Maps & Location

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Learn how to integrate MapKit and Core Location to unlock the power of location-based features in your app.

Maps & Location Documentation

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Request of CarPlay Navigation Entitlement when having the Driving Task one
I have the CarPlay Entitlement "Driving Task" and two of my apps use it. Now, in both apps, I have implemented Navigation. I requested the Navigation CarPlay Entitlement when the feature was mature and builds were available in Test Flight, since I wanted to release the new versions of the apps with navigation available both on the iPhone and in CarPlay. I got no answer to my request, so I decided to release the apps with only navigation in the iPhone and the Driving Task functionality in CarPlay, thinking that maybe being live with navigation in the App Store was a requirement. I have asked permission again, and so far, the request is being ignored again. What are the requirements to get the Navigation CarPlay Entitlement? If the app is approved for navigation, is there something else the app must do to get the entitlement? Requirements for CarPlay Entitlements seem quite obscure, are they listed anywhere? Is there a technical problem to move from an existing CarPlay Entitlement to another? Can that be the reason the entitlement has not been granted? Some of my competitors have the CarPlay Navigation entitlement. My use case is the same (in a better app in my opinion, of course). But I am only getting bad reviews because "the app does not include the map in CarPlay" after the big investment in implementing navigation in the apps. Any help or insight would be appreciated.
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839
May ’25
App Clips Advanced Experiences not showing up in Apple Maps and Siri Suggestions
Hello everyone, I’m experiencing an issue with App Clips Advanced Experiences and Apple Maps/Siri Suggestions. We have already contacted Apple Support before, but they are investigating the cause of this issue and it has not been resolved til date. The App Clip is bundled with the main app and has been already available on the App Store for several months. The business running the app has several physical shops and wants to offer the App Clip to show up in Apple Maps and Siri Suggestions at each location. The App Clip is correctly exposed in the AASA file, and it's also validated correctly by the AASA APIs available at https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1. { "applinks": { "apps": [], "details": [ { "appID": "TEAMID.bundleid", "paths": [] } ] }, "appclips": { "apps": [ "TEAMID.bundleid.Clip" ] } } (with TEAMID and bundleid being the team and bundle identifiers of the app) The App Clip is displayed correctly when loading the website and when scanning a QR code or App Clip code, but doesn't appear in the Maps app or in Siri suggestions. We have set up the App Clip Advanced Experiences on the App Store Connect page of the app, and each URL has been linked to a physical shop. All URLs are in the "Received" state, so they should appear correctly on Maps. Unfortunately, I don't see any "Order" button in Apple Maps at any location card. We tried with both iOS 17 and 16. According to feedbacks from people in the shops, they don't see the app suggested in the Siri Suggestions. I have just submitted a Custom Action Link on Apple Business Connect for one of the shops, but without success: the App Clip doesn't appear. Any idea why is this happening?
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951
Mar ’25
Changing MKMapView .preferredConfiguration or .mapType causes crash
If I change MKMapView's .preferredConfiguration property from .realistic to .flat, or .mapType from .hybridFlyover to .hybrid, subsequent scrolling causes a crash: -[MTLDebugRenderCommandEncoder validateDrawIndexedPrimitives:indexCount:indexType:indexBuffer:indexBufferOffset:instanceCount:function:]:6179: failed assertion `Draw Indexed Primitives Validation indexBufferOffset(0) + (indexCount(864) * 2) must be <= [indexBuffer length] (12). For example, changing: mapView.preferredConfiguration = MKHybridMapConfiguration(elevationStyle: .realistic) to: mapView.preferredConfiguration = MKHybridMapConfiguration(elevationStyle: .flat) Then, scroll the map view, and it will crash. It is OK the other way around. Or change: self.mapView.mapType = .hybridFlyover to: self.mapView.mapType = .hybrid I've tried everything I can think of, including calling functions like these after the change: mapView.setNeedsDisplay() mapView.setRegion(self.mapView.region, animated: false) .mapType and .preferredConfiguration are settable properties, so they should be possible to change. I could create a new MKMapview, but I'd have to perfectly recreate the state which is not trivial and far from ideal. I'm just trying to work around the issue FB14553276 so my map tiles don't show tiling seems in 2D which is a new issue introduced with iOS 18. This potential workaround still shows the seems in 3D, but is better than always showing seems. Seems like whatever I do, I just can't defeat MapKit bugs and puts me in an impossible situation. :( I've submitted Feedback this issue: FB16153802 It seems like others are experiencing the issue: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/730780
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555
Dec ’24
Request to Add an “AllowOnce” State to CLLocationManager
Context: Currently in iOS, both “Allow Once” and “While Using the App” location permission decisions yield .authorizedWhenInUse. This conflation prevents apps from knowing whether the user has provided a one-time allowance or a persistent in-use allowance. Problem Statement Ambiguous App Behavior: After a user selects “Allow Once,” the app remains in .authorizedWhenInUse, making it appear to the developer as if the user granted a more persistent “While Using” permission. Poor User Experience: If the user later indicates they want to upgrade to “Always,” developers must guess whether iOS will show another system prompt. This can lead to “dead” button presses or pointless transitions to Settings. Lack of Transparency: The user’s real intention—“I only trust you this one time”—gets lost in .authorizedWhenInUse with no direct or synchronous detection mechanism. Why This Wouldn’t Violate SRP The CLLocationManager’s` Single Responsibility: Manage and expose the user’s current location authorization state. Adding .authorizedOneTime or an isOneTime property fits neatly into that responsibility. It’s still describing the user’s level of trust for location usage, just with more specificity. No Overreach: This doesn’t add new logic outside location permissions—it merely refines the existing state definitions for clarity. Simplifies the Developer Flow: Instead of co-mingling “Allow Once” and “While Using,” the system returns the precise state, letting developers handle transitions more gracefully while abiding by iOS’s privacy rules. Benefits Improved UX: Developers can present more accurate prompts or guidance. If .authorizedOneTime, the app can immediately direct the user to Settings for a persistent upgrade, rather than futilely calling requestAlwaysAuthorization() again. Less Confusion: A distinctly reported “Allow Once” state eliminates guesswork, polling, or timed approaches that degrade user experience. Consistent with iOS’s Privacy Focus: Providing a read-only flag or status for “One Time” aligns with Apple’s approach to clarity around permissions, without letting apps forcibly bypass user intentions.
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442
Jan ’25
Background location tracking not reliable
I'm writing an app in which the user is expected to initiate location tracking, let the app track for a period of time (a few minutes to a couple of hours) and then discontinue tracking. We want the user to be able to switch apps or let their device lock while tracking without losing any location updates. My understanding is that this can be done with the "While in use" location permission and does not require "Always". We don't want to have to ask our users for the "Always" permission. I'm configuring the location manager this way: locationManager.delegate = self locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyBestForNavigation locationManager.allowsBackgroundLocationUpdates = true locationManager.showsBackgroundLocationIndicator = true locationManager.distanceFilter = kCLDistanceFilterNone locationManager.activityType = .otherNavigation locationManager.pausesLocationUpdatesAutomatically = false (The user is expected to be walking around in an outdoor location, stopping occasionally to take notes and pictures). I've tested this using both an iPhone and an iPad that relies on an external GPS device. It works. I can lock the device and see a continuous stream of location updates in the debugger for hours. I've also tested it while walking outdoors. However, my customer keeps reporting that the app stops tracking his location whenever it goes into the background. He says that it will track his location fine while in the foreground, but when he backgrounds it, it stops getting location updates. Then when it comes into the foreground again, it resumes. When we plot the locations on a map, you see a straight line between the place where the app went into background and where it woke up again. We know for sure that the app is just transitioning to and from the background and that it is not being terminated and restarted. I can't reproduce this result on my devices and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. The customer says he has another app on his device (which is also an iPad with an external GPS) and that the other app does track him when it is in the background. My app does process all of the locations received in the didUpdateLocations method and not just the last one, so it's not that I'm getting the updates and ignoring them. I'm also not receiving any calls to 'locationManagerDidPauseLocationUpdates', 'didFinishDeferredUpdatesWithError', or 'didFailWithError'. The only explanation I can think of at the moment is that something changed in iOS. I know that the other app my customer is using is fairly old and built against an old version of the iOS SDK. Thanks for your help.
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440
Jan ’25
Maps Web Snapshots: 500 Internal Server Error
Currently (at least for a few days, maybe longer), when trying to create an Apple Maps Web Snapshot according to https://developer.apple.com/documentation/snapshots/generating_a_url_and_signature_to_create_a_maps_web_snapshot with a custom image marker (passed as Base64 PNG), the Apple server responds with a 500 Internal Server Error. Using the default balloon marker works, but a custom Base64 image marker used to work in the past (and still should according to the documentation).
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Mar ’25
Specify location for SwiftUI Previews
I'm working on an app that uses MapKit and CoreLocation. Is there a way to specify what location is simulated for a Preview, or create a preview that behaves as if the user denied location permissions, so that I can easily test my app's behavior in different scenarios? I know that you can simulate different locations in the Simulator, but haven't been able to get the previews within Xcode to have a location other than the center of Apple Park.
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101
Apr ’25
MapKitJS Pricing
Hello (: I have a question regarding the current pricing model for Apple Maps APIs, specifically MapKitJS, the Maps Snapshot API, and the Maps Server API. Previously, the documentation and my understanding indicated that the usage limits were defined per day — for example, 250,000 map loads per day for MapKitJS and 25,000 snapshots per day. However, in the Apple Developer Dashboard, I’m now seeing these limits shown on a per-month basis, such as only 25,000 snapshots per-month. This appears to contradict the publicly available information on the official website, which still states daily limits. Has the pricing model officially changed, or is this just a display issue in the dashboard? I need to know this because we're going into release soon, and then we might have thousands of users.
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223
Apr ’25
Background location indicator stuck in dynamic island when using CLServiceSession and CLBackgroundActivitySession
We have a setup that's really close to the one used in the example project - Monitoring location changes with Core Location. In short, we have a flag that indicates whether or not we should start background location monitoring. If the flag is on, after the app starts, we Create a CLServiceSession with authorization: .always Create a CLBackgroundActivitySession The user can perform an action (press a button) to toggle the flag off, in which case we invalidate and dispose of the CLServiceSession and CLBackgroundActivitySession instances and cancel any liveUpdates observation. So far, so good, everything works as expected. However, we're experiencing a weird behavior on iPhones with Dynamic Island after there's an app update. When the user is on the same app version, the behavior is correct. have the flag on, background location monitoring works fine, when the app is in the the background, there's correctly a location indicator in Dynamic Island the user can go back to the app and turn the flag off (disposing of instances, cancelling location observation), and when the app is in the background, there is no location indicator in Dynamic Island The problem arises when the user updates the app open version 1.0 of the app have the flag on, background location monitoring works fine, when the app is in the the background, there's correctly a location indicator in Dynamic Island download an app update - version 2.0 the app restarts, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions gets called again and we start the background services dynamic island indicator is correctly showing a location indicator the user goes into the app, toggles the flag off - turning location observation off, we dispose of everything now, when the app is moved to the background, there's still a location indicator in the Dynamic Island, even though we're no longer observing location The indicator is hard to get rid of, there are only 2 ways we've found restart the device, or uninstall the app The question is - is this a bug in the system? Or is there anything we should be doing actively after an app update? Thank you!
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May ’25
Are rate limits for calculate, calculateETA, and reverse geocoding shared across an app?
Hi, I'm using MapKit's MKDirections.calculate, calculateETA, and reverse geocoding (via CLGeocoder.reverseGeocodeLocation) in my iOS app. I understand that there are undocumented rate limits for these services to prevent abuse, but I couldn't find official details. I would like to know: Are the rate limits applied per device, per app installation, or are they shared across all users of the same app bundle ID? Is there any guidance on how to design these features to avoid hitting rate limits in a production environment? What is the best practice if a user repeatedly triggers routing or reverse geocoding (e.g., typing or moving the map)? Any clarification or official documentation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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197
Jun ’25
Reverse geocoding rate limit of MKReverseGeocodingRequest compared to CLGeocoder
The documentation for CLGeocoder states Geocoding requests are rate-limited for each app, so making too many requests in a short period of time may cause some of the requests to fail. (When the maximum rate is exceeded, the geocoder returns an error object with the CLError.Code.network error to the associated completion handler.) And it provides helpful guidance on how and when to submit geocoding requests. The documentation for MKReverseGeocodingRequest does not mention requests are rate-limited. Does this mean it is not rate-limited? If it is rate-limited, is it similar to CLGeocoder, what is its behavior? It is important to understand behavior of the API in order to understand impact on my app’s use case and how users will be affected should I change the implementation. Thanks!
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4h
MKReverseGeocodingRequest and CNPostalAddress from MKMapItem
My app is currently using CLGeocoder to get a CLPlacemark, then using placemark.postalAddress with CNPostalAddressFormatter to get an attributed string for the full address, I then enumerate its attributes to pull out specific elements like just the street or state or zip etc. This is deprecated in iOS 26 with MKReverseGeocodingRequest being the intended replacement. This API returns an MKMapItem which doesn’t provide a CNPostalAddress - you can get a full address as a String but not structured address data that I’m seeing. Am I missing some way to get the postal address? Or is it a non-goal to provide that anymore? Thanks!
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19h
Incorrect position rendering of WGS84 coordinate in MKMapView: Discrepancy between Apple Maps (Hong Kong) and Amap (Mainland China)
I am encountering a coordinate rendering issue using MKMapView in my iOS app. I have a GPS coordinate in WGS84 format, which corresponds to a location in Hong Kong. When my device is physically located in Hong Kong, MKMapView displays the map with the "Apple Maps" label, and the WGS84 coordinate is rendered at the correct position. However, when the device is in Mainland China, MKMapView switches to display "Amap" (Gaode Maps) branding, and the same WGS84 coordinate is rendered at an incorrect position. I understand that Amap in Mainland China uses the GCJ-02 coordinate system, while Apple Maps typically uses WGS84. This discrepancy suggests a potential coordinate system mismatch, but I cannot definitively confirm which map type (and corresponding coordinate system) MKMapView is actually using in different regions. My key questions are: How can I programmatically or visually confirm the underlying map type (Apple Maps vs. Amap) and its coordinate system within MKMapView? Is there a way to simulate the Apple Maps environment for testing when physically located in Mainland China?
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Sep ’25
Apple Map App Crash, when witched to satellite view
hi, When changing the map to Satellite in Apple Maps and centering it on Ōmuta City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (as shown in the image), the app crashes when swiping to the right. This issue also occurs in MapKit, and I confirmed it happens in Apple Maps as well. It seems that either the satellite map tiles are missing or an error is occurring. Our application is experiencing a crash, and this has become a serious issue. Since September 1, crashes have increased significantly. Initially, we suspected that the issue was due to our application’s implementation, but our investigation revealed that the problem lies with the map tiles being called through MapKit. Could you please investigate this issue and provide a fix?
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2d
CLLocation.sourceInformation.isSimulatedBySoftware not detecting third-party location spoofing tools
Summary CLLocationSourceInformation.isSimulatedBySoftware (iOS 15+) fails to detect location spoofing when using third-party tools like LocaChange, despite Apple's documentation stating it should detect simulated locations. Environment iOS 18.0 (tested and confirmed) Physical device with Developer Mode enabled Third-party location spoofing tools (e.g., LocaChange etc.) Expected Behavior According to Apple's documentation, isSimulatedBySoftware should return true when: "if the system generated the location using on-device software simulation. " Actual Behavior Tested on iOS 18.0: When using LocaChange sourceInformation.isSimulatedBySoftware returns false This occurs even though the location is clearly being simulated. Steps to Reproduce Enable Developer Mode on iOS 18 device Connect device to Mac via USB Use LocaChange to spoof location to a different city/country In your app, request location updates and check CLLocation.sourceInformation?.isSimulatedBySoftware Observe that it returns false or sourceInformation is nil Compare with direct Xcode location simulation (Debug → Simulate Location) which correctly returns true
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153
Oct ’25
Request for Higher MapKit Service/API Quota
Hello Apple Developer Team, I’m currently using Apple MapKit JS as the main map provider for our logistics, telematics, and HR platform TADMIN, and we are extremely satisfied with its reliability, accuracy, and visual quality. We would now like to expand our Apple integration by migrating our backend reverse geolocation services to Apple as well. However, our current usage requirements significantly exceed the standard 25,000 daily service request limit. At this stage, we already need between 250,000 and 350,000 reverse geocoding requests per day, and this number will continue to grow rapidly. Our TADMIN Tracking product processes live GPS data from connected vehicle telematics boxes, and each vehicle sends an average of 1.5 pings per minute in normal mode. We currently manage around 140 vehicles and are already in discussions with new customers that will add over 1,000 additional vehicles to the platform soon. As our customer base continues to expand, we expect this growth trend to accelerate significantly over the coming months. We already make extensive use of caching to minimize redundant geolocation calls. For example, we reuse location data when vehicles remain within a defined radius. However, since trucks rarely stay stationary for long, there is still a constant flow of new coordinates that require reverse geolocation. To give you a broader picture: TADMIN is a comprehensive SaaS ecosystem for the transport and logistics industry, combining HR management, telematics and tracking, dispatching, and data analysis into one integrated platform. The Tracking module is just one part of this system and serves as the live data backbone for our dispatching, HR, and telematics analytics modules. We would therefore like to increase our quotas for: Service Requests (especially Reverse Geocoding) Snapshot Requests, which we use for our Geofence Alerts. These are sent via push notification and email, and we would love to include the snapshot images in the emails for a clear and visually rich presentation MapKit JS Views, since we also use MapKit JS heavily in our web dashboards, for example in our tracking portal Higher quotas would allow us to rely even more on Apple services, including Autocomplete and Geocoding for customer-facing address searches inside our applications. We already have three apps published on the App Store, with a fourth one scheduled for release this week, and I will soon be upgrading my Apple Developer account to an Organization Account for our company. We are currently evaluating providers for this next stage of integration, as we are preparing a new major version of our TADMIN software, which will introduce a reworked telematics backend. Our goal is to migrate to Apple’s geolocation and map services as part of this new release. Could you please advise how we can best address this use case, for example through higher quotas or an adjusted configuration? Thank you very much for your time and support. Best regards, Timo Köhler Founder & CTO, TADMIN GmbH
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Oct ’25