Explore the integration of media technologies within your app. Discuss working with audio, video, camera, and other media functionalities.

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Orientation does not work on iPhone 17 and above.
I'm receiving output from avcapturesession and capturing an image using Vision, but the image is output in landscape orientation instead of portrait. Even when I set the orientation to up in ciimage, cgimage, and uiimage, the image is still output in landscape orientation. On iPhones 16 and below, the image is output in portrait orientation. But on iPhones 17 and above, the image is output in landscape orientation. Please help.
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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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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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Best Approach for Reliable Background Audio Playback with Audio Ducking on Command from Server
I am developing an iOS app that needs to play spoken audio on demand from a server, while ducking the audio of background music from another app (e.g., SoundtrackYourBrand or Apple Music). This must work even when the app is in the background, and the server dictates when and what audio is played. Ideally, the message should be played within a minute of the server requesting it. Current Attempt & Observations I initially tried using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) silent notifications to send a URL to an audio file, which the app would then play using AVPlayer. This works consistently when the app is active, but in the background, it only works about 60% of the time. In cases where it fails, iOS ducks the background music (e.g., from SoundtrackYourBrand) but never plays the spoken audio. Interestingly, when I play the audio without enabling audio ducking, it seems to work 100% of the time from my limited testing, even in the background. The app has background modes enabled for Audio, Background Fetch, and Remote Notifications. Best Approach to Achieve This? I’d like guidance on the best Apple-compliant approach to reliably play audio on command from the server, even when the app is in the background. Some possible paths: Ensuring the app remains active in the background – Are there recommended ways to prevent the app from getting suspended, such as background tasks, a special background mode, or a persistent connection to the server? Alternative triggering mechanisms – Would something like VoIP, Push-to-Talk, or another background service be better suited for this use case? Built-in iOS speech synthesis (AVSpeechSynthesizer) – If playing external audio is unreliable, would generating speech dynamically from text be a more robust approach? Streaming audio instead of sending a URL – Could continuous streaming from the server keep the app active and allow playback at the right moment? I want to ensure the solution is reliable and works 100% of the time when needed. Any recommendations on the best approach for this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and guidance.
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Feb ’25
Dockkit custom tracking does not work on iOS18.3
Hi all, I'm using Apple Sample Code below to create application using dockkit. "Controlling a DockKit accessory using your camera app" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dockkit/controlling-a-dockkit-accessory-using-your-camera-app?changes=_8 I used vision hand recognition and put the observation data to dockAccessory.track, but Belkin or Insta360 devices never move on iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 18.3. If I use other functions like face search (system tracking) in the app, those work ok. I used Belkin and Insta360 Flow 2 Pro to reproduce the problem. My friend is also saying that the custom tracking feature was working fine on the OS 18 beta, but on recent iOS 18.3 that feature does not work. If I can get the iOS 18.0 beta then we can test that feature. But I cannot revert my iOS from 18.3 to the iOS 18.0 Beta. Regards, TO
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Changing Frame Rate of External Display on iPad
Hello, As far as I know and in all of my testing there is no way for a user or a developer to change the frame rate of the video output on iPadOS. If you connect an iPad via a USB Hub or a USB to HDMI Adaptor and then connect it to an external monitor it will output at 59.94fps. I have a video app where a user monitors live video at 25fps and 30fps, they often output to an external display and there are times when the external display will stutter due to the mismatch in frame rate, ie. using 25fps and outputting at 59.94fps. I thought it was impossible to change the video output frame rate, then in V3.1 of the Blackmagic Camera App I saw an interesting change in their release notes: ‘Support for HDMI Monitoring at Sensor Rate and Resolution’ This means there is some way to modify it, not sure if this is done via a Private API that Apple has allowed Blackmagic to use. If so, how can we access this or is there a way to enable this that is undocumented? Thanks!
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How can third-party iOS apps obtain real-time waveform / spectrogram data for Apple Music tracks (similar to djay & other DJ apps)?
Hi everyone, I’m working on an iOS MusicKit app that overlays a metronome on top of Apple Music playback. To line the clicks up perfectly I’d like access to low-level audio analysis data—ideally a waveform / spectrogram or beat grid—while the track is playing. I’ve noticed that several approved DJ apps (e.g. djay, Serato, rekordbox) can already: • Display detailed scrolling waveforms of Apple Music songs • Scratch, loop or time-stretch those tracks in real time That implies they receive decoded PCM frames or at least high-resolution analysis data from Apple Music under a special entitlement. My questions: 1. Does MusicKit (or any public framework) expose real-time audio buffers, FFT bins, or beat markers for streaming Apple Music content? 2. If not, is there an Apple program or entitlement that developers can apply for—similar to the “DJ with Apple Music” initiative—to gain that deeper access? 3. Where can I find official documentation or a point of contact for this kind of request? I’ve searched the docs and forums but only see standard MusicKit playback APIs, which don’t appear to expose raw audio for DRM-protected songs. Any guidance, links or insider tips on the proper application process would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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CIRAWFilter.outputImage first-time cost is huge (~3s), subsequent calls are ~3ms. Any official way to pre-initialize RAW pipeline (without taking a real photo)?
Hi Apple Developer Forums, I’m developing an iOS camera app that processes RAW captures using Core Image. I’m seeing a large “first use” performance penalty specifically when creating the CIImage from CIRAWFilter.outputImage. What’s slow (important detail) I’m measuring the time for: let rawFilter = CIRAWFilter(imageData: rawData, identifierHint: hint) let ciImage = rawFilter.outputImage This is not CIContext.render(...) / createCGImage(...). It’s just the time to access outputImage (i.e., building the Core Image graph / RAW pipeline setup). Observed behavior First time accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage: ~3 seconds Second time (same app session, similar RAW): ~3 milliseconds So something heavy is happening only on first use (decoder initialization, pipeline setup, shader/library compilation, caching, etc.). Using Metal System Trace, I also noticed that during the slow first call there are many “Create MTLLibrary” events, while the second call doesn’t show this pattern. Warm-up attempts using bundled DNG I tried to “warm up” early (e.g., on camera screen entry) by loading a bundled DNG and then accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage by taking a photo: Warm-up with a ~247 KB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~1.42s Warm-up with a ~25 MB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~843ms This helps, but it’s still far from the steady-state ~3ms. Warm-up by capturing a real RAW (works, but concerns) The only method that fully eliminates the delay is to trigger a real RAW capture programmatically before the user’s first photo, then use that captured rawData to warm up the CIRAWFilter.outputImage path. This brings the first user-facing capture close to the steady-state timing. However: In some regions, the camera shutter sound cannot be suppressed, so “hidden warm-up capture” is unacceptable UX. I’m also unsure whether triggering a real capture without an explicit user action could raise compliance/privacy concerns, even if the image is immediately discarded and never saved/uploaded. Questions Is the large first-time cost of CIRAWFilter.outputImage expected (RAW pipeline initialization / shader compilation)? Is there an Apple-recommended way to pre-initialize the Core Image RAW pipeline / Metal resources so the first outputImage is fast, without taking a real photo? Are there any best practices (e.g. CIContext creation timing, prepareRender(...), specific options) that reliably reduce this first-use overhead for CIRAWFilter? Attachments Figure 1: First RAW capture with no warm-up (~3s outputImage time) Figure 2: First RAW capture after warm-up with bundled DNG (improved but still hundreds of ms) Thanks for any guidance or experience sharing!
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How to Implement Screen Mirroring in iOS for Google TV?
I am developing an iOS application that supports screen mirroring to Google TV (or Chromecast with Google TV). My goal is to mirror the iPhone/iPad screen in real time to a Google TV device. What I Have Tried So Far I have explored multiple approaches but haven't found a direct way to achieve low-latency screen mirroring. Here are some of my findings: Google Cast SDK: Google Cast SDK is primarily designed for casting media (videos, images, audio) rather than real-time mirroring. It supports custom receiver applications, but there are no direct APIs for full screen mirroring. Casting a recorded video is possible, but it introduces latency and is not real-time. ReplayKit for Screen Capture: RPScreenRecorder.shared().startCapture(handler: ...) allows capturing the iPhone screen as a video stream. However, sending this stream to Google TV in real time is a challenge. I could potentially encode the video as HLS and stream it, but the delay is significant. RTSP/UDP Streaming: Some third-party libraries support RTSP/UDP streaming for real-time screen sharing. Google TV does not natively support RTSP, making this approach difficult. My Questions: Is it possible to achieve real-time screen mirroring on Google TV using Google Cast SDK? Does Google TV support WebRTC or any low-latency streaming protocol that can be used from iOS? Are there any alternative approaches to mirror an iOS screen to Google TV with minimal latency? I would appreciate any guidance, code examples, or references to relevant documentation.
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ScreenCaptureKit and mixed Retina/non-Retina configuration
The two ScreenCaptureKit WWDC22 sessions show how to capture with the new framework but the retina factor is hardcoded to 2 in SCStreamConfiguration. When using on a non-retina display, the screencapture is floating on the upper-left corner of the image buffer. There does not seem to be a simple way to retrieve the retina factor from the SCShareableContent data (when configuring the capture). When processing the streaming output, the SCStreamFrameInfo attachment is supposed to have a scaleFactor property but .scaleFactor does not return a value. I have found out that the attachement dictionary contains SCStreamUpdateFrameDisplayResolution. This entry gives me the retina factor but it is not an official SCStreamFrameInfo key. I list the keys to access it. What is the proper way with ScreenCapture to handle the retina factors ?
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Jun ’25
AudioComponentInstanceNew takes up to five seconds to complete
We are using a VoiceProcessingIO audio unit in our VoIP application on Mac. In certain scenarios, the AudioComponentInstanceNew call blocks for up to five seconds (at least two). We are using the following code to initialize the audio unit: OSStatus status; AudioComponentDescription desc; AudioComponent inputComponent; desc.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output; desc.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_VoiceProcessingIO; desc.componentFlags = 0; desc.componentFlagsMask = 0; desc.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple; inputComponent = AudioComponentFindNext(NULL, &desc); status = AudioComponentInstanceNew(inputComponent, &unit); We are having the issue with current MacOS versions on a host of different Macs (x86 and x64 alike). It takes two to three seconds until AudioComponentInstanceNew returns. We also see the following errors in the log multiple times: AUVPAggregate.cpp:2560 AggInpStreamsChanged wait failed and those right after (which I don't know if they matter to this issue): KeystrokeSuppressorCore.cpp:44 ERROR: KeystrokeSuppressor initialization was unsuccessful. Invalid or no plist was provided. AU will be bypassed. vpStrategyManager.mm:486 Error code 2003332927 reported at GetPropertyInfo
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Dec ’24
Regarding FPS SDK Upgrade
Hi Apple Team, We have integrated FairPlay Streaming Server SDK v3 into our MDRM platform since 2017, the system works stable and stayed untouched. As you know, both Widevine and Playready have requirements to upgrade the Server SDK regularly. We want to know if Apple imposes similar requirements for upgrading the FPS SDK, or if we may continue using the old one without any updates. Thanks for your support!
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Feb ’25
[AVPlayerItemVideoOutput initWithPixelBufferAttributes:] output attributes setting not work
My app want Converting iphone12 HDR Video to SDR,to edit。 follow the doc Apple-HDR-Convert. My code setting the pixBuffAttributes        [pixBuffAttributes setObject:(id)(kCVImageBufferYCbCrMatrix_ITU_R_709_2) forKey:(id)kCVImageBufferYCbCrMatrixKey];       [pixBuffAttributes setObject:(id)(kCVImageBufferColorPrimaries_ITU_R_709_2) forKey:(id)kCVImageBufferColorPrimariesKey];       [pixBuffAttributes setObject:(id)kCVImageBufferTransferFunction_ITU_R_709_2 forKey:(id)kCVImageBufferTransferFunctionKey];       playerItemOutput = [[AVPlayerItemVideoOutput alloc] initWithPixelBufferAttributes:pixBuffAttributes]; but I get the playerItemOutput's output buffer   CFTypeRef colorAttachments = CVBufferGetAttachment(pixelBuffer, kCVImageBufferYCbCrMatrixKey, NULL);     CFTypeRef colorPrimaries = CVBufferGetAttachment(pixelBuffer, kCVImageBufferColorPrimariesKey, NULL);     CFTypeRef colorTransFunc = CVBufferGetAttachment(pixelBuffer, kCVImageBufferTransferFunctionKey, NULL);      NSLog(@"colorAttachments = %@", colorAttachments);     NSLog(@"colorPrimaries = %@", colorPrimaries);     NSLog(@"colorTransFunc = %@", colorTransFunc); log output: colorAttachments = ITU_R_2020 colorPrimaries = ITU_R_2020 colorTransFunc = ITU_R_2100_HLG pixBuffAttributes setting output format invalid,please help!
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PhotoKit Background Upload Extension not working on iOS 26.2 iPhone 17 Simulator
Hi, I’m trying to implement the new PhotoKit PHBackgroundResourceUploadExtension. I created the extension, enabled full photo library access in the host app, and registered the extension point using the string: com.apple.photos.background-upload. However, when I attempted to enable the extension with: try library.setUploadJobExtensionEnabled(true) I received the following error: Error Domain=PHPhotosErrorDomain Code=-1 "(null)" This happens when running the app on Xcode 26.1 and 26.2 Beta, using the iPhone 17 Pro Max simulator (iOS 26.1 and 26.2). My question is: Is this extension supported on the simulator? I’m asking because at the moment it’s difficult for me to test this on a physical device. Also, What's the meaning of the error? Thanks.
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Nov ’25
PhotosPickerItem.itemIdentifier always nil
I'm using the SwiftUI Photos Picker to select videos from the users Photos library and then opening the video using the PhotosPickerItem. I'm looking for a way to allow the user to open the same video on their other devices as the app uses SwiftData and CloudKit to provide access to a recently watched list of videos. The URL from the PhotosPickerItem appears to be device specific and so I was looking to see if I can use the itemIdentifier and then the init that takes the itemIdentifier to create the PhotosPickerItem on the other devices. The itemIdentifier however is always nil and so wouldn't be able to be used in this way. Is there an alternative approach whereby the users can open a video using a PhotosPickerItem and that item would be viewable on their other devices with an item identifier or a URL that is device agnostic. This approach should also not involve copying the video into other storage as it would simply expand the use of the users iCloud storage, providing a less than ideal user experience. If the user has opened the video from their Photos library, there should be a way to allow the same user (e.g. same Apple ID), to use the same app on another device to open the video again.
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Nov ’25
PDF Page Content Swapping on iOS 26
Dear Apple Developer Team, On iOS 26, the contents of PDF pages appear to be swapped. Could you please advise if there is a workaround or a planned fix for this issue? Steps to Reproduce: Download the attached PDF on iOS 26. Open the PDF in the Files app. Tap the PDF to view it in Quick Look. Navigate to page 5. Expected Result: The page number displayed at the bottom should be 5. Actual Result: The page number displayed at the bottom is 4. Issue: This is not limited to page 5—multiple page contents appear to be swapped. I have also submitted feedback via Feedback Assistant (FB20743531) on October 20. Best regards, Yoshihito Suezawa
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Nov ’25
Playing fMP4 Raw Chunks in AVPlayer on iOS
Hello Apple Community, We are working on a real-time streaming feature where we receive chunks of raw MP4 data through a custom protocol and store them in a buffer (array). Our goal is to use these data chunks to play a continuous video stream in AVPlayer. What We've Tried: Custom URL Scheme with AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate: We implemented a custom URL scheme (customscheme://) to serve the buffered data using AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate. The method shouldWaitForLoadingOfRequestedResource is called only during the initial allocation. It doesn't get triggered when new chunks are appended to the buffer. Despite appending new data to the buffer, AVPlayer doesn’t request further chunks from the delegate. What We Need: We are looking for a solution where: The player continuously fetches data from the buffer as new chunks are added. The playback remains smooth and uninterrupted, even with real-time data being appended. Ideally, this solution works with AVPlayer while adhering to HLS-like behavior without implementing an HLS server. Questions: Is AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate the right approach for this use case? If so, how can we ensure shouldWaitForLoadingOfRequestedResource is called whenever new data is available in the buffer? Are there alternative APIs or recommended patterns for playing real-time MP4 data chunks in AVPlayer? Would implementing a custom FFmpeg-based player be necessary, or can this be achieved using AVPlayer and its APIs? We appreciate any guidance, suggestions, or examples that can help us achieve this. Thank you!
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Jan ’25
Control system video effects support for CMIO extension
We're distributing a virtual camera with our app that does not profit in the slightest from automatically applied system video effects both to the video going in (physical camera device) or out (virtual camera device). I'm aware of setting NSCameraReactionEffectGesturesEnabledDefault in Info.plist and determining active video effects via AVCaptureDevice API. Those are obviously crutches, because having to tell users to go look for and click around in menu bar apps is the opposite of a great UX. To make our product's video output more deterministic, I'm looking for a way to tell the CMIO subsystem that our virtual camera does not support any of the system video effects. I'm seeing properties like AVCaptureDevice.Format.isPortraitEffectSupported and AVCaptureDevice.Format.isStudioLightSupported whose documentation refers to the format's ability to support these effects. Since we're setting a CMFormatDescription via CMIOExtensionStreamSource.formats I was hoping to find something in the extensions, but wasn't successful so far. Can this be done?
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Nov ’25