where the camera preview layer briefly flashes empty after certain interruptions, even though the capture session reports itself as running and no errors are emitted. This happens most often after: Locking and unlocking the device Switching cameras (back ↔ front) The issue is not 100% reproducible, but occurs often enough to be noticeable in normal usage. What happens The preview layer briefly flashes as empty (sometimes just a “micro-frame”) Duration: typically ~0.5–2 seconds before frames resume session.isRunning == true throughout No crash, no runtime error, no interruption end failure Focus/exposure restore correctly once frames resume Visually it looks like the preview layer loses frames temporarily, even though the session appears healthy. Repro Intermittent but frequent after: Lock → unlock device Switching camera (front/back) Timing-dependent and non-deterministic Happens multiple times per session, but not every time Key observation AVCaptureSession.isRunning == true does not guarantee that frames are actually flowing. To verify this, I added an AVCaptureVideoDataOutput temporarily: During the blank period, no sample buffers are delivered Frames resume after ~1–2s without any explicit restart Session state remains “running” the entire time What I’ve tried (did NOT fix it) Adding delays before/after startRunning() (0.1–0.5s) Calling startRunning() on different queues Restarting the session in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionEnded Verifying session.connections (all show isActive == true) Rebuilding inputs/outputs during interruption recovery Ensuring startRunning() is never called between beginConfiguration() / commitConfiguration() (Hit the expected runtime warning when attempted) None of the above removed the brief blank preview. Workaround (works visually but expensive) This visually fixes the issue, but: Energy impact jumps from Low → High in Xcode Energy Gauge AVCaptureVideoDataOutput processes 30–60 FPS continuously The gap only lasts ~1–2s, but toggling the delegate on/off cleanly is difficult Overall CPU and energy cost is not acceptable for production Additional notes CPU usage is already relatively high even without the workaround (this app is camera-heavy by nature) With the workaround enabled, energy impact becomes noticeably worse The issue feels like a timing/state desync between session state and actual frame delivery, not a UI issue Questions Is this a known behavior where AVCaptureSession.isRunning == true but frames are temporarily unavailable after interruptions? Is there a recommended way to detect actual frame flow resumption (not just session state)? Should the AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.connection (isActive / isEnabled) be explicitly checked or reset after interruptions? Is there a lightweight, energy-efficient way to bridge this short “no frames” gap without using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput? Is rebuilding the entire session the only reliable solution here, or is there a better pattern Apple recommends?

Hi everyone, does anybody have any resources I could check out regarding the 48->12mp binning behavior on supported sensors? I know the 48mp sensor on iPhone can automatically bin pixels for better low light performance. But not sure how to reliably make this happen in practice. On iPhone 14 Pro+ with a 48MP sensor, I want the best of both worlds for ProRAW: ∙ Bright light: 48MP full resolution ∙ Low light: 12MP pixel-binned for better noise `photoOutput.maxPhotoDimensions = CMVideoDimensions(width: 8064, height: 6048) let settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings(rawPixelFormatType: proRawFormat, processedFormat: [...]) settings.photoQualityPrioritization = .quality // NOT setting settings.maxPhotoDimensions — always get 12MP` When I omit maxPhotoDimensions, iOS always returns 12MP regardless of lighting. When I set it to 48MP, I always get 48MP. Is there an API to let iOS automatically choose the optimal resolution based on conditions, or should I detect low light myself (via device.iso / exposureDuration) and set maxPhotoDimensions accordingly? Any help or direction would be much appreciated!

We have a very strange issue that I am trying to solve or find the best practice for. We have a SwiftUI View that uses the Camera to preview. So as suggested in Apples Docs we check authorisation status and then if it's not determined we request authorisation. We also have the privacy entry in the info.plist case .notDetermined: AVCaptureDevice.requestAccess(for: .video) { accessStatusAuthorised in if !accessStatusAuthorised { self.cameraStatus = .notAuthorised } else { self.isAuthorized = true self.cameraStatus = .authorised self.startCameraSession(cameraPosition: cameraPosition) } } case .restricted: cameraStatus = .notAuthorised isAuthorized = false case .denied: cameraStatus = .notAuthorised isAuthorized = false case .authorized: cameraStatus = .authorised isAuthorized = true startCameraSession(cameraPosition: cameraPosition) break @unknown default: isAuthorized = true cameraStatus = .notAuthorised } However when we call this code it freezes the Camera feed, even when allow has been tapped. However and this is the confusing part. If we do not call the code above, we still get the permission for camera access pop up and the camera works fine after allowing. What im concerned about is changing the code to do this and its a possible apple bug that gets fixed and hey then none of the Apps allow the camera function. I cannot see any where that the process has changed for iOS 26 / Xcode 26. Can anyone shed any light on this or had similar experience ?

Dear Apple Technical Support Team, Greetings! I am an iOS app developer, currently upgrading the functions of the photo app I developed Recently, I noticed the new Spatial Photos feature added in the iOS 26 system, which brings an immersive 3D photo experience to users. We hope to integrate similar capabilities into our own app to provide users with a richer photo viewing experience. Through technical research, we found that on Apple Vision devices, the similar spatial photo display effect can be achieved through the ImagePresentationComponent.Spatial3DImage interface. However, our tests show that this interface only supports visionOS and cannot be called in the iOS system. At present, iOS 26 already natively supports the Spatial Photos feature, and we hope to know how to enable third-party photo apps to also have this capability. Here, we sincerely request your team to provide relevant technical support, mainly to understand the following questions: Are there any official APIs, SDKs, or development frameworks applicable to the iOS 26 system that can support third-party apps to implement core functions such as the generation and display of spatial photos? If there are no public adaptive interfaces available at present, are there any other compliant technical solutions or alternative paths to achieve similar effects? For third-party apps to integrate the spatial photo feature, are there any relevant development documents, technical specifications, or review requirements that need to be followed? We have completed the basic function iteration of the app and have the technical capability to quickly adapt to new functions. We hope to receive guidance and support from your team to help us bring a better product experience to iOS users. Attached are the relevant information of our app and the detailed report on interface compatibility during the test for your reference. If you need any further supplementary information, please feel free to inform us. Thank you for reviewing this email in your busy schedule, and we look forward to your reply!

At which point in the image processing pipeline does iOS apply the white balance gains which can be set via AVCaptureDevice.setWhiteBalanceModeLocked(with:completionHandler:)? Are those gains applied in the analog part of the camera pipeline, before the pixel voltage gets converted via the ADC to digital values? Or does the camera first convert the pixel voltages to digital values and then the gains are applied to the digital values? Is this consistent across devices or can the behavior vary from device to device?

Hi Apple Developer Support Team, We are developing an iOS application using a camera package within a hybrid (cross-platform) framework, and we would like to confirm whether it is possible to disable the camera shutter sound programmatically. As per our understanding, the shutter sound on iOS is system-controlled and depends on the device’s silent/ring mode, and there is no App Store–approved API available to force-disable this sound. Kindly confirm whether this understanding is correct or if any supported alternative approach exists for hybrid or native implementations. Thank you for your clarification. Best regards, ParkhyaSolutions

On iPhone 16 Pro Max (not tested other devices) there's a noticeable jump in the framing of the preview video when you record in the iOS AVCam Sample App. The same jump in camera framing can be observed by switching to the front facing camera and then back to the rear one. It looks roughly consistent with switching between the 0.5x and 1x camera (but not quite a match for the same viewable area in the Camera app) - and it's only when it's initially loaded, once recording is started it retains the 'closer' image no matter how many times it's stopped/started thereafter. I'm relatively new to Swift and haven't done anything with the camera before, so odd 'buggy' behaviour in the sample code isn't helping me understand it! :-) Is there any way to fix this?

Some of our app's users are repeatedly running into a crash on NeutrinoCore -[NUIdentifier initWithNamespace:name:version:] + 2352. It looks from the stack trace like multiple threads are performing PHFetchRequests, but that shouldn't be causing a crash. It's isolated to a small number of users, which makes me think that it's something related to their specific Photos databases (e.g., data corruption.) Do you have any suggestions how I might be able to resolve this? 2 libsystem_c.dylib abort + 124 3 NeutrinoCore -[NUAssertionPolicyCrashReport notifyAssertion:] + 66 4 NeutrinoCore -[NUAssertionPolicyComposite notifyAssertion:] + 160 5 NeutrinoCore -[NUAssertionPolicyUnique notifyAssertion:] + 176 6 NeutrinoCore -[NUAssertionHandler handleFailureInFunction:file:lineNumber:currentlyExecutingJobName:description:arguments:] + 156 7 NeutrinoCore _NUAssertFailHandler + 176 8 NeutrinoCore -[NUIdentifier initWithNamespace:name:version:] + 2352 9 NeutrinoCore -[NUIdentifier initWithName:version:] + 84 10 NeutrinoCore -[NUIdentifier initWithName:] + 68 11 PhotoImaging +[PISchema identifier] + 36 12 PhotoImaging +[PISchema registeredPhotosSchemaIdentifier] + 32 13 PhotoImaging +[PIPhotoEditHelper newComposition] + 28 14 PhotoImaging +[PICompositionSerializer deserializeCompositionFromAdjustments:metadata:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 160 15 PhotoImaging +[PICompositionSerializer deserializeCompositionFromData:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 224 16 PhotoLibraryServices -[PLPhotoEditPersistenceManager loadCompositionFrom:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 1848 17 PhotoLibraryServices +[PLPhotoEditPersistenceManager validateAdjustmentData:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:error:] + 108 18 Photos __167+[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext contentEditingInputRequestContextForAsset:requestID:managerID:networkAccessAllowed:downloadIntent:progressHandler:resultHandler:]_block_invoke + 260 19 Photos -[PHAdjustmentData(ContentEditingInput) _contentEditing_readableByClientWithVerificationBlock:] + 136 20 Photos -[PHAdjustmentData(ContentEditingInput) _contentEditing_requiredBaseVersionReadableByClient:verificationBlock:] + 88 21 Photos -[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext _adjustmentBaseVersionFromResult:request:canHandleAdjustmentData:] + 356 22 Photos -[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext produceChildRequestsForRequest:reportingIsLocallyAvailable:isDegraded:result:] + 624 23 Photos -[PHMediaRequestContext _produceChildRequestsForRequest:withResult:] + 88 24 Photos -[PHMediaRequestContext mediaRequest:didFinishWithResult:] + 92 25 Photos -[PHAdjustmentDataRequest _finishFromAsynchronousCallback] + 124 26 Photos __39-[PHAdjustmentDataRequest startRequest]_block_invoke + 584 27 PhotoLibraryServicesCore __106-[PLAssetsdResourceClient adjustmentDataForAsset:networkAccessAllowed:trackCPLDownload:completionHandler:]block_invoke.84 + 880 28 CoreFoundation invoking + 148 29 CoreFoundation -[NSInvocation invoke] + 424 30 Foundation <deduplicated_symbol> + 16 31 Foundation -[NSXPCConnection _decodeAndInvokeReplyBlockWithEvent:sequence:replyInfo:] + 528 32 Foundation __88-[NSXPCConnection _sendInvocation:orArguments:count:methodSignature:selector:withProxy:]_block_invoke_5 + 188 33 libxpc.dylib _xpc_connection_reply_callout + 124 42 libsystem_pthread.dylib start_wqthread + 8