Explore the integration of media technologies within your app. Discuss working with audio, video, camera, and other media functionalities.

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AVPlayer HLS High Bitrate Problem on Apple TV HD (A1625) tvOS 26
Hello, We have Video Stream app. It has HLS VOD Content. We supply 1080p, 4K Contents to users. Users were watching 1080p content before tvOS 26. Users can not watch 1080p content anymore when they update to tvOS 26. We have not changed anything at HLS playlist side and application version. This problem only occurs on Apple TV 4th Gen (A1625) tvOS 26 version. There is no problem with newer Apple TV devices. Would you help to resolve problem? Thanks in advance
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505
Oct ’25
CoreMediaErrorDomain -42709 error
Hello, I am developing a video streaming service that uses FairPlay. Since around February 20th, we have started receiving reports of CoreMediaErrorDomain -42709 errors. Unfortunately, there is no documentation from Apple that explains what this error means, so we are not sure how to address or fix the issue. Most of the users who reported this error are using iOS 18.2.1 and iOS 18.3.1. Could you please advise on what we should check or how we might resolve this error?
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562
Mar ’25
Best Approach for Reliable Background Audio Playback with Audio Ducking on Command from Server
I am developing an iOS app that needs to play spoken audio on demand from a server, while ducking the audio of background music from another app (e.g., SoundtrackYourBrand or Apple Music). This must work even when the app is in the background, and the server dictates when and what audio is played. Ideally, the message should be played within a minute of the server requesting it. Current Attempt & Observations I initially tried using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) silent notifications to send a URL to an audio file, which the app would then play using AVPlayer. This works consistently when the app is active, but in the background, it only works about 60% of the time. In cases where it fails, iOS ducks the background music (e.g., from SoundtrackYourBrand) but never plays the spoken audio. Interestingly, when I play the audio without enabling audio ducking, it seems to work 100% of the time from my limited testing, even in the background. The app has background modes enabled for Audio, Background Fetch, and Remote Notifications. Best Approach to Achieve This? I’d like guidance on the best Apple-compliant approach to reliably play audio on command from the server, even when the app is in the background. Some possible paths: Ensuring the app remains active in the background – Are there recommended ways to prevent the app from getting suspended, such as background tasks, a special background mode, or a persistent connection to the server? Alternative triggering mechanisms – Would something like VoIP, Push-to-Talk, or another background service be better suited for this use case? Built-in iOS speech synthesis (AVSpeechSynthesizer) – If playing external audio is unreliable, would generating speech dynamically from text be a more robust approach? Streaming audio instead of sending a URL – Could continuous streaming from the server keep the app active and allow playback at the right moment? I want to ensure the solution is reliable and works 100% of the time when needed. Any recommendations on the best approach for this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and guidance.
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401
Feb ’25
No audio in screen recordings when using AVAudioEngine Voice Processing
Hello, We are developing a real-time speech recognition application and are utilizing AVAudioEngine with voice processing enabled on the input node. However, we have observed that enabling this mode interferes with the built-in iOS screen recording feature - specifically, the recorded video does not capture any audio when this mode is active. Since we want users to be able to record their experience within our app, this issue significantly impacts our functionality. Is there a known workaround or recommended approach to ensure that both voice processing and screen recording can function simultaneously? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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363
Oct ’25
APMP & Photography?
Hi, I'm a fan of the gallery in vision pro which has video as well as still photography but I'm wondering if Apple has considered adding the projected media tags to heic so that we can go that next step from Spatial photos to Immersive photos. I have a device that can give me 12k x 6k fisheye images in HDR, but it can't do it at a framerate or resolution that's good enough for video, so I want to cut my losses and show off immersive photos instead. Is there something Apple is already working on for APMP stills or should I create my own app that reads metadata inside a HEIC that I infer in a similar way to the demo "ProjectedMediaConversion" is doing for Video. It would be great to have 180VR photos, which could show as Spatial in a gallery view, but going immersive would half-surround you instead of floating in the blurred view. I think that would be a pretty amazing effect.
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317
Oct ’25
Control system video effects support for CMIO extension
We're distributing a virtual camera with our app that does not profit in the slightest from automatically applied system video effects both to the video going in (physical camera device) or out (virtual camera device). I'm aware of setting NSCameraReactionEffectGesturesEnabledDefault in Info.plist and determining active video effects via AVCaptureDevice API. Those are obviously crutches, because having to tell users to go look for and click around in menu bar apps is the opposite of a great UX. To make our product's video output more deterministic, I'm looking for a way to tell the CMIO subsystem that our virtual camera does not support any of the system video effects. I'm seeing properties like AVCaptureDevice.Format.isPortraitEffectSupported and AVCaptureDevice.Format.isStudioLightSupported whose documentation refers to the format's ability to support these effects. Since we're setting a CMFormatDescription via CMIOExtensionStreamSource.formats I was hoping to find something in the extensions, but wasn't successful so far. Can this be done?
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225
Nov ’25
Why Does AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReasonVideoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps Occur on iPhone?
Hi everyone, We're encountering an unexpected issue with our iPhone-only camera app: 👉 TimeMark - Photo Proof https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timemark-photo-proof/id6446071834 Problem Description: Our app uses a full-screen camera view via AVCaptureSession. In some cases reported by users, the camera fails immediately upon app launch, and we receive this interruption reason: AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReasonVideoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps According to the Apple documentation https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturesession/interruptionreason/videodevicenotavailablewithmultipleforegroundapps?language=objc , this interruption typically occurs when the app is running in a multi-app layout such as Slide Over, Split View, or Picture in Picture — all of which are iPad-only features. However, this issue is being reported on iPhones, and our app does not support iPad at all. Also noted in the documentation: "Given your present AVCaptureSession configuration, the session may only be run if your app occupies the full screen." Additional Context: The issue occurs immediately on app launch, before the user can interact with the camera. We don’t enable multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled. We are 100% sure this is happening on iPhone, not iPad. It’s hard to reproduce; users report it happening sporadically. Locally, we tried playing Picture-in-Picture videos (e.g., Safari/YouTube) before launching our app, but we could not reproduce the issue. Questions: Why is this interruption reason occurring on iPhone, which doesn’t officially support Slide Over or Split View? Could this be caused by some system-level multitasking or resource contention (e.g., Picture in Picture from FaceTime or Safari)? Would enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled help prevent this issue on iPhone, even though it's designed for iPad? Enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled seems to require enabling UIBackgroundModes → voip. Would adding this background mode cause any App Store review risk or rejection if our app doesn't actually use VoIP functionality? Any help, insight, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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821
Oct ’25
AVAudioPlayer/SKAudioNode audio no longer plays after interruption
Hi 👋! We have a SpriteKit-based app where we play AVAudio sounds in three different ways: Effects (incl. UI sounds) with AVAudioPlayer. Long looping tracks with AVAudioPlayer. Short animation effects on the timeline of SpriteKit's SKScene files (effectively SKAudioNode nodes). We've found that when you exit the app or otherwise interrupt audio plays, future audio plays often fail. For example, there's a WebKit-based video trailer inside the app, and if you play it, our looping background music track (2.) will stop playing, and won't resume as you close the trailer (return from WebKit). This is probably due to us not manually restarting the track (so may well be easily fixed). Periodically played AVAudioPlayer audio (1.) are not affected. However, the more concerning thing is that the audio tracks on SKScene file timelines (3.) will no longer play. My hypothesis is that AVAudioEngine gets interrupted, and needs to be restarted for those AVAudioNode elements to regain functionality. Thing is, we don't deal with AVAudioEngine at all currently in the app, meaning it is never initiated to begin with. Obviously things return to normal when you remove the app from short-term memory and restart it. However, it seems many of our users aren't doing this, and often report audio failing presumably due to some interruption in the past without the app ever being cleared from memory. Any idea why timeline-run SKAudioNodes would fail like this? Should the app react to app backgrounding/foregrounding regarding audio? Any help would be very much appreciated ✌️!
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134
May ’25
Mute behavior of Volume button on AVPlayerViewController iOS 26
With older iOS versions, when user taps Mute/Volume button on AVPLayerViewController to unmute, the system restores the sound volume of device to the level when user muted before. On iOS 26, when user taps unmute button on screen, the volume starts from 0 (not restore). (but it still restores if user unmutes by pressing physical volume buttons). As I understand, the Volume bar/button on AVPlayerViewController is MPVolumeView, and I can not control it. So this is a feature of the system. But I got complaints that this is a bug. I did not find documents that describe this change of Mute button behavior. I need some bases to explain this situation. Thank you.
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168
Oct ’25
ScreenCaptureKit and mixed Retina/non-Retina configuration
The two ScreenCaptureKit WWDC22 sessions show how to capture with the new framework but the retina factor is hardcoded to 2 in SCStreamConfiguration. When using on a non-retina display, the screencapture is floating on the upper-left corner of the image buffer. There does not seem to be a simple way to retrieve the retina factor from the SCShareableContent data (when configuring the capture). When processing the streaming output, the SCStreamFrameInfo attachment is supposed to have a scaleFactor property but .scaleFactor does not return a value. I have found out that the attachement dictionary contains SCStreamUpdateFrameDisplayResolution. This entry gives me the retina factor but it is not an official SCStreamFrameInfo key. I list the keys to access it. What is the proper way with ScreenCapture to handle the retina factors ?
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845
Jun ’25
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter nowPlayingInfo throttled
Hello, I have been running into issues with setting nowPlayingInfo information, specifically updating information for CarPlay and the CPNowPlayingTemplate. When I start playback for an item, I see lock screen information update as expected, along with the CarPlay now playing information. However, the playing items are books with collections of tracks. When I select a new track(chapter) within the book, I set the MPMediaItemPropertyTitle to the new chapter name. This change is reflected correctly on the lock screen, but almost never appears correctly on the CarPlay CPNowPlayingTemplate. The previous chapter title remains set and never updates. I see "Application exceeded audio metadata throttle limit." in the debug console fairly frequently. From that a I figured that I need to minimize updates to the nowPlayingInfo dictionary. What I did: I store the metadata dictionary in a local dictionary and only set values in the main nowPlayingInfo dictionary when they are different from the current value. I kick off the nowPlayingInfo update via a task that initially sleeps for around 2 seconds (not a final value, just for my current testing). If a previous Task is active, it gets cancelled, so that only one update can happen within that time window. Neither of these things have been sufficient. I can switch between different titles entirely and the information updates (including cover art). But when I switch chapters within a title, the MPMediaItemPropertyTitle continues to get dropped. I know the value is getting set, because it updates on the lock screen correctly. In total, I have 12 keys I update for info, though with the above changes, usually 2-4 of them actually get updated with high frequency. I am running out of ideas to satisfy the throttling thresholds to accurately display metadata. I could use some advice. Thanks.
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182
May ’25
LockedCameraCaptureExtension and Sharing User Preferences
I have the main app that saves preferences to UserDefaults.standard. So I have this one preference that the user is able to toggle - isRawOn UserDefaults.standard.set(self.isRawOn, forKey: "isRawOn") Now, I have LockedCameraCaptureExtension which is required know if that above setting on or off during launch. Also if it's toggled within the extension, the main app should know about it on the next launch. The main app and the extension runs on separate containers and the preferences are not shared due to privacy reasons. Apple mentions of using appContext of CameraCaptureIntent, but not sure how above scenario is possible through that....unless I am missing something. Apple Reference What I have for CameraCaptureIntent: @available(iOS 18, *) struct LaunchMyAppControlIntent: CameraCaptureIntent { typealias AppContext = MyAppContext static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "LaunchMyAppControlIntent" static let description = IntentDescription("Capture photos with MyApp.") @MainActor func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { .result() } }
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415
Nov ’25
Process to request the restricted entitlement behind “DJ with Apple Music” (tempo control / time-stretch on Apple Music streams)?
Hi, I’m an iOS developer building an app with an use case that needs advanced playback on Apple Music subscription streams, specifically: • Real-time tempo change (BPM) during playback — i.e., time-stretch with key-lock, not just crossfade. • Beat-matched transitions between tracks. From what I can tell, this capability seems to exist only for approved partners and isn’t available through public MusicKit. Question: What’s the official request path to be evaluated for that restricted partner entitlement (application form, questionnaire, NDA, or internal team/BD contact)? If the entitlement identifier is internal, how can I get my account routed to the right Apple Music team? For reference, publicly announced partners include Algoriddim djay, Serato DJ Pro, rekordbox (AlphaTheta), and Engine DJ—all of which appear to implement mixing features that imply advanced playback (tempo/beat-matching) on Apple Music content. I’d prefer not to share product details publicly for the moment and can provide specifics privately if needed. Thanks in advance!
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280
Oct ’25
How to delete FPS Certificate from Apple developer account
Hello All, I am looking for assistance with our FairPlay Streaming (FPS) certificates. We are in the process of migrating to a new video streaming vendor and need to create a new FPS certificate using SDK 4. However, we have reached the limit of allowed FPS certificates in our account and cannot create a new one. Issue Details: • We currently have two FPS certificates active in our developer account. • One of these was created using SDK 5, but our new vendor (Mux) requires an FPS certificate based on SDK 4. • Since Apple does not allow deleting FPS certificates from the developer portal, we are unable to create a new SDK 4 certificate. • We kindly request Apple to revoke one of our existing FPS certificates to allow us to generate a new SDK 4 certificate. Request: We would greatly appreciate it if you could assist us on how to delete one of our existing FPS certificates so that we can proceed with creating a new SDK 4 certificate for our vendor integration. Thank you for your support.
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640
Oct ’25
Finding which effect has been selected for a Live Photo
I am writing an iOS app to present a slide show of assets in a Photo album, in a random order, including videos and live photos. I have got it all working quite nicely but for a Live Photo, I need to know what effect is selected (Live, Loop, Bounce, Long Exposure, Live Off) to display the image correctly. I can't find any mention of getting this information in the documentation. Anyone know how to do this? Thanks in advance. Adrian. (Xcode 16.1 iOS 18.0)
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307
Feb ’25
After iOS 18.5, the AVFoundation AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps error has caused a significant increase in camera black screen issues.
Issue: After iOS 18.5 release, our app is experiencing a significant increase in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps errors. Details: Our camera-related code has not been updated recently.However, we've observed that the error rate has significantly increased starting from May 2025. The error rate has risen from approximately 0.02% (2 in 10,000 users) to 0.1% (1 in 1,000 users). This represents a 5x increase in error occurrence. The frequency has increased noticeably since iOS 18.5 This is affecting our app's camera functionality and user experience Questions: Are there any known changes in iOS 18.5 regarding camera access management? What are the recommended best practices to handle this interruption reason? Are there any API changes we should be aware of? Best, Shay
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472
Oct ’25
Failure of AudioUnitSetProperty when using MacCatalyst (works on macOS)
I was trying to set custom audio output device for a generated audio on macCatalyst. While using let status = AudioUnitSetProperty(outputUnit, kAudioOutputUnitProperty_CurrentDevice, kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &outputDeviceID, UInt32(MemoryLayout.size)) kAudioOutputUnitProperty_CurrentDevice is invalid, and status = -10879, indicating an error. STEPS TO REPRODUCE Set Run Destination to MacOS and run the program. "AudioUnitSetProperty: 0" should be printed, indicating it works fine. Set Run Destination to Mac Catalyst and run the program. "Error setting output device: -10879" should be printed, indicating an error.
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721
Mar ’25
is the output frame rate of a CMIOExtension rounded or capped?
I made a CMIOExtension (a virtual camera) which generates its own output, for use in our in-house software testing. I wanted to make a video source with 29.97, 30, 59.94 and 60fps output. To this end, I created a CMIOExtensionDeviceSource which creates a CMIOExtensionDevice with one CMIOExtensionStreamSource with various stream formats contained in [CMIOExtensionStreamFormat], including one with both maxFrameDuration and minFrameDuration = CMTimeMake(value: 1000, timescale: 30000) and another with both maxFrameDuration and minFrameDuration = CMTimeMake(value: 1001, timescale: 30000) I've held off on the creation of the 59.94/60fps source for now until this problem is resolved. my virtual camera works, it produces a signal, but when I examine its associated AVCaptureDevice in the debugger, I find (lldb) po self.captureDevice?.formats[0].videoSupportedFrameRateRanges[0].maxFrameDuration ▿ Optional<CMTime> ▿ some : CMTime - value : 1000000 - timescale : 30000000 ▿ flags : CMTimeFlags - rawValue : 1 - epoch : 0 I get the same value, 1000000/30000000, or exactly 30fps, for all the formats of my AVCaptureDevice. Is there something I'm doing wrong, or do CMIOExtensionDevices always round the frame rates? I can't force CoreMediaIO to produce frames at exactly my desired frame interval, but I'd like to ensure that the average frame rate is my desired rate. How can I do that? Frame emission is governed by a repeating DispatchSourceTimer with a repeat time specified in nanoseconds with the TimerFlags set to 'strict'.
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1w
macOS Sonoma 'Cannot Decode' HLS Video
I use AVPlayer to play HLS video successfully on macOS Sonoma, but I encountered this error on macOS Sequoia. Please help me: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11833 ‘Cannot Decode’ UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x600001e57330 {Error Domain=CoreMediaErrorDomain Code=-12906 ‘(null)’}, NSLocalizedFailureReason=The decoder required for this media cannot be found., AVErrorMediaTypeKey=vide, NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot Decode} Thanks!
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659
Mar ’25