Question about App Clips. Is anyone aware of a mechanism whereby an app clip can return the user to the app from which it was invoked when the task is completed? For example, for an app clip invoked via a url in safari, is there a way to programmatically close the app clip after the task is complete and return the user to safari? I imagine this might be technically possible via a deep link if you were to know the custom url scheme for whichever system app invoked the app clip, if system apps do in fact even have custom url schemes that are usable by non-system apps, but that seems like a poor practice. There is lots of documentation and guidance around app clip invocation but none that I can find around the conclusion of the experience. Is the guidance or best practice just to inform the user that they need to manually navigate away from the app clip after the task completes? Surprised to see so little information about this given Apple's emphasis on using app clips to allow the user to complete a discrete task or flow. Thanks in advance for any insights.

This seems to be a bug in the macOS FileProvider framework. Repro steps: Open a file in the File Provider domain and edit it using WPS Office Save the file in WPS and close the editor tab or WPS Office window The file in the File Provider domain shows an uploading icon, and the modifyItem(_:baseVersion:changedFields:contents:options:request:completionHandler:) callback will never be triggered, so the file won’t be uploaded, and will always shows an "uploading" icon I investigated the issue and found out that the root cause seems to be related to flock, In step 2, after saving the changes, the file is still exclusively locked by WPS Office, In the log of fileproviderd there is an error saying "itemIsFlockedCanNotPropagate", this is understandable since the file is exclusively flocked, and fileproviderd couldn’t propagate the item and trigger the modifyItem callback, What I'm struggling with is that after the file is closed, or even after the WPS Office app has been quit, the modifyItem callback still won’t be fired by the system. What’s even more interesting is that at this time if you manually invoke flock(fd, LOCK_UN) for the file, the modifyItem callback will be triggered right away. In other words, it seems to me that fileproviderd is monitoring the unlock signal of the file descriptor, if a file is flocked with flock(fd, LOCK_EX) and then closed without invoking flock(fd, LOCK_UN), fileproviderd will not able to propagate the change and the modifyItem callback will never be triggered, then FileProviderExtension or the App won’t know that file is changed, the file will always shows an “uploading” icon in Finder. I've tested this against the official FruitBusket sample, OneDrive, Box-Drive and Dropxbox, they all implemented the NSFileProviderReplicatedExtension, and all have the same issue.

Hi, We need to use silent notifications in our app, even when the user kills the app. We requested Apple to get a NSE Filtering Entitlement on December 02, 2022 with follow-up number: 814879299 But after nearly 2 months, we still haven't got a response. So we also sent a TSI (Technical Support Incident) on January 09, 2023 with follow-up number: 817249684. DTS (Developer Technical Support) said that we need to use this specific entitlement and he has no involvement in the entitlement request process. We need a quick response for the NSE Filtering Entitlement because our business depends on Apple's response. @Apple, is it possible to get an estimation date for the response? @iOS_developers, how long have you been waiting for that permission?

Hello, I am currently facing an issue with my iOS app and its associated Preview extension. I am trying to save a file to a shared container using App Groups, so that my main app can read the file. The code works perfectly on the iOS simulator, but when I run the app on a physical device I encounter a "You don't have permission to save the file" error. Here's the relevant code snippet: let appGroupIdentifier = "group.com.yourcompany.yourapp" func saveDataToSharedContainer(fileName: String, data: Data) -> Bool { guard let containerURL = FileManager.default.containerURL(forSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier: appGroupIdentifier) else { print("Error: Unable to access the shared container.") return false } let fileURL = containerURL.appendingPathComponent(fileName) do { try data.write(to: fileURL, options: .atomic) print("Data saved to shared container successfully.") return true } catch { print("Error: Unable to save data to shared container. \(error)") return false } } I have already verified the following: App Groups capability is enabled for both the main app target and the extension target. The App Group identifier is consistent in both the main app target and the extension target, as well as in the Swift code. Provisioning profiles and signing certificates are up-to-date, and the issue persists after cleaning the project and resetting the provisioning profiles. Despite trying these steps, the issue remains unresolved. This error is reproducible in a new project with a Preview extension. I would greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions from the community to help me resolve this issue. Thank you in advance!

There have been several posts (i.e. here, here) about the lagginess of the DeviceActivityReport extension. Often it takes a few seconds for the view to load, or sometimes doesn't show up at all. I've confirmed this is not a case of excessive memory usage in the extension (exceeding 100MB), because I've profiled the extension and it consistently maxes out at 10MB. I've placed a loading screen behind the DeviceActivityReport inside a ZStack in the host app in order to see if the lag is because it takes some time for the extension to spin up - but the loading screen does not appear, indicating that the extension is running right away, but receiving the view from the extension in the host app is where the lag happens. It's been extremely difficult to debug because the lag only occurs a fraction of the time, and DeviceActivityReport is pretty much a black box. There's no documentation about how the host app and extension actually communicate. I've also combed through the logs using the Console app on Mac with no indication of any issues, (but I do see the message "Connection to view service was invalidated" coming from the extension even when there is no lag). I'm pretty convinced that the problem lies in the host app, because when I strip everything away from the host app, DeviceActivityReport never lags. I suspect that there are processes running (network requests, async tasks, or state updates) that block the report view from being received in the host app. Could you please help me understand why this could be happening, with as many details as you could provide? Any details on how the host and extension communicate, what processes could block the view from appearing, or anything else. Seems like this is a common issue but plenty of apps also don't experience it. Any guidance you can provide would be extremely helpful, as I've been trying to fix this bug every since I've been working with this API with no luck. Thanks in advance!

My project has a base app which is manually signed, inside I have a FileProvider parent app and extension. When things works elegantly in Xcode debug build when I run FP App. But, when I package it, the FileProvider can't mount, fails with a generic error on parent app (Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2001 "The application cannot be used right now." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=The application cannot be used right now.} Another generic error in FileProvider demon fileproviderd(488) deny(1) file-read-data /Applications/XYZ.app/Contents/Resources/FileFP.app How to solve this?

I created a ShieldConfigurationExtension in Xcode 14.3 with File > New > Target > ShieldConfigurationExtension. This created the extension with all the necessary Info.plist values (correct NSExtensionPrincipalClass, etc.), with the extension included in embedded content in the host app target. No matter what I try, the extension is not getting invoked when I shield applications from my host app. The custom UI does not show as the shield, and looking at the debugger, an extension process is never invoked. I am shielding categories like this: let managedSettings = ManagedSettingsStore() ... managedSettings.shield.applicationCategories = .all() And my extension code overrides all the ShieldConfigurationDataSource functions. class ShieldConfigurationExtension: ShieldConfigurationDataSource { override func configuration(shielding application: Application) -> ShieldConfiguration { return ShieldConfiguration( backgroundBlurStyle: UIBlurEffect.Style.systemThickMaterial, backgroundColor: UIColor.white, icon: UIImage(systemName: "stopwatch"), title: ShieldConfiguration.Label(text: "You are in a Present Session", color: .yellow) ) } override func configuration(shielding application: Application, in category: ActivityCategory) -> ShieldConfiguration { return ShieldConfiguration( backgroundBlurStyle: UIBlurEffect.Style.systemThickMaterial, backgroundColor: UIColor.white, icon: UIImage(systemName: "stopwatch"), title: ShieldConfiguration.Label(text: "You are in a Present Session", color: .yellow) ) } override func configuration(shielding webDomain: WebDomain) -> ShieldConfiguration { return ShieldConfiguration( backgroundBlurStyle: UIBlurEffect.Style.systemThickMaterial, backgroundColor: UIColor.white, icon: UIImage(systemName: "stopwatch"), title: ShieldConfiguration.Label(text: "You are in a Present Session", color: .yellow) ) } override func configuration(shielding webDomain: WebDomain, in category: ActivityCategory) -> ShieldConfiguration { return ShieldConfiguration( backgroundBlurStyle: UIBlurEffect.Style.systemThickMaterial, backgroundColor: UIColor.white, icon: UIImage(systemName: "stopwatch"), title: ShieldConfiguration.Label(text: "You are in a Present Session", color: .yellow) ) } } What am I missing?

Greetings! I am currently working on Message Filtering iOS App extension: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sms_and_call_reporting/sms_and_mms_message_filtering We are using the approach to defer the query to an associated server: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sms_and_call_reporting/ilmessagefilterextensioncontext/2880240-deferqueryrequesttonetwork Although iOS ensures that no other app extension can make these requests to the server via associated domains feature, the security team is concerned a lot about creating an endpoint which has no client-server authentication at all (OAuth or bearer token authentication). It means that the endpoint may potentially be used by some thirdparty scripts, apps, etc, and we won't be able to distinguish this from valid clients on the backend. I am aware of the note in documentation saying For privacy reasons, the system handles all communication with your associated server; your Message Filter app extension can’t access the network directly. Your app extension also can’t write data to containers shared with the containing app. But maybe there is a way to add any client-server network authentication to requests made by deferring the message filter query to our server? Thanks in advance, Konstantin

Every time I try to update my newest sticker pack in Xcode, It gives me this error "warning: The CFBundleShortVersionString of an app extension ('1.2') must match that of its containing parent app ('1.0')."

I suddenly started to receive the following email with the error in it stating that my uploaded app is not available to be used in TestFlight: ITMS-90886: 'Cannot be used with TestFlight because the signature for the bundle at “MyApp.app/Contents/PlugIns/MyAppWidgetExtension.appex” is missing an application identifier but has an application identifier in the provisioning profile for the bundle. Bundles with application identifiers in the provisioning profile are expected to have the same identifier signed into the bundle in order to be eligible for TestFlight.' It was all working fine and now I am not sure even where to start looking. Signing, provisioning and everything else is managed automatically.

Hi I'm a total novice on this stuff so please know that in advance. Won't go into details but my former employer has repeatedly hacked into my network, email etc. It's being dealt with legally. That said you can imagine my paranoia all the time and I never know is okay or what is suspicious. I find it really hard to get actual information on google etc., so I'm turning to you far more experienced and knowledgeable mac people. I stumbled on the above looking for something in terminal. It's obviously in the applications software section. Falls under Users/me/Library/application scripts/group.is.workflow.my.app The timing of the installation is exactly when there was a certain event. Also, on all of my files, I have to remove Staff from accessing. I don't know what that's about but if anyone has insight let me know. Please see attached. Thank you!!

I need to prevent folder-creation in certain scenarios. I know I can achieve that via NSFileProviderUserInteractions but that only works when folder creation attempt is done via Finder. If however, user tries to create a folder in Terminal via mkdir folder1 then createItem callback does get called. In createItem callback I tried two options: Option 1 func createItem(basedOn itemTemplate: NSFileProviderItem, fields: NSFileProviderItemFields, contents url: URL?, options: NSFileProviderCreateItemOptions = [], request: NSFileProviderRequest, completionHandler: @escaping (NSFileProviderItem?, NSFileProviderItemFields, Bool, Error?) -> Void) -> Progress { let progress = Progress(totalUnitCount: 1) if itemTemplate.parentItemIdentifier == .rootContainer || itemTemplate.contentType == .aliasFile || itemTemplate.contentType == .symbolicLink { print("Preventing item creation in root level") let entry = Entry( id: UUID().uuidString.lowercased(), type: itemTemplate.contentType == .folder ? Entry.Kind.folder : Entry.Kind.file, filename: itemTemplate.filename, parentId: NSFileProviderItemIdentifier.trashContainer.rawValue, contentType: itemTemplate.contentType!, size: itemTemplate.documentSize as! Int, creationDate: itemTemplate.creationDate!!, modificationDate: itemTemplate.contentModificationDate as? Date, lastUsedDate: itemTemplate.lastUsedDate as? Date, fileSystemFlags: itemTemplate.fileSystemFlags?.rawValue ?? 4, version: nil, rootContainerId: nil, archived: false ) let item = FileProviderItem(entry: entry) print("Returning trashed item") completionHandler(item, [], false, nil) return progress } // other code } and indeed when creating folder via Finder (with NSFileProviderUserInteractions disabled), folder appears briefly and disappears immediatelly after that. Option 2 func createItem(basedOn itemTemplate: NSFileProviderItem, fields: NSFileProviderItemFields, contents url: URL?, options: NSFileProviderCreateItemOptions = [], request: NSFileProviderRequest, completionHandler: @escaping (NSFileProviderItem?, NSFileProviderItemFields, Bool, Error?) -> Void) -> Progress { let progress = Progress(totalUnitCount: 1) if itemTemplate.parentItemIdentifier == .rootContainer || itemTemplate.contentType == .aliasFile || itemTemplate.contentType == .symbolicLink { print("Preventing item creation at root level") let error = NSError( domain: NSCocoaErrorDomain, code: NSFeatureUnsupportedError, userInfo: [ NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: "Folder creation is not allowed." ] ) completionHandler(nil, [], false, error) return progress } // other code } The problem is that with both options, when folder is created via Terminal, it stays created. Extension marks the folder with exclamation-mark and attempts to invoke createItem callback a few times before giving up. My goal is to prevent folder-creation in the first place so that when user tries to create folder in Terminal, he can get an error in respond. % mkdir folder1 error: folder creation forbidden Is that possible to achieve with FileProviderExtension?

Hello, I am trying to add a Call Directory extension to my application, but the extension runs out of memory immediately when launched. I have an empty CallDirectoryHandler class generated by Xcode, which looks like this: import Foundation import CallKit class CallDirectoryHandler: CXCallDirectoryProvider { override func beginRequest(with context: CXCallDirectoryExtensionContext) { context.delegate = self context.completeRequest() } } extension CallDirectoryHandler: CXCallDirectoryExtensionContextDelegate { func requestFailed(for extensionContext: CXCallDirectoryExtensionContext, withError error: Error) { } } My breakpoint inside of beginRequest never hits, and the stacktrace doesn't give me any clues. I have a small example project that loads 1 million fake phone numbers into CallKit which only uses 2MB of memory in the app extension. I'm not sure what else I can do to limit the memory usage in my extension, does anyone have any idea what is going on?

Hi according to the documentation we can have Message extensions in Mac Catalyst 14+, and that the MSStickerBrowserView is supported from Mac Catalyst 13.1+. But it doesn't seem possible to actually build an extension app, or Sticker extension, embedded in a Mac Catalyst app and have it appear in macOS messages. Error: iMessage Applications are not available when building for Mac Catalyst. and error: iMessage / Sticker Pack extensions are not available when building for Mac Catalyst. With the announcement for macOS Sonoma that the Stickers will be available in Mac Messages, is this finally going to be possible? If this isn't possible, why is there support for Mac Catalyst?

Message failed: -[BAAgentClientProxy currentDownloadsWithCompletion:]_block_invoke error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "connection to service named com.apple.backgroundassets.user" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.backgroundassets.user} The above error occurs when debugging Background Assets on iPhone。

Is there a time duration standard for high attention in app alerts to remain on display ?

Isn't it possible to use the same widgetkit extension for both iOS and WatchOS? In the WWDC's BackyarBirds project from Apple, I can see the widget extension is added to both the multiplatform (including iOS) and the watch targets. I can also see that the SwiftUI code even uses macros to check which platform the code is running on. However, I'm having several issues with adding the same extension to both targets. When I add it to the watch target, I get a build error that I'm trying to embed an application that also builds for iOS and that is not allowed for the watch app. Not sure if any code here is helpful, but this is my widget UI code: struct AkvaWidget: Widget { private let kind = "Akva Widget" var families: [WidgetFamily] { #if os(iOS) return [.accessoryCircular, .accessoryRectangular, .systemSmall] #elseif os(watchOS) return [.accessoryCircular, .accessoryRectangular, .accessoryInline, .accessoryCorner] #endif } var body: some WidgetConfiguration { StaticConfiguration( kind: kind, provider: AkvaSnapshotTimelineProvider() ) { entry in AkvaWidgetView(entry: entry) } .configurationDisplayName("Akva") .description("Keep track of your water intake.") .supportedFamilies(families) } }