Delve into the world of built-in app and system services available to developers. Discuss leveraging these services to enhance your app's functionality and user experience.

Posts under General subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Created

Screentime API new issues on iOS 17.4.1 and 17.5.1
Hi, I have a released screentime app ScreenZen. The last few days I've seen a disturbing spike in bug reports coming from people with 17.4.1 and 17.5.1 phones with no update to the app itself. People reported they saw the issue immediately after updating their iOS version. Unfortunately it is not replicable on all phones with those versions, so we haven't been able to replicate it on our test phones. It appears the issue is the ApplicationToken passed into ShieldActionExtension and ShieldConfigurationExtension does not match any of the ApplicationTokens that the user selected to block through FamilyControls. (The selected ApplicationTokens are being loaded through a group UserDefaults and they are indeed being loaded in the ShieldActionExtension in the bug reports).This is preventing the app from loading the correct settings and handling the blocking accordingly. I am trying to isolate this better with a new release with better logging, but would appreciate any help on this issue.
3
6
2.5k
Jun ’24
Bug: AASA file not fetched on app install
~5% of our users when downloading the iOS application from the Apple Store for the first time are unable to enrol a Passkey and experience an error saying the application is not associated with [DOMAIN]. The error message thrown by the iOS credentials API is "The operation couldn't be completed. Application with identifier [APPID] is not associated with domain [DOMAIN]" We have raised this via the developer support portal with case id: 102315543678 Question: Why does the AASA file fail to fetch on app install and is there anything that can be done to force the app to fetch the file? Can this bug be looked at urgently as it is impacting security critical functionality? Other Debugging Observations We have confirmed that our AASA file is correctly formatted and hosted on the Apple CDN. Under normal circumstances the association is created on install and Passkey enrolment works as intended. We have observed that when customers uninstall/reinstall the app this often, but not always, resolves the issue. We also know this issue can resolve itself overtime without any intervention. We have ruled out network (e.g VPN) issues and have reproduced the issue across a number of different network configurations. We have ruled out the Keychain provider and have reproduced it across a variety of different providers and combinations of. We observed this across multiple versions of the iOS operating system and iPhone hardware including the latest hardware and iOS version.
11
3
2.6k
Jun ’24
Issue regarding universal links
Hello, we are experiencing an issue that is not systematic regarding universal links on our application. In some cases, after the application is installed, the universal links do not open the application but instead open in Safari. We have conducted tests on several devices and with the same link. In some cases, the links open the application after installation, and in other cases, they open in Safari. I should mention that in all test cases, we did not force the opening via the menu accessible through a long press on the link. We performed sysdiagnose in the different cases and we observed the same configuration for the universal links in the swcutil_show.txt file: User Approval: unspecified Site/Fmwk Approval: approved At this stage, I do not think the problem comes from our application or the configuration of the apple-app-site-association file. Is this a known issue? Is there anything we can do on our side to work around it ?
4
0
707
Jun ’24
FinanceKit requestAuthorization denied
Hello all 👋 I'm getting unexpected behavior when testing FinanceKit for my app and was hoping to get assistance. Pre-reqs (defined at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/financekit): I've been given the FinanceKit entitlement I have the com.apple.developer.financekit entitlement set to financial-data I also have NSFinancialDataDescription set in Info.plist. I am targeting iOS 17.4 (a physical device) When I call FinanceStore.shared.requestAuthorization(), I immediately get a denied status without any alert dialogs. No data about my app is listed in Settings > Privacy & Security > Wallet Any idea what else is needed here? Thanks so much for the help! Code import SwiftUI import FinanceKit @main struct myApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { ContentView() } } } struct ContentView: View { @State private var status: AuthorizationStatus? @State private var dataAvail: Bool? var body: some View { VStack { Text("Data available \(String(describing: dataAvail))") Text("Auth status \(String(describing: status))") Button("Get Status") { Task{ dataAvail = FinanceStore.isDataAvailable(.financialData) status = try await FinanceStore.shared.authorizationStatus() } }.buttonStyle(.borderedProminent) Button("Request Auth") { Task{ do{ status = try await FinanceStore.shared.requestAuthorization() }catch{ print(error) } } }.buttonStyle(.borderedProminent) } .padding() } } #Preview { ContentView() } app.entitlements: <?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.financekit</key> <array> <string>financial-data</string> </array> </dict> </plist> Info.plist: <?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>NSFinancialDataDescription</key> <string>Budget across all your accounts</string> </dict> </plist> VIdeo demo:
3
2
656
Jun ’24
Tokens change without reason after updating to iOS 17.5.1
Some of our users encounter an issue after updating their iPhone/iPad to iOS 17.5.1. The tokens passed in the Shield Configuration extension don't match the tokens they selected in my app using the FamilyPicker before updating to iOS 17.5.1. It seems the tokens changed for no reason. My app can't match the token from the ShieldConfigurationDataSource to any tokens stored on my end, causing my shield screens to turn blank. The same applies to tokens in the Device Activity Report extension. The only workaround I've found is to tell affected users to unselect and reselect apps and websites to block in my app. This gets them new tokens from the FamilyActivityPicker, which solves the issue. However, for some users, the bug reoccurs a few days later. Tokens seem to change again, causing the same issue in the Shield Configuration extension. I am not able to reproduce the issue on my test devices so I have no sysdiagnose to attach. However, this issue is affecting other screen time apps: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/732845 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/756440 FB14082790 FB14111223 A change in iOS 17.5.1 must have triggered this behaviour. Could an Apple engineer give us any updates on this?
27
6
2.4k
Jun ’24
v2 Weatherkit REST API documentation release date
Hi. The WWDC video of the v2 weatherkit api showed some examples for the REST API. However, they were very limited. The documentation for the REST API is currently for the v1 weatherkit API. When will the documentation for the v2 API be released? There are some new features of the v2 that I would really like to use, but I can't without knowing the new v2 REST API specifications. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks!
8
2
1.1k
Jul ’24
Message Filter Extension won't use Basic Auth
I am trying to set up a message filter extension that will use shared web credentials for basic auth when calling to its ILMessageFilterExtensionNetworkURL. I have associated domains set up for both "messagefilter:" and "webcredentials:" and the message filter IS correctly calling the ILMessageFilterExtensionNetworkURL with each message - so that part is working. As detailed here, I have set up Shared Web Credentials and my view controller is using SecAddSharedWebCredential() to save the creds to the correct domain. Using Authorization services, the creds are auto-filled into my app's login screen. When I go under Settings > Passwords, I see the creds are saved and they are the correct creds to the corrent website that matches ILMessageFilterExtensionNetworkURL. Regardless of all of this, the deferQueryRequestToNetwork() refuses to use the creds and implement Basic Auth in its URL call. It makes the call to the correct URL, it just won't use the Shared Web Creds for basic auth. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
3
3
876
Jul ’24
Exact Extract of Text from PDF
The problem is that when I read out the text in a PDF with page.string or page.attributedString, the context of the lines is lost. Instead of TermA....23,45 TermB....2,13 in an index document TermA TermB 23,45 2,13 is issued. The context of the lines (and the sequence of the letters) is lost. Is there a way to read the text from a PDF line by line?
1
1
477
Jul ’24
PDFKit Sizes increases
Hey there, I have a slight problem which is also known on the web, but I couldn't find any answers... My iOS App is working with documents like pdf and images. It is made to handle invoices and upload them to an external service. The app's job is to compress those pdfs and images. Sadly the PDFKit's PDFDocument increases its size just after importing it with pdfDocument = PDFDocument(url: url) and later exporting it to an pdf file again with data = pdf.dataRepresentation() without ever modifying it. It increases by server KB after each export. Do you have any alternatives to the renderer dataRepresentation() or a general PDFKit alternative Thanks
1
1
489
Jul ’24
Device Activity Report only for Selected Apps
I want to display device activity reports for particular selected apps. for getting a daily basis app uses time. Now, what is happening? there are 10 apps selected from the family activity picker but some apps are displayed in the list. I need all 10 apps or more that I will choose from the family activity picker. The bellow code is used for fetching reports. var body: some View { VStack { DeviceActivityReport(context, filter: filter) } } bellow code is used for the filter @State public var filter = DeviceActivityFilter() init(selectedApps: Set<ApplicationToken>, selectedCategories: Set<ActivityCategoryToken>, selectedWebDomains: Set<WebDomainToken>) { self.selectedApps = selectedApps self.selectedCategories = selectedCategories self.selectedWebDomains = selectedWebDomains self.filter = DeviceActivityFilter( segment: .daily( during: Calendar.current.dateInterval( of: .weekOfYear, for: .now )! ), users: .all, devices: .init([.iPhone]), applications: selectedApps, categories: selectedCategories, webDomains: selectedWebDomains ) } You can see we selected 3 apps from family activity picker but we getting 2 apps from DeviceActivityReport extension following code is for device activity report extension let context: DeviceActivityReport.Context = .totalActivity // Define the custom configuration and the resulting view for this report. let content: (ActivityReport) -> TotalActivityView func makeConfiguration(representing data: DeviceActivityResults<DeviceActivityData>) async -> ActivityReport { // Reformat the data into a configuration that can be used to create // the report's view. var res = "" var list: [AppDeviceActivity] = [] let totalActivityDuration = await data.flatMap { $0.activitySegments }.reduce(0, { $0 + $1.totalActivityDuration }) for await d in data { res += d.user.appleID!.debugDescription res += d.lastUpdatedDate.description for await a in d.activitySegments{ res += a.totalActivityDuration.formatted() for await c in a.categories { for await ap in c.applications { if let apptoken = ap.application.token { let appName = (ap.application.localizedDisplayName ?? "nil") let bundle = (ap.application.bundleIdentifier ?? "nil") let duration = ap.totalActivityDuration let numberOfPickups = ap.numberOfPickups let app = AppDeviceActivity(appToken: apptoken, id: bundle, displayName: appName, duration: duration, numberOfPickups: numberOfPickups) list.append(app) } } } } } return ActivityReport(totalDuration: totalActivityDuration, apps: list) }
4
0
1k
Jul ’24
Interactive Live Activity Bug in iOS 18 - perform not called
In iOS 18 (beta 1-4) when you set openAppWhenRun = false in your AppIntent of your live activity the perform function never gets called. In iOS 16 and 17 my live activities work. I have downloaded other apps and in their live activities any button tab which doesn´t open the app is also doing nothing in iOS 18. Has anyone got this working? Any comments from an Apple engineer on this?
4
2
1.4k
Jul ’24
Is it possible for a Live Caller ID server to specify different datasets?
In the documentation for the example Live Caller ID server (https://swiftpackageindex.com/apple/live-caller-id-lookup-example/main/documentation/pirservice/testinginstructions) there is an example service-config.json. file shown (without thorough documentation). That config file, and the whole of the instructions, center around there being two datasets of numbers: block and identity. My question is - is it possible for more than one dataset to be specified i.e. for block1 and block2 to be specified? The use case for this would be - suppose the Live Caller ID server has a set of numbers it has identified as being nuisance callers and so it lists these in the block section. However user A might want all these nuisance callers to be blocked but user B does not. Therefore the Live Caller ID extension on the handset would need to use a different dataset on the server so that user A's calls from a set of numbers is blocked, but user B's are not. Note that I'm not suggesting that the Caller ID server should be capable of storing individual user's preferences. All that would be required would be two data sets: one where blocked content is none and and one where blocked content is some. Then a user/app could switch between them as indicated by the user. Is that possible? If the database structure and service-config.json etc. is not configured to permit that, then could two different servers be set up to achieve this instead? i.e. so the server url specified in the app's extension can be set at run time and not at compile time?
5
0
963
Jul ’24
What is the current proper way to load an image from local filesystem?
I'm just trying to display an image that is stored in the local filesystem, but the more I dig into this the more confused I get. So previously I used this code (it's simplified): func findImage(name: String) -&gt; UIImage? { do { let url = try FileManager.default.url(for: .applicationSupportDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: false) .appendingPathComponent("MyFolder") .appendingPathComponent("\(name).png") guard let image = UIImage(contentsOfFile: url.path) else { return nil } return image } catch { print(error.localizedDescription) } return nil } Notice I create the URL with just .appendingPathComponent() and turning URL to path via url.path. It works! So what's the question? In Improving performance and stability when accessing the file system I've read that you better use the new appendingPathComponent(_:isDirectory:), that's good, will do. Also url.path is deprecated in iOS18. Should I use url.path(percentEncoded:) instead? What should be the value of percentEncoded when accessing the local filesystem? In this adjacent thread I've read: Don't use UIImage(contentsOfFile:) either, because it's a path-based API. There's no URL-based equivalent, which is an Apple clue that should be doing something else. Is this true? Then how should I store and load my images? Just FYI, I create images like this: private func generateThumbnail(name: String) { guard let drawingWidth = canvasGeo?.size.width, let drawingHeight = canvasGeo?.size.height else { return } let thumbnailRect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: drawingWidth, height: drawingHeight) Task { UITraitCollection(userInterfaceStyle: .light).performAsCurrent { let image = self.canvasView.drawing.image(from: thumbnailRect, scale: UIScreen.main.scale) guard let data = image.pngData() else { return } // -- HERE do { try FileManager.default.createDirectory(at: try FileManager.default.url(for: .applicationSupportDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: true) .appendingPathComponent("MyFolder"), withIntermediateDirectories: true, attributes: nil) let filename = "\(name).png" let url = try FileManager.default.url(for: .applicationSupportDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: true) .appendingPathComponent("MyFolder") .appendingPathComponent(filename) try data.write(to: url, options: .atomic) // -- and HERE } catch { print(error.localizedDescription) } } } } My usecase — just save the user's PencilKit Canvas as an image and display it back to him on a different View. I'm on SwiftUI and iOS 16+. Would be happy to learn the correct way, thanks!
4
0
2.5k
Jul ’24
How to debug Quick Look Preview Extension
When I launch the Quick Look Preview Extension target in Xcode, an app called Quick Look Simulator opens with an almost empty window: Online I read that the Terminal command qlmanage allows to test Quick Look plugins (which I think were an older format for creating Quick Look extensions), but running qlmanage -p /path/to/previewed/file -c public.text -g /path/to/QuickLookPreviewExtension.appex (where QuickLookPreviewExtension.appex is generated by the Xcode build and is located in the DerivedData folder) gives an error Can't get generator at QuickLookPreviewExtension.appex How can I debug a Quick Look Preview Extension?
3
2
945
Jul ’24
[iOS 18 Beta 4] DeviceActivityMonitor extension is more likely to deadlock
Hi there, My app uses all the Screen Time API's with individual FamilyControls authorization. I've been using the API's for over 2 years (since they came out). In iOS 18 Beta (maybe started in Beta 3?), I've been experiencing random issues. I tracked it down to where it seems like DeviceActivityMonitor extension is more likely to deadlock in iOS 18. To reproduce: when DeviceActivityMonitorExtension.intervalDidEnd gets called, IF you call DeviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring for that SAME DeviceActivityName from the DeviceActivityMonitorExtension , the startMonitoring call deadlocks (if I pause debugger, it does not advance past DeviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring). The bug is reported in FB14664238. It also contains a sample project where you can reproduce this. I also note in the comment section that this is not the only way to encounter this problem. My application code (which is a lot more complicated) seems to deadlock on calling DeviceActivityCenter.activities. As a result, there seems to be an "overall trend" where, due to some changes, DeviceActivityMonitor extension is more likely to deadlock. The steps are not reproducible on iOS 17.6. This is built using Xcode 17.4. Thank you! 🙏
1
3
782
Aug ’24
Supported URL Schemes
Some Apple URL schemes are documented for third-party use. It’s fine to use those URL schemes for their intended purpose. Other Apple URL schemes are not officially documented. Their use is unsupported. If you rely on such implementation details, things might work, or they might not, and that state might change over time. IMPORTANT If you ship via the App Store, pay attention to clause 2.5.1 of the App Review Guidelines. The Apple URL scheme documentation is not always easy to find. I’m aware of the following: Apple URL Scheme Reference QA1924 Opening Keyboard Settings from a Keyboard Extension [This Q&A was retired years ago.] Preparing your app to be the default messaging app The doc comments for es_new_client in <EndpointSecurity/ESClient.h> Developer > Bug Reporting describes the applefeedback scheme Additionally, as questions about this most commonly crop up in the context of opening Settings (System Settings on macOS), I wanted to highlight the following: UIApplication.openSettingsURLString property (in Objective-C this is UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString) UIApplication.openNotificationSettingsURLString property (in Objective-C this is UIApplicationOpenNotificationSettingsURLString) UIApplication.openDefaultApplicationsSettingsURLString property (in Objective-C this is UIApplicationOpenDefaultApplicationsSettingsURLString) AccessibilitySettings.openSettings(for:) method FIFinderSyncController.showExtensionManagementInterface() class method SMAppService.openSystemSettingsLoginItems() class method VSOpenTVProviderSettingsURLString global CXCallDirectoryManager.openSettings(completionHandler:) method If your app needs to perform some action that’s not covered by the above, file an enhancement request for a supported way to do that. Make sure to describes your use case in detail. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Revision History 2025-10-28 Added a reference to UIApplication.openDefaultApplicationsSettingsURLString. Made other minor editorial changes. 2025-04-21 Added a reference to CXCallDirectoryManager.openSettings(completionHandler:). 2024-10-25 Added a reference to UIApplication.openNotificationSettingsURLString and VSOpenTVProviderSettingsURLString. Added a link to Preparing your app to be the default messaging app. 2024-10-01 Added info about the applefeedback URL scheme. 2024-09-29 Added a reference to SMAppService.openSystemSettingsLoginItems(). 2024-09-27 Added a titbit for Finder Sync extension developers. Added an invitation to file feedback. 2024-08-05 First posted.
0
0
2.0k
Aug ’24
SetFocusFilterIntent `perform()` method is not called on iOS 18 beta
I’ve set up a focus filter, but the perform() method in SetFocusFilterIntent isn't called when the focus mode is toggled on or off on my iPhone since I updated to iOS 18 beta (22A5326f). I can reproduce the issue for my app, but focus filters are also broken for any third-party apps installed on my phone, so I guess it's not specific to how I've implemented my filter intent. This used to work perfectly on iOS 17. I didn't change a single line of code, and it broke completely on the latest iOS 18 beta. I've filed a bug report including a sysdiagnose (FB14715113). To the developers out there, is this something you are also observing in your apps?
3
0
743
Aug ’24
Can a Live Caller ID server supply live data or must it be static?
With the Live Caller ID example server, the caller lookup dataset is defined in an input.txtpd and processed by running a ConstructDatabase command which creates a block.binpb and an identity.binpb file. In other words, a static input file is being processed into static block and identity files. However, in the real world, the data content for identified and blocked numbers is something which is in a constant state of flux and evolution, as new numbers becoming available, old ones become stale, numbers which were initially considered safe change into being considered malicious etc. etc. Is the example server just that, merely an example using fixed datasets, and an actual production server is able to use live every changing data to formulate its response back to the iPhone OS query? Here's a concrete use case - suppose it's a requirement to permit US nanp numbers but to block anything else. The total number of non US nanp numbers is so large and ever changing that it would be unfeasible to attempt to capture them in an input.txtpd file and then process that, and then to re-capture and re-process it endlessly. Instead what would be required is the ability for the Live Caller ID server to evaluate at query time, using a regular expressions for example, if a number is nanp or not. Is this possible?
5
1
856
Aug ’24
AppIntents Parameter requestValue not working in iOS 18 when parameter is not in parameterSummary
In iOS 18, the requestValue method no longer works when the parameter it is called on is not included in the parameterSummary of an AppIntent. This issue causes the app to fail to present a prompt for the user to select a value, resulting in an error with the message: Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection from pid 40685 on anonymousListener or serviceListener was interrupted, but the message was sent over an additional proxy and therefore this proxy has become invalid." Steps to Reproduce: Create a simple AppIntent with the following code: import AppIntents struct Intent: AppIntent { static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Intent" static var parameterSummary: some ParameterSummary { Summary("Test \(\.$category)") {} } @Parameter(title: "Category") private var category: CategoryEntity? @Parameter(title: "Hidden Category") private var hidden: CategoryEntity? @MainActor func perform() async throws -> some ReturnsValue<CategoryEntity?> { var result: CategoryEntity? do { result = try await $hidden.requestValue("Select category") // Doesn't work since iOS 18 as $hidden is not set in parameterSummary } catch { print("\(error)") } return .result(value: result) } } Run the code on a device with iOS 18. Observe that the requestValue method fails to present the selection prompt and instead throws an error. Expected Results: The app should successfully present a prompt for the user to select a value for the hidden parameter using requestValue, even if the parameter is not included in the parameterSummary. Actual Results: The app fails to present the selection prompt and throws an error, making it impossible to use requestValue for parameters not included in parameterSummary. Version/Build: iOS 18.0 Configuration: Tested on various devices running iOS 18. Is there a change in the API that I might have missed?
5
2
1.1k
Aug ’24