Since iOS 12 it has become difficult to detect the end of playback using the system music player. In earlier iOS versions, the now playing item would be set nil and you would receive a notification that the player stopped. In iOS 12 and later, nowPlayingItem still contains the current song and the only notification you get is MPMusicPlayerControllerPlaybackStateDidChangeNotification with the playbackState set to MPMusicPlaybackStatePaused. Pressing pause in my car (or any remote access) generates the same conditions making it difficult to correctly detect the difference. It would be nice if they added a notification that playback was done (similar to the other players). Any suggestions?

I often find when doing basic actions in MusicKit it is incredibly slow compared to Apple's Music App. I've tried different versions, devices, networks, Apple's sample code, it all throughout the last several years, and it is all the same. Does anyone else have this issue?

I am using MusicKit ApplicationMusicPlayer to play music in my app. Everything works fine as long as I'm not playing large playlists that contain hundreds of songs. When I to play collection of songs that is larger than around 300 I'm always getting the error message saying: "Prepare to play failed" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Prepare to play failed, NSUnderlyingError=0x121d42dc0 {Error Domain=MPMusicPlayerControllerErrorDomain Code=9 "Remote call timed out" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Remote call timed out}}})) It doesn't matter if songs are downloaded to the device or not. I am aware that there is another initializer for player's queue that accepts Playlist instances but in my app users can choose to sort playlist tracks in different order than the default and that makes using that initializer not feasible for me. I tried everything I could think of, I tried to fall back on MPMusicPlayerController and pass array of MPMusicPlayerPlayParameters to it but the result was the same. typealias QueueEntry = ApplicationMusicPlayer.Queue.Entry let player = ApplicationMusicPlayer.shared let entries: [QueueEntry] = tracks .compactMap { guard let song = $0 as? Song else { return nil } return QueueEntry(song) } Task(priority: .high) { [player] in do { player.queue = .init(entries, startingAt: nil) try await player.play() // prepareToPlay failed } catch { print(error) } }

I'm building a UIKit app that reads user's Apple Music library and displays it. In MusicKit there is the Artwork structure which I need to use to display artwork images in the app. Since I'm not using SwiftUI I cannot use the ArtworkImage view that is recommended way of displaying those images but the Artwork structure has a method that returns url for the image which can be used to read the image. The way I have it setup is really simple: extension MusicKit.Song { func imageURL(for cgSize: CGSize) -> URL? { return artwork?.url( width: Int(cgSize.width), height: Int(cgSize.height) ) } func localImage(for cgSize: CGSize) -> UIImage? { guard let url = imageURL(for: cgSize), url.scheme == "musicKit", let data = try? Data(contentsOf: url) else { return nil } return .init(data: data) } } Now, everytime I access .artwork property (so a lot of times) the main thread gets blocked and the console output gets bombared with messages like these: 2023-07-26 11:49:47.317195+0200 Plum[998:297199] [Artwork] Failed to create color analysis for artwork: <MPMediaLibraryArtwork: 0x289591590> with error; Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service named com.apple.mediaartworkd.xpc was invalidated: failed at lookup with error 159 - Sandbox restriction." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.mediaartworkd.xpc was invalidated: failed at lookup with error 159 - Sandbox restriction.} 2023-07-26 11:49:47.317262+0200 Plum[998:297199] [Artwork] Failed to create color analysis for artwork: file:///var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes/Artwork/Originals/4b/48d7b8d349d2de858413ae4561b6ba1b294dc7 2023-07-26 11:49:47.323099+0200 Plum[998:297013] [Plum] IIOImageWriteSession:121: cannot create: '/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes/Artwork/Caches/320x320/4b/48d7b8d349d2de858413ae4561b6ba1b294dc7.sb-f9c7943d-6ciLNp'error = 1 (Operation not permitted) My guess is that the most performance-heavy task here is performing the color analysis for each artwork but IMO the property backgroundColor should not be a stored property if that's the case. I am not planning to use it anywhere and if so it should be a computed async property so it doesn't block the caller. I know I can move the call to a background thread and that fixes the issue of blocking main thread but still the loading times for each artwork are terribly slow and that impacts the UX. SwiftUI's ArtworkImage loads the artworks much quicker and without the errors so there must be a better way to do it.

In SwiftUI there is a built-in component for displaying album artworks called Artwork but there is no equivalent for UIKit. My current approach is to use the .url() method to read image's URL and download the image or read it from the disk but the performance is much worse than it was previously with MPMediaItem's artworkImage method. let artworkQueue = DispatchQueue( label: "MusicKit-ArtworkQueue", qos: .default, attributes: .concurrent ) let artworkSemaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 5) extension Song { func artworkImage(for size: CGSize, completion: @escaping (UIImage?) -> Void) { artworkQueue.async { artworkSemaphore.wait() defer { artworkSemaphore.signal() } let imageURL = artwork?.url( width: Int(size.width), height: Int(size.height) ) // I hate doing this as it might very well break in the future guard let imageURL, imageURL.scheme == "musicKit" else { return completion(nil) } guard let imageData = try? Data(contentsOf: imageURL), let image = UIImage(data: imageData) else { return completion(nil) } completion(image) } } } I really dislike this approach because it feels hacky but somewhat works. You might ask what's the semaphore for? Well, without it I could notice that MusicKit was choking and after reading too many artworks at once. Can someone from Apple please provide us with an example on how to use MusicKit with UIKit properly? Ideally (IMO) we would have a method defined on Song and other MusicKit structures that returns the image for us, just like MPMediaItem had the .artwork() method. It would make our lives so much easier.

Hello, I am having difficulties with configuring MusicKit correctly for my web app that I am building, seeking assistance with the issues I am having. Would greatly appreciate any help! After allowing access to the following, "Access Request media.mydomain.com would like to access Apple Music, media library, and listening activity for myemail'@icloud.com.", I get a popup error that states, "Authorization failed. Please try again.". Following is the information that is given in developer console: [Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 () (webPlayerLogout, line 0) [Error] Authorization failed: AUTHORIZATION_ERROR: Unauthorized (anonymous function) (media.mydomain.com:398)

When building an application that can be built on iOS using macCatalyst, a link error like the one below will occur. Undefined symbol: OBJC_CLASS$_AVPlayerViewController The AVPlayerViewController documentation seems to support macCatalyst, but what is the reality? [AVPlayerViewController](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avkit/avplayerviewcontroller? language=objc) Each version of the environment is as follows. Xcode 16.2 macOS deployment target: macOS 10.15 iOS deployment target: iOS 13.0 Thank you for your support.

I found some documentation about Kext, but I heard they have now moved to Dext. So I was wondering if Dext could completely imitate the previous Kext. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/kernel/implementing_drivers_system_extensions_and_kexts This page is written like this Important In macOS 11 and later, the kernel doesn’t load a kext if an equivalent DriverKit solution exists. You may continue to use kexts in macOS 10.15 and earlier.

On an iOS 18 phone, I use AVCaptureSession to capture HDR with x420 format. The output CMSampleBuffer is HLG colorspace, the propagated attachments contain kCVImageBufferAmbientViewingEnvironmentKey and kCVImageBufferSceneIlluminationKey. Now I use CAMetalLayer to render the CVPixelBuffer to the screen, but the brightness is brighter than AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer. Here is my code. - (void)_updateColorSpaceIfNeed:(CVPixelBufferRef)pixelBuffer { CAMetalLayer *layer = (CAMetalLayer *)_mtkView.layer; if (![layer isKindOfClass:CAMetalLayer.class]) return; layer.wantsExtendedDynamicRangeContent = YES; CFDataRef ambientViewingEnvironment = (CFDataRef)CVBufferCopyAttachment(pixelBuffer, kCVImageBufferAmbientViewingEnvironmentKey, NULL); NSData *data = (__bridge NSData *)ambientViewingEnvironment; if (ambientViewingEnvironment) CFRelease(ambientViewingEnvironment); CAEDRMetadata *metadata = [CAEDRMetadata HLGMetadataWithAmbientViewingEnvironment:data]; // CAEDRMetadata *metadata = [CAEDRMetadata HLGMetadata]; layer.EDRMetadata = metadata; layer.pixelFormat = MTLPixelFormatRGBA16Float; CGColorSpaceRef colorspace = CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceITUR_2100_HLG); layer.colorspace = colorspace; if (colorspace) CGColorSpaceRelease(colorspace); } Why does the CAEDRMetadata class have "HLGMetadataWithAmbientViewingEnvironment:" and "HLGMetadata" methods, but does not provide the "HLGMetadataWithAmbientViewingEnvironment:sceneIllumination" method? I want to know how kCVImageBufferAmbientViewingEnvironmentKey and kCVImageBufferSceneIlluminationKey affect tone mapping. Is there any documentation I can refer to?

Hi There, I have an app which access the media library, to save and load files. Since the IOS 18.2, the access to the media library stopped working. Now, I've noticed that our App doesn't show in the List of apps with access to Files ( Privacy & Security -> Files & Folders). Weird behavior is that, one iPhone with iOS 18.3.1 can access to the Files but others no, same iOS version 18.3.1. Test on Simulators (MAC) and works fine also. My info.plist file have the keys to access media library for long time and hasn't changed (at least in the las 4 years) including the key "Privacy - Media Library Usage Description". Also, I've noticed, that the message (popup) that request access to the media library, when using the app for the first time, doesn't show up anymore. We request access to the network (wifi) and this message still showing up but no the media library. I'm using Visual Studio with Xamarin on a MAC. I really appreciate any help you can because is very odd behavior and this started from the iOS 18.2.

Hello Apple, i've been using ios for many years and never had any issues with urdu language keyboard, but since the new 18.4 beta update some words are not working correctly as it should like a name of my friend who's name is "راعنیہ" but the new updated version cannot type is together and keep seperating like "راعنی ہ" its so frustrating to use like that and its not just one but so many other words that it just cannot do properly also the new font and no gap concept its hurting my eyes so much while reading or even typing.. i hope apple fixes that asap.. thankyou

My iOS app can access the iphone media library, but if on Mac M4 is Error Domain=NSCocoaError Domain Code=257

I've been having issues with authorization after switching from v1 to v3, have tried some of the suggestions provided by someone in a reply to a post of mine. Have tried to reach out to Apple Support a few times as well, though I haven't received any support that has helped me to move forward. I have tested my token at https://jwt.io and I'm getting a "Signature Verified", tried multiple browsers in private/incognito mode, now when I try to sign into my Apple Account to test my player I am receiving an error that stats "There is a Problem Connecting. There May be an Issue with Your Network." (which is not the case). I have tried everything I can think of, I'm at a loss and would appreciate any help to get my project moving forward. This is what I am seeing in the browser developer console (using Firefox): Authorization failed: AUTHORIZATION_ERROR: Unauthorized MKError https://js-cdn.music.apple.com/musickit/v3/musickit.js:13 authorize https://js-cdn.music.apple.com/musickit/v3/musickit.js:28 asyncGeneratorStep$w https://js-cdn.music.apple.com/musickit/v3/musickit.js:28 _next https://js-cdn.music.apple.com/musickit/v3/musickit.js:28 media.mydomain.com:398:19 https://media.mydomain.com/:398

We are planning to develop an application using the Apple Music API. We would like to design our system based on the details of the rate limits mentioned below and have a few questions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi/generating-developer-tokens#Request-Rate-Limiting Regarding the Catalog API (/v1/catalog/*), we understand that server-side caching is enabled, making it less likely to reach the rate limit. Is this understanding correct? (Excluding the search API) For APIs like the Library API (/v1/me/library/*), where responses vary by user, we assume they are more likely to reach the rate limit. Is this correct? We plan to implement optimizations to minimize unnecessary API calls. Given this, would the current Music API be able to handle a significant increase in users? (Assuming a DAU of around 100,000 to 1,000,000) If the API cannot support this scale, would it be allowed under Apple’s policy to cache responses from the Catalog API (/v1/catalog/*) via our proxy server to avoid hitting the rate limit? The third question is the one we most want to confirm.

Hi, just generated a HDR10 MVHEVC file, mediainfo is below: Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.2020 Transfer characteristics : PQ Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant Codec configuration box : hvcC+lhvC then generate the segment files with below command: mediafilesegmenter --iso-fragmented -t 4 -f av_1 av_new_1.mov then upload the segment files and prog_index.m3u8 to web server. just find that can not play the HLS stream on Safari... the url is http://ip/vod/prog_index.m3u8 just checked that if i remove the tag Transfer characteristics : PQ when generating the MVHEVC file. above same mediafilesegmenter command and upload the files to web server. the new version of HLS stream is can play on Safari... Is there any way to play HLS PQ video on Safari. thanks.

Hi All, I am working on a DJ playout app (MACOS). The app has a few AVAudioPlayerNode's combined with the ApplicationMusicPlayer from Musickit. I can route the output of the AVaudioPlayer to a hardware device so that the audio files are directed to their own dedicated output on my Mac. The ApplicationMusicPlayer is following the default output and this is pretty annoying. Has anyone found a solution to chain the ApplicationMusicPlayer and get it set to a output device? Thanks Pancras

For some users in production, there's a high probability that after launching the App, using AVPlayer to play any local audio resources results in the following error. Restarting the App doesn't help. issue: [error: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11800 "这项操作无法完成" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=发生未知错误（24）, NSLocalizedDescription=这项操作无法完成, NSUnderlyingError=0x30311f270 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=24 "Too many open files"}} I've checked the code, and there aren't actually multiple AVPlayers playing simultaneously. What could be causing this?

I noticed that Instagram and iMessage support receiving shared lyrics from Apple Music. Specifically, when users long-press lyrics, a sheet pops up showing iMessage and Instagram. Clicking on either app generates a beautifully formatted lyrics image. I've looked through MusicKit documentation but couldn't find any related APIs. How can I implement this functionality in my app?

Hello everyone, I am currently working on an app project aimed at users who want to quickly and easily capture their ideas and notes while on the go. The basic concept is to develop an iOS app where users can store both typed notes and voice recordings – essentially a "brain dump" solution. The core functionality (storing, editing, synchronizing via CloudKit, etc.) will be handled within the iOS app. In addition, I plan to integrate a CarPlay extension that allows the driver to start and stop a recording – ideally through a minimalist interface featuring a large record button and a "Done" button. Since the iPhone is often not within immediate reach in the car, the CarPlay integration should serve as a quick trigger to initiate the recording in the iOS app. My questions are as follows: Has anyone had experience implementing a CarPlay extension for an app that primarily handles notes and voice recordings, rather than falling into the traditional categories like navigation, audio, or communication? Has such a concept ever been approved by Apple, or are there known hurdles and guidelines that must be observed? Are there alternative approaches to implementing CarPlay integration in this context in a compliant and effective manner? I would greatly appreciate any feedback, shared experiences, and tips on best practices. Thank you in advance and best regards!

I'm playing library items (MPMediaItem) and apple music tracks (Track) in MPMusicPlayerApplicationController.applicationQueuePlayer, but I can't use the actual Queue functionality because I can't figure out how to get both media types into the same queue. If there's a way to get both types in a single queue, that would solve my problem, but I've given up on that one. Because I can't use a queue, I have to be able to detect when a song ends so that I can put the next song in the queue and play it. The only way I can figure out to detect when a song ends is by watching the playBackState, and I've actually got that pretty much working, but it's really ugly, because you get playBackState of paused when a song ends, and when a bluetooth speaker disconnects, etc. The only answer I've been able to find on the internet is to watch the MPMusicPlayerControllerNowPlayingItemDidChange, and when that fires, and the nowPlayingItem is NIL, a song ends.. but that's not the case. When a song ends, the nowPlayingItem remains the same. There's got to be an answer to this problem, right?