General: Forums topic: Code Signing Forums subtopics: Code Signing > General, Code Signing > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Code Signing > Notarization, Code Signing > Entitlements Forums tags: Code Signing, Signing Certificates, Provisioning Profiles, Entitlements Developer Account Help — This document is good in general but, in particular, the Reference section is chock-full of useful information, including the names and purposes of all certificate types issued by Apple Developer web site, tables of which capabilities are supported by which distribution models on iOS and macOS, and information on how to use managed capabilities. Developer > Support > Certificates covers some important policy issues Bundle Resources > Entitlements documentation TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles — This includes links to the other technotes in the Inside Code Signing series. WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing Certificate Signing Requests Explained forums post --deep Considered Harmful forums post Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code forums post Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing forums post Finding a Capability’s Distribution Restrictions forums post Signing code with a hardware-based code-signing identity forums post New Capabilities Request Tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles forums post Isolating Code Signing Problems from Build Problems forums post Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems forums post Determining if an entitlement is real forums post Code Signing Identifiers Explained forums post Mac code signing: Forums tag: Developer ID Creating distribution-signed code for macOS documentation Packaging Mac software for distribution documentation Placing Content in a Bundle documentation Embedding nonstandard code structures in a bundle documentation Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app documentation Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement documentation Defining launch environment and library constraints documentation WWDC 2023 Session 10266 Protect your Mac app with environment constraints TN2206 macOS Code Signing In Depth archived technote — This doc has mostly been replaced by the other resources linked to here but it still contains a few unique tidbits and it’s a great historical reference. Manual Code Signing Example forums post The Care and Feeding of Developer ID forums post TestFlight, Provisioning Profiles, and the Mac App Store forums post For problems with notarisation, see Notarisation Resources. For problems with the trusted execution system, including Gatekeeper, see Trusted Execution Resources. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

You can now easily request access to managed capabilities for your App IDs directly from the new Capability Requests tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles > Identifiers. With this update, view available capabilities in one convenient location, check the status of your requested capabilities, and see any notes from Apple related to your requests. Learn more about capability requests.

I submitted an Endpoint Security entitlement request today (request ID NWFPYC286F, Team type). The request shows up in my Request History with status "Submitted," but I never received an ACK email or follow-up number. I've checked spam/junk folders and the email associated with our team account. Nothing from Apple. Two questions: Is the request actually in the review queue if I have a request ID in the portal but no email confirmation? Is there any way to check status or get a timeline estimate? This entitlement is critical for our product development. We're building agent identity infrastructure that needs ES for process-level attestation on macOS. Appreciate any help, especially from anyone who's been through this recently.

Hi, I was trying to run a macOS VM under a launchd daemon as part of a requirement. The parent daemon spawns a macOS VM under root user. Sometimes this is fine, but sometimes I'm getting a security error from VZ library : Unable to access security information. The virtual machine encountered a security error. In system logs, I was able to see this : ctkd: unable to generate key: error e00002e2 for com.apple.Virtualization.VirtualMachine with SepKey ACL I think this indicates Virtualization.framework asked CryptoTokenKit/Secure Enclave to create a key, and the security subsystem rejected it in the current execution context. Is it possible to run VM this way ? If yes, what am I missing ?

Hi Apple DTS and community, My developer account's app has been granted the Default Mail App managed capability (com.apple.developer.mail-client). The capability works for Development and App Store Connect distribution, but it is not enabled for Ad Hoc distribution. This prevents us from using our Xcode Cloud “Archive & TestFlight” workflow: The archive succeeds. Development and App Store Connect exports succeed. Xcode Cloud then automatically attempts an Ad Hoc export. The Ad Hoc export fails, causing the entire archive action to fail and the TestFlight post-action to be skipped. The export log reports: Entitlement com.apple.developer.mail-client not found and could not be included in profile. This likely is not a valid entitlement and should be removed from your entitlements file. We have reproduced this in two consecutive Xcode Cloud runs. We also confirmed that: The App ID has the Default Mail App capability enabled. The entitlement is present and correctly spelled in the app’s entitlements file. The App ID’s provisioning support lists Development and App Store Connect, but not Ad Hoc. Our Xcode Cloud workflow does not expose an option to disable the automatically attempted Ad Hoc export. This appears to match these previous reports: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/774506 — a DTS engineer enabled Ad Hoc support for the entitlement, after which the developer confirmed the issue was resolved. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/800072 — DTS confirmed that the Ad Hoc distribution option must be enabled for the Default Mail App managed capability. We also opened an Apple Developer Support case (102945477410). Developer Support directed us to the forums and indicated that this issue would need to be handled by DTS engineers. I can provide our Team ID, Developer Support case number, Xcode Cloud run identifiers, and any other account details privately if needed. Thank you!

Game Center matchmaking fails for all non-default users on Apple TV — no IDS registration for secondary users (FB24156316) On a multi-user Apple TV (tvOS 26.5, Apple TV 4K 3rd gen), Game Center real-time matchmaking fails for every user except the default user, in every app I've tested — including Apple Arcade titles. Filed as FB24156316 with full logs and sysdiagnose; posting here for visibility and in case anyone has shipped multi-user GC multiplayer on tvOS successfully. My game adopts com.apple.developer.user-management (runs-as-current-user-with-user-independent-keychain). The entitlement itself works: on a secondary user's profile the app runs under that user's persona and GKLocalPlayer authenticates as them — the welcome banner shows the right account. But any GKMatchmakerViewController quickmatch hard-fails within ~9 seconds ("Failed to find players"), and accepting an invite fails with GKError 35 ("not signed in to iCloud") even though Settings shows that user's iCloud as signed in. Unified logs show the root cause. When matchmaking starts, gamed can't provision the player's pseudonym because the current user has no identity-services registration: gamed No URI found on any account -- returning nil gamed Failed to fetch pseudonym for local player. Error: GameDaemonCore.PseudonymManagerError.failedToProvision( internalError: Error Domain=com.apple.ids.IDSPseudonymErrorDomain Code=400 "Invalid URI") For the default user, the identical flow succeeds (identityservicesd … resultCode: 0). Across a full day of log capture — profile adds, a remove/re-add, multiple user switches — identityservicesd never once references the secondary users' accounts: registration for them is never attempted, not attempted-and-failed. Meanwhile gamed advertises the nearby-matchmaking Bonjour service with the default user's identity while the foreground app runs as the secondary user. Reproduction matrix: two apps (my shipping game Extreme Violence and Apple Arcade's Crossy Road Castle, which also runs under the correct persona), both sandbox and production Game Center, two unrelated secondary accounts (both healthy elsewhere). Persists across reboot and profile remove/re-add. Default user unaffected. The documentation says the entitlement is all that's needed ("each person who uses your app will have access to… their own Game Center… you don't have to make any code changes" — WWDC20 session 10645). As far as I can tell that promise is currently unfulfillable for online play: there is no API or Settings path that creates the missing IDS registration. Has anyone seen non-default-user matchmaking work on tvOS, on any version? Is there anything an app can do here, or is this purely an OS-side fix? (Related: thread 782163 — a different tvOS matchmaking failure that DTS confirmed as a bug.)

Hi team, Earlier, Apple’s documentation clearly mentioned that we needed to submit a request to Apple to obtain the Location Push Service Extension (com.apple.developer.location.push) entitlement. However, when I checked the Apple Developer Portal now, I don’t see an option to request this entitlement for my App ID. Could you please confirm whether this entitlement is still required to be requested from Apple, or if the process has changed and the request is no longer required? Thanks

Product area macOS / Privacy & Security / ScreenCaptureKit / Core Graphics Environment macOS 27 Beta 4 (build: fill in your exact build number, e.g. 27A5xxx) Xcode 26.5 / SDK 260500 (adjust to match what you actually built with) App holds the com.apple.developer.persistent-content-capture entitlement (approved via Apple's request form), targeting macOS 14.4+ Summary Our app is a remote-support/remote-control tool (screen viewing + control), comparable to VNC-style products. On macOS 27, we've found that System Settings > Privacy & Security now shows a "Remote Desktop" entry that is distinct from "Screen & System Audio Recording" — granting one does not affect the other. We need a way to check, at any time, whether our app currently has "Remote Desktop" authorization, without causing the system to show a permission-request alert as a side effect. We have not found a documented, public API that does this. What we've tried CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() Confirmed via a controlled test on-device: granting only "Remote Desktop" leaves this API returning false; granting only "Screen & System Audio Recording" makes it return true. So this API appears to reflect kTCCServiceScreenCapture only, and does not reflect the "Remote Desktop" permission at all. ScreenCaptureKit (SCShareableContent, e.g. via a refreshAvailableContentWithCompletionHandler:-style call) This call does appear to interact with the "Remote Desktop" permission — but calling it triggers a real system consent alert every time we call it, even when we only intend to read the current status, not request it. This makes it unusable for passive/background status polling (e.g. to decide what to show in our own onboarding UI without surprising the user with an OS-level prompt). We are intentionally not reading /Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db directly — we understand this is a private, undocumented database and want a supported API instead. Sample code illustrating both attempts // Attempt 1: CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess — does not reflect Remote Desktop grant BOOL preflightResult = CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess(); // preflightResult stays NO even after the user grants "Remote Desktop" in // System Settings > Privacy & Security > Remote Desktop. // It correctly flips to YES only when "Screen & System Audio Recording" is granted. // Attempt 2: ScreenCaptureKit-based check — reflects it, but prompts every time SCShareableContent... // (via our wrapper) refreshAvailableContentWithCompletionHandler: // This call appears to influence/query the Remote Desktop TCC entry, but the OS // shows a permission alert as a side effect of the call itself, even when we only // want to read the current authorization state. Question Is there a public, documented API equivalent to CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() — i.e., a read-only, non-prompting status check — for the new "Remote Desktop" privacy category introduced around macOS 26/27? Is com.apple.developer.persistent-content-capture actually the entitlement that governs this new "Remote Desktop" category, or is it unrelated? Apple's own documentation describes this entitlement purely in terms of "persistent access to screen capture" for VNC apps, with no mention of a distinct "Remote Desktop" permission surface — we'd like to confirm whether that description is still accurate on macOS 26/27, or whether the underlying TCC service (kTCCServiceRemoteDesktop, which we found via TCC.db schema inspection only, not public docs) has been intentionally split out. If no such API exists yet, is this planned, and is there a recommended interim approach for apps that need to know this state before deciding whether to show their own onboarding/permission UI?

I ship a macOS audio player on the Mac App Store. I want to re-enable a remote-control feature, but I got rejected for it once already and I want to avoid burning another review cycle. I'd appreciate guidance from anyone who has shipped this pattern. What the feature does The Mac app runs a small local HTTP server (BSD sockets + GCD) on port 7777 and advertises itself over Bonjour as _tmstudioplayer._tcp. A companion iOS app discovers it with NWBrowser and controls playback: transport, volume, EQ, and so on. Everything stays on the local network. There is no cloud service, no account, no login, and no user data leaves the device. The server only accepts connections while the Mac app is running and in the foreground. This requires com.apple.security.network.server, plus NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription in Info.plist. The rejection An earlier build was rejected because com.apple.security.network.server was declared but App Review could not observe any functionality that justified it. That was fair. At the time the iOS companion app did not exist publicly, so from the reviewer's side the entitlement genuinely looked unused. I removed the entitlement, and the app was approved and is on the store today with the remote feature disabled. The iOS app now exists and works end to end. So I would like to turn the feature back on. The actual problem The feature is, by definition, not demonstrable on a single machine. To see it work, a reviewer needs a Mac and an iPhone on the same local network, with a build of the iOS app installed. As far as I can tell, App Review does not link a macOS app record and an iOS app record so they get reviewed together — they are separate submissions in separate queues. So I cannot simply say "review these two together and you'll see it work." That leaves me guessing at the right approach, and each guess costs a review cycle. What I'm asking What is the correct submission order? Should the iOS companion be live on the App Store first, so I can point to it by name and App ID in the macOS Review Notes? Is a public TestFlight build enough? Does a reviewer even accept a TestFlight link as evidence? Is a demo video sufficient on its own? I can record the full flow — launching the Mac app, the iPhone discovering it over Bonjour, and control working — and attach it to App Review Information. Has that alone been accepted for a local-network feature, or does the reviewer still need to reproduce it? Is there a supported way to point one submission at another? Anything better than a plain-text description in the Review Notes — an App ID reference, a link, an attachment convention that reviewers actually follow? Does a reviewer have a second device available at all? If a two-device local-network setup is simply not something App Review will perform, I'd rather know now and plan around it than assume otherwise. Is there a fallback demo path I'm missing? For example, shipping a loopback/self-test mode in the Mac app that exercises the server on 127.0.0.1 and shows the result in the UI, so the entitlement is demonstrably used without a second device. Would that satisfy the "entitlement must be used" requirement on its own? What I'll do either way If the answer is that this cannot be demonstrated reliably, I'll keep the entitlement out and ship the remote feature only in a direct-distribution (notarized, non-sandboxed) build. I'd just rather not find that out through another rejection. Any first-hand experience with local-network / companion-device features on the Mac App Store would help a lot. Thanks.

I’m trying to request an NFC PassKit Certificate through https://developer.apple.com/contact/passkit/. After clicking Send, the completed form is POSTed successfully and receives 200 OK, but the server returns the original form instead of a confirmation page. The page’s passkit.js then clears all fields, and Developer Support confirmed that my earlier submission was never received. Has anyone else encountered this behavior or found another way to submit the NFC PassKit Certificate request?

This is my first driver and I have had the devil of a time trying to find any information to help me with this. I beg help with this, since I cannot find any tutorials that will get me over this problem. I am attempting to write a bridging driver for an older UPS that only communicates via RPC-over-USB rather than the HID Power Device class the OS requires. I have written the basic framework for the driver (details below) and am calling OSSystemExtensionRequest.submitRequest with a request object created by OSSystemExtensionRequest.activationRequest, but the didFailWithError callback is called with OSSystemExtensionErrorDomain of a value of 9, which appears to be a general failure to activate the driver. I can find no other information on how to address this issue, but I presume the issue is one of entitlements in either the entitlements file or Info.plist. I will have more code-based details below. For testing context, I am testing this on a 2021 iMac (M1) running Sequoia 15.7, and this iMac is on MDM, specifically Jamf. I have disabled SIP and set systemextensionsctl developer on, per the instructions here, and I have compiled and am attempting to debug the app using xcode 26.2. The driver itself targets DriverKit 25, as 26 does not appear to be available in xcode despite hints on google that it's out. For the software, I have a two-target structure in my xcode project, the main Manager app, which is a swift-ui app that both handles installation/activation of the driver and (if that finally manages to work) handles communication from the driver via its UserClient, and the driver which compiles as a dext. Both apps compile and use automated signing attached to our Apple Development team. I won't delve into the Manager app much, as it runs even though activation fails, except to include its entitlements file in case it proves relevant <dict> <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.communicates-with-drivers</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.developer.system-extension.install</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-only</key> <true/> </dict> and the relevant activation code: func request(_ request: OSSystemExtensionRequest, didFailWithError error: any Error) { // handling the error, which is always code value 9 } func activateDriver() { let request = OSSystemExtensionRequest.activationRequest(forExtensionWithIdentifier: "com.mycompany.driver.bundle.identifier", queue: .main) request.delegate = self OSSystemExtensionManager.shared.submitRequest(request) //... } And finally the Manager app has the following capabilities requested for its matching identifier in our Apple Developer Account: DriverKit Communicates with Drivers System Extension On the Driver side, I have two major pieces, the main driver class MyDriver, and UserClient class, StatusUserClient. MyDriver derives from IDriverKit/IOService.iig but (in case this is somehow important) does not have the same name as the project/target name MyBatteryDriver. StatusUserClient derives from DriverKit/IOUserClient.iig. I have os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "trace messages") code in every method of both classes, including the initializers and Start implementations, and the log entries never seem to show up in Console, so I presume that means the OS never tried to load the driver. Unless I'm looking in the wrong place? Because I don't think the driver code is the current issue, I won't go into it unless it becomes necessary. As I mentioned above, I think this is a code signing / entitlements issue, but I don't know how to resolve it. In our Apple Developer account, the Driver's matching identifier has the following capabilities requested: DriverKit (development) DriverKit Allow Any UserClient (development) DriverKit Family HID Device (development) -- NOTE: this is planned for future use, but not yet implemented by my driver code. Could that be part of the problem? DriverKit Transport HID (development) DriverKit USB Transport (development) DriverKit USB Transport - VendorID -- submitted, no response from Apple yet HID Virtual Device -- submitted, no response from Apple. yet. This is vestigial from an early plan to build the bridge via shared memory funneling to a virtual HID device. I think I've found a way to do it with one Service, but... not sure yet. Still, that's a problem for tomorrow. Apparently I've gone over the 7000 character maximum so I will add my entitlements and info.plist contents in a reply.

The entitlement documentation page for com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.hid.virtual.device says "To request this entitlement, fill out the request form." I can't find any way to actually request it. In Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles there is no row for that key anywhere — not on an App ID's Capabilities tab, and not under Capability Requests. Capability Requests does list these, with the entitlement key shown in each info tooltip: DriverKit Transport HID — com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.hid DriverKit Family HID Device — com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.hid.device DriverKit HID EventService — com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.hid.eventservice DriverKit UserClient Access — com.apple.developer.driverkit.userclient-access HID Virtual Device — com.apple.developer.hid.virtual.device So the only virtual-HID entry that exists in the portal is the CoreHID one. What I've built: a DriverKit dext that publishes a software-only HID game controller (no physical bus), so a macOS app can synthesise gamepad input for games that require a real controller. It builds against the DriverKit SDK and is signed. Its entitlements are com.apple.developer.driverkit, .transport.hid and .family.hid.virtual.device. The host-to-dext control channel is a vendor Feature report rather than a custom IOUserClient, so it needs no userclient-access. Questions: Is com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.hid.virtual.device still grantable? If a dext can no longer declare it for distribution, I would rather rebuild on CoreHID's HIDVirtualDevice now than keep building against a key I can't ship. If the DriverKit path is still supported for a virtual HID gamepad, what is the correct complete entitlement group? Karabiner-DriverKit-VirtualHIDDevice ships with com.apple.developer.driverkit + .transport.hid + .family.hid.device + .family.hid.eventservice + com.apple.developer.hid.virtual.device — i.e. a DriverKit dext holding the CoreHID virtual-device entitlement, and no .family.hid.virtual.device at all. Is that the supported shape? If .family.hid.virtual.device has been retired, should its documentation page be updated? Happy to file a Feedback if that's the right route. Not a status request: I do have a Virtual HID request queued and the portal shows it as Submitted, so I'm content to wait. I'd just rather find out now whether it's queued against the right key for what I've built.

It's been 2+ months now since I've submitted an entitlement request for the Notification Service Filtering Entitlement (NSE). I have a mobile app that I transferred from a previous developer account due to business reorganization and the previous account had this entitlement. However, after transferring the app, I am unable to push any updates to the app on iOS because the new developer account does not have the same entitlement. Everything outside of the developer account that the app is associated to remains the same - same workflow, same audience, same app use cases, etc.. However, we still have not had any progress on receiving the entitlement even after multiple escalations and follow-ups with the Apple Developer Support team. I am curious to know if any others within the Developer Community have requested this specific entitlement before and what your experience has been with it? Any advice on how I can expedite the approval for the entitlement? Otherwise our app continues to go stale on the iOS app store.

We went through Apple's CarPlay documentation and, based on what we found, CarPlay provides templates for both Navigation and Audio, and our app has entitlements for both. One thing we would like to confirm before proceeding with implementation is whether a single app can expose both Navigation and Audio experiences in CarPlay, using both entitlements. Specifically, can the same CarPlay app provide a navigation experience (e.g., using CPMapTemplate) while also exposing an Audio/"Now Playing" experience, or does Apple expect these experiences to be implemented as separate apps or otherwise treated as separate CarPlay experiences? We'd also like to confirm whether CarPlay now allows an app to display a split-screen interface with navigation/map content on one side and audio controls or "Now Playing" controls on the other side. If so, is this something a single app with both Navigation and Audio entitlements can implement? The documentation explains the available templates and entitlements, but we couldn't find explicit guidance on whether the same app can leverage both Navigation and Audio experiences or whether these can be presented together in a split-screen layout. We'd like to clarify this before implementing the "Now Playing" screen, to ensure our approach aligns with Apple's CarPlay requirements and guidelines.

Hello, We operate PasskeyGuard, an iOS passkey/FIDO2 authentication app, and are evaluating adding NFC support. We'd like to confirm eligibility before starting development or submitting a formal entitlement request. Intended flow: Our iPhone app acts as the host (Host Card Emulation). Another device reads the iPhone over NFC to perform a FIDO2/WebAuthn authentication (the phone acts as a security-key-style authenticator, transmitting authentication data over NFC to the reading device). Based on the HCE support article, the closest matching category appears to be "Device-to-Device transactions." Our questions: Is a FIDO2/passkey authentication use case eligible under the Device-to-Device HCE entitlement, or does it fall outside the currently supported use cases? If eligible: are we permitted to register a custom applet AID (specifically the FIDO2 NFC AID A0000006472F0001) via CardSession, or is the set of allowed AIDs restricted per use case? Are there requirements beyond an EEA-established Organization account and the general "legal right / regulatory permissions" attestation that apply specifically to an authentication use case? We want to avoid investing development effort against an entitlement that may not be granted for this use case. Any guidance on eligibility and next steps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Alexander Friedl

I'm a contributor to Trio, an open-source automated insulin delivery (AID) app for iOS/watchOS maintained by the Nightscout Foundation. I'm posting at the recommendation of the engineering team via Feedback Assistant FB22619409 (Developer Support case 102865854185). The goal We're prototyping direct BLE connectivity between the Trio watchOS extension and the Dexcom G7 CGM sensor — eliminating dependence on iPhone-to-Watch relay via WatchConnectivity. For an AID app, stale CGM data affects insulin dosing decisions; this is a patient safety concern. The entitlements needed To maintain a BLE connection to the G7 while backgrounded and with the display off/wrist lowered, the WatchKit extension requires: com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-background com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-screen-off-scanning What I've confirmed Both entitlements are present on Dexcom's shipping G7 WatchKit extension (com.dexcom.g7app.watchkitapp.watchkitextension), verifiable via: codesign -d --entitlements :- \ "Dexcom G7.app/Watch/G7Watch.app/PlugIns/G7Watch Extension.appex" Output includes: com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-background = true com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-screen-off-scanning = true These are not self-service capabilities exposed through Xcode or the developer portal for our account: Xcode → Trio Watch App target → Signing & Capabilities → + Capability → searching com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-background returns No Matches Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → WatchKit Extension App ID (org.nightscout.5QE6TMMEH2.trio.watchkitapp.watchkitextension) → the entitlement does not appear under Capability Requests A screen recording demonstrating both is attached to FB22619409. The May 16 Apple Feedback response noted that the entitlement was visible in an internal Xcode project — consistent with it being a restricted/managed entitlement not exposed through standard developer accounts. My questions What is the correct process to request com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-background for a watchOS extension App ID where it does not appear in Capability Requests? Is com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-screen-off-scanning available through a private/managed entitlement process, and how do we enter that process? Is there a formal Apple program (e.g., MFi, HealthKit entitlements, or similar) applicable to CGM-connected medical apps that covers these entitlements? Full account details, screen recording, and entitlement output are attached to FB22619409 / Developer Support case 102865854185. Happy to provide a test build, full entitlement output, or additional context if needed. Thank you

We have an iOS app that's available on Apple silicon Macs via "iPhone and iPad Apps on Mac." We're planning to add a native macOS build under the same bundle ID. Releasing the macOS build replaces the iOS app on the Mac App Store, and existing users are updated to it. What we can't find documented is what happens to their local data container at that moment. 1. Is the container preserved, and can the macOS app reach it? An iOS app on Apple silicon keeps its data under ~/Library/Containers/. A native sandboxed Mac app expects ~/Library/Containers/<bundle-id>/Data/. Containers are also associated with the creating app's code signature, though both our builds would be re-signed by the App Store under the same team. So we can't tell whether the new app would inherit the old container or get a fresh one. Does the replacement preserve the container, or remove it? If preserved, does the macOS app — same bundle ID, same Team ID — get access to it? Is this a supported path? 2. Can this be tested before release? We filed FB21861189 about TestFlight refusing the in-place upgrade — "To install the macOS version of this app on your Mac, first uninstall the iOS app." The response was this is expected in TestFlight. The forced uninstall destroys the container, so TestFlight only ever shows the clean-install case. The path we need to test is the one we can't reach. Is there a supported way to test the App Store replacement before general release? 3. If data doesn't carry over, what's the recommended bridge? If so, we'll need to add a migration path to the iOS app before the Mac build ships. We're aware of App Groups and have read App Groups: macOS vs iOS: Working Towards Harmony. What this post doesn't cover is whether an app group is an appropriate bridge for this scenario. If not, what would you recommend instead?

A sandboxed Mac app with correct CloudKit entitlements fails to connect to com.apple.cloudd (the CloudKit daemon) when distributed via TestFlight (Mac Team Store Provisioning Profile). The identical binary works correctly when launched from Xcode (Mac Team Provisioning Profile also present). All entitlements are correctly embedded and the App ID is properly configured in Apple Developer Portal. Environment macOS 26.5.1 (25F80) Xcode 26.5 (17F42) SwiftData with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer / ModelConfiguration(cloudKitDatabase: .private(...)) Steps to Reproduce Create a sandboxed Mac app using SwiftData with CloudKit sync Enable iCloud + CloudKit in Signing & Capabilities Archive and distribute to TestFlight (Mac Team Store Provisioning Profile) Install via TestFlight on macOS 26 and launch Check Console for kernel sandbox messages Expected Result CloudKit connects to com.apple.cloudd and syncs data, matching behavior of the iOS version using the same container. Actual Result Console shows repeated kernel sandbox denials followed by CloudKit setup failure: kernel Sandbox: CheatSheet Mac(82347) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.cloudd kernel Sandbox: CheatSheet Mac(82347) deny(1) mach-lookup com.apple.duetactivityscheduler CheatSheet Mac CoreData+CloudKit: Failed to set up CloudKit integration for store Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=6 "Error connecting to CloudKit daemon." Key Diagnostic Finding When launched from Xcode, taskgated-helper validates both the Mac Team Store Provisioning Profile AND the Mac Team Provisioning Profile, and CloudKit succeeds: cloudd: TCC approved access for container containerID=iCloud.com.michaelendres.CheatSheet:Production When launched from TestFlight, only the Mac Team Store Provisioning Profile is present, and the sandbox denies com.apple.cloudd despite identical entitlements in the binary: codesign -d --entitlements shows: com.apple.developer.icloud-services: [CloudKit] com.apple.developer.icloud-container-identifiers: [iCloud.com.michaelendres.CheatSheet] com.apple.developer.icloud-container-environment: Production com.apple.security.app-sandbox: true Conclusion The Mac Team Store Provisioning Profile on macOS 26 does not appear to grant the sandbox exception for mach-lookup com.apple.cloudd, while the Mac Team Provisioning Profile (development) does. This prevents any Mac App Store / TestFlight app using CloudKit from syncing on macOS 26.

I'm using UNNotificationSound.criticalSoundNamed with the Critical Alerts entitlement. I have two separate alarms that can each be active at the same time, each scheduling its own local notification on a repeating timer. Before switching to critical alerts, I played these with two AVAudioPlayer instances, and they overlapped fine. Now, using critical alert notifications instead, only one sound plays at a time — even when both are triggered around the same time. Is this expected? Does iOS only ever play one critical alert sound at a time per app (or system-wide), or is there a way to get two to play simultaneously?

I’m building an iOS app that uses a Network Extension Content Filter provider. The app works when installed directly on a physical device from Xcode/development builds, but the same flow fails in TestFlight/App Store distribution builds. Main app bundle ID: com.project.betcontrolMain Network extension bundle ID: com.project.betcontrolMain.DNSFilterExtension Team ID: 74YN2U5NR9 The extension is embedded at: Runner.app/PlugIns/DNSFilterExtension.appex Both the containing app and extension are signed with: com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension = content-filter-provider The app also has Family Controls Distribution enabled. At runtime, enabling the content filter with NEFilterManager fails in TestFlight with: NEFilterErrorDomain code 5 - permission denied The same code path works when installed locally from Xcode. The code roughly does: NEFilterManager.shared().loadFromPreferences { error in let manager = NEFilterManager.shared() let providerConfiguration = NEFilterProviderConfiguration() providerConfiguration.filterBrowsers = true providerConfiguration.filterSockets = true providerConfiguration.vendorConfiguration = [:] manager.localizedDescription = "BetControl Website Shield" manager.providerConfiguration

I'm posting this here after reading Quinn's post here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/799000 The above entitlement is mentioned in IOUSBHostControllerInterface.h. It isn't an entitlement one can add using the + button on the Capabilities panel in Xcode. If I try to add it by hand, Xcode complains that it isn't in my profile. Is this a managed entitlement? We'd like to create a local USB "device" to represent a real device reachable over a network.

Two months ago we got approval for using the Notification Filtering entitlement. We rushed out to implement it in our app, only to find out that the permission was set for the wrong bundle identifier. We expected to get the permission for the notification extension's bundle identifier, yet it is added for the main app's bundle identifier. Per the official docs, the entitlement permission should be in the notification service extension target: After you receive permission to use the entitlement, add com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering to the entitlements file in the Notification Service Extension target. However, this fails to get signed when compiling for non-simulator targets because of the bundle mismatch issue. Simulator perfectly filters notifications. Adding the entitlement to the main app does compile, but filtering does not work (as expected). We reached out to Apple twice (Case-ID: 14330583) but we have yet to receive any response. Could there be something else wrong instead of the identifier mismatch?