iOS 26.3.0 TextToSpeech EXC_BAD_ACCESS

Question

Created Mar ’26

Replies 6

Boosts 7

Participants 6

Hello Apple Developer Community,

I'm seeing a persistent crash in my iOS app reported via Firebase Crashlytics. The issue only started appearing on devices running iOS 26.3.0 and above (the crash does not occur on lower iOS versions, and it's unrelated to my app's version number).

Key points:

My app does NOT use any Text-to-Speech (TTS) features whatsoever. No AVSpeechSynthesizer, no Speech framework, no related APIs called from our code.
My app is primarily written in Objective-C (with some Swift components possibly via dependencies).
The crash stack is entirely within Apple's private TextToSpeech framework, specifically in ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance().
I suspect it might be indirectly triggered by a third-party ad SDK (e.g., Google Mobile Ads, AppLovin, etc.) that could be loading or interacting with accessibility features in the background — but this is just a hypothesis, as I have no direct evidence yet.

Here is one representative crash log:

Crashed: com.apple.root.user-initiated-qos.cooperative 0 TextToSpeech 0x6bb00 ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance() + 99800 1 TextToSpeech 0xf8c60 ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance() + 677688 2 TextToSpeech 0xf8c60 ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance() + 677688 3 TextToSpeech 0x1a0b9c ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance() + 1365620 4 libswift_Concurrency.dylib 0x628b4 swift::runJobInEstablishedExecutorContext(swift::Job*) + 288 5 libswift_Concurrency.dylib 0x63d28 swift_job_runImpl(swift::Job*, swift::SerialExecutorRef) + 156 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x13f48 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 364 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x146fc _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 180 8 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x137c _pthread_wqthread + 232 9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x8c0 start_wqthread + 8

The crash occurs on a background cooperative queue (Swift Concurrency).

Questions:

Has anyone else seen crashes inside ausdk::BufferAllocator::instance() in TextToSpeech on iOS 26.3.0+ even without using TTS in their app?
Could a third-party ad SDK be causing the TextToSpeech framework to load unexpectedly (e.g., via accessibility preloading)?
Is this a known bug in iOS 26's Spoken Content / Speak Selection features? Any workarounds or fixes from Apple?

Any insights, similar reports (especially from Objective-C based apps), or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Answered by DTS Engineer in 886405022

The crash stack you've shared is entirely within the TextToSpeech framework, with no app frames involved. Combined with the fact that your app doesn't use any TTS APIs, and that multiple developers in this thread are reporting the same crash starting with iOS 26.3, this points to a bug in the framework itself.

One thing that would help engineering narrow this down: can you check whether the affected users have any spoken content accessibility features enabled, such as Speak Selection or Speak Screen? The TextToSpeech framework can be loaded by the system for these features, even when your app doesn't use TTS directly, and that may be the path that triggers this crash.

Please file a Feedback report with your crash logs if you haven't already — the other developers in this thread have filed FB22248403, FB22305926, and FB22590629, and having additional reports with different crash samples helps engineering assess the scope and priority. If you do file, please post the number here so others can reference it.

Boost

Answer 1

Ahmed M. Hassan OP

Mar ’26

We started to see the same behavior, even with no features using TTS as well.

1

Answer 2

Ahmed M. Hassan OP

Mar ’26

Feedback FB22248403 submitted for this issue...

2

Answer 3

YishaiR OP

Mar ’26

We see this issue in iOS 26.3 as well, but it can reproduce almost every time if we build the app with Xcode 26.4 and run the app on an iOS 26.3 device. Also sent: FB22305926 with the crash log.

1

Answer 4

jRustonApps OP

1w

Also experiencing this issue, starting with iOS 26.3. The issue still seems to be present in iOS 26.4.1.

FB22590629

0

Answer 5

ayberkmogol OP

3d

same, iOS 26.3.0 and above Screenshot 2026-04-30 at 10.36.27.png

0

Answer 6

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

2d

Recommended

The crash stack you've shared is entirely within the TextToSpeech framework, with no app frames involved. Combined with the fact that your app doesn't use any TTS APIs, and that multiple developers in this thread are reporting the same crash starting with iOS 26.3, this points to a bug in the framework itself.

One thing that would help engineering narrow this down: can you check whether the affected users have any spoken content accessibility features enabled, such as Speak Selection or Speak Screen? The TextToSpeech framework can be loaded by the system for these features, even when your app doesn't use TTS directly, and that may be the path that triggers this crash.

Please file a Feedback report with your crash logs if you haven't already — the other developers in this thread have filed FB22248403, FB22305926, and FB22590629, and having additional reports with different crash samples helps engineering assess the scope and priority. If you do file, please post the number here so others can reference it.

0