Prioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.

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Gathering required information for troubleshooting Private Email Relay with Sign in with Apple
Hi, Before I begin my investigation, I want to explain our code-level support process for issues related to Sign in with Apple—as the issue you’re reporting may be the result of any of the following: An error in your app or web service request. A configuration issue in your Developer Account. An internal issue in the operation system or Apple ID servers. To ensure the issue is not caused by an error within your Private Email Replay configuration, please review Configuring your environment for Sign in with Apple to learn more about registering your email sources and authenticated domains. To prevent sending sensitive message details in plain text, you should create a report in Feedback Assistant to share the details requested below. Additionally, if I determine the error is caused by an internal issue in the operating system or Apple ID servers, the appropriate engineering teams have access to the same information and can communicate with you directly for more information, if needed. Please follow the instructions below to submit your feedback. Gathering required information for troubleshooting Private Email Relay with Sign in with Apple For issues occurring with your email delivery, ensure your feedback contains the following information: the primary App ID and Services ID the user’s Apple ID and/or email address the email message headers the Private Email Relay Service or Hide My Email message delivery failure, and SMTP error codes Submitting your feedback Before you submit to Feedback Assistant, please confirm the requested information above is included in your feedback. Failure to provide the requested information will only delay my investigation into the reported issue within your Sign in with Apple client. After your submission to Feedback Assistant is complete, please respond in your existing Developer Forums post with the Feedback ID. Once received, I can begin my investigation and determine if this issue is caused by an error within your client, a configuration issue within your developer account, or an underlying system bug. Cheers, Paris X Pinkney |  WWDR | DTS Engineer
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1.3k
Sep ’25
The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App
I’ve explained this point many times on the forums, so I figured I’d write it up properly once and for all. If you have questions or comments, start a new thread in Privacy & Security > General and add the App Sandbox tag. That way I’ll be sure to see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App Many folks consider the App Sandbox to be a binary choice: “My app ships in the Mac App Store, so I must sandbox it.” “I directly distribute my app, so I’ll ignore the App Sandbox.” However, those are not your only options. In many cases it makes sense to sandbox a directly distributed app. Sandboxing your app has at least three benefits: It enables app container protection. See Trusted Execution Resources for a link to more info on that. If your app includes any app extensions, it simplifies your development experience because your app and its extensions run in a similar environment. It improves your app’s security (although the actual benefits vary based on the specifics of your app). Sandboxing some apps can be tricky because of the additional security limits applied by the sandbox. However, in a directly distributed app you have access to two techniques that are not available to Mac App Store apps: Temporary exception entitlements Non-sandboxed XPC services Temporary exception entitlements Use temporary exception entitlements to selectively disable specific sandbox security limits. Imagine, for example, that you’re creating a simple document-based app that’s generally compatible with the sandbox. However, that app needs to send an Apple event to Music to create a playlist. That Apple event is blocked by the sandbox. You don’t need to disable the entire App Sandbox just to get around this security limit. Instead, use the com.apple.security.temporary-exception.apple-events entitlement to open a small hole in the sandbox. There are temporary exception entitlements to disable most sandbox security limits. For more information about them, follow the link in App Sandbox Resources. IMPORTANT Don’t be alarmed by the temporary in temporary exception entitlements. That word makes sense when you view this from the Mac App Store perspective. Back in the early days of the Mac App Store, some apps were allowed to use temporary exception entitlements because of limitations in the App Sandbox. Once App Sandbox was sufficiently enhanced, these temporary exception entitlements were no longer allowed in the Mac App Store. However, there’s nothing temporary about the implementation of these entitlements. They work today and are expected to continue working in the future. Using them in a directly distributed app is not a problem. Non-sandboxed XPC services Not all sandbox security limits have a corresponding temporary exception entitlement. For example, the sandbox prevents you from sending a Unix signal to other processes, and there’s no temporary exception entitlement to allow that. If you run into such a limit, move that code to a non-sandboxed XPC service, then have the main app request that the XPC service perform the operation on its behalf. An XPC service can be useful even when there is a temporary exception entitlement to disable a specific sandbox security limit. Continuing the Apple event example from above, if you put the code that sends the Apple event into an XPC service, you only need to apply the temporary exception entitlement to that service, not to your app as a whole. Conclusion If you directly distribute your app, consider enabling the App Sandbox. It has some important benefits, and it might be more feasible than you think.
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459
Mar ’25
Conditional create on iPhone + Safari + Passwords violates the WebAuthn spec
WebAuthn Level 3 § 5.1.3 Step 22 Item 4 states the steps a user agent MUST follow when "conditional" mediation is used in conjunction with required user verification: Let userVerification be the effective user verification requirement for credential creation, a Boolean value, as follows. If pkOptions.authenticatorSelection.userVerification is set to required If options.mediation is set to conditional and user verification cannot be collected during the ceremony, throw a ConstraintError DOMException. Let userVerification be true. On my iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.5, Safari + Passwords does not exhibit this behavior; instead an error is not reported and user verification is not performed (i.e., the UV bit is 0). Per the spec this results in a registration ceremony failure on the server which is made all the more "annoying" since the credential was created in Passwords forcing a user to then delete the credential. : If the Relying Party requires user verification for this registration, verify that the UV bit of the flags in authData is set. In contrast when I use Google Password Manager + Chrome on a Samsung Galaxy S24 running Android 15, user verification is enforced and the UV bit is 1. Either the UV bit should be 1 after enforcing user verification or an error should be thrown since user verification cannot be performed.
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502
Jul ’25
Question about revoke the token in 'Sign in with Apple'
News link: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=12m75xbj If your app offers Sign in with Apple, you’ll need to use the Sign in with Apple REST API to revoke user tokens when deleting an account. I'm not good English. I'm confused about the above sentence Do I have to use REST API unconditionally or can I just delete to the account data?
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174
Mar ’25
400 Invalid request when use usermigrationinfo at the second time transferring
I'm testing app transferring, before, I have migrate user from teamA to teamB, including subA->transferSub->subB process, now I'm transfer the app from teamB to teamC, after the transfer requested, I can't get transfer_id by /usermigrationinfo api, which response 400 invalid request. the question is I can still get transfer sub by the auth/token api(grant_type: authorization_code) with teamB parameters(teamIdB/clientIdB/appSecretB/redirectUrlB/subB),but the value is same as first time transfer_id which get during teamA to teamB. when use parameters above with target(teamIdC) to request /usermigrationinfo, invalid request was responsed. im sure that all parameters is correct, dose it cause by teamB still in 60-days first transferring(sure already accepted)?
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3d
APP ID's indentifier not updating
When implementing Sign In with Apple I created an App ID and a Service ID for my app. I didn't configure the Server-to-Server Notification URL properly there and token revocation didn't work. Later on I updated the url config and the name of the identifiers. However, when I Sign in with Apple in my app I still see the old identifier name in my iPhone Settings->Apple Account->Sign in with Apple. I would assume that if the name doesn't update, the configuration doesn't update either. I'm using automatic Xcode signing, I have deleted all the profiles locally, cleaned project, bumped versions, waited for a week, nothing worked. Token revocation for account deletion doesn't work properly I would assume because of the initial misconfiguration. I want to mention that this is working fine for my development build (another bundleID, AppID, ServiceID) What am I missing here?
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112
Jun ’25
How to request permission for System Audio Recording Only?
Hi community, I'm wondering how can I request the permission of "System Audio Recording Only" under the Privacy & Security -> Screen & System Audio Recording via swift? Did a bunch of search but didn't find good documentation on it. Tried another approach here https://github.com/insidegui/AudioCap/blob/main/AudioCap/ProcessTap/AudioRecordingPermission.swift which doesn't work very reliably.
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737
May ’25
Backup Eligibility and Backup State has set to true for support hybrid transport with legacy authenticators
My application is supporting hybrid transport on FIDO2 webAuthn specs to create credential and assertion. And it support legacy passkeys which only mean to save to 1 device and not eligible to backup. However In my case, if i set the Backup Eligibility and Backup State flag to false, it fails on the completion of the registrationRequest to save the passkey credential within credential extension, the status is false instead of true. self.extension.completeRegistrationRequest(using: passkeyRegistrationCredential) The attestation and assertion flow only works when both flags set to true. Can advice why its must have to set both to true in this case?
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2w
Missing "is_private_email" claim in ID Token for Hide My Email users
Hello, I am implementing "Sign in with Apple" on my backend and validating the Identity Token (JWT) received from the client. I noticed that for some users who choose the "Hide My Email" option, the is_private_email claim is missing from the ID Token payload, even though the email address clearly belongs to the private relay domain (@privaterelay.appleid.com). Here is an example of the decoded payload I received: { "iss": "https://appleid.apple.com", "aud": "com.platform.elderberry.new.signinwithapple", "exp": 1764402438, "iat": 1764316038, "sub": "000851.86193ef81ad247feb673746c19424f28.0747", "c_hash": "3FAJNf4TILzUgo_YFe4E0Q", "email": "x8sqp2dgvv@privaterelay.appleid.com", "email_verified": true, "auth_time": 1764316038, "nonce_supported": true // "is_private_email": true <-- This field is missing } My Questions: Is the is_private_email claim considered optional in the ID Token? Is it safe and recommended to rely solely on the email domain suffix (@privaterelay.appleid.com) to identify if a user is using a private email? Any insights or official references would be appreciated. Thanks.
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479
4w
Missing "is_private_email" claim in ID Token for Hide My Email users
Hello, I am implementing "Sign in with Apple" on my backend and validating the Identity Token (JWT) received from the client. I noticed that for some users who choose the "Hide My Email" option, the is_private_email claim is missing from the ID Token payload, even though the email address clearly belongs to the private relay domain (@privaterelay.appleid.com). Here is an example of the decoded payload I received: { "iss": "https://appleid.apple.com", "aud": "xxx", "exp": 1764402438, "iat": 1764316038, "sub": "xxxxxxxx", "c_hash": "3FAJNf4TILzUgo_YFe4E0Q", "email": "xxx@privaterelay.appleid.com", "email_verified": true, "auth_time": 1764316038, "nonce_supported": true // "is_private_email": true <-- This field is missing } My Questions: Is the is_private_email claim considered optional in the ID Token? Is it safe and recommended to rely solely on the email domain suffix (@privaterelay.appleid.com) to identify if a user is using a private email? Any insights or official references would be appreciated. Thanks.
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255
4w
Sign in with Apple in a broken state (for my account)
I have a user (myself, during development) who originally signed in with Apple successfully. I attempted to revoke access via Settings > Apple ID > Sign-In & Security > Sign in with Apple, but the app appears stuck in the list and cannot be fully removed. Now when attempting to sign in again, the identity token contains the correct sub but email is undefined. According to Apple's documentation, "Apple provides the user's email address in the identity token on all subsequent API responses." I've tried programmatically revoking via the /auth/revoke endpoint (received 200 OK), and I've implemented the server-to-server notification endpoint to handle consent-revoked events, but subsequent sign-in attempts still return no email. The same Apple ID works fine with other apps. Is there a way to fully reset the credential state for a specific app, or is this a known issue with partially-revoked authorizations?
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293
1w
App Attest server unreachable – DNS or firewall issue suspected
Hello, We are working on integrating app integrity verification into our service application, following Apple's App Attest and DeviceCheck guide. Our server issues a challenge to the client, which then sends the challenge, attestation, and keyId in CBOR format to Apple's App Attest server for verification. However, we are unable to reach both https://attest.apple.com and https://attest.development.apple.com due to network issues. These attempts have been made from both our internal corporate network and mobile hotspot environments. Despite adjusting DNS settings and other configurations, the issue persists. Are there alternative methods or solutions to address this problem? Any recommended network configurations or guidelines to successfully connect to Apple's App Attest servers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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146
May ’25
Is it possible for an iOS app extension to support App Attest?
From watching the video on App Attest the answer would appear to be no, but the video is a few years old so in hope, I thought I would post this question anyway. There's several scenarios where I would like a notification service extension to be able to use App Attest in communications with the back end(for example to send a receipt to the backend acknowledging receipt of the push, fetching an image from a url in the push payload, a few others). Any change App Attest can be used in by a notification service extension?
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95
Dec ’25
DeviceCheck.generateToken, Error: com.apple.devicecheck.error 0
Dear Apple Developer Support Team, We are experiencing a recurring issue with the DeviceCheck API where the following error is being returned: com.apple.devicecheck.error 0 Upon analyzing our logs, we have noticed that this error occurs significantly more often when users are connected to Wi-Fi networks, compared to mobile networks. This leads us to suspect that there might be a relationship between Wi-Fi configuration and the DeviceCheck service’s ability to generate or validate tokens. We would like to know: Is this error code (0) known to be caused by specific types of network behavior or misconfigurations on Wi-Fi networks (e.g., DNS filtering, firewall restrictions, proxy servers)? Are there any recommended best practices for ensuring reliable DeviceCheck API communication over Wi-Fi networks? Additionally, could you please clarify what general conditions could trigger this com.apple.devicecheck.error 0? The lack of specific documentation makes debugging this issue difficult from our side. Any guidance or internal documentation on this error code and its potential causes would be greatly appreciated. IDE: Xcode 16.3 Looking forward to your support. Best regards,
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145
May ’25
Questions about user impact and best practices for rotating the private key used for Sign in with Apple
Hi, We are operating a service that uses Sign in with Apple for user registration and login. As part of our security incident response and periodic security improvements, we are planning to rotate the private key used to generate the client secret (JWT) for Sign in with Apple. I have read the Human Interface Guidelines and the AuthenticationServices documentation, but I could not find a clear description of the behavior and user impact when rotating this private key. I would like to ask the following questions: Background: We issue a Sign in with Apple private key (with a Key ID) in our Apple Developer account. Our server uses this private key to generate the client secret (JWT). This is used for Sign in with Apple login on our web / mobile app. We are planning to invalidate the existing private key and switch to a newly issued one. Questions: Impact on existing logged-in sessions Will rotating the private key force already logged-in users (who previously signed in with Apple) to be logged out from our service? Can the user identifier (such as the "sub" claim) for existing Sign in with Apple users change due to key rotation? Recommended frequency and best practices Does Apple recommend rotating this private key only when it is compromised, or on a regular basis? If there are any official documents or examples that describe how to safely perform key rotation in production, we would appreciate a pointer. Impact on marketing / analytics We are using user IDs (linked via Sign in with Apple) for analytics and marketing attribution. Is there any expected impact on such use cases caused by rotating the private key? For example, is there any possibility that user identifiers change as a result of key rotation, or anything we should be careful about from a data linkage perspective? Our goal is to rotate the private key in a secure way without causing service downtime, mass logouts, or loss of account linkage. If there is already an official document that covers this, please let me know the URL. Thank you in advance.
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112
Dec ’25
Passkey returns unknown error instead of excludedCredentials error when “Saving on another device” option is used.
Hello, I'm receiving an unknown error instead of the excluded credentials error when using the "Save on another device" option for Passkey creation. When creating the ASAuthorizationPlatformPublicKeyCredentialProvider request to pass to the ASAuthorizationController. The excludedCredentials property is used to add a list of credentials to exclude in the registration process. This is to prevent duplicate passkeys from being created if one already exists for the user. When trying to create a duplicate passkey using the same device, the ASAuthorizationControllerDelegate method authorizationController(controller, didCompleteWithError:) is called. The error received has localized description “At least one credential matches an entry of the excludeCredentials list in the platform attached authenticator." When trying to create a duplicate passkey using the “Save on another device” option. The delegate method is called, but the error received has code 1000 ("com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError" - code: 1000). Which maps to the unknown error case in ASAuthorization error type.
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238
May ’25
Sign in with Apple First Name & Last Name Values
Hi, we are having Sign in with Apple issues. For a large % of new users on our app which select this option, the first name and last name values are not being passed to us. This is the case in both scenarios - where the user shares their email address or hides it, and happens on iPhone when the user selects the default iCloud account. We're unclear why this is occurring.
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107
Nov ’25
Persistent "invalid_client" error on backend token exchange (Sign In with Apple)
Hello Apple Developer Community and Support, Our team is encountering a critical and persistent issue with our backend integration of Sign In with Apple, and we are hoping for some insights or assistance. Problem: We consistently receive an "invalid_client" error (HTTP 400 status) when our backend service attempts to exchange the authorization code for tokens at Apple's https://appleid.apple.com/auth/token endpoint. The error message from Apple's response is simply {"error":"invalid_client"}. Our Setup: Client Application: An iOS native application. Backend Service: A Go backend responsible for server-to-server token exchange and user management. Sign In with Apple Flow: The iOS app initiates the Sign In with Apple flow, obtains an authorization code, and then passes this code to our backend for token exchange. Extensive Troubleshooting Performed (No Success): We have meticulously followed all official Apple documentation (including TN3107: Resolving Sign In with Apple Response Errors) and industry best practices. Here's a summary of our verification steps, all of which currently show correct configurations and parameters: Backend client_secret JWT Construction: We generate a client_secret JWT as required for server-to-server communication. We've confirmed the claims in the generated JWT are correct: iss (Issuer): Our Team ID (e.g., XXXXXXXXXX). sub (Subject): Our Service ID (e.g., com.example.service.backendauth). aud (Audience): https://appleid.apple.com. kid (Key ID): The Key ID associated with our .p8 private key (e.g., YYYYYYYYYY). We have performed rigorous verification of the .p8 private key content itself, ensuring no corruption, extra characters, or formatting issues in the environment variable. Our backend logs confirm it's parsing the correct PEM content. Token Exchange Request Parameters: The client_id parameter sent in the POST request to /auth/token is correctly set to our App Bundle ID (e.g., com.example.app.ios), as this is the identifier for which the code was originally issued. The redirect_uri parameter sent in the POST request to /auth/token is precisely matched to a registered "Return URL" in our Apple Developer Portal (e.g., https://api.example.com:port/api/auth/callback?provider=apple). Apple Developer Portal Configuration (Meticulously Verified): App ID: Enabled for "Sign In with Apple". Service ID: Enabled for "Sign In with Apple". Its "Primary App ID" is correctly linked to our App Bundle ID (e.g., com.example.app.ios). Its "Return URLs" exactly match our backend's redirect_uri (e.g., https://api.example.com:port/api/auth/callback?provider=apple). Key: Our .p8 key has "Sign In with Apple" enabled. Crucially, in its configuration panel, the "Primary App ID" is correctly linked to our App Bundle ID (e.g., com.example.app.ios). We've ensured this key is specifically created for "Sign In with Apple" and not other services like APNs. We have performed multiple full revocations and meticulous re-creations of the App ID, Service ID, and Key in the Apple Developer Portal, ensuring correct linkages and using new identifiers to bypass any potential caching issues. Network & System Health Checks: Network connectivity from our backend server to https://appleid.apple.com (port 443) has been confirmed as fully functional via ping and curl -v. The incoming TLS handshake from our iOS client app to our backend server's callback URL (https://api.example.com:port/...) is successful and verified via openssl s_client -connect. There are no longer any TLS handshake errors (EOF). Our backend server's system clock is accurately synchronized via NTP. Request for Assistance: Given that all our visible configurations, environment variables, and request parameters appear to be correct and align with Apple's documentation, and network connectivity is confirmed, we are at a loss for why the invalid_client error persists. Based on TN3107, this error typically implies an issue with the client secret's signature or its validity for the given client_id. However, our logs confirm correct iss, sub, aud, and kid, and the private key content. Has anyone encountered this persistent invalid_client error when all checks pass? Are there any less common configurations or troubleshooting steps we might be missing? Could this indicate a caching or propagation delay on Apple's servers, even after waiting periods? Any insights or guidance would be greatly appreciated. We are prepared to provide detailed, anonymized logs and screenshots to Apple Developer Support privately if requested. Thank you.
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198
May ’25