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FileManager.removeItem(atPath:) fails with "You don't have permission to access the file" error when trying to remove non-empty directory on NAS
A user of my app reported that when trying to remove a file it always fails with the error "file couldn't be removed because you don't have permission to access it (Cocoa Error Domain 513)". After some testing, we found out that it's caused by trying to delete non-empty directories. I'm using FileManager.removeItem(atPath:) which has worked fine for many years, but it seems that with their particular NAS, it doesn't work. I could work around this by checking if the file is a directory, and if it is, enumerating the directory and remove each contained file before removing the directory itself. But shouldn't this already be taken care of? In the source code of FileManager I see that for Darwin platforms it calls removefile(pathPtr, state, removefile_flags_t(REMOVEFILE_RECURSIVE)) so it seems that it should already work. Is the REMOVEFILE_RECURSIVE flag perhaps ignored by the device? But then, is the misleading "you don't have permission to access the file" error thrown by the device or by macOS? For the FileManager source code, see https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-foundation/blob/1d5d70997410fc8b7700c8648b10d6fc28194202/Sources/FoundationEssentials/FileManager/FileOperations.swift#L444
8
0
237
Jul ’25
Finder shows warning "Apple could not verify file is free of malware" when setting my app as "Always open with"
A user of my AppKit, document-based app brought to my attention that when setting it as the default app to open a certain file with extension .md (by choosing in the Finder "File > Open With > Other", then selecting my app and enabling "Always open with"), trying to open it with a double-click displays the warning "Apple could not verify [file] is free of malware that may harm your mac or compromise your privacy". This is what happens for me: When keeping the default app for a .md file (Xcode in my case), the file opens just fine. When choosing my app in the "File > Open With" menu, the file opens just fine in my app. But when setting my app as the default app (see above), the warning is displayed. From that moment on, choosing my app in the "File > Open With" menu doesn't work anymore. Selecting Xcode doesn't work either. Only setting Xcode again as the default app allows me to open it in Xcode, but my app still isn't allowed to open it. Is this a macOS issue, or can I do anything in my app to prevent it? Where should I start looking for the issue in my code?
14
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511
Aug ’25
FileManager.default.trashItem(at:resultingItemURL:) doesn't update trash icon to be full for some devices
A user of my app noticed that when using it to move a file to the trash on an USB drive, the trash doesn't show the file until unmounting the drive and mounting it again. I was able to reproduce it with one of my own USB drives, but with another USB drive it doesn't reproduce. All USB drives are formatted APFS. When moving a file to the trash from the Finder, both USB drives immediately list it in the trash. Is this a macOS bug, or am I doing something wrong? I created FB19941168. let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.runModal() let url = openPanel.urls[0] do { var result: NSURL? try FileManager.default.trashItem(at: url, resultingItemURL: &result) print(result as Any) } catch { fatalError(error.localizedDescription) }
1
0
124
Aug ’25
Resizing text to fit available space
My app displays some text that should appear the same regardless of the container view or window size, i.e. it should grow and shrink with the container view or window. On iOS there is UILabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth but I couldn't find any equivalent API on macOS. On the internet some people suggest to iteratively set a smaller font size until the text fits the available space, but I thought there must be a more efficient solution. How does UILabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth do it? My expectation was that setting a font's size to a fraction of the window width or height would do the trick, but when resizing the window I can see a slightly different portion of it. class ViewController: NSViewController { override func loadView() { view = MyView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 400, height: 400)) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([view.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.heightAnchor, multiplier: 3), view.heightAnchor.constraint(greaterThanOrEqualToConstant: 100)]) } } class MyView: NSView { let textField = NSTextField(labelWithString: String(repeating: "a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ", count: 2)) override init(frame frameRect: NSRect) { super.init(frame: frameRect) textField.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false textField.setContentCompressionResistancePriority(.defaultLow, for: .horizontal) addSubview(textField) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([textField.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor), textField.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor), textField.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: trailingAnchor)]) } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented") } override func resize(withOldSuperviewSize oldSize: NSSize) { // textField.font = .systemFont(ofSize: frame.width * 0.05) textField.font = .systemFont(ofSize: frame.height * 0.1) } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
13
0
408
Nov ’25
Selecting ~/Library in open panel doesn't give access to ~/Library/Mail
A user of my app brought to my attention that unless they select their ~/Library/Mail folder explicitly in an open panel, they get an error when scanning it inside my app. I can confirm that I also get a permission error when trying to scan it as a subfolder of ~/Library, but not if I select it directly. I'm assuming this is intentional, but it would be nice to have an explanation or some documentation that I can point my users to when they encounter what appears to them as a bug in my app. What makes this matter even more confusing is that selecting a folder in any open panel of an app gives the app access to it for the lifetime of the app, but after restarting the app, access is lost again (unless it has a bookmark to it). This was probably the reason why the user thought that it worked in another app but not in mine. This is the code I use to scan: let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true if openPanel.runModal() == .cancel { return } let enumerator = FileManager.default.enumerator(at: openPanel.urls[0], includingPropertiesForKeys: nil) { url, error in print(url.path, error) return true } while let url = enumerator?.nextObject() as? URL { } And this the error related to the Mail folder: ~/Library/Mail Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file “Mail” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///~/Library/Mail, NSFilePath=/~/Library/Mail, NSUnderlyingError=0x600002991470 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"}}
4
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126
Sep ’25
Control status item and login item from within app
In macOS 26 I noticed there is a section Menu Bar in System Settings which allows to toggle visibility of status items created with NSStatusItem. I'm assuming this is new, since I never noticed it before. Currently my app has a menu item that allows toggling its status item, but now I wonder whether it should always create the status item and let the user control its visibility from System Settings. Theoretically, keeping this option inside the app could lead to confusion if the user has previously disabled the status item in System Settings, then perhaps forgot about it, and then tries to enable it inside the app, but apparently nothing happens because System Settings overrides the app setting. Should I remove the option inside the app? This also makes me think of login items, which can be managed both in System Settings and inside the app via SMAppService. Some users ask why my app doesn't have a launch at login option, and I tell them that System Settings already offers that functionality. Since there is SMAppService I could offer an option inside the app that is kept in sync with System Settings, but I prefer to avoid duplicating functionality, particularly if it's something that is changed once by the user and then rarely (if ever) changed afterwards. But I wonder: why can login items be controlled by an app, and the status item cannot (at least I'm not aware of an API that allows to change the option in System Settings)? If the status item can be overridden in System Settings, why do login items behave differently?
7
0
192
Sep ’25
Window title bar in macOS 26 is drawn even if titlebarAppearsTransparent = true
macOS 26 sometimes draws the title bar background even when setting NSWindow.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true and I don't understand the logic behind it, or how I can turn this off. I'm trying to do something similar to Xcode's "Welcome to Xcode" window which has a left view and a right table view. In my simplified example, the window contains a label and a text view. This used to work in macOS 15, but in macOS 26 the text view is partially covered by the title bar: As soon as I remove the line scrollView.hasVerticalScroller = true, the title bar isn't drawn anymore: The title bar also isn't drawn when removing the view on the left of the text view: I created FB20341654. This may be related to this other issue: NSWindow.titlebarAppearsTransparent only works after collapsing and expanding sidebar @main class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate { func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) { let window = NSWindow(contentViewController: ViewController()) window.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true window.titleVisibility = .hidden window.styleMask = [.titled, .closable, .fullSizeContentView] window.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil) } } class ViewController: NSViewController { override func loadView() { view = NSView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 400, height: 200)) let scrollView = NSScrollView() scrollView.hasVerticalScroller = true // commenting this line out solves the issue scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false scrollView.automaticallyAdjustsContentInsets = false let documentView = NSTextView() documentView.string = (0..<10).map({ "\($0)" }).joined(separator: "\n") scrollView.documentView = documentView let stack = NSStackView(views: [ NSTextField(labelWithString: "asdfasdfasdfasdf"), // commenting this line out also solves the issue scrollView ]) stack.orientation = .horizontal view.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.topAnchor), stack.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor), stack.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor), stack.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.bottomAnchor)]) } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
2
0
249
Sep ’25
App sometimes crashes when inserting String into Set with assertion ELEMENT_TYPE_OF_SET_VIOLATES_HASHABLE_REQUIREMENTS
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app that crashed when trying to insert a String into a Set<String>. Apparently there was an assertion failure ELEMENT_TYPE_OF_SET_VIOLATES_HASHABLE_REQUIREMENTS. I assume that this assertion failure happened because the hash of the new element didn't match the hash of an equal already inserted element, but regardless, I don't understand how inserting a simple string could trigger this assertion. Here is essentially the code that leads to the crash. path is any file system directory, and basePath is a directory higher in the hierarchy, or path itself. var scanErrorPaths = Set<String>() func main() { let path = "/path/to/directory" let basePath = "/path" let fileDescriptor = open(path, O_RDONLY) if fileDescriptor < 0 { if (try? URL(fileURLWithPath: path, isDirectory: false).checkResourceIsReachable()) == true { scanErrorPaths.insert(path.relativePath(from: basePath)!) return } } extension String { func relativePath(from basePath: String) -> String? { if basePath == "" { return self } guard let index = range(of: basePath, options: .anchored)?.upperBound else { return nil } return if index == endIndex || basePath == "/" { String(self[index...]) } else if let index = self[index...].range(of: "/", options: .anchored)?.upperBound { String(self[index...]) } else { nil } } } crash.crash
7
0
905
Oct ’25
UITextView with custom NSUndoManager breaks auto-enabling of software keyboard undo button
I have a custom UITextView where entering text causes the undo button in the software keyboard to be enabled. When I override the undo manager like this: class TextView: UITextView { let _undoManager = UndoManager() override var undoManager: UndoManager? { return _undoManager } } the auto-enabling of the undo button doesn't work anymore. What is the correct way of providing my own undo manager?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: UIKit Tags:
1
1
780
Sep ’22
Warning when archiving product in Xcode with AppIntent extension
When building my app for debugging in Xcode I don't get any warning, only when archiving the product: MyIntent.appex is an ExtensionKit extension and must be embedded in the parent app bundle's Extensions directory, but is embedded in the parent app bundle's ../../../BuildProductsPath/Release/MyApp.app/Contents/Extensions directory. The MyIntent.appex is listed in the main target's Frameworks, Libraries and Embedded Content section and its Build Phase Embed ExtensionKit Extensions with Destination ExtensionKit Extensions. The extension also seems to work, since the app intent is correctly listed in the Shortcuts app. Is this an Xcode bug or do I need to do something different?
2
2
1.2k
Feb ’24
Text background color for newlines in TextKit 2
When using NSTextLayoutManager.addRenderingAttribute(.backgroundColor, value: NSColor.red, for: range), the background color for a line is only drawn as far as the last visible character. There is also a thin space between the lines where the background color is not visible. Whe using NSLayoutManager.addTemporaryAttribute(.backgroundColor, value: NSColor.red, forCharacterRange: range), the background color is drawn also for newline characters and soft line wraps. I would like to achieve the effect of using NSLayoutManager.addTemporaryAttribute(.backgroundColor, value: NSColor.red, forCharacterRange: range), but since I'm targeting TextKit 2, I have to avoid using NSLayoutManager. Is there a way to achieve this with NSTextLayoutManager or one of the other related classes in TextKit 2?
0
1
578
Sep ’23
What is the target submission date when promoting app or significant update on the App Store?
When promoting my app or a significant update at https://developer.apple.com/contact/app-store/promote I have to fill out a Target Submission Date and a Target Release Date. The release date is when I want the app or update to be released to the public on the App Store, but what is the submission date? Can the submission date in relation to the release date influence the likelihood of my app or update being considered for a promotion? Should the interval between the submission and release date be as large as possible?
0
1
610
Nov ’23
Making filecopy faster by changing block size
I'm using the filecopy function to copy many files and I noticed that it always takes longer than similar tools like cp or a Finder copy (I already did a comparison in my other post). What I didn't know before was that I can set the block size which apparently can have a big influence on how fast the file copy operation is. The question now is: what should I consider before manually setting the block size? Does it make sense to have a block size that is not a power of 2? Can certain block sizes cause an error, such as a value that is too large (for the Mac the code is running on, or for the source and target devices)? When should or shouldn't I deviate from the default? Is there a way to find out the optimal block size for given source and target devices, or at least one that performs better than the default? In the following sample code I tried to measure the average time for varying block sizes, but I'm not sure it's the best way to measure it, since each loop iteration can have wildly different durations. class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate { func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) { let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.runModal() let source = openPanel.urls[0] openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true openPanel.canChooseFiles = false openPanel.runModal() let destination = openPanel.urls[0].appendingPathComponent(source.lastPathComponent) let date = Date() let count = 10 for _ in 0..&lt;count { try? FileManager.default.removeItem(at: destination) do { try copy(source: source, destination: destination) } catch { preconditionFailure(error.localizedDescription) } } print(-date.timeIntervalSinceNow / Double(count)) } func copy(source: URL, destination: URL) throws { try source.withUnsafeFileSystemRepresentation { sourcePath in try destination.withUnsafeFileSystemRepresentation { destinationPath in let state = copyfile_state_alloc() defer { copyfile_state_free(state) } // var bsize = Int32(16_777_216) var bsize = Int32(1_048_576) if copyfile_state_set(state, UInt32(COPYFILE_STATE_BSIZE), &amp;bsize) != 0 || copyfile_state_set(state, UInt32(COPYFILE_STATE_STATUS_CB), unsafeBitCast(copyfileCallback, to: UnsafeRawPointer.self)) != 0 || copyfile_state_set(state, UInt32(COPYFILE_STATE_STATUS_CTX), unsafeBitCast(self, to: UnsafeRawPointer.self)) != 0 || copyfile(sourcePath, destinationPath, state, copyfile_flags_t(COPYFILE_ALL | COPYFILE_NOFOLLOW | COPYFILE_EXCL)) != 0 { throw NSError(domain: NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code: Int(errno)) } } } } private let copyfileCallback: copyfile_callback_t = { what, stage, state, src, dst, ctx in if what == COPYFILE_COPY_DATA { if stage == COPYFILE_ERR { return COPYFILE_QUIT } var size: off_t = 0 copyfile_state_get(state, UInt32(COPYFILE_STATE_COPIED), &amp;size) let appDelegate = unsafeBitCast(ctx, to: AppDelegate.self) if !appDelegate.setCopyFileProgress(Int64(size)) { return COPYFILE_QUIT } } return COPYFILE_CONTINUE } private func setCopyFileProgress(_ progress: Int64) -&gt; Bool { return true } }
14
1
1.5k
Jan ’24