Lock Screen Quick Action Fails to Present CameraCaptureIntent View After Main App Transition

App & System Services Widgets & Live Activities
SeanCho OP
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I am encountering an issue where the Lock Screen Quick Action fails to visibly open my app. My app is a camera application that utilizes a CameraCaptureIntent to launch a standalone, lightweight camera view (accessible while the device is locked), distinct from the main application.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Open the lightweight camera view using the Lock Screen Quick Action.
  2. From this view, launch the Main App.
  3. Lock the iPhone (put it to sleep).
  4. Attempt to launch the lightweight camera view via the Quick Action again.

A slight animation occurs, but the camera view does not appear on screen. After multiple tests, it seems the view is actually launching but remains in an "invisible state." I suspect that the system hides the lightweight camera view when transitioning to the Main App, but fails to reset this hidden state when the Quick Action is triggered subsequently.

I would appreciate any guidance on a potential workaround or confirmation if this is a known issue awaiting a system update.

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FrankGasparovic OP

We're seeing the same thing in our app, and can reproduce it reliably:

  1. Press the Lock Screen control. The camera extension opens normally.
  2. Take a photo, then call LockedCameraCaptureSession.openApplication(for:) to open the main app.
  3. Lock the phone.
  4. Press the control again. There's a slight animation, but the camera never appears. The phone looks hung until you swipe or lock again.

From our own logging in the extension:

  • The extension process is suspended almost immediately after openApplication(for:) is called, before the call returns.
  • Its scene is never disconnected. We kept the process alive with ProcessInfo.performExpiringActivity and waited up to 25 seconds for the scene to go away; it never did.
  • Calling exit(0) in the extension after the hand-off didn't help either. The next press still showed nothing.

This matches the report in FB21966835, which describes the Lock Screen camera being left in an unpredictable state after handing off to the app. It looks like system state rather than anything inside the extension. It would be great to know whether this is a known issue, or whether there's a supported way to hand off to the app without breaking next launch.