Selecting a Default Contactless App Is Broken in iOS 18

Question

Created Jul ’25

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 2

My iOS application has both the “Default Host Card Emulation (HCE) App” and “Host Card Emulation (HCE)” entitlements. I was previously able to choose my app as the default contactless app in Settings, but after upgrading to iOS 18.6, my app no longer appears - Apple Wallet is now the only option.

I’m located in the European Economic Area, and both my Apple ID and developer team are registered in the EU.

Here is my entitlements file:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.hce</key>
	<true/>
	<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.hce.default-contactless-app</key>
	<true/>
	<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.hce.iso7816.select-identifier-prefixes</key>
	<array>
		<string>A000000004</string>
		<string>325041592E5359532E4444463031</string>
		<string>A000000003</string>
	</array>
</dict>
</plist>

Boost

Answer 1

Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’25

Please submit a Feedback Report right away with the following logs and information:

1- Go to https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/profiles-and-logs/ and follow the instructions for Wallet for iOS to install a logging profile on your device.

2- Once that is installed, then reproduce the issue.

2a- go to Settings and confirm your app is not listed

2b- delete and reinstall your app

2c- go to Settings to choose your app as the default payment app

3- Once reproduced, then follow the instructions at the above link to create a sysdiagnose

4- include details of what is the setup on the device. Including Apple Wallet settings

5- Video capture of the failure scenario. Including approximate timestamp

Once you 've submitted all this let me know the Feedback ID. @ mention me in your response for expediency

0

Answer 2

OleksiyPavlenko OP

2w

I found what the problem was. It's not obvious, but the default payment app settings are hidden until the user grants NFC permission to the app.

0