Hi all, As you know, when using SwiftData Cloudkit, all relationships are required to be optional. In my app, which is a list app, I have a model class Project that contains an array of Subproject model objects. A Subproject also contains an array of another type of model class and this chain goes on and on. In this type of pattern, it becomes really taxxing to handle the optionals the correct way, i.e. unwrap them as late as possible and display an error to the user if unable to. It seems like most developers don't even bother, they just wrap the array in a computed property that returns an empty array if nil. I'm just wondering what is the recommended way by Apple to handle these optionals. I'm not really familiar with how the CloudKit backend works, but if you have a simple list app that only saves to the users private iCloud, can I just handwave the optionals like so many do? Is it only big data apps that need to worry? Or should we always strive to handle them the correct way? If that's the case, why does it seem like most people skip over them? Be great if an Apple engineer could weigh in.

The problem is that the iCloud Drive directory of my app does not appear in my iCloud Drive in Finder despite the (I think) correct settings in my info.plist file (see below). In Terminal, I can see the folder and it also contains .txt files. What can I do to make the folder visible in Finder and the Files app? <key>NSUbiquitousContainers</key> <dict> <key>iCloud.vmk.NewsSwiper</key> <dict> <key>NSUbiquitousContainerIsDocumentScopePublic</key> <true/> <key>NSUbiquitousContainerName</key> <string>RSS-Filter</string> <key>NSUbiquitousContainerIdentifier</key> <string>iCloud.vmk.NewsSwiper</string> <key>NSUbiquitousContainerSupportedFolderLevels</key> <string>Any</string> </dict> </dict>

I'm seeing this over and over on the CloudKit Console at: https://icloud.developer.apple.com/dashboard/home, and sign out and sign in does not resolve it. Error looking up Developer Teams Please sign out and try again. [Sign Out] Anyone experience this? Is there a work around for this?

Hi Developer Community, I'm experiencing a critical issue with CloudKit schema deployment that's blocking my app release. I've been trying to resolve this for several days and would appreciate any assistance from the community or Apple engineers. Issue Description I'm unable to deploy my CloudKit schema from development to production environment. When attempting to deploy through the CloudKit Dashboard, I either get an "Internal Error" message or the deployment button is disabled. Environment Details App: Reef Trak (Reef aquarium tracking app) CloudKit Container: ************ Development Environment: Schema fully defined and working correctly Production Environment: No schema deployed (confirmed in dashboard) What I've Tried Using the "Deploy Schema to Production" button in CloudKit Dashboard (results in "Internal Error") Exporting schema from development and importing to production (fails) Using CloudKit CLI tools with API token (results in "invalid-scope" errors) Waiting 24-48 hours between attempts in case of propagation delays Current Status App works perfectly in development environment (when run from Xcode) In TestFlight/sideloaded builds (production environment), the app attempts to fetch records but fails with "Did not find record type: Tank" errors Log snippet showing the issue: [2025-03-21] [CloudKit] Schema creation failed: Error saving record <CKRecordID: 0x******; recordName=SchemaSetup_Tank_-**---****, zoneID=_defaultZone:defaultOwner> to server: Cannot create new type Tank in production schema [2025-03-21] [CloudKit] Failed to create schema for Tank after 3 attempts [2025-03-21] [CloudKit] Error creating schema for Tank: Error saving record <CKRecordID: 0x****; recordName=SchemaSetup_Tank_---**-**********, zoneID=_defaultZone:defaultOwner> to server: Cannot create new type Tank in production schema App Architecture & Critical Impact My app "Reef Trak" is built around a core data model where the "Tank" entity serves as the foundational element of the entire application architecture. The Tank entity is not just another data type - it's the primary container that establishes the hierarchical relationship for all other entities: All parameter measurements (pH, temperature, salinity, etc.) are associated with specific tanks All maintenance tasks and schedules are tank-specific All livestock (fish, corals, invertebrates) exist within the context of a tank All user achievements and progress tracking depend on tank-related activities Without the Tank schema being properly deployed to production, users experience what appears to be a completely empty application, despite successful authentication and CloudKit connection. The app shows "Successfully retrieved iCloud data" but displays no content because: The Tank record type doesn't exist in production Without Tanks, all child entities (even if their schemas existed) have no parent to associate with This creates a cascading failure where no data can be displayed or saved This issue effectively renders the entire application non-functional in production, despite working flawlessly in development. Users are left with an empty shell of an app that cannot fulfill its core purpose of reef tank management and monitoring. The inability to deploy the Tank schema to production is therefore not just a minor inconvenience but a complete blocker for the app's release and functionality. Questions Is there an alternative method to deploy schema to production that I'm missing? Could there be an issue with my account permissions or container configuration? Are there known issues with the CloudKit Dashboard deployment functionality? What's the recommended approach when the dashboard deployment fails? I've also submitted a Technical Support Incident, but I'm hoping to get this resolved quickly as it's blocking my App Store release. Thank you for any assistance!

I am working on a SwiftUI project using Core Data. I have an entity called AppleUser in my data model, with the following attributes: id (UUID), name (String), email (String), password (String), and createdAt (Date). All attributes are non-optional. I created the corresponding Core Data class files (AppleUser+CoreDataClass.swift and AppleUser+CoreDataProperties.swift) using Xcode’s automatic generation. I also have a PersistenceController that initializes the NSPersistentContainer with the model name JobLinkModel. When I try to save a new AppleUser object using: let user = AppleUser(context: viewContext) user.id = UUID() user.name = "User1" user.email = "..." user.password = "password1" user.createdAt = Date()【The email is correctly formatted, but it has been replaced with “…” for privacy reasons】 try? viewContext.save() I get the following error in the console:Core Data save failed: Foundation._GenericObjCError.nilError, [:] User snapshot: ["id": ..., "name": "User1", "email": "...", "password": "...", "createdAt": ...] All fields have valid values, and the Core Data model seems correct. I have also tried: • Checking that the model name in NSPersistentContainer(name:) matches the .xcdatamodeld file (JobLinkModel) • Ensuring the AppleUser entity Class, Module, and Codegen are correctly set (Class Definition, Current Product Module) • Deleting duplicate or old AppleUser class files • Cleaning Xcode build folder and deleting the app from the simulator • Using @Environment(.managedObjectContext) for the context Despite all this, I still get _GenericObjCError.nilError when saving a new AppleUser object. I want to understand: 1. Why is Core Data failing to save even though all fields are non-nil and correctly assigned? 2. Could this be caused by some residual old class files, or is there something else in the setup that I am missing? 3. What steps should I take to ensure that Core Data properly recognizes the AppleUser entity and allows saving? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to set up an application using SwiftData to have a number of models backed by a local datastore that's not synced to CloudKit, and another set of models that is. I was able to achieve this previously with Core Data using multiple NSPersistentStoreDescription instances. The set up code looks something like: do { let fullSchema = Schema([ UnsyncedModel.self, SyncedModel.self, ]) let localSchema = Schema([UnsyncedModel.self]) let localConfig = ModelConfiguration(schema: localSchema, cloudKitDatabase: .none) let remoteSchema = Schema([SyncedModel.self]) let remoteConfig = ModelConfiguration(schema: remoteSchema, cloudKitDatabase: .automatic) container = try ModelContainer(for: fullSchema, configurations: localConfig, remoteConfig) } catch { fatalError("Failed to configure SwiftData container.") } However, it doesn't seem to work as expected. If I remove the synced/remote schema and configuration then everything works fine, but the moment I add in the remote schema and configuration I get various different application crashes. Some examples below: A Core Data error occurred." UserInfo={Reason=Entity named:... not found for relationship named:..., Fatal error: Failed to identify a store that can hold instances of SwiftData._KKMDBackingData<...> Has anyone ever been able to get a similar setup to work using SwiftData?

Hi, Before the iOS 17.2 update the saving behavior of SwiftData was very straightforward, by default it saves to persistence storage and can be configured to save in memory only. Now it saves to memory by default and to make it save to persistence storage we need to use modelContext.Save(). But if we don't quit the App the changes will be saved after a while to persistence storage even without running modelContext.Save() ! How confusing can that be for both developer and the user ! Am I missing something here ? -- Kind Regards

I have an app that from day 1 has used Swiftdata and successfully sync'd across devices with Cloudkit. I have added models to the data in the past and deployed the schema and it continued to sync across devices. Sometime I think in June.2025 I added a new model and built out the UI to display and manage it. I pushed a version to Test Flight (twice over a matter of 2 versions and a couple of weeks) and created objects in the new model in Test Flight versions of the app which should push the info to Cloudkit to update the schema. When I go to deploy the schema though there are no changes. I confirmed in the app that Cloudkit is selected and it's point to the correct container. And when I look in Cloudkit the new model isn't listed as an indes. I've pushed deploy schema changes anyway (more than once) and now the app isn't sync-ing across devices at all (even the pre-existing models aren't sync-ing across devices). I even submitted the first updated version to the app store and it was approved and released. I created objects in the new model in production which I know doesn't create the indexes in the development environment. But this new model functions literally everywhere except Cloudkit and I don't know what else to do to trigger an update.

Hello, I am trying to access my cloudkit database from the icloud developer dashboard but I am getting the following error: Error looking up Developer Teams XHR request failure Please sign out and try again. I tried signing out but the error persists, Thanks

I have been using the basic NSPersistentContainer with 100k+ records for a while now with no issues. The database size can fluctuate a bit but on average it takes up about 22mb on device. When I switch the container to NSPersistentCloudKitContainer, I see a massive increase in size to ~150mb initially. As the sync engine uploads records to iCloud it has ballooned to over 600mb on device. On top of that, the user's iCloud usage in settings reports that it takes up 1.7gb in the cloud. I understand new tables are added and history tracking is enabled but the size increase seems a bit drastic. I'm not sure how we got from 22mb to 1.7gb with the exact same data. A few other things that are important to note: I import all the 100k+ records at once when testing the different containers. At the time of the initial import there is only 1 relation (an import group record) that all the records are attached to. I save the background context only once after all the records and the import group have been made and added to the context. After the initial import, some of these records may have a few new relations added to them over time. I suppose this could be causing some of the size increase, but its only about 20,000 records that are updated. None of the records include files/ large binary data. Most of the attributes are encrypted. I'm syncing to the dev iCloud environment. When I do make a change to a single attribute in a record, CloudKit reports that every attribute has been modified (not sure if this is normal or not ) Also, When syncing to a new device, the sync can take hours - days. I'm guessing it's having to sync both the new records and the changes, but it exponentially gets slower as more records are downloaded. The console will show syncing activity, but new records are being added at a slower rate as more records are added. After about 50k records, it grinds to a halt and while the console still shows sync activity, only about 100 records are added every hour. All this to say i'm very confused where these issues are coming from. I'm sure its a combination of how i've setup my code and the vast record count, record history, etc. If anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated.

hi, in my app, i have created and pushed CKRecords to the public database. others using the app have pushed CKRecords as well. is there any way i can query iCloud for "all the CKRecords that i created?" thanks, DMG

Hello, the last days I was trying to solve a bug in my Unit Tests related to the CoreData "NSManagedObjectContextObjectsDidChange" Notification. Im using some kind of Notification handler to save and abstract that for the UI and while the tests are running this notification was triggered with objects that doesn't exists anymore, which has resulted in a crash. After some debugging I have detected, that the objects in here are really old. The objects here was from few tests ago, where a Merge Conflict happened. In the meantime there was a plenty of resets and deletes of the whole db. I have also seen that the bad notification is the first in the stack trace of the main thread, which is in my opinion also not usual. So the real question is: The only difference what I have found for the bad notification to the real notification, was the existence of the key "NSObjectsChangedByMergeChangesKey" in the UserInfo dictionary of the ObjectsDidChange Notification. But this key is nowhere found in the documentation of Apple. Also the search engines does not produce any result. So what is this key and when is this key contained in this notification and when not? Maybe if I understand this, it helps me to understand the overall issue ...

I'm working through the Develop In Swift tutorial at page [https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/develop-in-swift/navigation-editing-and-relationships-conclusion)] The tutorial has a one to many relationship between Friend and Movie (each friend can have at most one favorite movie and each movie can be the favorite for zero or more friends). An exercise left to the student is to use an .onDelete on the movie detail page to delete that movie as favorite. I modified the Form Form { TextField("Movie title", text: $movie.title) DatePicker("Release date", selection: $movie.releaseDate, displayedComponents: .date) if !movie.favoritedBy.isEmpty { Section("Favorited by") { ForEach(sortedFriends) { friend in Text(friend.name) } .onDelete(perform: deleteFavorites(indexes:)) } } } by adding the .onDelete clause I added private func deleteFavorites(indexes: IndexSet) { for index in indexes { context.delete(movie.favoritedBy[index]) } } to the view. This does delete the favorite movie, but it also deletes the friend. My assumption is that the selected friend should then have no favorite movie rather than being deleted There is an if in the Form that doesn't display the FAVORITED BY section if no friend has that movie as a favorite, but if I delete all the friends who had this movie as a favorite, the section remains (but is empty), until I exit the MovieDetail view and reload it There is no answer for these exercises, so I could be doing it wrong. EDIT: If I delete a movie using the app function to delete a movie, friends that have that movie as a favorite are not deleted and have their favorite movie set to None

Hi everyone, I’ve been working on migrating my app (SwimTimes, which helps swimmers track their times) to use Core Data + CKSyncEngine with Swift 6. After many iterations, forum searches, and experimentation, I’ve created a focused sample project that demonstrates the architecture I’m using. The good news: 👉 I believe the crashes I was experiencing are now solved, and the sync behavior is working correctly. 👉 The demo project compiles and runs cleanly with Swift 6. However, before adopting this as the final architecture, I’d like to ask the community (and hopefully Apple engineers) to validate a few critical points, especially regarding Swift 6 concurrency and Core Data contexts. Architecture Overview Persistence layer: Persistence.swift sets up the Core Data stack with a main viewContext and a background context for CKSyncEngine. Repositories: All Core Data access is abstracted into repository classes (UsersRepository, SwimTimesRepository), with async/await methods. SyncEngine: Wraps CKSyncEngine, handles system fields, sync tokens, and bridging between Core Data entities and CloudKit records. ViewModels: Marked @MainActor, exposing @Published arrays for SwiftUI. They never touch Core Data directly, only via repositories. UI: Simple SwiftUI views bound to the ViewModels. Entities: UserEntity → represents swimmers. SwimTimeEntity → times linked to a user (1-to-many). Current Status The project works and syncs across devices. But there are two open concerns I’d like validated: Concurrency & Memory Safety Am I correctly separating viewContext (main/UI) vs. background context (used by CKSyncEngine)? Could there still be hidden risks of race conditions or memory crashes that I’m not catching? Swift 6 Sendable Compliance Currently, I still need @unchecked Sendable in the SyncEngine and repository layers. What is the recommended way to fully remove these workarounds and make the code safe under Swift 6’s stricter concurrency rules? Request Please review this sample project and confirm whether the concurrency model is correct. Suggest how I can remove the @unchecked Sendable annotations safely. Any additional code improvements or best practices would also be very welcome — the intention is to share this as a community resource. I believe once finalized, this could serve as a good reference demo for Core Data + CKSyncEngine + Swift 6, helping others migrate safely. Environment iOS 18.5 Xcode 16.4 macOS 15.6 Swift 6 Sample Project Here is the full sample project on GitHub: 👉 [https://github.com/jarnaez728/coredata-cksyncengine-swift6] Thanks a lot for your time and for any insights! Best regards, Javier Arnáez de Pedro

When my app starts it loads data (of vehicle models, manufacturers, ...) from JSON files into CoreData.  This content is static. Some CoreData entities have fields that can be set by the user, for example an isFavorite boolean field. How do I tell CloudKit that my CoreData objects are 'static' and must not be duplicated on other devices (that will also load it from JSON files). In other words, how can I make sure that the CloudKit knows that the record created from JSON for vehicle model XYZ on one device is the same record that was created from JSON on any other device? I'm using NSPersistentCloudKitContainer.

Hi, I’m running into an issue with Core Data migrations using a custom NSMappingModel created entirely in Swift (not using .xcmappingmodel files). Setup: • I’m performing a migration with a manually constructed NSMappingModel • One of the NSEntityMapping instances is configured as follows: • mappingType = .customEntityMappingType (or .transformEntityMappingType) • entityMigrationPolicyClassName is set to a valid subclass of NSEntityMigrationPolicy • The class implements the expected methods like: @objc func createDestinationInstances(…) throws { … } @objc func createCustomDestinationInstance(…) throws -> NSManagedObject { … } The policy class is instantiated (confirmed via logging in init()), but none of the migration methods are ever called. I have also tried adding valid NSPropertyMapping instances with real valueExpression bindings to force activation, but that didn’t make a difference. Constraints: • I cannot use .xcmappingmodel files in this context due to transformable attributes not compatible with the visual editor. • Therefore, I need the entire mapping model to be defined in Swift. Workaround: As a temporary workaround, I’m migrating the data manually using two persistent stores and NSManagedObjectContext, but I’d prefer to rely on NSMigrationManager as designed. Question: Is there a known limitation that prevents Core Data from invoking NSMigrationPolicy methods when using in-memory NSMappingModel instances? Or is there any specific setup required to trigger them when not loading from .xcmappingmodel? Thanks in advance.

No matter what I do, I keep getting the error Thread 1: EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=1, subcode=0x2648fc364) for the line: transactions = try modelContext.fetch(descriptor) in the code below. My app opens, but freezes on the home page and I can't click anything. I am not sure how to fix initialization issues. I am creating a financial assistant app that connects plaid and opoenai api. var descriptor = FetchDescriptor&lt;ExpenseTransaction&gt;() descriptor.sortBy = [SortDescriptor(\.date, order: .reverse)] descriptor.fetchLimit = 200 transactions = try modelContext.fetch(descriptor) print("Successfully loaded \(transactions.count) transactions") } catch { print("Error in loadLocalTransactions: \(error)") transactions = [] } }

I am developing an Xcode app with a job feed, with profile view, with chat eg. I fetch using federatet queries to my microservices thru Apollo Router. Infront of the Apollo Router i Have a Kong that adds a X user ID, that the microservices use for personalized feed and other user info. The info is stored with SwiftData. My thought is that i should add a better way of controlling when i need to fetch. I have a “lastupdateAPI” with different entities (profile, profile picture eg). So when nothing has changed we do not fetch. But rather then using a own API for this, isnt ETag better? Or is it any other recommendations with Xcode Swiftui. Good strategies for not fetching what i already have?

I have a ModelActor that creates a hierarchy of models and returns a PersistentIdentifier for the root. I'd like to do that in a transaction, but I don't know of a good method of getting that identifier if the models are created in a transaction. For instance, an overly simple example: func createItem(timestamp: Date) throws -> PersistentIdentifier { try modelContext.transaction { let item = Item(timestamp: timestamp) modelContext.insert(item) } // how to return item.persistentModelID? } I can't return the item.persistentModelID from the transaction closure and even if I could, it will be a temporary ID until after the transaction is executed. I can't create the Item outside the transaction and just have the transaction do an insert because swift will raise a data race error if you then try to return item.persistentModelID. Is there any way to do this besides a modelContext.fetch* with separate unique identifiers?

I have transitioned to CKSyncEngine for syncing data to iCloud, and it is working quite well. I have a question regarding best practices for modifying and saving a CKRecord which already exists in the private or shared database. In my current app, most CKRecords will never be modified after saving to the database, so I do not persist a received record locally after updating my local data model. In the rare event that the local data for that record is modified, I manually fetch the associated server record from the database, modify it, and then use CKSyncEngine to save the modified record. As an alternative method, I can create a new CKRecord locally with the corresponding recordID and the modified data, and then use CKSyncEngine to attempt to save that record to the database. Doing so generates an error in the delegate method handleSentRecordZoneChanges, where I receive the local record I tried to save back inevent.failedRecordSaves with a .serverRecordChanged error, along with the corresponding server CKRecord. I can then update that server record with the local data and re-save using CKSyncEngine. I have not yet seen any issues when doing it this way. The advantage of the latter method is that CKSyncEngine handles the entire database operation, eliminating the manual fetch step. My question is: is this an acceptable practice, or could this result in other unforeseen issues?