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"Baking together" two audio tracks into one for drag-and-drop
Hi all, with my app ScreenFloat, you can record your screen, along with system- and microphone audio. Those two audio feeds are recorded into separate audio tracks in order to individually remove or edit them later on. Now, these recordings you create with ScreenFloat can be drag-and-dropped to other apps instantly. So far, so good, but some apps, like Slack, or VLC, or even websites like YouTube, do not play back multiple audio tracks, just one. So what I'm trying to do is, on dragging the video recording file out of ScreenFloat, instantly baking together the two individual audio tracks into one, and offering that new file as the drag and drop file, so that all audio is played in the target app. But it's slow. I mean, it's actually quite fast, but for drag and drop, it's slow. My approach is this: "Bake together" the two audio tracks into a one-track m4a audio file using AVMutableAudioMix and AVAssetExportSession Take the video track, add the new audio file as an audio track to it, and render that out using AVAssetExportSession For a quick benchmark, a 3'40'' movie, step 1 takes ~1.7 seconds, and step two adds another ~1.5 seconds, so we're at ~3.2 seconds. That's an eternity for a drag and drop, where the user might cancel if there's no immediate feedback. I could also do it in one step, but then I couldn't use the AV*Passthrough preset, and that makes it take around 32 seconds then, because I assume it touches the video data (which is unnecessary in this case, so I think the two-step approach here is the fastest). So, my question is, is there a faster way? The best idea I can come up with right now is, when initially recording the screen with system- and microphone audio as separate tracks, to also record both of them into a third, muted, "hidden" track I could use later on, basically eliminating the need for step one and just ripping the two single audio tracks out of the movie and only have the video and the "hidden" track (then unmuted), but I'd still have a ~1.5 second delay there. Also, there's the processing and data overhead (basically doubling the movie's audio data). All this would be great for an export operation (where one expects it to take a little time), but for a drag-and-drop operation, it's not ideal. I've discarded the idea of doing a promise file drag, because many apps do not accept those, and I want to keep wide compatibility with all sorts of apps. I'd appreciate any ideas or pointers. Thank you kindly, Matthias
2
0
753
Mar ’25
Implement Continuity Markup in Mac app?
Hello, is there a way to implement Continuity Markup in our own apps? (This is what I'm talking about: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102269 , scroll down to "Use Continuity Markup"). Also, why does a QuickLook panel (QLPreviewPanel.shared()) not display the markup options when triggered from my app for png image files in my app's Group Container? Do I need to implement certain NSServicesMenuRequestor methods for that? Sadly, I could not find any docs on that. Thank you, – Matthias
0
0
138
Apr ’25
[macOS] AppTransaction questions (internet connection requirement)
Hello, I hope to find out more about how AppTransaction works on macOS, specifically about its internet connection requirements: if I use this to validate that the app is a legit purchase from the Mac App Store, I would not want it to have an always-on requirement just to validate. Does AppTransaction require the user to always be online for AppTransaction.shared ? When an app is downloaded from the Mac App Store, is the data needed for AppTransaction automatically embedded during that download, or is that data downloaded upon first launch of the app, therefore requiring an internet connection at launch time? Once the data/receipt has been downloaded by AppTransaction, is it cached until the app's next update, or is it cleared at some time during the version's life and needs to be re-downloaded, therefore requiring an internet connection at launch? Where is that receipt/data stored? Also, if you don't mind me sneaking in this non-related but sort of related question, in terms of receipt validation: Does macOS Sequoia's MAC address rotation feature affect receipt validation in any way when using IOKit? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
2
4
672
Apr ’25
Title and Subtitle in Control Widget on macOS Tahoe?
Hi 🙋 Has anybody gotten subtitles in macOS Tahoe Control Widgets to show up in their custom control widgets? Seems macOS is able to do it (see attached screenshot of the Bluetooth control widget), but my widget, which shows a title and subtitle on iOS, will only show the title on macOS. I tried all the different ControlWidgetButton init methods to no avail. I tried a VStack for my title and subtitle Texts, I tried just two Texts without a VStack, I tried the controlWidgetStatus and controlWidgetActionHint modifiers out of desperation... nothing worked. Any pointers much appreciated! Thank you, – Matthias
2
1
211
Sep ’25
[macOS Sequoia] Using RegisterEventHotkey with option and shift modifiers doesn't working anymore
Hello. In my app, I use RegisterEventHotkey to implement global keyboard shortcuts to trigger actions. Up until macOS Sequoia, I was able to use a keyboard shortcut with option and shift as the modifiers, like option shift 2 (⌥ ⇧ 2). Now, on macOS Sequoia, using RegisterEventHotkey to register a hotkey with those exact modifiers (option and shift), regardless of the key, fails with the error -9868 (eventInternalErr). Is this a documented and wanted change, or is this a bug? Other modifier keys (just command, command option, command shift, command control, control shift, etc), all work. Any insight into this would be appreciated. (Feedback filed: FB15163561) Thank you, Matthias
22
10
14k
Nov ’25
[Mac] CloudKit CKQuerySubscription silent push notifications not arriving
I have the following code running on macOS and iOS: CKQuerySubscription *zsub = [[CKQuerySubscription alloc] initWithRecordType:ESS_CLOUDCONTROLLER_RECORDTYPE_PUSHNOTE predicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"TRUEPREDICATE"] subscriptionID:@"pushZSub" options:CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordUpdate|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordCreation|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordDeletion]; zsub.zoneID = zid; CKNotificationInfo *inf = [[CKNotificationInfo alloc] init]; inf.shouldSendContentAvailable = YES; inf.desiredKeys = @[ESS_PN_RECORDFIELD_KEY_OVERALLDATE]; zsub.notificationInfo = inf; CKModifySubscriptionsOperation *msop = [[CKModifySubscriptionsOperation alloc] initWithSubscriptionsToSave:@[zsub] subscriptionIDsToDelete:nil]; msop.qualityOfService = NSQualityOfServiceUserInitiated; msop.modifySubscriptionsCompletionBlock = ^(NSArray<CKSubscription *> * _Nullable savedSubscriptions, NSArray<CKSubscriptionID> * _Nullable deletedSubscriptionIDs, NSError * _Nullable operationError) { dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ if (savedSubscriptions.count == 1) { //works also when already created. compH(YES, nil); } else { compH(NO, nil); } }); }; [self.database addOperation:msop]; (code synopsis: after i create a custom zone (not shown in code), I add a ckquerysubscription to it for a specific record type, configured as a silent notification) When I change the according record in my Mac app, I get an immediate silent push on iOS. On macOS, however, after I change the record in my iOS app, I don't get one. Sometimes, one silent push makes it through every now and then a minute+ late or so, and after that, it's going missing again. What's the deal? Everything's set up correctly (com.apple.developer.aps-environment is set, container-identifiers are the same, icloud services are the same, ubiquity-kvstore-identifier are the same). I obviously register for remote notifications in both apps. I see all the records and subscriptions and zones in both the Mac and iOS app. I tried setting alertBody to an empty string, or soundName to an empty string, or both to an empty string: no difference I tried having different subscriptions for my Mac and iOS app, since they use different bundle ids, but that was merged into one subscription server-side, so I'm thinking that's not it I tried making it not-silent by setting contentAvailable to NO and adding a full alertBody, title and subtitle. Again, worked on iOS, not on macOS. This has been going on since macOS 14 Sonoma (when I first got reports of this. Now running on macOS 26.3). Before Sonoma, it worked just fine. Now I thought perhaps it's because I had a subscription on the default zone, and not a custom one, so I tried subscribing to changes on a record in a custom zone (see code above), but that did not change anything either. It's all working fine, only the push notifications are not making it through to the Mac app. If I sudo killall apsd (kill the push service daemon), the last push notification suddenly miraculously makes it through, by the way. At this point, I'm out of ideas and would very much appreciate pointers as to how to debug this. Polling every 30 seconds for changes is so 1990s. Speaking of which, this is a rather long-time-running app (started in 2011). Could my CloudKit database be “too old” or “corrupted” or whatever? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
1
0
363
Feb ’26
[macOS 26.4.x, iOS 26.4.x] Handoff broken?
Hello, with macOS' and iOS' recent updates (26.4.x), Handoff in my app appears to have become dysfunctional, as I receive the following message in the logs: getContinuationStreamsWithCompletionHandler(), inputStream=(null) outputStream=(null) error=Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=94 "Bad message" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not set up internal streams} It ONLY works: From a Mac with 15.x to other Macs or iOS devices (on 26.4.x). All other combinations (see below) do NOT work: iOS (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (15.x) Mac (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) The Handoff prompt is shown in the Dock on Mac, in the app switcher on iOS, and in the Dock on iPadOS, but once I click/press it, I get the continuationStreams error. Now, is it my app, or the OS? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
4
0
191
4d
"Baking together" two audio tracks into one for drag-and-drop
Hi all, with my app ScreenFloat, you can record your screen, along with system- and microphone audio. Those two audio feeds are recorded into separate audio tracks in order to individually remove or edit them later on. Now, these recordings you create with ScreenFloat can be drag-and-dropped to other apps instantly. So far, so good, but some apps, like Slack, or VLC, or even websites like YouTube, do not play back multiple audio tracks, just one. So what I'm trying to do is, on dragging the video recording file out of ScreenFloat, instantly baking together the two individual audio tracks into one, and offering that new file as the drag and drop file, so that all audio is played in the target app. But it's slow. I mean, it's actually quite fast, but for drag and drop, it's slow. My approach is this: "Bake together" the two audio tracks into a one-track m4a audio file using AVMutableAudioMix and AVAssetExportSession Take the video track, add the new audio file as an audio track to it, and render that out using AVAssetExportSession For a quick benchmark, a 3'40'' movie, step 1 takes ~1.7 seconds, and step two adds another ~1.5 seconds, so we're at ~3.2 seconds. That's an eternity for a drag and drop, where the user might cancel if there's no immediate feedback. I could also do it in one step, but then I couldn't use the AV*Passthrough preset, and that makes it take around 32 seconds then, because I assume it touches the video data (which is unnecessary in this case, so I think the two-step approach here is the fastest). So, my question is, is there a faster way? The best idea I can come up with right now is, when initially recording the screen with system- and microphone audio as separate tracks, to also record both of them into a third, muted, "hidden" track I could use later on, basically eliminating the need for step one and just ripping the two single audio tracks out of the movie and only have the video and the "hidden" track (then unmuted), but I'd still have a ~1.5 second delay there. Also, there's the processing and data overhead (basically doubling the movie's audio data). All this would be great for an export operation (where one expects it to take a little time), but for a drag-and-drop operation, it's not ideal. I've discarded the idea of doing a promise file drag, because many apps do not accept those, and I want to keep wide compatibility with all sorts of apps. I'd appreciate any ideas or pointers. Thank you kindly, Matthias
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
753
Activity
Mar ’25
Implement Continuity Markup in Mac app?
Hello, is there a way to implement Continuity Markup in our own apps? (This is what I'm talking about: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102269 , scroll down to "Use Continuity Markup"). Also, why does a QuickLook panel (QLPreviewPanel.shared()) not display the markup options when triggered from my app for png image files in my app's Group Container? Do I need to implement certain NSServicesMenuRequestor methods for that? Sadly, I could not find any docs on that. Thank you, – Matthias
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
138
Activity
Apr ’25
[macOS] AppTransaction questions (internet connection requirement)
Hello, I hope to find out more about how AppTransaction works on macOS, specifically about its internet connection requirements: if I use this to validate that the app is a legit purchase from the Mac App Store, I would not want it to have an always-on requirement just to validate. Does AppTransaction require the user to always be online for AppTransaction.shared ? When an app is downloaded from the Mac App Store, is the data needed for AppTransaction automatically embedded during that download, or is that data downloaded upon first launch of the app, therefore requiring an internet connection at launch time? Once the data/receipt has been downloaded by AppTransaction, is it cached until the app's next update, or is it cleared at some time during the version's life and needs to be re-downloaded, therefore requiring an internet connection at launch? Where is that receipt/data stored? Also, if you don't mind me sneaking in this non-related but sort of related question, in terms of receipt validation: Does macOS Sequoia's MAC address rotation feature affect receipt validation in any way when using IOKit? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
Replies
2
Boosts
4
Views
672
Activity
Apr ’25
Title and Subtitle in Control Widget on macOS Tahoe?
Hi 🙋 Has anybody gotten subtitles in macOS Tahoe Control Widgets to show up in their custom control widgets? Seems macOS is able to do it (see attached screenshot of the Bluetooth control widget), but my widget, which shows a title and subtitle on iOS, will only show the title on macOS. I tried all the different ControlWidgetButton init methods to no avail. I tried a VStack for my title and subtitle Texts, I tried just two Texts without a VStack, I tried the controlWidgetStatus and controlWidgetActionHint modifiers out of desperation... nothing worked. Any pointers much appreciated! Thank you, – Matthias
Replies
2
Boosts
1
Views
211
Activity
Sep ’25
[macOS Sequoia] Using RegisterEventHotkey with option and shift modifiers doesn't working anymore
Hello. In my app, I use RegisterEventHotkey to implement global keyboard shortcuts to trigger actions. Up until macOS Sequoia, I was able to use a keyboard shortcut with option and shift as the modifiers, like option shift 2 (⌥ ⇧ 2). Now, on macOS Sequoia, using RegisterEventHotkey to register a hotkey with those exact modifiers (option and shift), regardless of the key, fails with the error -9868 (eventInternalErr). Is this a documented and wanted change, or is this a bug? Other modifier keys (just command, command option, command shift, command control, control shift, etc), all work. Any insight into this would be appreciated. (Feedback filed: FB15163561) Thank you, Matthias
Replies
22
Boosts
10
Views
14k
Activity
Nov ’25
[Mac] CloudKit CKQuerySubscription silent push notifications not arriving
I have the following code running on macOS and iOS: CKQuerySubscription *zsub = [[CKQuerySubscription alloc] initWithRecordType:ESS_CLOUDCONTROLLER_RECORDTYPE_PUSHNOTE predicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"TRUEPREDICATE"] subscriptionID:@"pushZSub" options:CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordUpdate|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordCreation|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordDeletion]; zsub.zoneID = zid; CKNotificationInfo *inf = [[CKNotificationInfo alloc] init]; inf.shouldSendContentAvailable = YES; inf.desiredKeys = @[ESS_PN_RECORDFIELD_KEY_OVERALLDATE]; zsub.notificationInfo = inf; CKModifySubscriptionsOperation *msop = [[CKModifySubscriptionsOperation alloc] initWithSubscriptionsToSave:@[zsub] subscriptionIDsToDelete:nil]; msop.qualityOfService = NSQualityOfServiceUserInitiated; msop.modifySubscriptionsCompletionBlock = ^(NSArray<CKSubscription *> * _Nullable savedSubscriptions, NSArray<CKSubscriptionID> * _Nullable deletedSubscriptionIDs, NSError * _Nullable operationError) { dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ if (savedSubscriptions.count == 1) { //works also when already created. compH(YES, nil); } else { compH(NO, nil); } }); }; [self.database addOperation:msop]; (code synopsis: after i create a custom zone (not shown in code), I add a ckquerysubscription to it for a specific record type, configured as a silent notification) When I change the according record in my Mac app, I get an immediate silent push on iOS. On macOS, however, after I change the record in my iOS app, I don't get one. Sometimes, one silent push makes it through every now and then a minute+ late or so, and after that, it's going missing again. What's the deal? Everything's set up correctly (com.apple.developer.aps-environment is set, container-identifiers are the same, icloud services are the same, ubiquity-kvstore-identifier are the same). I obviously register for remote notifications in both apps. I see all the records and subscriptions and zones in both the Mac and iOS app. I tried setting alertBody to an empty string, or soundName to an empty string, or both to an empty string: no difference I tried having different subscriptions for my Mac and iOS app, since they use different bundle ids, but that was merged into one subscription server-side, so I'm thinking that's not it I tried making it not-silent by setting contentAvailable to NO and adding a full alertBody, title and subtitle. Again, worked on iOS, not on macOS. This has been going on since macOS 14 Sonoma (when I first got reports of this. Now running on macOS 26.3). Before Sonoma, it worked just fine. Now I thought perhaps it's because I had a subscription on the default zone, and not a custom one, so I tried subscribing to changes on a record in a custom zone (see code above), but that did not change anything either. It's all working fine, only the push notifications are not making it through to the Mac app. If I sudo killall apsd (kill the push service daemon), the last push notification suddenly miraculously makes it through, by the way. At this point, I'm out of ideas and would very much appreciate pointers as to how to debug this. Polling every 30 seconds for changes is so 1990s. Speaking of which, this is a rather long-time-running app (started in 2011). Could my CloudKit database be “too old” or “corrupted” or whatever? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
363
Activity
Feb ’26
[macOS 26.4.x, iOS 26.4.x] Handoff broken?
Hello, with macOS' and iOS' recent updates (26.4.x), Handoff in my app appears to have become dysfunctional, as I receive the following message in the logs: getContinuationStreamsWithCompletionHandler(), inputStream=(null) outputStream=(null) error=Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=94 "Bad message" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not set up internal streams} It ONLY works: From a Mac with 15.x to other Macs or iOS devices (on 26.4.x). All other combinations (see below) do NOT work: iOS (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (26.4.x) iOS (26.4.x) > Mac (15.x) Mac (26.4.x) > iOS (26.4.x) The Handoff prompt is shown in the Dock on Mac, in the app switcher on iOS, and in the Dock on iPadOS, but once I click/press it, I get the continuationStreams error. Now, is it my app, or the OS? Thank you kindly, – Matthias
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
191
Activity
4d