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failing XPC connection to SMAppService based LaunchDaemon on some macOS 26 Macs ("FATAL ERROR - fullPath is nil"?)
our app has a helper to perform privileged operations which communicates with the main app via xpc_connection* previously that helper was installed via SMJobBless() into the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/ due to various issues with the old SMJobBless() as well as it being deprecated we have ported the helper to the new SMAppService API where the helpers do not need to be installed but remain within the app bundle ( [[SMAppService daemonServiceWithPlistName:HELPER_PLIST_NAME] registerAndReturnError:&err] ) the new approach has been used in production for a year now and works fine in most cases and seems to be more reliable than the old SMJobBless(). however, we've observed two problems with the new helper architecture. • sometimes when users update the app (with the built-in Sparkle framework), the app does not seem to have FullDiskAccess, although the checkbox in the system settings remains toggled on. only once the Mac has been restarted, things work fine again. since this is cured by a reboot, lets ignore this issue • on some Macs, it just seems impossible to use the helper, while "installation" via SMAppService runs fine without error, using the helper always just fails with Connection invalid. This issue seems to affect ~0.2% of our users Macs, and we have found no cure yet how to get things into a working state on those Macs. luckily the issue also occurs 100% reproducible on one of the Macs in our office now. the problem seems to be a regression in macOS 26, as things worked absolutely fine on all previous macOS versions. we'd like to investigate why the helper just won't work on some Macs. unfortunately even enabling Console logging for just a few seconds yields thousands of messages nowadays, but this may be insightful: we found that on the "bad Mac", the "FATAL ERROR - fullPath is nil" always appears and subsequently no working XPC connection to the helper is ever established. on the "good Macs", this "fullPath is nil" error never appears, and the XPC connection works fine after all the required permissions (helper permission, FDA permission) are granted. so, my questons: • has anyone else seen a problem where a SMAppService / XPC based priviledged helper just won't work on a handful of Macs? • what about the "FATAL ERROR - fullPath is nil", is this the real root cause of the issue or should we look somewhere else? how can we prevent the issue on the affected Macs? the only thing that seems to be clear here is that this is a macOS 26 Tahoe bug.
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1w
installing a SMAppService based LaunchDaemon from the command line
our app has a helper to perform privileged operations. previously that helper was installed via SMJobBless() into the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/ we also had a script that would install the helper from the command-line, which was essential for enterprise users that could not manually install the helper on all their employee's Macs. the script would copy the files to their install location and would use launchctl bootstrap system as the CLI alternative to SMJobBless(). the full script is here: https://pastebin.com/FkzuAWwV due to various issues with the old SMJobBless() approach we have ported to helper to the new SMAppService API where the helpers do not need to be installed but remain within the app bundle ( [[SMAppService daemonServiceWithPlistName:HELPER_PLIST_NAME] registerAndReturnError:&err] ) however, we are having trouble writing a (remote-capable) CLI script to bootstrap the new helper for those users that need to install the helper on many Macs at once. running the trivial sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Applications/MacUpdater.app/Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.corecode.MacUpdaterPrivilegedInstallHelperTool2.plist would just result in a non-informative: Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error various other tries with launchctl bootstrap/kickstart/enable yielded nothing promising. so, whats the command-line way to install a SMAppService based helper daemon? obviously 'installing' means both 'registering' (which we do with registerAndReturnError in the GUI app) and 'approving' (which a GUI user needs to manually do by clicking on the notification or by going into System Settings). thanks in advance! p.s. we wanted to submit this as a DTS TSI, but those are no longer available without spending another day on a reduced sample projects. words fail me. p.p.s. bonus points for a CLI way to give FDA permissions to the app!
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Jun ’25
Forums are missing a category for hiring developers
A category connecting Apple developers with companies looking to hire Apple developers would be great. Best make two subforums, similar to Hackernews: •  Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (where developers can look for job offers) and • Who is hiring? (where companies can look for developers) yeah there are lots of other job boards as well as freelancing platforms but it is hard to find good iOS devs there and practically impossible to find any macOS developers...
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1.6k
Dec ’22
Xcode submissions down?
App Store Connect Operation Error The session's status is FAILED and the error description is 'failed to authenticate (19)' App Store Connect Operation Error The iTunes Store is experiencing an internal server error. See http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ for information about major outages. App Store Connect Operation Error An authentication error occurred while uploading the package to Apple's remote server. App Store Connect Operation Error Unable to find a MZContentProviderUpload for package. (1041) App Store Connect Operation Error Unable to find a MZContentProviderUpload for package. (1007)tried uploading the archive to the Mac App Store through Xcode like 5 times in the past 30 minutes...
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5.3k
Jan ’22