Apple is encouraging VPN apps on macOS to transition to Network Extension APIs, if they haven't done so yet, see: TN3165: Packet Filter is not API WWDC25: Filter and tunnel network traffic with NetworkExtension Using Network Extension is fine for VPN apps that are distributed via the Mac App Store. Users get one pop-up requesting permission to add VPN configurations and that's it. However, VPN apps that are distributed outside of the App Store (using Developer ID) cannot use Network Extension in the same way, such apps need to install a System Extension first (see TN3134: Network Extension provider deployment). Installing a System Extension is a very poor user experience. There is a pop-up informing about a system extension, which the user has to manually enable. The main button is "OK", which only dismisses the pop-up and in such case there is little chance that the user will be able to find the correct place to enable the extension. The other button in that pop-up navigates to the correct screen in System Settings, where the user has to enable a toggle. Then there is a password prompt. Then the user has to close the System Settings and return to the app. This whole dance is not necessary for VPN apps on the Mac App Store, because they work with "app extensions" rather than "system extensions". As a developer of a VPN app that is distributed outside of the App Store, my options are: Implement VPN functionality in an alternative way, without Network Extension. This is discouraged by Apple. Use a System Extension with Network Extension. This is going to discourage my users. I have submitted feedback to Apple: FB19631390. But I wonder, why did Apple create this difference in the first place? Is there a chance that they will either improve the System Extension installation process or even allow "app extensions" outside of the Mac App Store?

I work on an open source app called Meteorologist (https://sourceforge.net/projects/heat-meteo/). One of the sources the users are allowed to use is Apple's WeatherKit. The app is compiled by me and free to download by anybody. My developer account has the free level of WeatherKit so 500,000 calls/month and every once in a while the app actually hits that limit, shutting that weather source/service down for the app. Is there any way to ask users of the app to somehow get their own account (or already have a developer account) and can register their license so it doesn't all bump up against the one (my) "license"? If so, how would that be passed to WeatherKit? The only thought I have is that they would need to compile the code on their own and sign their own copy. Thanks for any and all feedback and thoughts. Ed

I am running postfix on macOS Sequoia, and need it to log any kind of error to fix them. I found that in this version of macOS, syslogd is configured with the file /etc/asl/com.apple.mail, which contains: # mail facility has its own log file ? [= Facility mail] claim only > /var/log/mail.log mode=0644 format=bsd rotate=seq compress file_max=5M all_max=50M * file /var/log/mail.log which is its install configuration and seems correct. Postfix is started ( by launchd ) and running ( ps ax | grep master ), but on sending errors occur, and nothing is logged. How to make postfix to log in /var/log/mail.log which is the normal way on millions of postfix servers around the world?

On Sequoia, I want to configure my postfix as a server. And for this I have to change the way postfix is started from: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist But this file is on the read only / file system. Then I just unloaded this startup, and made a new one in: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist and I was able to start it. But on the next system boot, the system one in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons was started again. How should I cleanly and permanently achieve this server basic modification?

I'm developing a watchOS nap app that detects when the user falls asleep by monitoring heart rate changes. == Technical Implementation == HKWorkoutSession (.mindAndBody) for background execution HKAnchoredObjectQuery for real-time heart rate data CoreMotion for movement detection == Battery Considerations == Heart rate monitoring ONLY active when user explicitly starts a session Monitoring continues until user is awakened OR 60-minute limit is reached If no sleep detected within 60 minutes, session auto-ends (user may have abandoned or forgotten to stop) App displays clear UI indicating monitoring is active Typical session: 15-30 minutes, keeping battery usage minimal == The Problem == HKWorkoutSession affects Activity Rings during the session. Users receive "Exercise goal reached" notifications while resting — confusing. == What I've Tried == Not using HKLiveWorkoutBuilder → Activity Rings still affected Using builder but not calling finishWorkout() (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/780220) → Activity Rings still affected WKExtendedRuntimeSession (self-care type) (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721077) → Only ~10 min runtime, need up to 60 min HKObserverQuery + enableBackgroundDelivery (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/779101) → ~4 updates/hour, too slow for real-time detection Audio background session for continuous processing (suggested in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/130287) → Concerned about App Store rejection for non-audio app; if official approves this technical route, I can implement in this direction Some online resources mention "Health Monitoring Entitlement" from WWDC 2019 Session 251, but I could not find any official documentation for this entitlement. Apple Developer Support also confirmed they cannot locate it? == My Question == Is there any supported way to: Monitor heart rate in background for up to 60 minutes WITHOUT affecting Activity Rings or creating workout records? If this requires a special entitlement or API access, please advise on the application process. Or allow me to submit a code-level support request. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, I develop an ES client applying rule-engine evaluating ES events (mostly File-system events). It is a bit non-standard not being deployed as a System-Extension, but rather as a global daemon. On some Macs, I sometimes see "crash reports" for the ES process, all sharing Termination Reason: Namespace ENDPOINTSECURITY, Code 2 EndpointSecurity client terminated because it failed to respond to a message before its deadline All of these happen not while normal Mac usage, but rather right at Mac wakeup time after sleep. My guess is, some ES_AUTH events (with deadline) arrive when Mac goes to sleep, and somehow my high-priority dispatch_queue handling them is "put to sleep" mid processing them, so when the Mac wakes up - event handling continues long after the deadline passed, and MacOS decides to kick the process. Questions: What is the recommended behavior with ES vs Sleep/Wake cycles? (we're not an antivirus, and we don't care much to clear events or go "blind" for such time) Can I specify somewhere in the info.plist of my bundle (this is built like an App) that my process should't be put to sleep, or that the OS should sleep it only when it becomes idle, or some other way tells the OS it is "ready for sleep" ? If not -- How do I observe the scenario so I can suspend my event handling IN TIME and resume on wake? Thanks!

I’m using Network Framework with UDP and calling: connection.receive(minimumIncompleteLength: 1, maximumLength: 1500) { data, context, isComplete, error in ... // Some Logic } Is it possible for this completion handler to be called with data==nil if I haven't received any kind of error, i.e., error==nil and the connection is still in the .ready state?

In the WWDC 2019 session "Extended Runtime for WatchOS apps" the video talks about an entitlement being required to use the HR sensor judiciously in the background. It provides a link to request the entitlement which no longer works: http://developer.apple.com/contect/request/health-monitoring The session video is also quite hard to find these days. Does anyone know why this is the case? Is the API and entitlement still available? Is there a supported way to run, even periodically, in the background on the Watch app (ignoring the background observer route which is known to be unreliable) and access existing HR sensor data

I have started from here: Apple's guide on the sharing core data objects between iCloud users and I have created a sample project that has Collections and Items. Everything works great while I stay on Swift 5, like with the initial project. I would like to migrate to Swift 6 (Default Actor Isolaton @MainActor, Approachable Concurrency: Yes) on the project and I am stuck at extension CDCollection: Transferable { ... }. When compiling with Swift 5, there is a warning: Conformance of 'NSManagedObject' to 'Sendable' is unavailable in iOS; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode. After resolving almost all compile-time warnings I'm left with: Conformance of 'CDCollection' to protocol 'Transferable' crosses into main actor-isolated code and can cause data races. Which I don't think will work, because of the warning shown above. It can be worked around like: nonisolated extension CDCollection: Transferable, @unchecked Sendable Then there are errors: let persistentContainer = PersistenceController.shared.persistentContainer Main actor-isolated static property 'shared' can not be referenced from a nonisolated context. I've created the following class to have a Sendable object: struct CDCollectionTransferable: Transferable { var objectID: NSManagedObjectID var persistentContainer: NSPersistentCloudKitContainer public static var transferRepresentation: some TransferRepresentation { CKShareTransferRepresentation { collectionToExport in let persistentContainer = collectionToExport.persistentContainer let ckContainer = CloudKitProvider.container var collectionShare: CKShare? if let shareSet = try? persistentContainer.fetchShares( matching: [collectionToExport.objectID]), let (_, share) = shareSet.first { collectionShare = share } /** Return the existing share if the collection already has a share. */ if let share = collectionShare { return .existing(share, container: ckContainer) } /** Otherwise, create a new share for the collection and return it. Use uriRepresentation of the object in the Sendable closure. */ let collectionURI = collectionToExport.objectID .uriRepresentation() return .prepareShare(container: ckContainer) { let collection = await persistentContainer.viewContext .perform { let coordinator = persistentContainer.viewContext .persistentStoreCoordinator guard let objectID = coordinator?.managedObjectID( forURIRepresentation: collectionURI ) else { fatalError( "Failed to return the managed objectID for: \(collectionURI)." ) } return persistentContainer.viewContext.object( with: objectID ) } let (_, share, _) = try await persistentContainer.share( [collection], to: nil ) return share } } } } And I'm able to compile and run the app with this change: let transferable = CDCollectionTransferable( objectID: collection.objectID, persistentContainer: PersistenceController.shared .persistentContainer ) ToolbarItem { ShareLink( item: transferable, preview: SharePreview("Share \(collection.name)!") ) { MenuButtonLabel( title: "New Share", systemImage: "square.and.arrow.up" ) } } The app crashes when launched with libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_assert_queue_fail: 0x1052c6ea4 <+0>: sub sp, sp, #0x50 0x1052c6ea8 <+4>: stp x20, x19, [sp, #0x30] 0x1052c6eac <+8>: stp x29, x30, [sp, #0x40] 0x1052c6eb0 <+12>: add x29, sp, #0x40 0x1052c6eb4 <+16>: adrp x8, 63 0x1052c6eb8 <+20>: add x8, x8, #0xa0c ; "not " 0x1052c6ebc <+24>: adrp x9, 62 0x1052c6ec0 <+28>: add x9, x9, #0x1e5 ; "" 0x1052c6ec4 <+32>: stur xzr, [x29, #-0x18] 0x1052c6ec8 <+36>: cmp w1, #0x0 0x1052c6ecc <+40>: csel x8, x9, x8, ne 0x1052c6ed0 <+44>: ldr x10, [x0, #0x48] 0x1052c6ed4 <+48>: cmp x10, #0x0 0x1052c6ed8 <+52>: csel x9, x9, x10, eq 0x1052c6edc <+56>: stp x9, x0, [sp, #0x10] 0x1052c6ee0 <+60>: adrp x9, 63 0x1052c6ee4 <+64>: add x9, x9, #0x9db ; "BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: Assertion failed: " 0x1052c6ee8 <+68>: stp x9, x8, [sp] 0x1052c6eec <+72>: adrp x1, 63 0x1052c6ef0 <+76>: add x1, x1, #0x9a6 ; "%sBlock was %sexpected to execute on queue [%s (%p)]" 0x1052c6ef4 <+80>: sub x0, x29, #0x18 0x1052c6ef8 <+84>: bl 0x105301b18 ; symbol stub for: asprintf 0x1052c6efc <+88>: ldur x19, [x29, #-0x18] 0x1052c6f00 <+92>: str x19, [sp] 0x1052c6f04 <+96>: adrp x0, 63 0x1052c6f08 <+100>: add x0, x0, #0xa11 ; "%s" 0x1052c6f0c <+104>: bl 0x1052f9ef8 ; _dispatch_log 0x1052c6f10 <+108>: adrp x8, 95 0x1052c6f14 <+112>: str x19, [x8, #0x1f0] -> 0x1052c6f18 <+116>: brk #0x1 The app still crashes when I comment this code, and all Core Data related warnings. I'm quite stuck now as I want to use Swift 6. Has anyone figured CloudKit, CoreData and Swift 6 for sharing between users?

While testing record creation in public CloudKit database for authenticated user I am able to do so without any issues. But for devices missing iCloud account or authentication expired I am seeing the below error: ▿ <CKError 0x97a959200: "Permission Failure" (10/2007); server message = "CREATE operation not permitted"; op = 67331DE3AF3DD666; uuid = 1F3ACD4F-A799-4CD4-ADF0-EDE9E12F2DCB; container ID = "***"> _nsError : <CKError 0x97a959200: "Permission Failure" (10/2007); server message = "CREATE operation not permitted"; op = 67331DE3AF3DD666; uuid = 1F3ACD4F-A799-4CD4-ADF0-EDE9E12F2DCB; container ID = "***"> I am unable to add create/write permission to _world security role in dashboard. Is this something not supported by Cloudkit? Only authenticated iCloud users will be able to create and write data to public database as well?

Hello, I have a iOS app I was looking at porting to Mac. I'm having an issue with both the Mac (Designed for iPad) and Mac Catalyst Destinations. I can't test Mac due to too many build issues. I'm trying to assign a new NSManagedObject into a NSPersistentStore. let object = MyObject(context: context) context.assign(object, to: nsPersistentStore) This works fine for iOS/iOS Simulator/iPhone/iPad. But on the Mac it's crashing with FAULT: NSInvalidArgumentException: Can't assign an object to a store that does not contain the object's entity.; { Thread 1: "Can't assign an object to a store that does not contain the object's entity."

I'm implementing payment processing with Apple Pay on the web, but I've been stuck right at the final step of the flow: decrypting the payment data sent by Apple. Here is a summary of my implementation: The backend language is Java. The frontend portal requests the session and performs the payment using the endpoints exposed by the backend. I created .p12 files from the .cer files returned by the Apple Developer portal for both certificates (Merchant Identity and Payment Processing) and I'm using them in my backend. The merchant validation works perfectly; the user is able to request a session and proceed to the payment sheet. However, when the frontend sends the encrypted token back to my sale endpoint, the problem begins. My code consistently fails when trying to decrypt the data (inside the paymentData node) throwing a javax.crypto.AEADBadTagException: Tag mismatch! I can confirm that the certificate used by Apple to encrypt the payment data is the correct one. The hash received from the PKPaymentToken (header.publicKeyHash) object exactly matches the hash generated manually on my side from my .p12 file. In the decryption process, I'm using Bouncy Castle only to calculate the Elliptic Curve (ECC) shared secret. For the final AES-GCM decryption, I am using Java's native provider since I already have the bytes of the shared secret calculated. (Originally, I was doing it entirely with BC, but it failed with the exact same error). We have exhaustively verified our cryptographic implementation: We successfully reconstruct the ephemeralPublicKey and compute the ECDH Shared Secret using our Payment Processing Certificate's private key (prime256v1). We perform the Key Derivation Function (KDF) using id-aes256-GCM, PartyU as Apple, and counter 00000001. For PartyV, we have tried calculating the SHA-256 hash of our exact Merchant ID string. We also extracted the exact ASN.1 hex payload from the certificate's extension OID 1.2.840.113635.100.6.32 and used it as PartyV. We have tried generating brand new CSRs and Processing Certificates via OpenSSL directly from the terminal. Despite having the correct ECDH shared secret (and confirming Apple used our public key via the hash), the AES tag validation always fails.et, the AES tag validation always fails. Given that the math seems correct and the public key hashes match, could there be an environment mismatch (Sandbox vs. Production) or a domain validation issue causing Apple to encrypt the payload with a dummy PartyV or scramble the data altogether? Any guidance on this behavior or the exact PartyV expected in this scenario would be highly appreciated.

I put a test.mp3 (30 sec) file into the App Bundle. I scheduled an AlarmKit alarm with the file name test.mp3. The custom sound plays ✅ I copied the file from the App Bundle to Library/Sounds/test2.mp3. I scheduled an AlarmKit alarm with the file name test2.mp3. Instead of playing the custom sound, it falls back to the default sound ❌ According to the documentation, sounds placed in Library/Sounds should be playable: I filed report FB19779004 on August 20, but haven’t received any response yet. This functionality is critical for our use case, so could you please let me know whether this is expected to be fixed soon, or if I’m misunderstanding the intended behavior?

Since the introduction of the siblings / and /System/Volumes/Data architecture, some very basic, critical commands seems to have a broken behaviour ( cp, rsync, tar, cpio…). As an example, ditto which was introduced more than 10 years ago to integrate correctly all the peculiarity of HFS Apple filesystem as compared to the UFS Unix filesystem is not behaving correctly. For example, from man ditto: --rsrc Preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data. ditto will store this data in Carbon-compatible ._ AppleDouble files on filesystems that do not natively support resource forks. As of Mac OS X 10.4, --rsrc is default behavior. [...] --extattr Preserve extended attributes (requires --rsrc). As of Mac OS X 10.5, --extattr is the default. and nonetheless: # ls -@delO /private/var/db/ConfigurationProfiles/Store drwx------@ 5 root wheel datavault 160 Jan 20 2024 /private/var/db/ConfigurationProfiles/Store                            ********* com.apple.rootless 28 *************************** # mkdir tmp # ditto /private/var/db/ConfigurationProfiles tmp ditto: /Users/alice/Security/Admin/Apple/APFS/tmp/Settings: Operation not permitted ditto: /Users/alice/Security/Admin/Apple/APFS/tmp/Store: Operation not permitted # ls -@delO tmp/Store drwx------ 5 root wheel - 160 Aug 8 13:55 tmp/Store                            * # The extended attribute on copied directory Store is empty, the file flags are missing, not preserved as documented and as usual behaviour of ditto was since a long time ( macOS 10.5 ). cp, rsync, tar, cpio exhibit the same misbehaviour. But I was using ditto to be sure to avoid any incompatibility with the Apple FS propriaitary modifications. As a consequence, all backup scripts and applications are failing more or less silently, and provide corrupted copies of files or directories. ( I was here investigating why one of my security backup shell script was making corrupted backups, and only on macOS ). How to recover the standard behaviour --extattr working on modern macOS?

I have a BLE device which my app connects to and can detect button presses. On a button press, I want my app to start recording using the AudioRecordingIntent. But my app doesn't work and throws a background error. Is there any reliable way I can get the app to start recording audio in the background?

I have the following code running on macOS and iOS: CKQuerySubscription *zsub = [[CKQuerySubscription alloc] initWithRecordType:ESS_CLOUDCONTROLLER_RECORDTYPE_PUSHNOTE predicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"TRUEPREDICATE"] subscriptionID:@"pushZSub" options:CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordUpdate|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordCreation|CKQuerySubscriptionOptionsFiresOnRecordDeletion]; zsub.zoneID = zid; CKNotificationInfo *inf = [[CKNotificationInfo alloc] init]; inf.shouldSendContentAvailable = YES; inf.desiredKeys = @[ESS_PN_RECORDFIELD_KEY_OVERALLDATE]; zsub.notificationInfo = inf; CKModifySubscriptionsOperation *msop = [[CKModifySubscriptionsOperation alloc] initWithSubscriptionsToSave:@[zsub] subscriptionIDsToDelete:nil]; msop.qualityOfService = NSQualityOfServiceUserInitiated; msop.modifySubscriptionsCompletionBlock = ^(NSArray<CKSubscription *> * _Nullable savedSubscriptions, NSArray<CKSubscriptionID> * _Nullable deletedSubscriptionIDs, NSError * _Nullable operationError) { dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ if (savedSubscriptions.count == 1) { //works also when already created. compH(YES, nil); } else { compH(NO, nil); } }); }; [self.database addOperation:msop]; (code synopsis: after i create a custom zone (not shown in code), I add a ckquerysubscription to it for a specific record type, configured as a silent notification) When I change the according record in my Mac app, I get an immediate silent push on iOS. On macOS, however, after I change the record in my iOS app, I don't get one. Sometimes, one silent push makes it through every now and then a minute+ late or so, and after that, it's going missing again. What's the deal? Everything's set up correctly (com.apple.developer.aps-environment is set, container-identifiers are the same, icloud services are the same, ubiquity-kvstore-identifier are the same). I obviously register for remote notifications in both apps. I see all the records and subscriptions and zones in both the Mac and iOS app. I tried setting alertBody to an empty string, or soundName to an empty string, or both to an empty string: no difference I tried having different subscriptions for my Mac and iOS app, since they use different bundle ids, but that was merged into one subscription server-side, so I'm thinking that's not it I tried making it not-silent by setting contentAvailable to NO and adding a full alertBody, title and subtitle. Again, worked on iOS, not on macOS. This has been going on since macOS 14 Sonoma (when I first got reports of this. Now running on macOS 26.3). Before Sonoma, it worked just fine. Now I thought perhaps it's because I had a subscription on the default zone, and not a custom one, so I tried subscribing to changes on a record in a custom zone (see code above), but that did not change anything either. It's all working fine, only the push notifications are not making it through to the Mac app. If I sudo killall apsd (kill the push service daemon), the last push notification suddenly miraculously makes it through, by the way. At this point, I'm out of ideas and would very much appreciate pointers as to how to debug this. Polling every 30 seconds for changes is so 1990s. Speaking of which, this is a rather long-time-running app (started in 2011). Could my CloudKit database be “too old” or “corrupted” or whatever? Thank you kindly, – Matthias

Hello, We are implementing in-app provisioning in our fintech app; the card issuer is a third party, so we have limited control and visibility. We have ruled out the causes we could investigate on our side and on the card issuer’s side. We are reaching out to ask for your help in understanding what is going wrong so we can fix it. What happens: User taps “Add to Apple Wallet” → we present PKAddPaymentPassViewController → they tap Next → after a few seconds the flow fails with "Set Up Later" alert. Device log: ProvisioningOperationComposer: Step 'eligibility' failed with error <PKProvisioningError: severity: 'terminal'; internalDebugDescriptions: '( "eligibility request failure", "Received HTTP 500" )'; underlyingError: 'Error Domain=PKPaymentWebServiceErrorDomain Code=0 "Unexpected error." UserInfo={PKErrorHTTPResponseStatusCodeKey=500, NSLocalizedDescription=Unexpected error.}'; userInfo: '{ PKErrorHTTPResponseStatusCodeKey = 500; }'; Feedback Assistant ID: FB22007923 (Error during the In-App Provisioning process)

Usually, when you call fetchRecordZoneChanges with the previous change token, you get a list of the record ID’s that have been deleted since your last fetch. But if you get a changeTokenExpired error because it‘s been too long since you last fetched, you have to call fetch again without a token. For my specific application, I still need to know, though, if any records have been deleted since my last sync. How can I get that information if I no longer have a valid change token?

I'll try to ask a question that makes sense this time :) . I'm using the following method on NSFileManager: (BOOL) getRelationship:(NSURLRelationship *) outRelationship ofDirectoryAtURL:(NSURL *) directoryURL toItemAtURL:(NSURL *) otherURL error:(NSError * *) error; Sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipContains if the directory at 'directoryURL' directly or indirectly contains the item at 'otherURL', meaning 'directoryURL' is found while enumerating parent URLs starting from 'otherURL'. Sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipSame if 'directoryURL' and 'otherURL' locate the same item, meaning they have the same NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey value. If 'directoryURL' is not a directory, or does not contain 'otherURL' and they do not locate the same file, then sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipOther. If an error occurs, returns NO and sets 'error'. So this method falsely returns NSURLRelationshipSame for different directories. One is empty, one is not. Really weird behavior. Two file path urls pointing to two different file paths have the same NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey? Could it be related to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/813641 ? One url in the check lived at the same file path as the other url at one time (but no longer does). No symlinks or anything going on. Just plain directory urls. And YES calling -removeCachedResourceValueForKey: with NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey causes proper result of NSURLRelationshipOther to be returned. And I'm doing the check on a background queue.

Should there be separate intents to open each supported file type? Or a single intent, and my code sniffs out the format?