Dive into the technical aspects of audio on your device, including codecs, format support, and customization options.

Audio Documentation

Posts under Audio subtopic

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How to find `AudioHardwareControl` direction?
I'm working with modern Core Audio API introduced in macOS Sequoia. I have an AudioHadwareDevice which has several controls of type AudioHardwareControl. I figured out to filter only volume controls I can use classID == kAudioVolumeControlClassID condition. Some devices have volume controls for both input and output. How I can determine the direction of the control? Streams, i.e. AudioHardwareStream object have direction, but I didn't found a way to map controls to streams. There are kAudioObjectPropertyScopeInput and kAudioObjectPropertyScopeOutput property scopes, but no matter what I tried controls always return false to any control.hasProperty(address: whatever). Any other ideas?
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504
Jan ’25
Users experiencing frequent media services reset interruptions
I work on an iOS app that records video and audio. We've been getting reports for a while from users who are experiencing their video recordings being cut off. After investigating, I found that many users are receiving the AVAudioSessionMediaServicesWereResetNotification (.mediaServicesWereResetNotification) notification while recording. It's associated with the AVFoundationErrorDomain[-11819] error, which seems to indicate that the system audio daemon crashed. We have a handler registered to end the recording, show the user a prompt, and restart our AV sessions. However, from our logs this looks to be happening to hundreds of users every day and it's not an ideal user experience, so I would like to figure out why this is happening and if it's due to something that we're doing wrong. The debug menu option to trigger the audio session reset is not of much use, because it can't be triggered unless you leave the app and go to system settings. So our app can't be recording video when the debug reset is triggered. So far I haven't found a way to reproduced the issue locally, but I can see that it's happening to users from logs. I've found some posts online from developers experiencing similar issues, but none of them seem to directly address our issue. The system error doesn't include a userInfo dictionary, and as far as I can tell it's a system daemon crash so any logs would need to be captured from the OS. Is there any way that I could get more information about what may be causing this error that I may have missed?
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83
Apr ’25
iOS Speech Error on Mobile Simulator (Error fetching voices)
I'm writing a simple app for iOS and I'd like to be able to do some text to speech in it. I have a basic audio manager class with a "speak" function: import Foundation import AVFoundation class AudioManager { static let shared = AudioManager() var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer? var isPlaying: Bool { return audioPlayer?.isPlaying ?? false } var playbackPosition: TimeInterval = 0 func playSound(named name: String) { guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: name, withExtension: "mp3") else { print("Sound file not found") return } do { if audioPlayer == nil || !isPlaying { audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: url) audioPlayer?.currentTime = playbackPosition audioPlayer?.prepareToPlay() audioPlayer?.play() } else { print("Sound is already playing") } } catch { print("Error playing sound: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } func stopSound() { if let player = audioPlayer { playbackPosition = player.currentTime player.stop() } } func speak(text: String) { let synthesizer = AVSpeechSynthesizer() let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: text) utterance.voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(language: "en-GB") synthesizer.speak(utterance) } } And my app shows text in a ScrollView: ScrollView { Text(self.description) .padding() .foregroundColor(.black) .font(.headline) .background(Color.gray.opacity(0)) }.onAppear { AudioManager.shared.speak(text: self.description) } However, the text doesn't get read out (in the simulator). I see some output in the console: Error fetching voices: Swift.DecodingError.dataCorrupted(Swift.DecodingError.Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "Invalid container metadata for _UnkeyedDecodingContainer, found keyedGraphEncodingNodeID", underlyingError: nil)). Using fallback voices. I'm probably doing something wrong here, but not sure what.
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storing AVAsset in SwiftData
Hi, I am creating an app that can include videos or images in it's data. While @Attribute(.externalStorage) helps with images, with AVAssets I actually would like access to the URL behind that data. (as it would be stupid to load and then save the data again just to have a URL) One key component is to keep all of this clean enough so that I can use (private) CloudKit syncing with the resulting model. All the best Christoph
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561
Jun ’25
Application tones start when I get incoming call or message
I've got a problem with my app where I'm testing it on my own phone. I'm using audio kit to generate tones as part of the app. Everything seems to work fine. Sounds start, Stop, etc. They play when the app is closed and when the phone is locked, so background is working. However, I'm seeing an issue where, even when STOP is pressed and the application exited, if I get a notification such as a text message, the base tone for the app starts to play. If I then open the app, check the Start/Stop button - it says start so that. hasnt' been activated. If I click Start, then a 2nd tone starts. This one stops with the Stop button. However the original tone that was set off by an incoming message carries on playing. Until I go to the Open Apps View on the phone and slide the application upwards. For the life of me, I can't figure out whats happening here.
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75
May ’25
Inquiry about Potential Core Audio Improvements
Hi everyone, I wanted to bring up a question about Core Audio and its potential for future updates or improvements, specifically regarding latency optimization. As someone who relies on Core Audio for real-time audio processing, any enhancements in this area would be incredibly beneficial for professionals in the industry. Does anyone know if Apple has shared any plans or updates regarding Core Audio’s performance, particularly for low-latency applications? I’d appreciate any insights or advice from the community! Thanks so much! Best, Michael
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504
Jan ’25
Help for a plugin audio unit
Hello All, It seems that it's "very easy" (😬) to implement a little Swift code inside the prepared AU using Xcode 16.2 on Sequoia 15.1.1 and a Mac Studio M1 Ultra, but my issue is that I finally don't know... where. The documentation says that I've to find the AudioUnitViewController.swift file and then modify the render block : audioUnit.renderBlock = { (numFrames, ioData) in // Process audio here } in the Xcode project automatically generated, but I didn't find such a file... If somebody can help me in showing where is the file to be modified, I'll be very grateful ! Thank you very much. J
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440
Feb ’25
Crackling/Popping sound when using AVAudioUnitTimePitch
I have a simple AVAudioEngine graph as follows: AVAudioPlayerNode -> AVAudioUnitEQ -> AVAudioUnitTimePitch -> AVAudioUnitReverb -> Main mixer node of AVAudioEngine. I noticed that whenever I have AVAudioUnitTimePitch or AVAudioUnitVarispeed in the graph, I noticed a very distinct crackling/popping sound in my Airpods Pro 2 when starting up the engine and playing the AVAudioPlayerNode and unable to find the reason why this is happening. When I remove the node, the crackling completely goes away. How do I fix this problem since i need the user to be able to control the pitch and rate of the audio during playback. import AVKit @Observable @MainActor class AudioEngineManager { nonisolated private let engine = AVAudioEngine() private let playerNode = AVAudioPlayerNode() private let reverb = AVAudioUnitReverb() private let pitch = AVAudioUnitTimePitch() private let eq = AVAudioUnitEQ(numberOfBands: 10) private var audioFile: AVAudioFile? private var fadePlayPauseTask: Task<Void, Error>? private var playPauseCurrentFadeTime: Double = 0 init() { setupAudioEngine() } private func setupAudioEngine() { guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Song name goes here", withExtension: "mp3") else { print("Audio file not found") return } do { audioFile = try AVAudioFile(forReading: url) } catch { print("Failed to load audio file: \(error)") return } reverb.loadFactoryPreset(.mediumHall) reverb.wetDryMix = 50 pitch.pitch = 0 // Increase pitch by 500 cents (5 semitones) engine.attach(playerNode) engine.attach(pitch) engine.attach(reverb) engine.attach(eq) // Connect: player -> pitch -> reverb -> output engine.connect(playerNode, to: eq, format: audioFile?.processingFormat) engine.connect(eq, to: pitch, format: audioFile?.processingFormat) engine.connect(pitch, to: reverb, format: audioFile?.processingFormat) engine.connect(reverb, to: engine.mainMixerNode, format: audioFile?.processingFormat) } func prepare() { guard let audioFile else { return } playerNode.scheduleFile(audioFile, at: nil) } func play() { DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } engine.prepare() try? engine.start() DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } playerNode.play() fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel() playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0 fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } while true { let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: true) // Ramp up volume until 1 is reached if volume >= 1 { break } engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10)) playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01 } engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 1 } } } } func pause() { fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel() playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0 fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } while true { let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: false) // Ramp down volume until 0 is reached if volume <= 0 { break } engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10)) playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01 } engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 0 playerNode.pause() // Shut down engine once ramp down completes DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } engine.pause() } } } private func updateVolume(for x: Double, rising: Bool) -> Float { if rising { // Fade in return Float(pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x))) } else { // Fade out return Float(1 - (pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x)))) } } func setPitch(_ value: Float) { pitch.pitch = value } func setReverbMix(_ value: Float) { reverb.wetDryMix = value } } struct ContentView: View { @State private var audioManager = AudioEngineManager() @State private var pitch: Float = 0 @State private var reverb: Float = 0 var body: some View { VStack(spacing: 20) { Text("🎵 Audio Player with Reverb & Pitch") .font(.title2) HStack { Button("Prepare") { audioManager.prepare() } Button("Play") { audioManager.play() } .padding() .background(Color.green) .foregroundColor(.white) .cornerRadius(10) Button("Pause") { audioManager.pause() } .padding() .background(Color.red) .foregroundColor(.white) .cornerRadius(10) } VStack { Text("Pitch: \(Int(pitch)) cents") Slider(value: $pitch, in: -2400...2400, step: 100) { _ in audioManager.setPitch(pitch) } } VStack { Text("Reverb Mix: \(Int(reverb))%") Slider(value: $reverb, in: 0...100, step: 1) { _ in audioManager.setReverbMix(reverb) } } } .padding() } }
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Apr ’25
Indicate Packet Loss With AVAudioConverter for OPUS Decoding
I'm using an AVAudioConverter object to decode an OPUS stream for VoIP. The decoding itself works well, however, whenever the stream stalls (no more audio packet is available to decode because of network instability) this can be heard in crackling / abrupt stop in decoded audio. OPUS can mitigate this by indicating packet loss by passing a null pointer in the C-library to int opus_decode_float (OpusDecoder * st, const unsigned char * data, opus_int32 len, float * pcm, int frame_size, int decode_fec), see https://opus-codec.org/docs/opus_api-1.2/group__opus__decoder.html#ga9c554b8c0214e24733a299fe53bb3bd2. However, with AVAudioConverter using Swift I'm constructing an AVAudioCompressedBuffer like so:         let compressedBuffer = AVAudioCompressedBuffer(             format: VoiceEncoder.Constants.networkFormat,             packetCapacity: 1,             maximumPacketSize: data.count         )         compressedBuffer.byteLength = UInt32(data.count)         compressedBuffer.packetCount = 1   compressedBuffer.packetDescriptions! .pointee.mDataByteSize = UInt32(data.count)         data.copyBytes(             to: compressedBuffer.data .assumingMemoryBound(to: UInt8.self),             count: data.count         ) where data: Data contains the raw OPUS frame to be decoded. How can I specify data loss in this context and cause the AVAudioConverter to output PCM data whenever no more input data is available? More context: I'm specifying the audio format like this:         static let frameSize: UInt32 = 960         static let sampleRate: Float64 = 48000.0         static var networkFormatStreamDescription = AudioStreamBasicDescription(             mSampleRate: sampleRate,             mFormatID: kAudioFormatOpus,             mFormatFlags: 0,             mBytesPerPacket: 0,             mFramesPerPacket: frameSize,             mBytesPerFrame: 0,             mChannelsPerFrame: 1,             mBitsPerChannel: 0,             mReserved: 0         )         static let networkFormat = AVAudioFormat( streamDescription: &networkFormatStreamDescription )! I've tried 1) setting byteLength and packetCount to zero and 2) returning nil but setting .haveData in the AVAudioConverterInputBlock I'm using with no success.
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874
May ’25
No mic capture on iOS 18.5
Hello! We stumbled upon a problem with our karaoke app where user on iPhone 16e/iOS 18.5 has problem with mic capture, other users cannot hear him. The mic capture is working fine on 17.5, 16.8. Maybe there is something else we need when configuring AVAudioSession for iOS 18.5? Currently it's set up like this: override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() UIApplication.shared.isIdleTimerDisabled = true mRoomId = appDelegate.getRoomId() let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try! audioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, mode: .voiceChat, options: [.defaultToSpeaker]) try! audioSession.setPreferredSampleRate(48000) try! audioSession.setActive(true, options: []) }
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252
Nov ’25
AVAudioRecorder loses audio recorded before interruption
Hi everyone, I'm running into an issue with AVAudioRecorder when handling interruptions such as phone calls or alarms. Problem: When the app is recording audio and an interruption occurs: I handle the interruption with audioRecorder?.pause() inside AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification (on .began). On .ended, I check for .shouldResume and call audioRecorder?.record() again. The recorder resumes successfully, but only the audio recorded after the interruption is saved. The audio recorded before the interruption is lost, even though I'm using the same file URL and not recreating the recorder. Repro: Start a recording with AVAudioRecorder Simulate a system interruption (e.g., incoming call) Resume recording after the interruption Stop and inspect the output audio file Expected: Full audio (before and after interruption) should be saved. Actual: Only the audio after interruption is saved; the earlier part is missing Notes: According to the documentation, calling .record() after .pause() should resume recording into the same file. I confirmed that the file URL does not change, and I do not recreate the recorder instance. No error is thrown by the system during this process. This behavior happens consistently when the app is interrupted and resumed. Question: Is this a known issue? Is there a recommended workaround for preserving the full recording when interruptions happen? Thanks in advance!
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6d
Improving Speech Analyzer Transcription for technical terms
I am developing an app with transcription and I am exploring ways to improve the transcription from the SpeechAnalyzer/Transcriber for technical terms. SFSpeech... recognition had the capability of being augmented by contextualStrings. Does something similar exist for SpeechAnalyzer/Transcriber? If so please point me towards the documentation and any sample code that may exist for this. If there are other options, please let me know.
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233
Sep ’25
[MusicKit] Check for availability of songs
Songs can be unavailable (greyed out) in Apple Music. How can I check if a song is unavailable via the MusicKit framework? Obviously the playback will fail with MPMusicPlayerControllerErrorDomain Code=6 "Failed to prepare to play" but how can I know that in advance? I need to check the availability of hundreds of albums and therefore initiating a playback for each of them is not an option. Things I have tried: Checking if the release date property is set to a future date. This filters out all future releases but doesn't solve the problem for already released songs. Checking if the duration is 0. This does not work since the duration of unavailable songs does not have to be 0. Initiating a playback and checking for the "Failed to prepare to play" error. This is not suitable for a huge amount of Albums. I couldn't find a solution yet but somehow other third-party-apps are able ignore/don't shows these albums. I believe the Apple Music app is only displaying albums where at least one song is available. I am using this function to fetch all albums of an artist. private func fetchAlbumsFor(_ artist: Artist) async throws -> [Album] { let artistWithAlbums = try await artist.with(.albums) var allAlbums = [Album]() guard var currentBadge = artistWithAlbums.albums else { return [] } allAlbums.append(contentsOf: currentBadge) while currentBadge.hasNextBatch { if let nextBatch = try await currentBadge.nextBatch() { currentBadge = nextBatch allAlbums.append(contentsOf: nextBatch) } else { break } } return allAlbums } Here is an example album where I am unable to detect its unavailability (at least in Germany): https://music.apple.com/de/album/die-haferhorde-immer-den-n%C3%BCstern-nach-h%C3%B6rspiel-zu-band-3/1755774804 Furthermore I was unable to navigate to this album via the Apple Music app directly. Thanks for any help Edit: Apparently this album is not included in an apple music subscription but can be bought seperately. The question remains: How can I check that?
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574
Feb ’25
Start and stop recording Voice Memos with Siri
using iOS 26.2; Airpods 4 Long press stem to launch Siri Speak "Record Voice Memo" -> Recording starts Recording in progress... Long press stem to launch Siri -> Nothing happens. To stop recording need use phone. is this intended behaviour? i would like to be able to stop recording with Siri I am able to launch Siri from phone while recording, but point is to keep phone in pocket and start/stop recordings only via Airpods.
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112
4d
watchOS 26: Audio Playback Interrupted by Fitness Notifications Across Multiple Apps
After upgrading to watchOS 26, users report that when playing music on Apple Watch, if a fitness reminder is received, the music automatically pauses and users need to manually tap the play button to resume music playback. This phenomenon occurs with multiple music and podcast apps. This issue did not exist before the upgrade. We would like to know if this is an Apple bug or if there are any special development configurations needed?"
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160
Oct ’25
AirPods with H2 and studio-quality recording - how to replicate Camera video capture
Using an iPhone Pro 12 running iOS 26.0.1, with AirPods Pro 3. Camera app does capture video with what seems to be "Studio Quality Recording". Am trying to replicate that SQR with my own Camera like app, and while I can pull audio in from the APP3 mic, and my video capture app is recording a 48,000Hz high-bitrate video, the audio still sounds non-SQR. I'm seeing bluetoothA2DP , bluetoothLE , bluetoothHFP as portType, and not sure if SQR depends on one of those? Is there sample code demonstrating a SQR capture? Nevermind video and camera, just audio even? Also, I don't understand what SQR is doing between the APP3 and the iPhone. What codec is that? What bitrate is that? If I capture video using Capture and inspect the audio stream I see mono 74.14 kbit/s MPEG-4 AAC, 48000 Hz. But I assume that's been recompressed and not really giving me any insight into the APP3 H2 transmission?
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121
Oct ’25
Live Translations on VOIP on iOS26
Hi team, With regards to Call (Live) Translations on VOIP: Is it possible to invoke live translations within the app? (without going into the Call System UI) Is it possible to navigate users from app to Call System UI via an API? (and also invoking the new live translations directly) Will Apple support more languages apart from the current ones? (Currently I see 4 supported languages)
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155
Aug ’25