Hi all, As you know, when using SwiftData Cloudkit, all relationships are required to be optional. In my app, which is a list app, I have a model class Project that contains an array of Subproject model objects. A Subproject also contains an array of another type of model class and this chain goes on and on. In this type of pattern, it becomes really taxxing to handle the optionals the correct way, i.e. unwrap them as late as possible and display an error to the user if unable to. It seems like most developers don't even bother, they just wrap the array in a computed property that returns an empty array if nil. I'm just wondering what is the recommended way by Apple to handle these optionals. I'm not really familiar with how the CloudKit backend works, but if you have a simple list app that only saves to the users private iCloud, can I just handwave the optionals like so many do? Is it only big data apps that need to worry? Or should we always strive to handle them the correct way? If that's the case, why does it seem like most people skip over them? Be great if an Apple engineer could weigh in.

My project is using swiftData and I want to implement iCloud sync in it. Now, my data base doesnt have any optional attributes or relationships and CloudKit wants them to be optional. So, rather than editing all code with unwrapping code for the optionals, how can I provide a bridge that does so in the last stage of actually saving to the store? Sort of, capture it in a proxy object before writing and after reading from the store. Is there a neat way that can save a lot of debugging? I have code snippets from chat gpt and they are hard to debug. This is my first project in swiftUI. Thanks. Neerav

I’m building an app that edits files in iCloud and uses an NSFilePresenter to monitor changes. When a conflict occurs, the system calls presentedItemDidGain(_:). In that method, I merge the versions by reading the current (canonical) version using NSFileVersion.currentVersionOfItem(at:) and the conflicting ones using NSFileVersion.unresolvedConflictVersionsOfItem(at:). This generally works, but sometimes, if two devices edit the same file at the same time, each device sees its own local version as the current one. For example: Device A writes fileVerA (slightly later in real time) Device B writes fileVerB On Device A all works fine, currentVersionOfItem returns fileVerA, as expected, and unresolvedConflictVersionsOfItem returns [fileVerB]. But on Device B, currentVersionOfItem returns fileVerB!? And unresolvedConflictVersionsOfItem returns the same, local file [fileVerB], without any hint of the other conflicting version, fileVerA. Later, the newer version from the Device A arrives on Device B as a normal, non-conflicting update via presentedItemDidChange(_:). This seems to contradict Apple’s documentation: “The currentVersionOfItemAtURL: method returns an NSFileVersion object representing what’s referred to as the current file; the current file is chosen by iCloud on some basis as the current “conflict winner” and is the same across all devices.” Is this expected behavior, or a bug in how iCloud reports file versions?

When deleting a SwiftData entity, I sometimes encounter the following error in a document based SwiftUI app: Fatal error: Unexpected backing data for snapshot creation: SwiftData._FullFutureBackingData<MyEntityClass> The deletion happens in a SwiftUI View and the code used to retrieve the entity is standard (the ModelContext is injected from the @Environment): let myEntity = modelContext.model(for: entityIdToDelete) modelContext.delete(myEntity) Unfortunately, I haven't yet managed to isolate this any further in order to come up with a reproducible PoC. Could you give me further information about what this error means?

Hi, I’m running into an issue with Core Data migrations using a custom NSMappingModel created entirely in Swift (not using .xcmappingmodel files). Setup: • I’m performing a migration with a manually constructed NSMappingModel • One of the NSEntityMapping instances is configured as follows: • mappingType = .customEntityMappingType (or .transformEntityMappingType) • entityMigrationPolicyClassName is set to a valid subclass of NSEntityMigrationPolicy • The class implements the expected methods like: @objc func createDestinationInstances(…) throws { … } @objc func createCustomDestinationInstance(…) throws -> NSManagedObject { … } The policy class is instantiated (confirmed via logging in init()), but none of the migration methods are ever called. I have also tried adding valid NSPropertyMapping instances with real valueExpression bindings to force activation, but that didn’t make a difference. Constraints: • I cannot use .xcmappingmodel files in this context due to transformable attributes not compatible with the visual editor. • Therefore, I need the entire mapping model to be defined in Swift. Workaround: As a temporary workaround, I’m migrating the data manually using two persistent stores and NSManagedObjectContext, but I’d prefer to rely on NSMigrationManager as designed. Question: Is there a known limitation that prevents Core Data from invoking NSMigrationPolicy methods when using in-memory NSMappingModel instances? Or is there any specific setup required to trigger them when not loading from .xcmappingmodel? Thanks in advance.

Hi all I have a problem with core data, where when a new user login that is different from the previous user i delete all of core data by using "destroyPersistentStore". Then i recreate the persistent store, this works when i am testing. When it does not work for one of my users when she test. I am not sure why this should not work, i have added the code i use to destroy the persistent store below. This code is run after login but before the view changes away from my login view. // Retrieves the shared `AppDelegate` instance guard let appDelegate = UIApplication.shared.delegate as? AppDelegate else { return } appDelegate.destroyDataSyncBackground() // Get a reference to a NSPersistentStoreCoordinator let storeContainer = appDelegate.persistentContainer.persistentStoreCoordinator // Delete each existing persistent store for store in storeContainer.persistentStores { if let url = store.url { do { try storeContainer.destroyPersistentStore( at: url, ofType: store.type, options: nil ) } catch { print("Failed to deleted all") } } else { print("Failed to deleted all") } } // Re-create the persistent container appDelegate.persistentContainer = NSPersistentContainer( name: "CueToCue" // the name of // a .xcdatamodeld file ) // Calling loadPersistentStores will re-create the // persistent stores appDelegate.persistentContainer.loadPersistentStores { (store, error) in // Handle errors let description = NSPersistentStoreDescription() description.shouldMigrateStoreAutomatically = true description.shouldInferMappingModelAutomatically = true appDelegate.persistentContainer.persistentStoreDescriptions = [description] } // Reapply context configuration let viewContext = appDelegate.persistentContainer.viewContext viewContext.automaticallyMergesChangesFromParent = true viewContext.mergePolicy = NSMergeByPropertyObjectTrumpMergePolicy do { try viewContext.save() appDelegate.recreateDataSyncBackground() } catch { print("Debug: saving delete all failed.") } } The function "destroyDataSyncBackground" just set the my sync class to nil so stop any changes to core data while the code is running. The function "recreateDataSyncBackground" recreate the sync class so fetch, post and patch requests is made again.

When I used to do Migrations, I always used ETL and then push to a dev system to review/test before going production. The migration support is SwiftData is fine for a little tweak. I might as well just just use new schema and context and write the custom code than use the SwiftData migration support.

Hi all, has anybody found the trick how to get SwiftData working with SpotLight Search? Setting the attribute "spotlight" in the Model definition seems to do nothing at all, as pointed out by Paul Hudson in his new book as well (https://www.hackingwithswift.com/quick-start/swiftdata/how-to-index-swiftdata-objects-in-spotlight) Thanks a lot!

Hi, I was testing the new iOS 18 behavior where NSPersistentCloudKitContainer wipes the local Core Data store if the user logs out of iCloud, for privacy purposes. I ran the tests both with a Core Data + CloudKit app, and a simple one using SwiftData with CloudKit enabled. Results were identical in either case. In my testing, most of the time, the feature worked as expected. When I disabled iCloud for my app, the data was wiped (consistent with say the Notes app, except if you disable iCloud it warns you that it'll remove those notes). When I re-enabled iCloud, the data appeared. (all done through the Settings app) However, in scenarios when NSPersistentCloudKitContainer cannot immediately sync -- say due to rate throttling -- and one disables iCloud in Settings, this wipes the local data store and ultimately results in data loss. This occurs even if the changes to the managed objects are saved (to the local store) -- it's simply they aren't synced in time. It can be a little hard to reproduce the issue, especially since when you exit to the home screen from the app, it generally triggers a sync. To avoid this, I swiped up to the screen where you can choose which apps to close, and immediately closed mine. Then, you can disable iCloud, and run the app again (with a debugger is helpful). I once saw a message with something along the lines of export failed (for my record that wasn't synced), and unfortunately it was deleted (and never synced). Perhaps before NSPersistentCloudKitContainer wipes the local store it ought to force sync with the cloud first?

I'm seeing this over and over on the CloudKit Console at: https://icloud.developer.apple.com/dashboard/home, and sign out and sign in does not resolve it. Error looking up Developer Teams Please sign out and try again. [Sign Out] Anyone experience this? Is there a work around for this?

I have been using the basic NSPersistentContainer with 100k+ records for a while now with no issues. The database size can fluctuate a bit but on average it takes up about 22mb on device. When I switch the container to NSPersistentCloudKitContainer, I see a massive increase in size to ~150mb initially. As the sync engine uploads records to iCloud it has ballooned to over 600mb on device. On top of that, the user's iCloud usage in settings reports that it takes up 1.7gb in the cloud. I understand new tables are added and history tracking is enabled but the size increase seems a bit drastic. I'm not sure how we got from 22mb to 1.7gb with the exact same data. A few other things that are important to note: I import all the 100k+ records at once when testing the different containers. At the time of the initial import there is only 1 relation (an import group record) that all the records are attached to. I save the background context only once after all the records and the import group have been made and added to the context. After the initial import, some of these records may have a few new relations added to them over time. I suppose this could be causing some of the size increase, but its only about 20,000 records that are updated. None of the records include files/ large binary data. Most of the attributes are encrypted. I'm syncing to the dev iCloud environment. When I do make a change to a single attribute in a record, CloudKit reports that every attribute has been modified (not sure if this is normal or not ) Also, When syncing to a new device, the sync can take hours - days. I'm guessing it's having to sync both the new records and the changes, but it exponentially gets slower as more records are downloaded. The console will show syncing activity, but new records are being added at a slower rate as more records are added. After about 50k records, it grinds to a halt and while the console still shows sync activity, only about 100 records are added every hour. All this to say i'm very confused where these issues are coming from. I'm sure its a combination of how i've setup my code and the vast record count, record history, etc. If anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated.

Hello, the last days I was trying to solve a bug in my Unit Tests related to the CoreData "NSManagedObjectContextObjectsDidChange" Notification. Im using some kind of Notification handler to save and abstract that for the UI and while the tests are running this notification was triggered with objects that doesn't exists anymore, which has resulted in a crash. After some debugging I have detected, that the objects in here are really old. The objects here was from few tests ago, where a Merge Conflict happened. In the meantime there was a plenty of resets and deletes of the whole db. I have also seen that the bad notification is the first in the stack trace of the main thread, which is in my opinion also not usual. So the real question is: The only difference what I have found for the bad notification to the real notification, was the existence of the key "NSObjectsChangedByMergeChangesKey" in the UserInfo dictionary of the ObjectsDidChange Notification. But this key is nowhere found in the documentation of Apple. Also the search engines does not produce any result. So what is this key and when is this key contained in this notification and when not? Maybe if I understand this, it helps me to understand the overall issue ...

When my app starts it loads data (of vehicle models, manufacturers, ...) from JSON files into CoreData.  This content is static. Some CoreData entities have fields that can be set by the user, for example an isFavorite boolean field. How do I tell CloudKit that my CoreData objects are 'static' and must not be duplicated on other devices (that will also load it from JSON files). In other words, how can I make sure that the CloudKit knows that the record created from JSON for vehicle model XYZ on one device is the same record that was created from JSON on any other device? I'm using NSPersistentCloudKitContainer.

I would like to have a SwiftData predicate that filters against an array of PersistentIdentifiers. A trivial use case could filtering Posts by one or more Categories. This sounds like something that must be trivial to do. When doing the following, however: let categoryIds: [PersistentIdentifier] = categoryFilter.map { $0.id } let pred = #Predicate<Post> { if let catId = $0.category?.persistentModelID { return categoryIds.contains(catId) } else { return false } } The code compiles, but produces the following runtime exception (XCode 26 beta, iOS 26 simulator): 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'unimplemented SQL generation for predicate : (TERNARY(item != nil, item, nil) IN {}) (bad LHS)' Strangely, the same code works if the array to filter against is an array of a primitive type, e.g. String or Int. What is going wrong here and what could be a possible workaround?

I am planning a Core Data migration for a macOS app targeting macOS 12 and later and I would appreciate guidance on structuring the rollout to minimise risk. Context The app currently uses a SQLite store located at: ~/Library/Containers/com.company.AppName/Data/Library/Application Support/AppName I want to: Relocate the persistent store to an app group container: ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.company.AppName Perform schema migration, including: Renaming attributes Deleting attributes Using a custom NSEntityMigrationPolicy subclass Adopt iCloud sync using NSPersistentCloudKitContainer Potentially leverage staged migration (macOS 14+) Additionally, I intend to port the app to iOS, so the end state needs to support an app group container and CloudKit with the latest schema from the outset. Questions Store relocation vs schema migration Is it advisable to perform store relocation and schema migration in a single step, or should these be separate releases? If combined, are there pitfalls when moving the SQLite file and running a migration in the same launch cycle? Custom migration policy Any best practices for structuring NSEntityMigrationPolicy when also relocating the store? Should migration policies assume the store has already been moved, or handle both concerns? Staged migration (macOS 14+) Is staged migration worth adopting when still supporting macOS 12–13? Would you gate it conditionally, or avoid it entirely for consistency? CloudKit adoption Is introducing NSPersistentCloudKitContainer in the same release as the above migrations too risky? Are there known issues when enabling CloudKit immediately after a migration? Release strategy Would you recommend: A single release handling everything Two phases: (1) store & schema migration, (2) CloudKit Or three phases: store relocation → schema migration → CloudKit Goal I want a smooth, reliable transition without data loss or duplication, particularly for existing users with non-trivial datasets. Any insights, practical experience, or recommended sequencing strategies would be very helpful.

No matter what I do, I keep getting the error Thread 1: EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=1, subcode=0x2648fc364) for the line: transactions = try modelContext.fetch(descriptor) in the code below. My app opens, but freezes on the home page and I can't click anything. I am not sure how to fix initialization issues. I am creating a financial assistant app that connects plaid and opoenai api. var descriptor = FetchDescriptor&lt;ExpenseTransaction&gt;() descriptor.sortBy = [SortDescriptor(\.date, order: .reverse)] descriptor.fetchLimit = 200 transactions = try modelContext.fetch(descriptor) print("Successfully loaded \(transactions.count) transactions") } catch { print("Error in loadLocalTransactions: \(error)") transactions = [] } }

Hi guys. Can someone please confirm this bug so I report it? The issue is that SwiftData relationships don't update the views in some specific situations on devices running iOS 18 Beta. One clear example is with CloudKit. I created a small example for testing. The following code creates two @models, one to store bands and another to store their records. The following code works with no issues. (You need to connect to a CloudKit container and test it on two devices) import SwiftUI import SwiftData struct ContentView: View { @Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext @Query private var records: [Record] var body: some View { NavigationStack { List(records) { record in VStack(alignment: .leading) { Text(record.title) Text(record.band?.name ?? "Undefined") } } .toolbar { ToolbarItem { Button("Add Record") { let randomNumber = Int.random(in: 1...100) let newBand = Band(name: "New Band \(randomNumber)", records: nil) modelContext.insert(newBand) let newRecord = Record(title: "New Record \(randomNumber)", band: newBand) modelContext.insert(newRecord) } } } } } } @Model final class Record { var title: String = "" var band: Band? init(title: String, band: Band?) { self.title = title self.band = band } } @Model final class Band { var name: String = "" var records: [Record]? init(name: String, records: [Record]?) { self.name = name self.records = records } } This view includes a button at the top to add a new record associated with a new band. The data appears on both devices, but if you include more views inside the List, the views on the second device are not updated to show the values of the relationships. For example, if you extract the row to a separate view, the second device shows the relationships as "Undefined". You can try the following code. struct ContentView: View { @Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext @Query private var records: [Record] var body: some View { NavigationStack { List { ForEach(records) { record in RecordRow(record: record) } } .toolbar { ToolbarItem { Button("Add Record") { let randomNumber = Int.random(in: 1...100) let newBand = Band(name: "New Band \(randomNumber)", records: nil) modelContext.insert(newBand) let newRecord = Record(title: "New Record \(randomNumber)", band: newBand) modelContext.insert(newRecord) } } } } } } struct RecordRow: View { let record: Record var body: some View { VStack(alignment: .leading) { Text(record.title) Text(record.band?.name ?? "Undefined") } } } Here I use a ForEach loop and move the row to a separate view. Now on the second device the relationships are nil, so the row shows the text "Undefined" instead of the name of the band. I attached an image from my iPad. I inserted all the information on my iPhone. The first three rows were inserted with the first view. But the last two rows were inserted after I extracted the rows to a separate view. Here you can see that the relationships are nil and therefore shown as "Undefined". The views are not updated to show the real value of the relationship. This example shows the issue with CloudKit, but this also happens locally in some situations. The system doesn't detect updates in relationships and therefore doesn't refresh the views. Please, let me know if you can reproduce the issue. I'm using Mac Sequoia 15.1, and two devices with iOS 18.0.

I have made a Swift App for MacOS 15 under XCode 16.3, which runs fine. I also want to run it under the previous MacOS 14. Unfortunately it crashes without even starting up (it does not even reach the first log output statement on the first view) The crash reason is Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 4 Illegal instruction: 4 Terminating Process: exc handler [2970] I have set the miminium deployment to MacOS 14.0 but to no effect. The XCode machine is a MacOS 15.4 on Arm M3 and the target machine is MacOS 14.7.5 on Intel (MacBook Air) I think it might be related to the compiler and linker settings.

I'm developing a SwiftUI app using SwiftData and encountering a persistent issue: Error Message: Thread 1: Fatal error: Duplicate keys of type 'Bland' were found in a Dictionary. This usually means either that the type violates Hashable's requirements, or that members of such a dictionary were mutated after insertion. Details: Occurrence: The error always occurs on the first launch of the app after installation. Specifically, it happens approximately 1 minute after the app starts. Inconsistent Behavior: Despite no changes to the code or server data, the error occurs inconsistently. Data Fetching Process: I fetch data for entities (Bland, CrossZansu, and Trade) from the server using the following process: Fetch Bland and CrossZansu entities via URLSession. Insert or update these entities into the SwiftData context. The fetched data is managed as follows: func refleshBlandsData() async throws { if let blandsOnServer = try await DataModel.shared.getBlands() { await MainActor.run { blandsOnServer.forEach { blandOnServer in if let blandOnLocal = blandList.first(where: { $0.code == blandOnServer.code }) { blandOnLocal.update(serverBland: blandOnServer) } else { modelContext.insert(blandOnServer.bland) } } } } } This is a simplified version of my StockListView. The blandList is a @Query property and dynamically retrieves data from SwiftData: struct StockListView: View { @Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext @Query(sort: \Bland.sname) var blandList: [Bland] @Query var users: [User] @State private var isNotLoaded = true @State private var isLoading = false @State private var loadingErrorState = "" var body: some View { NavigationStack { List { ForEach(blandList, id: \.self) { bland in NavigationLink(value: bland) { Text(bland.sname) } } } .navigationTitle("Stock List") .onAppear { doIfFirst() } } } // This function handles data loading when the app launches for the first time func doIfFirst() { if isNotLoaded { loadDataWithAnimationIfNotLoading() isNotLoaded = false } } // This function ensures data is loaded with an animation and avoids multiple triggers func loadDataWithAnimationIfNotLoading() { if !isLoading { isLoading = true Task { do { try await loadData() } catch { // Capture and store any errors during data loading loadingErrorState = "Data load failed: \(error.localizedDescription)" } isLoading = false } } } // Fetch data from the server and insert it into the SwiftData model context func loadData() async throws { if let blandsOnServer = try await DataModel.shared.getBlands() { for bland in blandsOnServer { // Avoid inserting duplicate keys by checking for existing items in blandList if !blandList.contains(where: { $0.code == bland.code }) { modelContext.insert(bland.bland) } } } } } Entity Definitions: Here are the main entities involved: Bland: @Model class Bland: Identifiable { @Attribute(.unique) var code: String var sname: String @Relationship(deleteRule: .cascade, inverse: \CrossZansu.bland) var zansuList: [CrossZansu] @Relationship(deleteRule: .cascade, inverse: \Trade.bland) var trades: [Trade] } CrossZansu: @Model class CrossZansu: Equatable { @Attribute(.unique) var id: String var bland: Bland? } Trade: @Model class Trade { @Relationship(deleteRule: .nullify) var user: User? var bland: Bland } User: class User { var id: UUID @Relationship(deleteRule: .cascade, inverse: \Trade.user) var trades: [Trade] } Observations: Error Context: The error occurs after the data is fetched and inserted into SwiftData. This suggests an issue with Hashable requirements or duplicate keys being inserted unintentionally. Concurrency Concerns: The fetch and update operations are performed in asynchronous tasks. Could this cause race conditions? Questions: Could this issue be related to how @Relationship and @Attribute(.unique) are managed in SwiftData? What are potential pitfalls with Equatable implementations (e.g., in CrossZansu) when used in SwiftData entities? Are there any recommended approaches for debugging "Duplicate keys" errors in SwiftData? Additional Info: Error Timing: The error occurs only during the app's first launch and consistently within the first minute.

Hi, I keep trying to use transformable to store an array of strings with SwiftData, and I can see that it is activating the transformer, but it keeps saying that I am still using NSArray instead of NSData. *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'Unacceptable type of value for attribute: property = "category"; desired type = NSData; given type = Swift.__SwiftDeferredNSArray; value = ( yo, gurt ).' terminating due to uncaught exception of type NSException CoreSimulator 1010.10 - Device: iPhone 16 18.0 (6879535B-3174-4025-AD37-ED06E60291AD) - Runtime: iOS 18.0 (22A3351) - DeviceType: iPhone 16 Message from debugger: killed @Model class MyModel: Identifiable, Equatable { @Attribute(.transformable(by: StringArrayTransformer.self)) var category: [String]? @Attribute(.transformable(by: StringArrayTransformer.self)) var amenities: [String]? var image: String? var parentChunck: HenricoPostDataChunk_V1? init(category: [String]?, amenities: [String]?) { self.category = category self.amenities = amenities } } class StringArrayTransformer: ValueTransformer { override func transformedValue(_ value: Any?) -> Any? { print(value) guard let array = value as? [String] else { return nil } let data = try? JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: array, options: []) print(data) return data } override func reverseTransformedValue(_ value: Any?) -> Any? { guard let data = value as? Data else { return nil } let string = (try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: [])) as? [String] print(string) return string } override class func transformedValueClass() -> AnyClass { return NSData.self } override class func allowsReverseTransformation() -> Bool { return true } static func register() { print("regitsering") ValueTransformer.setValueTransformer(StringArrayTransformer(), forName: .stringArrayTransformerName) } } extension NSValueTransformerName { static let stringArrayTransformerName = NSValueTransformerName("StringArrayTransformer") }