When shooting with an iPhone 15 or later, it’s possible to capture HEIC or JPEG images that include gain map information conforming to the ISO 21496-1 standard. However, during image format transcoding, the HEIC codec is able to preserve the ISO 21496-1 gain map. But when converting from HEIC to JPEG, the gain map is transformed into the Apple Gain Map format instead. Is there any solution to this issue?

Hi everyone, We're encountering an unexpected issue with our iPhone-only camera app: 👉 TimeMark - Photo Proof https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timemark-photo-proof/id6446071834 Problem Description: Our app uses a full-screen camera view via AVCaptureSession. In some cases reported by users, the camera fails immediately upon app launch, and we receive this interruption reason: AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReasonVideoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps According to the Apple documentation https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturesession/interruptionreason/videodevicenotavailablewithmultipleforegroundapps?language=objc , this interruption typically occurs when the app is running in a multi-app layout such as Slide Over, Split View, or Picture in Picture — all of which are iPad-only features. However, this issue is being reported on iPhones, and our app does not support iPad at all. Also noted in the documentation: "Given your present AVCaptureSession configuration, the session may only be run if your app occupies the full screen." Additional Context: The issue occurs immediately on app launch, before the user can interact with the camera. We don’t enable multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled. We are 100% sure this is happening on iPhone, not iPad. It’s hard to reproduce; users report it happening sporadically. Locally, we tried playing Picture-in-Picture videos (e.g., Safari/YouTube) before launching our app, but we could not reproduce the issue. Questions: Why is this interruption reason occurring on iPhone, which doesn’t officially support Slide Over or Split View? Could this be caused by some system-level multitasking or resource contention (e.g., Picture in Picture from FaceTime or Safari)? Would enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled help prevent this issue on iPhone, even though it's designed for iPad? Enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled seems to require enabling UIBackgroundModes → voip. Would adding this background mode cause any App Store review risk or rejection if our app doesn't actually use VoIP functionality? Any help, insight, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

AVCaptureSession's startRunning method is thread blocking and seems to be slow. What is this method doing behind the scenes? For context: I'm working on Simulator Camera support and I have a 'fake' AVCaptureDevice that might be causing this. My hypothesis is that AVCaptureSession tries to connect to the device and waits for a notification to be posted back. I'd love to find a way to let my fake device message AVCaptureSession that it's connected.

Hello everyone, I'm working on a feature where I need to capture the highest possible quality photo (e.g., 24MP on supported devices) and upload it to our server. I don't need the photos to appear in user's main Photos app so I thought I could store the photos in app's private directory using FileManager until they are uploaded. This wouldn't require requesting Photo Library permission, maximizing user privacy. The documentation on AVCapturePhotoOutput states that "the 24MP setting (5712, 4284) is only serviced as 24MP when opted-in to autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled" /** @property maxPhotoDimensions @abstract Indicates the maximum resolution of the requested photo. @discussion Set this property to enable requesting of images up to as large as the specified dimensions. Images returned by AVCapturePhotoOutput may be smaller than these dimensions but will never be larger. Once set, images can be requested with any valid maximum photo dimensions by setting AVCapturePhotoSettings.maxPhotoDimensions on a per photo basis. The dimensions set must match one of the dimensions returned by AVCaptureDeviceFormat.supportedMaxPhotoDimensions for the current active format. Changing this property may trigger a lengthy reconfiguration of the capture render pipeline so it is recommended that this is set before calling -[AVCaptureSession startRunning]. Note: When supported, the 24MP setting (5712, 4284) is only serviced as 24MP when opted-in to autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled. */ @available(iOS 16.0, *) open var maxPhotoDimensions: CMVideoDimensions (btw. this note is not present in the docs https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephotooutput/maxphotodimensions) Enabling autoDeferredPhotoDeliveryEnabled means that for a 24MP capture, the system will call the photoOutput(_:didFinishCapturingDeferredPhotoProxy:error:) delegate method, providing a proxy object instead of the final image data. According to the WWDC23 session "Create a more responsive camera experience," this AVCaptureDeferredPhotoProxy must be saved to the PHPhotoLibrary using a PHAssetCreationRequest with the resource type .photoProxy. The system then handles the final processing in the background within the library. To use deferred photo processing, you'll need to have write permission to the photo library to store the proxy photo, and read permission if your app needs to show the final photo or wants to modify it in any way. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10105/?time=799 This seems to create a hard dependency on the Photo Library for accessing 24MP images. My question is: Is there any way to receive the final, processed 24MP image data directly in the app after a deferred capture, without using PHPhotoLibrary as the processing intermediary? For example, is there a delegate callback or a mechanism I'm missing that provides the final data for a deferred photo, allowing an app to handle it in-memory or in its own private sandbox, completely bypassing the user's Photo Library? Our goal is to follow Apple's privacy-first principles by avoiding requesting a PHPhotoLibrary authorization when our app's core function doesn't require access to the user's photo collection. Thank you for your time and any clarification you can provide.

I am able to capture 48mp photos using .builtInWideAngleCamera, but it seems like .builtInTripleCamera is capped at 12mp? Is there a way to capture 48mp photos using .builtInTripleCamera? Because .builtInTripleCamera provides smooth transition between cameras during zooming, and I'd like to keep this behavior. New iPhone 17 Pro have all their cameras at 48mp. Is there a chance that their .builtInTripleCamera is capable of capturing 48mp? Or is this an API limitation?

If the app is launched from LockedCameraCapture and if the settings button is tapped, I need to launch the main app. CameraViewController: func settingsButtonTapped() { #if isLockedCameraCaptureExtension //App is launched from Lock Screen //Launch main app here... #else //App is launched from Home Screen self.showSettings(animated: true) #endif } In this document: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/lockedcameracapture/creating-a-camera-experience-for-the-lock-screen Apple asks you to use: func launchApp(with session: LockedCameraCaptureSession, info: String) { Task { do { let activity = NSUserActivityTypeLockedCameraCapture activity.userInfo = [UserInfoKey: info] try await session.openApplication(for: activity) } catch { StatusManager.displayError("Unable to open app - \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } However, the documentation states that this should be placed within the extension code - LockedCameraCapture. If I do that, how can I call that all the way down from the main app's CameraViewController?

Hey, There seems to be an inconsistency when capturing a photo using QualityPrioritization.Quality on the iPhone 17 Pro Main wide Lens. If you zoom above "2x" the output image always has "-2.0ev" bias in the meta data and looks underexposued. This does not happen at zoom levels above 2, or if you set the QualityPrioritization to .Balanced. See below: with .Quality with .Balanced This does not happen on the other lenses. I'm using a simple set up and it is consistent across JPEG and ProRAW capture. I have a demo project if that is useful. Thanks, Alex

Hi Apple Developer Forums, I’m developing an iOS camera app that processes RAW captures using Core Image. I’m seeing a large “first use” performance penalty specifically when creating the CIImage from CIRAWFilter.outputImage. What’s slow (important detail) I’m measuring the time for: let rawFilter = CIRAWFilter(imageData: rawData, identifierHint: hint) let ciImage = rawFilter.outputImage This is not CIContext.render(...) / createCGImage(...). It’s just the time to access outputImage (i.e., building the Core Image graph / RAW pipeline setup). Observed behavior First time accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage: ~3 seconds Second time (same app session, similar RAW): ~3 milliseconds So something heavy is happening only on first use (decoder initialization, pipeline setup, shader/library compilation, caching, etc.). Using Metal System Trace, I also noticed that during the slow first call there are many “Create MTLLibrary” events, while the second call doesn’t show this pattern. Warm-up attempts using bundled DNG I tried to “warm up” early (e.g., on camera screen entry) by loading a bundled DNG and then accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage by taking a photo: Warm-up with a ~247 KB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~1.42s Warm-up with a ~25 MB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~843ms This helps, but it’s still far from the steady-state ~3ms. Warm-up by capturing a real RAW (works, but concerns) The only method that fully eliminates the delay is to trigger a real RAW capture programmatically before the user’s first photo, then use that captured rawData to warm up the CIRAWFilter.outputImage path. This brings the first user-facing capture close to the steady-state timing. However: In some regions, the camera shutter sound cannot be suppressed, so “hidden warm-up capture” is unacceptable UX. I’m also unsure whether triggering a real capture without an explicit user action could raise compliance/privacy concerns, even if the image is immediately discarded and never saved/uploaded. Questions Is the large first-time cost of CIRAWFilter.outputImage expected (RAW pipeline initialization / shader compilation)? Is there an Apple-recommended way to pre-initialize the Core Image RAW pipeline / Metal resources so the first outputImage is fast, without taking a real photo? Are there any best practices (e.g. CIContext creation timing, prepareRender(...), specific options) that reliably reduce this first-use overhead for CIRAWFilter? Attachments Figure 1: First RAW capture with no warm-up (~3s outputImage time) Figure 2: First RAW capture after warm-up with bundled DNG (improved but still hundreds of ms) Thanks for any guidance or experience sharing!

Hi everyone, I’m seeing recurring internal AVFoundation camera logs on iOS 26.2 and I’m trying to understand whether this is expected behavior or a regression in the capture pipeline. These logs appear shortly after starting an AVCaptureSession, while video frames are being delivered, and also when the camera is stopped or the capture session is torn down. <<<< FigXPCUtilities >>>> signalled err=-17281 at <>:302 <<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "err == 0 " at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:569) - (err=-17281) Even in this clean, minimal setup, the same logs appear on iOS 26.2 The exact same logic did not produce these logs on iOS 18.x. To rule out issues caused by my own code, GPT created a minimal SwiftUI example from scratch. My primary interest is to perform real-time processing on the video frames delivered by the camera (via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput), for tasks such as analysis, computer vision, or custom frame handling, while simultaneously displaying the live preview. Thanks in advance for any insight. Example Code

I am unable to find any clearcut documentation on configuring AVCaptureSession pipeline to capture video with proResRAW codec type, which is 16 bit format. Is it supported only with AVCaptureMovieFileOutput or one can have AVCaptureVideoDataOutput emitting 16-bit sample buffers that can be vended to AVAssetWriter?

Hello, I'm wondering how to capture 24MP photos. I'm currently testing on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. By default, the device's activeFormat supports 24MP (photo dimensions: {4032x3024, 5712x4284}). For the photoOutput, I'm setting the maxPhotoDimensions to videoDevice.activeFormat.supportedMaxPhotoDimensions.lastObject, and setting MaxPhotoQualityPrioritization to quality. When capturing, I'm applying the same maxPhotoDimensions and photoQualityPrioritization settings from the photoOutput directly to the AVCapturePhotoSettings. What could be the issue? // Objective-C // setup [self.photoOutput setMaxPhotoQualityPrioritization:AVCapturePhotoQualityPrioritizationQuality]; CMVideoDimensions maxPhotoDimensions = [(NSValue *)videoDevice.activeFormat.supportedMaxPhotoDimensions.lastObject CMVideoDimensionsValue]; [self.photoOutput setMaxPhotoDimensions:maxPhotoDimensions]; // capturing AVCapturePhotoSettings *photoSettings = [AVCapturePhotoSettings photoSettings]; photoSettings.maxPhotoDimensions = self.photoOutput.maxPhotoDimensions; photoSettings.photoQualityPrioritization = self.photoOutput.maxPhotoQualityPrioritization; [self.photoOutput capturePhotoWithSettings:photoSettings delegate:photoCaptureDelegate]; ...

I'm developing an iOS app using AVFoundation for real-time video capture and object detection. While implementing torch functionality with camera switching (between Wide and Ultra-Wide lenses), I encountered a critical issue where the camera freezes when toggling the torch while the Ultra-Wide camera is active. Issue If the torch is ON and I switch from Wide to Ultra-Wide, the camera freezes If the Ultra-Wide camera is active and I try to turn the torch ON, the camera freezes The iPhone Camera app allows using the torch while recording video with the Ultra-Wide lens, so this should be possible via AVFoundation as well. Code snippet DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async { [weak self] in guard let self = self else { return } let isSwitchingToUltraWide = !self.isUsingFisheyeCamera let cameraType: AVCaptureDevice.DeviceType = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? .builtInUltraWideCamera : .builtInWideAngleCamera let cameraName = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? "Ultra Wide" : "Wide" guard let selectedCamera = AVCaptureDevice.default(cameraType, for: .video, position: .back) else { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.showAlert(title: "Camera Error", message: "\(cameraName) camera is not available on this device.") } return } do { let currentInput = self.videoCapture.captureSession.inputs.first as? AVCaptureDeviceInput self.videoCapture.captureSession.beginConfiguration() if isSwitchingToUltraWide &amp;&amp; self.isFlashlightOn { self.forceEnableTorchThroughWide() } if let currentInput = currentInput { self.videoCapture.captureSession.removeInput(currentInput) } let videoInput = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: selectedCamera) self.videoCapture.captureSession.addInput(videoInput) self.videoCapture.captureSession.commitConfiguration() self.videoCapture.updateVideoOrientation() DispatchQueue.main.async { if let barButton = sender as? UIBarButtonItem { barButton.title = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? "Wide" : "Ultra Wide" barButton.tintColor = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? UIColor.systemGreen : UIColor.white } print("Switched to \(cameraName) camera.") } self.isUsingFisheyeCamera.toggle() } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.showAlert(title: "Camera Error", message: "Failed to switch to \(cameraName) camera: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } Expected Behavior Torch should be able to work when Ultra-Wide is active, just like the iPhone Camera app does. The camera should not freeze when switching between Wide and Ultra-Wide with the torch ON. AVCaptureSession should not crash when toggling the torch while Ultra-Wide is active. Questions &amp; Help Needed Is this a known issue with AVFoundation? How does the iPhone Camera app allow using the torch while recording in Ultra-Wide? What’s the correct way to switch between Wide and Ultra-Wide cameras without freezing when the torch is active? Info Device tested: iPhone 13 Pro / iPhone 15 Pro / Iphone 15 iOS Version: iOS 17.3 / iOS 18.0 Xcode Version: 16.2

If new photo is added to library and app is not running in foreground or was not opened after the new photo was added but the app is having full access to gallery, can it access, read the new photo - If the app is not specifically a cloud syncing app, can it have this attached function, suppose it is a game app or beauty camera app?

Some users reported that their images are not loading correctly in our app. After a lot of debugging we identified the following: This only happens when the app is build for Mac Catalyst. Not on iOS, iPadOS, or “real” macOS (AppKit). The images in question have unusual color spaces. We observed the issue for uRGB and eciRGB v2. Those images are rendered correctly in Photos and Preview on all platforms. When displaying the image inside of a UIImageView or in a SwiftUI Image, they render correctly. The issue only occurs when loading the image via Core Image. When comparing the different Core Image render graphs between AppKit (working) and Catalyst (faulty) builds, they look identical—except for the result. Mac (AppKit): Catalyst: Something seems to be off when Core Image tries to load an image with foreign color space in Catalyst. We identified a workaround: By using a CGImageDestination to transcode the image using the kCGImageDestinationOptimizeColorForSharing option, Image I/O will convert the image to sRGB (or similar) and Core Image is able to load the image correctly. However, one potentially loses fidelity this way. Or might there be a better workaround?

Has Objective-C been deprecated?

Hi guys, Can I use CMIO to achieve the following feature on macOS when a USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker) is connected: When a third-party video conferencing app is not in a meeting, ensure the app defaults to using the USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker). When a third-party conferencing app is in a meeting, ensure the app automatically switches to the USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker).

Does the library exists in xCode 16.4? "import WorldCaptureKit" gives error "No such module 'WorldCaptureKit'". And I do not find any information about the library in the apple documentation. But AI keeps suggesting me to use the library

Hi! I am making an app for Apple Vision pro (VisionOS 2.5) that is scanning the surroundings and recognises all the texts around you. I tried to use the AVCaptureSession library, but when I run the app from xcode on the real AVP device, the camera is not accessible. I enabled the camera access in my Info.plist: NSCameraUsageDescription Used for live text recognition and I checked camera settings in the AVP, there are no restrictions. However I have always a black square with a crossed camera icon displayed instead of the image from the camera. I tried a couple of different apps from Github using the AVCaptureSession and they all display the black square instead of the picture. What can be wrong with the camera?

I developed a driverkit extension based on overriding-the-default-usb-video-class-extension, but the link didn’t give the details of realization. I asked DTS who gave two tips: 1, Do you also have a CMIO extension to load in place of the default overriding-the-default-usb-video-class-extension 2, Your DriverKit extension’s info.plist is also missing the CameraAssistantBundleID. I want to know why a driverkit extension needs a CMIO extension, what’s the data and control flow?

Issue: After iOS 18.5 release, our app is experiencing a significant increase in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps errors. Details: Our camera-related code has not been updated recently.However, we've observed that the error rate has significantly increased starting from May 2025. The error rate has risen from approximately 0.02% (2 in 10,000 users) to 0.1% (1 in 1,000 users). This represents a 5x increase in error occurrence. The frequency has increased noticeably since iOS 18.5 This is affecting our app's camera functionality and user experience Questions: Are there any known changes in iOS 18.5 regarding camera access management? What are the recommended best practices to handle this interruption reason? Are there any API changes we should be aware of? Best, Shay