I have a Apple Developer accounts for development purposes only and that is also used for testing builds via TestFlight. Is the Age Ratings Responses updates due by the end of January 2026 still required even to send builds to TestFlight?

Recently a bunch of folks have asked about why a specific symbol is being referenced by their app. This is my attempt to address that question. If you have questions or comments, please start a new thread. Tag it with Linker so that I see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Determining Why a Symbol is Referenced In some situations you might want to know why a symbol is referenced by your app. For example: You might be working with a security auditing tool that flags uses of malloc. You might be creating a privacy manifest and want to track down where your app is calling stat. This post is my attempt at explaining a general process for tracking down the origin of these symbol references. This process works from ‘below’. That is, it works ‘up’ from you app’s binary rather than ‘down’ from your app’s source code. That’s important because: It might be hard to track down all of your source code, especially if you’re using one or more package management systems. If your app has a binary dependency on a static library, dynamic library, or framework, you might not have access to that library’s source code. IMPORTANT This post assumes the terminology from An Apple Library Primer. Read that before continuing here. The general outline of this process is: Find all Mach-O images. Find the Mach-O image that references the symbol. Find the object files (.o) used to make that Mach-O. Find the object file that references the symbol. Find the code within that object file. Those last few steps require some gnarly low-level Mach-O knowledge. If you’re looking for an easier path, try using the approach described in the A higher-level alternative section as a replacement for steps 3 through 5. This post assumes that you’re using Xcode. If you’re using third-party tools that are based on Apple tools, and specifically Apple’s linker, you should be able to adapt this process to your tooling. If you’re using a third-party tool that has its own linker, you’ll need to ask for help via your tool’s support channel. Find all Mach-O images On Apple platforms an app consists of a number of Mach-O images. Every app has a main executable. The app may also embed dynamic libraries or frameworks. The app may also embed app extensions or system extensions, each of which have their own executable. And a Mac app might have embedded bundles, helper tools, XPC services, agents, daemons, and so on. To find all the Mach-O images in your app, combine the find and file tools. For example: % find "Apple Configurator.app" -print0 | xargs -0 file | grep Mach-O Apple Configurator.app/Contents/MacOS/Apple Configurator: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64] … Apple Configurator.app/Contents/MacOS/cfgutil: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64] … Apple Configurator.app/Contents/Extensions/ConfiguratorIntents.appex/Contents/MacOS/ConfiguratorIntents: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64] … Apple Configurator.app/Contents/Frameworks/ConfigurationUtilityKit.framework/Versions/A/ConfigurationUtilityKit: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64] [arm64] … This shows that Apple Configurator has a main executable (Apple Configurator), a helper tool (cfgutil), an app extension (ConfiguratorIntents), a framework (ConfigurationUtilityKit), and many more. This output is quite unwieldy. For nicer output, create and use a shell script like this: % cat FindMachO.sh #! /bin/sh # Passing `-0` to `find` causes it to emit a NUL delimited after the # file name and the `:`. Sadly, macOS `cut` doesn’t support a nul # delimiter so we use `tr` to convert that to a DLE (0x01) and `cut` on # that. # # Weirdly, `find` only inserts the NUL on the primary line, not the # per-architecture Mach-O lines. We use that to our advantage, filtering # out the per-architecture noise by only passing through lines # containing a DLE. find "$@" -type f -print0 \ | xargs -0 file -0 \ | grep -a Mach-O \ | tr '\0' '\1' \ | grep -a $(printf '\1') \ | cut -d $(printf '\1') -f 1 Find the Mach-O image that references the symbol Once you have a list of Mach-O images, use nm to find the one that references the symbol. The rest of this post investigate a test app, WaffleVarnishORama, that’s written in Swift but uses waffle management functionality from the libWaffleCore.a static library. The goal is to find the code that calls calloc. This app has a single Mach-O image: % FindMachO.sh "WaffleVarnishORama.app" WaffleVarnishORama.app/WaffleVarnishORama Use nm to confirm that it references calloc: % nm "WaffleVarnishORama.app/WaffleVarnishORama" | grep "calloc" U _calloc The _calloc symbol has a leading underscore because it’s a C symbol. This convention dates from the dawn of Unix, where the underscore distinguish C symbols from assembly language symbols. The U prefix indicates that the symbol is undefined, that is, the Mach-O images is importing the symbol. If the symbol name is prefixed by a hex number and some other character, like T or t, that means that the library includes an implementation of calloc. That’s weird, but certainly possible. OTOH, if you see this then you know this Mach-O image isn’t importing calloc. IMPORTANT If this Mach-O isn’t something that you build — that is, you get this Mach-O image as a binary from another developer — you won’t be able to follow the rest of this process. Instead, ask for help via that library’s support channel. Find the object files used to make that Mach-O image The next step is to track down which .o file includes the reference to calloc. Do this by generating a link map. A link map is an old school linker feature that records the location, size, and origin of every symbol added to the linker’s output. To generate a link map, enable the Write Link Map File build setting. By default this puts the link map into a text (.txt) file within the derived data directory. To find the exact path, look at the Link step in the build log. If you want to customise this, use the Path to Link Map File build setting. A link map has three parts: A simple header A list of object files used to build the Mach-O image A list of sections and their symbols In our case the link map looks like this: # Path: …/WaffleVarnishORama.app/WaffleVarnishORama # Arch: arm64 # Object files: [ 0] linker synthesized [ 1] objc-file [ 2] …/AppDelegate.o [ 3] …/MainViewController.o [ 4] …/libWaffleCore.a[2](WaffleCore.o) [ 5] …/Foundation.framework/Foundation.tbd … # Sections: # Address Size Segment Section 0x100008000 0x00001AB8 __TEXT __text … The list of object files contains: An object file for each of our app’s source files — That’s AppDelegate.o and MainViewController.o in this example. A list of static libraries — Here that’s just libWaffleCore.a. A list of dynamic libraries — These might be stub libraries (.tbd), dynamic libraries (.dylib), or frameworks (.framework). Focus on the object files and static libraries. The list of dynamic libraries is irrelevant because each of those is its own Mach-O image. Find the object file that references the symbol Once you have list of object files and static libraries, use nm to each one for the calloc symbol: % nm "…/AppDelegate.o" | grep calloc % nm "…/MainViewController.o" | grep calloc % nm "…/libWaffleCore.a" | grep calloc U _calloc This indicates that only libWaffleCore.a references the calloc symbol, so let’s focus on that. Note As in the Mach-O case, the U prefix indicates that the symbol is undefined, that is, the object file is importing the symbol. Find the code within that object file To find the code within the object file that references the symbol, use the objdump tool. That tool takes an object file as input, but in this example we have a static library. That’s an archive containing one or more object files. So, the first step is to unpack that archive: % mkdir "libWaffleCore-objects" % cd "libWaffleCore-objects" % ar -x "…/libWaffleCore.a" % ls -lh total 24 -rw-r--r-- 1 quinn staff 4.1K 8 May 11:24 WaffleCore.o -rw-r--r-- 1 quinn staff 56B 8 May 11:24 __.SYMDEF SORTED There’s only a single object file in that library, which makes things easy. If there were a multiple, run the following process over each one independently. To find the code that references a symbol, run objdump with the -S and -r options: % xcrun objdump -S -r "WaffleCore.o" … ; extern WaffleRef newWaffle(void) { 0: d10083ff sub sp, sp, #32 4: a9017bfd stp x29, x30, [sp, #16] 8: 910043fd add x29, sp, #16 c: d2800020 mov x0, #1 10: d2800081 mov x1, #4 ; Waffle * result = calloc(1, sizeof(Waffle)); 14: 94000000 bl 0x14 <ltmp0+0x14> 0000000000000014: ARM64_RELOC_BRANCH26 _calloc … Note the ARM64_RELOC_BRANCH26 line. This tells you that the instruction before that — the bl at offset 0x14 — references the _calloc symbol. IMPORTANT The ARM64_RELOC_BRANCH26 relocation is specific to the bl instruction in 64-bit Arm code. You’ll see other relocations for other instructions. And the Intel architecture has a whole different set of relocations. So, when searching this output don’t look for ARM64_RELOC_BRANCH26 specifically, but rather any relocation that references _calloc. In this case we’ve built the object file from source code, so WaffleCore.o contains debug symbols. That allows objdump include information about the source code context. From that, we can easily see that calloc is referenced by our newWaffle function. To see what happens when you don’t have debug symbols, create an new object file with them stripped out: % cp "WaffleCore.o" "WaffleCore-stripped.o" % strip -x -S "WaffleCore-stripped.o" Then repeat the objdump command: % xcrun objdump -S -r "WaffleCore-stripped.o" … 0000000000000000 <_newWaffle>: 0: d10083ff sub sp, sp, #32 4: a9017bfd stp x29, x30, [sp, #16] 8: 910043fd add x29, sp, #16 c: d2800020 mov x0, #1 10: d2800081 mov x1, #4 14: 94000000 bl 0x14 <_newWaffle+0x14> 0000000000000014: ARM64_RELOC_BRANCH26 _calloc … While this isn’t as nice as the previous output, you can still see that newWaffle is calling calloc. A higher-level alternative Grovelling through Mach-O object files is quite tricky. Fortunately there’s an easier approach: Use the -why_live option to ask the linker why it included a reference to the symbol. To continue the above example, I set the Other Linker Flags build setting to -Xlinker / -why_live / -Xlinker / _calloc and this is what I saw in the build transcript: _calloc from /usr/lib/system/libsystem_malloc.dylib _newWaffle from …/libWaffleCore.a[2](WaffleCore.o) _$s18WaffleVarnishORama18MainViewControllerC05tableE0_14didSelectRowAtySo07UITableE0C_10Foundation9IndexPathVtFTf4dnn_n from …/MainViewController.o _$s18WaffleVarnishORama18MainViewControllerC05tableE0_14didSelectRowAtySo07UITableE0C_10Foundation9IndexPathVtF from …/MainViewController.o Demangling reveals a call chain like this: calloc newWaffle WaffleVarnishORama.MainViewController.tableView(_:didSelectRowAt:) WaffleVarnishORama.MainViewController.tableView(_:didSelectRowAt:) and that should be enough to kick start your investigation. IMPORTANT The -why_live option only works if you dead strip your Mach-O image. This is the default for the Release build configuration, so use that for this test. Revision History 2025-07-18 Added the A higher-level alternative section. 2024-05-08 First posted.

I am developing a Flutter app for food delivery (a multivendor e-commerce restaurant app). In the vendor app (Android), I successfully implemented a background notification that stays active until the vendor responds with either Accept or Decline. This works fine on Android, but I cannot get the same functionality working on iOS. My requirements: Vendor should receive a background notification. The notification should include action buttons (Accept / Decline). It should remain active until the vendor takes action. My questions: Is this possible to implement in iOS with Flutter? If yes, what is the recommended way (e.g., firebase_messaging, flutter_local_notifications, flutter_foreground_task, or native iOS integration)? Are there any iOS restrictions I should consider compared to Android background services? I built this for Android using firebase_messaging + flutter_foreground_task + flutter_local_notifications. On iOS, I tried setting up firebase_messaging and flutter_local_notifications, but I’m unable to keep the notification persistent with Accept/Decline action buttons. I expected similar behavior to Android, but it seems iOS has more restrictions around background services and notification handling. Dependencies I am using (relevant ones): firebase_core: ^3.8.0 firebase_messaging: ^15.1.5 flutter_local_notifications: ^17.2.2 flutter_foreground_task: ^8.17.0 get: ^4.7.2 shared_preferences: ^2.3.2

Hi, I requested the https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=6482849843&country=us for getting the information of Goods puzzle sort challange , but the screenshotUrls in the response was empty. Is iTunes search API has issue with getting the screenshot urls ? Is there any plan to update it ?

Im getting this specific error 'Apple 403 detected - Access forbidden' when trying to build my app, my previous 10 builds all succesfully work but now it keeps on giving this error. I'm guessing its because of a new agreement email I recieved. But when i got to both developer website and app store connect there is no new agreements to accept. I'm quite stuck. Any help appreciated. Thanks

I am a developer working on an iOS enterprise application. When I deployed the release version to my device, it crashes upon startup. It works fine in debug mode on my device. The app is an upgraded version of Xamarin Form to .NET MAUI. I have attached a crash report. I would appreciate any help/insights on how to resolve. --John

Tech stack: React Native + Expo. We are using two solo developer accounts (not a business or team account). Context: Friend and I set out to make an app together. Friend created app and set it up on Apple. We worked on it together. He controlled devops (builds and submission). Friend no longer can commit to development. Wants to transfer to me. I create apple developer account. After app transfer, my phone (deviceid) underwent a 14 day soft ban preventing builds. That has since been lifted. There seems to be something in place preventing me from making dev builds on the original dev bundleid. It says it's still owned by him despite the app transfer. Bottom line: what needs to happen so 1 can make dev builds? nice to have: is there a way for us to both make dev builds under the same bundleid?

How can I allow the popup I am encountering while I run my UI tests with video recording in the Github actions. Since these tests are running on VMs, it's not possible to manually click Allow. Also the remote robot cannot interact with OS-level dialogs.

Just recently, any pkg file that I create with pkgbuild will install the Payload's application as a zero-byte file in the /Applications directory. This has been working for years without issue for me. Here are the commands I am using with company specific items replaced: pkgbuild --analyze --root MyApplicationRootDirectory standalone.plist plutil -replace BundleIsRelocatable -bool NO standalone.plist pkgbuild --identifier MyIdentifier --version 1.0 --install-location /Applications --root MyApplicationRootDirectory --component-plist standalone.plist --sign 'Developer ID Installer: MyCompany (MySignId)' --timestamp installer.pkg Any ideas on what could be causing the issue? I have verified the following: The application being added to the pkg is both signed and notarized using the correct Developer ID Application certificate. The resultant pkg file is both signed and notarized using the Developer ID Installer certificate. Verified the pkg contents using "pkgutil --expand" to dump the contents. Verified the pkg's Payload contents by extracting the data using "cat Payload | gunzip | cpio -1". This results in an application file that is a binary match for file added in the "pkgbuild --root" argument. My application is the only file within the directory passed to the "pkgbuild --root" argument. There are no warnings in the System Settings / Privacy & Security Panel when running the package installer. I have a valid Mac Developer account. I am building the application and the pkg file on the same computer. Thank you for any insight.

I wanted to rollback a commit. So I shifted to the commit before it. Then I added new commits on the one I switched to, not realising this is not happening on the main branch. Now what do I do? Neerav

Hello - I’m the Account Holder for an individual Apple Developer Program account. I’m working with freelance junior developers who are building my app in React Native mainly in TypeScript (.tsx) with some JavaScript, with code in GitHub. The app currently runs in Expo Go now. I’ve been directed to this forum for step-by-step guidance. Specifically I need clear, sequential instructions I can give my developers (and what I personally must do on my Mac) so they can produce a properly signed iOS build for TestFlight (internal testing), and Upload that build to App Store Connect and then submit the release to the App Store. Context: This is an individual developer account (not an organization). I am the only person with a Mac. I added them as developers but was told I need to be the one to upload the final build (is this true, and if so, what do they send me to do that, and when they send it to me, can you please tell me exactly what I need to do from there?) I was told about Swift Playground, possible SwiftUI conversion if needed, APK file, and using my Xcode for final submission, but not sure what to make of this that will get it on TestFlight from the current React Native. What I would like to ask for help with is a concise, step-by-step checklist (including exact menu names / commands or tools like EAS Submit, Transporter, or Xcode) of the developers' steps and my admin/account holder steps, so I can hand it to the developers and make sure nothing is missed to get on TestFlight. I’m on a tight timeline, so any clear, detailed guidance would be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much. I have looked everywhere and cannot find a step-by-step!

where can i find the account quota usage for WeatherAPI?

Hello, I have a question about running tests on multiple simulators. Currently, my company has a WDIO+Appium test suite with XCUITEST driver that runs on a single simulator through a mockttp proxy (we are intercepting and mocking some of the responses from our APIs and pass through the rest). In order to route the traffic we are currently using 'networksetup -setsecurewebproxy '. Everything works as expected. With growing number of tests we'd like to scale number of simulators on a single host to 3-5. We have a working setup but the problem are system-wide proxy settings routing traffic from multiple simulators, which we can't distinguish by UDID or any other means, we know of. We can spin multiple mock servers on the same machine but we are struggling to find the way to route the traffic on a simulator basis. In the end, both options are viable: 1 mock server running for multiple simulators N number of mock servers for N number of simulators Has anyone had the same/similar problem? How to approach this? We are currently running on Sequoia OSX and platform version 18.6. Thanks!

Weirdness going on here. Our app is crashing on startup with iPad 7s running iOS 18.5. Before updating to iOS 18.5, it was working fine on iPad 7s. Even with iOS 18.5, it is working fine on every device we have tried including dozens of other iPads and iPhones. We have narrowed it down to the SquareReaderSDK. If we remove that SDK, it will launch and work without issues. But, many of our users need the SquareReaderSDK. The crash happens at app load, before appDelegate didFinishLaunchingWithOptions. So we can't figure out any way to debug the issue. Is anyone else having a similar issue? Square thinks it is an Apple issue.

With the latest (26) version of Apple's developer tools, is there a way to manually attach a debugger (other than lldb) to an iOS app launched with "devicectl device process launch --start-stopped"? In the past, this was possible via the ios-deploy third-party tool (now defunct), which provided a debugserver port. This information is notably missing when using devicectrl – although the process ID of the launch process is provided, and the tool is clearly aimed at letting you launch and attach to processes from the command line. lldb can, of course, attach via its built-in support for this using the device set of commands. But I'm explicitly looking for a way to attach my own debugger via the GDB-compatible debug proxy.

This browser extension is a doc reading enhancer for the Apple Developer website. It supports i18n translation, hover link previews, and bilingual display. Currently, it supports four languages: ja-JP, ko-KR, zh-CN, and zh-TW. It works with Swift/SwiftUI/Foundation modules now, and it's expected to support Swift Test, Swift Charts, UIKit, Swift Playground, and XCode modules by the end of this month. For more info, check out: https://appledocs.dev. You can also visit https://appledocs.dev/progress to see translation progress and vote. Note: It's only works on Chrome、Edge(In review)、Firefox(In review) Screenshot:

I added an Apple Watch app target for an iOS app. If I install it directly through Xcode it runs, however it seems to be able to communicate with iphone through Watch Connectivity framework and once I close the app it seems to uninstall itself from the watch. When I installed the iphone app frist, the app does not show up on the available apps on the iphone Watch application, what could be the issue ? The iphone app was created using react native through expo. Testing Devices Iphone 13 pro max IOS 26.0.1 --- Apple Watch Series 4 WatchOS 10.6

Hi, I am having an issue with xcodebuild -showdestinations command. Steps to reproduce: Create a new iOS application project in Xcode or use an existing one. Navigate to this project in a terminal. Run xcodebuild -project 'your-project-name.xcodeproj' -scheme 'your-scheme' -showdestinations What I expect: All destinations available in the Xcode UI should be listed. What I get: It depends. For new projects, I consistently get only generic platform destinations and my connected physical device. When I run the same command on an older project, I sometimes see all the expected destinations. It seems to be a roughly 50/50 chance between the two outcomes. Is there a way to get consistent results from xcodebuild -showdestinations? What can I do to ensure all destinations are listed reliably? Here is a more detailed log and a screenshot: ❯ xcodebuild -workspace 'WorkoutDiary.xcworkspace' -scheme 'WorkoutDiary' -showdestinations Command line invocation: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcodebuild -workspace WorkoutDiary.xcworkspace -scheme WorkoutDiary -showdestinations User defaults from command line: IDEPackageSupportUseBuiltinSCM = YES 2025-06-17 19:13:50.261 xcodebuild[34753:6177985] DVTDeviceOperation: Encountered a build number "" that is incompatible with DVTBuildVersion. 2025-06-17 19:13:50.342 xcodebuild[34753:6177959] [MT] DVTDeviceOperation: Encountered a build number "" that is incompatible with DVTBuildVersion. Resolve Package Graph Resolved source packages: <REDACTED> Available destinations for the "WorkoutDiary" scheme: { platform:macOS, arch:arm64, variant:Designed for [iPad,iPhone], id:<REDACTED>, name:My Mac } { platform:iOS, arch:arm64, id:<REDACTED>, name:<REDACTED> } { platform:iOS, id:dvtdevice-DVTiPhonePlaceholder-iphoneos:placeholder, name:Any iOS Device } { platform:iOS Simulator, id:dvtdevice-DVTiOSDeviceSimulatorPlaceholder-iphonesimulator:placeholder, name:Any iOS Simulator Device } ❯ xcodebuild -workspace 'WorkoutDiary.xcworkspace' -scheme 'WorkoutDiary' -showdestinations Command line invocation: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcodebuild -workspace WorkoutDiary.xcworkspace -scheme WorkoutDiary -showdestinations User defaults from command line: IDEPackageSupportUseBuiltinSCM = YES 2025-06-17 19:13:52.393 xcodebuild[34757:6178035] DVTDeviceOperation: Encountered a build number "" that is incompatible with DVTBuildVersion. 2025-06-17 19:13:52.472 xcodebuild[34757:6178020] [MT] DVTDeviceOperation: Encountered a build number "" that is incompatible with DVTBuildVersion. Resolve Package Graph Resolved source packages: <REDACTED> Available destinations for the "WorkoutDiary" scheme: { platform:macOS, arch:arm64, variant:Designed for [iPad,iPhone], id:<REDACTED>, name:My Mac } { platform:iOS, arch:arm64, id:<REDACTED>, name:<REDACTED> } { platform:iOS, id:dvtdevice-DVTiPhonePlaceholder-iphoneos:placeholder, name:Any iOS Device } { platform:iOS Simulator, id:dvtdevice-DVTiOSDeviceSimulatorPlaceholder-iphonesimulator:placeholder, name:Any iOS Simulator Device } { platform:iOS Simulator, id:DBFB9613-0261-4544-908A-335570F3C35F, OS:18.3.1, name:iPhone 11 } { platform:iOS Simulator, id:A48C309C-231A-4197-A295-900F89C94D86, OS:18.3.1, name:iPhone 16 Pro Max }

I am trying to integrate Apple Music API using MusicKit and need to generate a Developer Token. However, when I try to create a new key from the Certificates, Identifiers &amp; Profiles section, the “Media Services (MusicKit, ShazamKit, Apple Music Feed)” option is grayed out. We are getting the error 'there are no identifiers available that can be associated with the key.' Although we did checkmark 'musickit' in app services. I have already: Enrolled in the paid Apple Developer Program Created a valid App ID under Identifiers Logged in as the Account Holder Tried multiple browsers and devices Despite this, the option remains disabled. Could you please enable this or let me know what further steps I need to take? Thank you!

We have a .ipa file that we need to side load on iPhone via USB connected to a MAC. IPA file will be on MAC. We can't use enterprise license. We have a business use case where we need to side load the app. Any way to do that or can be reach apple support for this? Please help. Note: The iPhones attached will not have the Apple ID logged in. There are companies who are side loading the app for business purpose on the customers phone.