Hi, I’m looking for clarification on what concurrency and consistency guarantees Apple provides when multiple targets (main app + Widget extensions) access shared storage. Specifically: 1. UserDefaults (App Group / suiteName:) • If multiple processes (app + multiple widget instances) read and write the same shared UserDefaults, what guarantees are provided? • Is access serialized internally to prevent corruption? • Are read–modify–write operations safe across processes, or can lost updates occur? 2. Core Data (shared SQLite store in App Group container) • Is it officially supported for multiple processes to open and write to the same Core Data SQLite store? • Are there recommended configurations (e.g. WAL mode) for safe multi-process access? • Is Apple’s recommendation to have a single writer process? 3. FileManager (shared container files) • If two processes write to the same file in an App Group container, what guarantees are provided by the system? • Is atomic replaceItemAt the recommended pattern for safe cross-process updates? Additionally: • Do multiple widget instances count as separate processes with respect to these guarantees? • Is there official guidance on best practices for shared persistence between app and widget extensions? I want to ensure I’m following the correct architecture and not relying on undefined behavior. Thanks.

Hello, I have an application that needs to be published to the App Store. This application consists of two processes, A and B, where B is a child process of A. I found that if process B needs to be launched as a child process of A in sandbox mode, it is necessary to set the following keys in the entitlements.plist file: <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.inherit</key><true/> However, after setting these keys, process B can no longer be launched directly. This issue is particularly prominent because process B has a window and a Dock icon — in this case, if the user pins the Dock icon, they will be unable to launch process B. Could you please advise on a solution to this problem?

The expirationHandler on BGProcessingTask is a () -> Void closure. It provides no information about why it was called. In my testing, all of the following trigger the same handler: Time expiration Resource pressure (CPU, memory, battery) Not reporting progress User tapping "Stop" on the Live Activity There is no way for the app to tell these apart. Questions: Q1. Is there an official, complete list of all conditions that trigger expirationHandler? The documentation only mentions "time expires." Q2. What is the specific time limit before timeout? If it varies by device state, what are the conditions? Q3. A way to distinguish the reason is needed. "User stop" and "system expiration" require completely different handling. Currently this is impossible. Environment: iOS 26, physical device

(! status in pluginkit, FinderSyncExtensionHost process missing) macOS Version: 26.3.1 Beta (25D771280a) Xcode Version: 16.3 (17C529) Steps to reproduce: Create a Finder Sync Extension project Build and install to /Applications Enable in System Settings → Extensions → Finder Extensions Extension shows ! in pluginkit output FinderSyncExtensionHost process never starts Context menu never appears in Finder Expected: Extension loads and context menu appears Actual: Extension marked with ! in pluginkit, no process launched pluginkit output: ! com.github.astronautJack.EasyNewFile.EasyNewFileExtension(1.0)

Hello, I am developing a macOS Launch Daemon (packaged as a bundle) that acts as an XPC server. For debugging purposes, I am trying to run the daemon's executable directly from the terminal via sudo ./mydaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/myexecutable. Initially, I added the com.apple.security.application-groups entitlement to the daemon. However, when starting the process, it failed to create the XPC service with the following errors: Unsatisfied entitlements: com.apple.security.application-groups Soft-restriction provisioning profile validation failure: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=, unsatisfiedEntitlements=, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] To resolve the profile validation failure, I registered a new App Group in the Apple Developer Portal, generated a new provisioning profile for the daemon that includes this group, and embedded it into the bundle (Contents/embedded.provisionprofile). Now, the previous profile error is gone, but I am getting a new identity conflict error, and the XPC listener still fails: Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<myproc_name>(501) pid=2818 AUID=501> and <anon<myproc_name>(501)(262) pid=2818 AUID=262> listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] My questions are: What exactly causes the Two equal instances have unequal identities error? I noticed the Audit UID difference (AUID=501 vs AUID=262). Why does NSXPCListener still fail with Operation not permitted? What is the recommended workflow for debugging a Launch Daemon that requires an App Group provisioning profile for XPC communication? Thank you in advance!

I'm looking into a newer XPC API available starting with macOS 14. Although it's declared as a low-level API I can't figure it how to specify code signing requirement using XPCListener and XPCSession. How do I connect it with xpc_listener_set_peer_code_signing_requirement and xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement which require xpc_listener_t and xpc_connection_t respectively? Foundation XPC is declared as a high-level API and provides easy ways to specify code signing requirements on both ends of xpc. I'm confused with all these XPC APIs and their future: Newer really high-level XPCListener and XPCSession API (in low-level framework???) Low-level xpc_listener_t & xpc_connection_t -like API. Is it being replaced by newer XPCListener and XPCSession? How is it related to High-level Foundation XPC? Are NSXPCListener and NSXPCConnection going to be deprecated and replaced by XPCListener and XPCSession??

My load average on a largely idle system is around 22, going up to 70 or so periodically; SSMenuAgent seems to be consuming lots of CPU (and, looking at spindump, it certainly seems busy), but... it's not happening on any other system whose screens I am observing. (Er, I know about load average limitations, the process is also consuming 70-98% CPU according to both top and Activity Monitor.) Since this machine (although idle) has our network extension, I'm trying to figure out if this is due to that, or of this is generally expected. Anyone?

I'm trying to schedule a background task that will run on an iPhone and I'm looking into creating a task request using BGProcessingTaskRequest and scheduled it using BGTaskScheduler.shared.submit(). Per earliestBeginDate documentation, this property can be used to specify the earliest time a background task will be launched by OS. All clear here. However, the question is: how is the value interpreted with respect to timezone ? Is the specified date in device timezone ? Is GMT ? Is something else ?

I have followed these steps as mentioned in this link :(https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721737) My projects app bundle structure is like this : TWGUI.app TWGUI.app/Contents TWGUI.app/Contents/_CodeSignature TWGUI.app/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources TWGUI.app/Contents/MacOS TWGUI.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAgent TWGUI.app/Contents/MacOS/TWGUI TWGUI.app/Contents/Resources TWGUI.app/Contents/Library TWGUI.app/Contents/Library/LaunchAgents TWGUI.app/Contents/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.TWGUI.agent.plist TWGUI.app/Contents/Info.plist TWGUI.app/Contents/PkgInfo TWGUI is my main GUI App , i which i want to embed TWAgent (a command line tool target) and register it using SMAppServices so that launchd can launch it. In TWGUI, code for registering to launchd using SMAppServices is structure as follow : import SwiftUI import ServiceManagement struct ContentView: View { let agent = SMAppService.agent(plistName: "com.example.TWGUI.agent.plist") var body: some View { VStack { Button("Register Agent") { RegisterAgent () } .padding() Button("Unregister Agent") { UnregisterAgent () } .padding() } } func RegisterAgent() { DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { do { print("Registering Agent. Status: \(agent.status.rawValue)") try agent.register() print("Agent registered") } catch { print("Failed to register agent: \(error)") } } } func UnregisterAgent() { DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { do { print("Unregistering Agent. Status: \(agent.status.rawValue)") try agent.unregister() print("Agent unregistered") } catch { print("Failed to unregister agent: \(error)") } } } } com.example.TWGUI.agent.plist : &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; &lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs$ &lt;plist version="1.0"&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;Label&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;com.example.TWGUI.agent&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;ProgramArguments&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;Contents/MacOS/TWAgent&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;RunAtLoad&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;KeepAlive&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; &lt;/plist&gt; I have used ProgramArguements instead of using Program in above plist because i was getting this error when i was using Program earlier : Registering Agent. Status: 3 Failed to register agent: Error Domain=SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=111 "Invalid or missing Program/ProgramArguments" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Invalid or missing Program/ProgramArguments} TWGUI apps Info.plist is : &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; &lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"&gt; &lt;plist version="1.0"&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;BuildMachineOSBuild&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;23C71&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleDevelopmentRegion&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;en&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleExecutable&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;TWGUI&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleIdentifier&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;com.example.TWAgent&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;6.0&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleName&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;TWGUI&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundlePackageType&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;APPL&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleShortVersionString&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;1.0&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleSupportedPlatforms&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;MacOSX&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;CFBundleVersion&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;1&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTCompiler&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTPlatformBuild&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTPlatformName&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;macosx&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTPlatformVersion&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;14.2&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTSDKBuild&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;23C53&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTSDKName&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;macosx14.2&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTXcode&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;1510&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;DTXcodeBuild&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;15C65&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;LSMinimumSystemVersion&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;14.2&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; &lt;/plist&gt; TWAgent target has main.swift file which does this : import Foundation let startTime = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent() func logTimeSinceStart() { let elapsedTime = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent() - startTime NSLog("Time since program started: \(elapsedTime) seconds") } func startLoggingTime() { Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 1.0, repeats: true) { _ in logTimeSinceStart() } } // Start logging time startLoggingTime() // Keep the run loop running CFRunLoopRun() I followed these exact same steps in another project earlier and my agent was getting registered, although i lost that project due to some reasons. But now i am getting this error when i am registering or unregistering agent using SMAppServices from the code above : Registering Agent. Status: 3 Failed to register agent: Error Domain=SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Operation not permitted} I tried diffrent fixes for like this : Moved app bundle to /applications folder Gave permission for full disc access to this app . Code sign again (both agent and TWGUI ... But nothing seems to work , getting same error. I tried to launch agent using : Launchctl load com.example.TWGUI.agent.plist and it worked , so there is no issue with my plist implementation. Can someone help me understand how can i solve this issue ? or if i am following right steps ? Can give steps need to follow to implement this and steps so that i can register and start my agent using SMAppServices? And i also tried the project give in apples official documentation : [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/servicemanagement/updating-your-app-package-installer-to-use-the-new-service-management-api) but got same error in this project as well .

Hi! Could you please point me to the official documentation or recommended approach for launching the host app from a Share Extension? The scenario is: The user is sharing some text to my app. I need launch App and show this text. At the moment, I'm using the following hack: let selector = NSSelectorFromString("sharedApplication") if let app = UIApplication.perform(selector)?.takeUnretainedValue() as? UIApplication, app.responds(to: #selector(UIApplication.open(_:options:completionHandler:))) { app.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil) } This does work, but it's terrible. So, the question: What is the official way to open the host app from within a Share Extension? Thanks!

Hello, I am developing an application which is communicating with external device using BLE and L2CAP. I wonder what are the best practices of using Input & Output streams that are established with L2CAP connection when working with Swift 6 concurrency model. I've been trying to find some examples and hints for some time now but unfortunately there isn't much available. One useful thread I've found is: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/756281 but it does not offer much insight into using eg. actor model with streams. I wonder if something has changed in this regards? Also, are there any plans to migrate eg. CoreBluetooth stack to new swift 6 concurrency ?

I'm developing a medication scheduling app similar to Apple Health's Medications feature, and I'd like some input on my current approach to background tasks. In my app, when a user creates a medication, I generate ScheduledDose objects (with corresponding local notifications) for the next 2 weeks and save them to SwiftData. To ensure this 2-week window stays current, I've implemented a BGAppRefreshTask that runs daily to generate new doses as needed. My concern is whether BGAppRefreshTask is the appropriate mechanism for this purpose. Since I'm not making any network requests but rather generating and storing local data, I'm questioning if this is the right approach. I'm also wondering how Apple Health's Medications feature handles this kind of scheduling. Their app seems to maintain future doses regardless of app usage patterns. Has anyone implemented something similar or can suggest the best background execution API for this type of scenario? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Hi, I have some questions regarding the Background Assets Extension and DeviceCheck framework. Goal: Ensure that only users who have purchased the app can access the server's API without any user authentication using for example DeviceCheck framework and within a Background Assets Extension. My app relies on external assets, which I'm loading using the Background Assets Extension. I'm trying to determine if it's possible to obtain a challenge from the server and send a DeviceCheck assertion during this process within the Background Assets Extension. So far, I only receive session-wide authentication challenges—specifically NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust in the Background Assets Extensio. I’ve tested with Basic Auth (NSURLAuthenticationMethodHTTPBasic) just for experimentation, but the delegate func backgroundDownload( _ download: BADownload, didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge ) async -> (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) is never called with that authentication method. It seems task-specific challenges aren't coming through at all. Also, while the DCAppAttestService API appears to be available on macOS, DCAppAttestService.isSupported always returns false (in my testing), which suggests it's not actually supported on macOS. Can anyone confirm if that’s expected behavior?

Hello! I'm writing a System Extension that is an Endpoint Security client. And I want to Deny/Allow executing some XPC Service processes (using the ES_EVENT_TYPE_AUTH_EXEC event) depending on characteristics of a process that starts the XPC Service. For this purpose, I need an API that could allow me to obtain an execution context of the XPC Service process. I can obtain this information using the "sudo launchctl procinfo <pid>" command (e.g. I can use the "domain = pid/3428" part of the output for this purpose). Also, I know that when the xpcproxy process is started, it gets as the arguments a service name and a pid of the process that requests the service so I can grasp the execution context from xpcproxy launching. But are these ways to obtain this info legitimate?

Say I want to sync a toggle in my app with SMAppService's .status property. If the status changes from my app I can track it. But if user toggles it from System Settings, I don't see a notification so then the UI in my app is out of date. The status property is not key value observable and there doesn't appear to be a SMAppServiceStatusDidChangeNotification ? I can re-read it every time my app will become active but feels kind of wrong to do it this way.

SMAppService Error 108 "Unable to read plist" on macOS 15 Sequoia - Comprehensive Test Case Summary We have a fully notarized SMAppService implementation that consistently fails with Error 108 "Unable to read plist" on macOS 15 Sequoia, despite meeting all documented requirements. After systematic testing including AI-assisted analysis, we've eliminated all common causes and created a comprehensive test case. Error: SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=108 "Unable to read plist: com.keypath.helperpoc.helper" 📋 Complete Repository: https://github.com/malpern/privileged_helper_help What We've Systematically Verified ✅ Perfect bundle structure: Helper at Contents/MacOS/, plist at Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons/ Correct SMAuthorizedClients: Embedded in helper binary via CREATE_INFOPLIST_SECTION_IN_BINARY=YES Aligned identifiers: Main app, helper, and plist all use consistent naming Production signing: Developer ID certificates with full Apple notarization and stapling BundleProgram paths: Tested both Contents/MacOS/helperpoc-helper and simplified helperpoc-helper Entitlements: Tested with and without com.apple.developer.service-management.managed-by-main-app What Makes This Different Systematic methodology: Not a "help me debug" post - we've done comprehensive testing Expert validation: AI analysis helped eliminate logical hypotheses Reproduction case: Minimal project that demonstrates the issue consistently Complete documentation: All testing steps, configurations, and results documented Use Case Context We're building a keyboard remapper that integrates with https://github.com/jtroo/kanata and needs privileged daemon registration for system-wide keyboard event interception. Key Questions Does anyone have a working SMAppService implementation on macOS 15 Sequoia? Are there undocumented macOS 15 requirements we're missing? Is Error 108 a known issue with specific workarounds? Our hypothesis: This appears to be a macOS 15 system-level issue rather than configuration error, since our implementation meets all documented Apple requirements but fails consistently. Has anyone encountered similar SMAppService issues on macOS 15, or can confirm a working implementation?

my app need tracking location all the time both foreground and background. Please suggest how to prevent the app from being terminated. or detect when app is terminated.

My app does really large uploads. Like several GB. We use the AWS SDK to upload to S3. It seemed like using BGContinuedProcessingTask to complete a set of uploads for a particular item may improve UX as well as performance and reliability. When I tried to get BGContinuedProcessingTask working with the AWS SDK I found that the task would fail after maybe 30 seconds. It looked like this was because the app stopped receiving updates from the AWS upload and the task wants consistent updates. The AWS SDK always uses a background URLSession and this is not configurable. I understand the background URLSession runs in a separate process from the app and maybe that is why progress updates did not continue when the app was in the background. Is it expected that BGContinuedProcessingTask and background URLSession are not really compatible? It would not be shocking since they are 2 separate background APIs. Would the Apple recommendation be to use a normal URLSession for this, in which case AWS would need to change their SDK? Or does Apple think that BGContinuedProcessingTask should just not be used with uploads? In other words use an upload specific API. Thanks!

Hi all, I’ve built an Electron application that uses two child processes: An Express.js server A Python executable (packaged .exe/binary) During the development phase, everything works fine — the Electron app launches, both child processes start, and the app functions as expected. But when I create a production build for macOS, the child processes don’t run. Here’s a simplified snippet from my electron.mjs: import { app, BrowserWindow } from "electron"; import { spawn } from "child_process"; import path from "path"; let mainWindow; const createWindow = () =&gt; { mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({ width: 1200, height: 800, webPreferences: { nodeIntegration: true, }, }); mainWindow.loadFile("index.html"); // Start Express server const serverPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "server", "index.js"); const serverProcess = spawn(process.execPath, [serverPath], { stdio: "inherit", }); // Start Python process const pythonPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "python", "myapp"); const pythonProcess = spawn(pythonPath, [], { stdio: "inherit", }); serverProcess.on("error", (err) =&gt; console.error("Server process error:", err)); pythonProcess.on("error", (err) =&gt; console.error("Python process error:", err)); }; app.whenReady().then(createWindow); I’ve already done the following: Configured package.json with the right build settings Set up extraResources / asarUnpack to include the server and Python files Verified both child processes work standalone Questions: What’s the correct way to package and spawn these child processes for macOS production builds? Do I need to move them into a specific location (like Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked) and reference them differently? Is there a more reliable pattern for handling Express + Python child processes inside an Electron app bundle? Any insights or working examples would be really appreciated!

We added the com.apple.developer.background-tasks.continued-processing.gpu key to the entitlement file and set it to true, but BGTaskScheduler.supportedResources does not include gpu. How can we configure it to obtain permission for GPU access in the background? Test device: iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 26 release version.