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Building a library playlist on macOS that mixes catalog songs and the user's own uploads in a fixed order – supported route, and how to know when an upload is registered?
Our sandboxed macOS app digitises audio cassettes and builds one playlist per cassette in the user's Apple Music library that follows the tape's order: catalog songs where a title was recognised, and the user's own recordings (AAC files the app exported from the tape) where it was not. The user has an Apple Music subscription and Sync Library on. On macOS every write on MusicLibrary is marked @available(macOS, unavailable) in the 26.5 SDK – add, add(_:to:), createPlaylist and edit (see thread 844114, which got no answer). So we build the playlist through Music.app's scripting interface: make new user playlist, duplicate <library track> to <playlist> for catalog songs, add <file> to <playlist> for own recordings. That works, with one exception that leads to our questions. What we observe Reproducible on macOS 26.6.2 / Music 26; a standalone AppleScript is at the end. A playlist built in one go from 14 subscription tracks keeps all 14. The same playlist with one local file added after the second track: all 15 entries are there right after the build and one second later. About 15 s later the playlist has 3 entries – the two catalog entries before the file, the file, and nothing that was added after it. No error anywhere. If the file has been in the library for several minutes before the playlist is built, everything stays. Adding it to the library and waiting 45 s is not enough. Meanwhile the track's cloud status stays unknown, and GET /v1/me/library/search?types=library-songs does not list it (checked for 10 minutes). Emptying the playlist and building it again ~30 s after the entries were removed keeps everything, every time. That is what we do today; it costs 30–40 s per import, and we have to tell the user that entries were removed and put back. Our reading: while the freshly added file is not yet registered in iCloud Music Library, the playlist as pushed to the server is cut at the first item the server cannot reference, and the next sync adopts the shorter list for cloud items while keeping the local-only item in place. Questions Is there a supported way for a macOS app to create a library playlist and add tracks to it? Specifically: is the Apple Music API (POST /v1/me/library/playlists with relationships.tracks, and POST /v1/me/library/playlists/{id}/tracks) the intended route from a macOS app holding a MusicKit user token, and can such a playlist reference the user's own uploaded songs by their library id (i.…)? After a local file has been added to the library (via Music.app's add, or any other supported way), how can an app learn that iCloud Music Library has registered it, and what its library song id is? A notification, a MusicKit property, an Apple Music API endpoint? We would wait on that signal instead of rebuilding. Is the removal described above expected behaviour? Catalog ids are re-resolved at import time via id, ISRC and search as recommended in thread 122110, so stale catalog ids are not the cause. Reproduction Needs Sync Library on, at least 14 subscription tracks in the library, and a local audio file the library does not know yet. Prints the counts after 1 s, 21 s and 41 s, then cleans up. on run argv set localFile to POSIX file (item 1 of argv) tell application "Music" set cloudTracks to (every track of library playlist 1 whose cloud status is subscription) set idsBefore to persistent ID of every track of library playlist 1 set pl to make new user playlist with properties {name:"Reconciliation repro"} repeat with i from 1 to 2 duplicate (item i of cloudTracks) to pl end repeat set fileTrack to add localFile to pl set fileID to persistent ID of fileTrack repeat with i from 3 to 14 duplicate (item i of cloudTracks) to pl end repeat set n0 to count of tracks of pl delay 1 set n1 to count of tracks of pl delay 20 set n2 to count of tracks of pl delay 20 set n3 to count of tracks of pl delete pl if fileID is not in idsBefore then delete (first track of library playlist 1 whose persistent ID is fileID) return "after build: " & n0 & ", after 1 s: " & n1 & ", after 21 s: " & n2 & ", after 41 s: " & n3 end tell end run Output here: after build: 15, after 1 s: 15, after 21 s: 3, after 41 s: 3.
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visionOS Developer Strap: UVC video works, but how can I access the capture device’s USB Audio Class (UAC) audio?
I’m developing a native visionOS application that uses an external HDMI capture device connected to Apple Vision Pro through the Developer Strap. The goal is to use Apple Vision Pro as a low-latency display for external HDMI sources such as an Xbox Series X, including both the HDMI video and the original digital game audio. My current hardware path is: Xbox Series X → HDMI → Elgato 4K X → USB-C → Apple Vision Pro Developer Strap The Elgato 4K X receives both video and audio from the Xbox over HDMI. What is working UVC video capture is working successfully on visionOS. The external Elgato capture device can be used as the video source and the Xbox video is displayed correctly inside the Vision Pro application. I have also verified the Elgato 4K X independently on macOS, where the device is recognized correctly. The problem I cannot find a supported way on visionOS to access the USB Audio Class (UAC) audio interface associated with the capture device. I specifically need the digital game audio originating from: Xbox HDMI → Elgato 4K X → USB/UAC → visionOS I do not want to use the Apple Vision Pro’s built-in microphone. Selecting/capturing the Vision Pro microphone would only record environmental sound and is not a substitute for the digital HDMI audio stream. Apple’s visionOS documentation for external devices through the Developer Strap appears to focus on UVC video capture. I haven’t been able to determine whether the accompanying UAC interface of a UVC/UAC composite capture device is exposed to visionOS applications. What I’ve tried / verified Connected an Xbox Series X to the HDMI input of an Elgato 4K X. Connected the 4K X to Apple Vision Pro through the Developer Strap. Successfully discovered and received the external UVC video stream. Successfully displayed the Xbox video feed in visionOS. Confirmed that the 4K X itself is recognized and functional on macOS. Attempted to obtain audio corresponding to the external capture source. The Vision Pro microphone is available as an audio source, but this is not the audio source required. I have not found a documented visionOS API that exposes the 4K X’s USB/UAC audio endpoint through the Developer Strap. Questions Does visionOS currently support USB Audio Class input devices connected through the Apple Vision Pro Developer Strap? If a device exposes both UVC video and UAC audio interfaces, is there a supported way to associate/access both interfaces from a visionOS application? If UAC is supported, which framework/API should be used to discover the external audio endpoint — AVFoundation, Core Audio, or another API? Does accessing the UAC interface require an entitlement in addition to UVC device access? If generic UAC access through the Developer Strap is currently unavailable to third-party visionOS applications, is there a restricted/managed entitlement that developers can request? If this isn’t currently supported, what is Apple’s recommended architecture for receiving synchronized video and audio from an HDMI capture device on Apple Vision Pro? Ultimately, I’m trying to achieve: HDMI source → UVC video + UAC audio → visionOS application → video displayed in Vision Pro + audio played through Vision Pro speakers/AirPods Since UVC video from this exact hardware is already working, I’m primarily trying to determine whether access to the accompanying USB audio interface is possible with the current visionOS SDK, requires another entitlement/API, or is currently unsupported. Any guidance from Apple or developers who have worked with composite UVC/UAC devices on Vision Pro would be greatly appreciated.
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Request path for com.apple.coremedia.allow-mpeg4streaming on tvOS
We maintain an existing iOS/tvOS App Store application that uses AVFoundation for authenticated streaming playback. One upstream provider supplies some account-entitled playback sessions as fragmented MP4 using ISO Common Encryption scheme cenc (AES-CTR). The provider controls the rendition, and no corresponding cbcs rendition is available to our client. We understand that Apple’s documented FairPlay Streaming path supports cbcs. We identified com.apple.coremedia.allow-mpeg4streaming as relevant to this playback case, but the entitlement is undocumented and does not appear under Capability Requests for our App ID. Apple Developer Support was unable to identify the request process and recommended posting this question in the forums and filing Feedback Assistant report FB24649355. Could an Apple engineer clarify: Is this entitlement available to third-party iOS/tvOS applications? If so, what is the official request process? We can provide additional technical information privately if an Apple engineer needs it.
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Volumes issue
My volume will randomly go all the way down to mute or all the way up to full blast while I’m listen to music, watching a video, playing a game. I have all the volume safety features turned off. Does anyone else have this issue?
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iOS 27 beta: setExposureModeCustom silently ignored on the front camera
On every iOS 27.0 beta, setExposureModeCustom has no effect on the front camera (.builtInTrueDepthCamera). exposureMode does change to .custom, but the sensor keeps auto-exposing: device.iso and device.exposureDuration report auto-exposure's values, not the requested ones, and frame brightness does not change. No error is thrown. The same code works on iOS 18.x and 26.x on the same devices. Device: iPhone 15 Pro, every iOS 27.0 beta. Also seen on iPhone 14 Pro Max, 16, 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max. Session: front camera, AVCaptureVideoDataOutput (BGRA) + AVCaptureDepthDataOutput. Format advertises ISO 20...1920, duration 0.00004...0.06667 s. isExposureModeSupported(.custom) is true. Repro: let auto-exposure settle, then try device.lockForConfiguration() device.setExposureModeCustom(duration: CMTime(value: 1, timescale: 15), iso: 1920, completionHandler: nil) device.unlockForConfiguration() then poll device.iso / device.exposureDuration (the completion handler never fires on this device) and measure frame luma. Readback, polled 0.8 s after the call: requested ISO 1920, 66.7 ms -> reported ISO 349, 60.0 ms requested ISO 20, 0.04 ms -> reported ISO 188, 66.5 ms Requesting the shortest exposure returns the longest, and the same ISO 1920 request returned 249, 349 and 450 on three consecutive runs, so these are auto-exposure's values. Frame luma stayed within 1% between the two phases. setExposureTargetBias, however, is honored on the same device: at +4 EV auto-exposure drives the sensor to ISO 1920 / 66.5 ms and at -4 EV to ISO 24 / 30.0 ms, moving mean luma from 49 to 232. So the sensor does reach the values setExposureModeCustom cannot set. Question: is this intentional or a regression, and how should an app detect that a custom exposure request was refused?
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Does the TN3135 audio-session networking exception have a defined lifetime? Seeing a ~38.5 s revoke/re-grant cycle
TN3135 describes the exception that lets a watchOS app use low-level networking while it holds an active audio session. I have that working, and the app functions — but the network path is withdrawn and restored on a strikingly regular cycle, and I would like to know whether that is expected behaviour rather than something I am doing wrong. Setup Apple Watch Series 10 (Watch7,9), watchOS 26.5. Reproduced on a Series 6 (Watch6,2). UIBackgroundModes: [audio]; AVAudioSession category .playAndRecord, mode .spokenAudio; activated with the async activate(options:completionHandler:). NWConnection with NWProtocolWebSocket to a WebSocket relay over TLS. The app streams 16 kHz mono PCM continuously while transmitting and holds the socket open otherwise. Symptom NWPathMonitor reports .unsatisfied, then .satisfied about two seconds later, over and over. Measured with the iPhone powered off, so the watch was on its own Wi-Fi: Uptime between drops Outage 36.4 s 2.1 s 36.7 s 1.9 s 36.9 s 2.1 s The regularity is what prompts the question — uptime varies by ±0.3 s and the outage is consistently 2.0 s. That reads as a timeout expiring rather than radio behaviour. What I have ruled out Not the network or the server. A browser client on the same relay, same TLS, same wire protocol, holds a WebSocket indefinitely. Not the interface. Identical cadence over the companion ipsec1 tunnel with the iPhone present, and over the watch's own en0 with the iPhone powered off. Pinning requiredInterfaceType = .wifi while the iPhone is reachable fails outright — the path offers only ipsec1. Not audio-session interruption. I observe interruptionNotification, routeChangeNotification, mediaServicesWereResetNotification and silenceSecondaryAudioHintNotification. None fire at a drop. At the moment the path goes .unsatisfied, the engine is running and the player node is actively playing. Not session idleness. Playing continuous silence for the whole session, rather than only while reconnecting, made no difference — still 36.4 s. The control that surprised me To test whether this affects any long-lived watch socket or only audio-unlocked ones, I built a second app with no AVAudioSession at all, no audio background mode, holding a URLSessionWebSocketTask and kept alive by a WKExtendedRuntimeSession so screen sleep was not a factor. It never connected. NWPathMonitor reported .unsatisfied once and never changed, across a 30 s run, and every request failed with "The Internet connection appears to be offline." I had expected URLSession to be permitted regardless. Questions Does the audio-session networking exception in TN3135 have a defined lifetime, and is a periodic revoke/re-grant cycle expected? If so, is there a supported way to hold it continuously — or is the correct design simply to expect the interruption and reconnect through it? Is it expected that an app with no audio session gets no network path at all on watchOS, including via URLSession, even in the foreground with an extended runtime session?
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AVSpeechSynthesizer Enhanced voices produce silent audio in sandboxed Mac Catalyst app
I have reproduced an issue with AVSpeechSynthesizer on macOS 26.6.2 (25G83) using a minimal Mac Catalyst application. Environment macOS 26.6.2 (25G83) Apple Silicon Xcode 26.x Mac Catalyst AVSpeechSynthesizer Enhanced voice: com.apple.voice.enhanced.en-GB.Daniel The problem is specifically related to App Sandbox. Reproduction I created a completely new minimal Mac Catalyst application. With App Sandbox disabled: let synthesizer = AVSpeechSynthesizer() let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: "Hello, this is a test.") utterance.voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(identifier: "com.apple.voice.enhanced.en-GB.Daniel") synthesizer.speak(utterance) The Enhanced voice works normally. With App Sandbox enabled, with no other sandbox capabilities enabled, the same code no longer produces audible speech.
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AirPods Sleep Detection pauses meditation playback with no API/callback to identify the reason
Good morning! I work on a meditation app, and since Sleep Detection was introduced for AirPods in iOS 26, we've been receiving complaints from users reporting that their meditation sessions unexpectedly stop after approximately 15–20 minutes when Sleep Detection is enabled. This seems to happen particularly during deep meditation sessions, where the user may remain still and exhibit behavior that could potentially be interpreted as falling asleep. I've also tested this on iOS 27 with the latest beta firmware available for AirPods Pro, and the same behavior still occurs. While investigating and debugging the issue, I found that there doesn't appear to be any public API that allows an app to determine that playback was paused specifically because of AirPods Sleep Detection. From the application's perspective, the AirPods appear to simply send a standard pause command to the AVPlayer, without providing any additional context or reason. There also doesn't seem to be an API that allows us to determine whether the user has Sleep Detection enabled. Even having access to that information would allow us to warn users that their meditation session could potentially be interrupted. AVAudioSession.InterruptionReason does not seem to help in this case either: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiosession/interruptionreason Is there currently any supported way for an app to: Detect that playback was paused specifically because of AirPods Sleep Detection? Determine whether Sleep Detection is enabled for the connected AirPods? Prevent Sleep Detection from pausing playback for specific apps or specific types of audio sessions? If none of these are currently possible, could Apple consider providing either a notification/callback indicating that Sleep Detection triggered the pause, or an option for users to exclude specific apps from Sleep Detection? This behavior is particularly problematic for meditation apps, since a user in a deep meditation session can easily be mistaken for someone who has fallen asleep. Other meditation apps appear to be affected by the same behavior as well. Best regards, Carlos Antunes
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MusicKit on HarmonyOS — playback approach for a platform without an official SDK, licensing question
Hello Apple Developer community, I'm building an Apple Music client for HarmonyOS (Huawei's operating system) and would like to clarify the licensing and technical approach before submitting to a third-party app store (Huawei AppGallery). I've read the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and App Store Review Guideline 4.5.2, but there are platform-specific constraints I'd like to discuss. Background Apple currently does not provide a MusicKit SDK for HarmonyOS. The available options are: MusicKit for iOS/macOS — not applicable (different OS) MusicKit for Android — ships as proprietary .aar binaries that cannot be redistributed and are not compatible with HarmonyOS's runtime MusicKit JS — available, but HarmonyOS WebView does not support FairPlay or Widevine EME, so full-song DRM playback through MusicKit JS does not work on this platform The only Apple Music API access path available to a HarmonyOS app is the REST API (api.music.apple.com) with a Developer Token (JWT, ES256) and a Music User Token obtained through the MusicKit JS authorization flow running inside a WebView. The technical constraint To deliver full-song playback for subscribed Apple Music users on HarmonyOS, our app retrieves the HLS playback URL via the Apple Music API, downloads the encrypted media segments, and decrypts them using HarmonyOS's native DRM system (WisePlay, the only CDM available on the platform). MusicKit JS's FairPlay/Widevine CDM is not compatible with HarmonyOS — WisePlay is the sole DRM implementation the OS exposes. We are aware that Section 4.5.2 states: "You may not, and You may not permit Your end users to, download, upload, or modify any MusicKit Content" and "You may play MusicKit Content only as rendered by the MusicKit APIs or MusicKit JS" What we want to clarify Our playback implementation works as follows, and we want to confirm whether it is acceptable under the license terms: No download service is offered to users. The download is purely an internal playback mechanism — the app fetches encrypted segments, decrypts them in memory / a protected sandbox, and plays them via the system AVPlayer. There is no "download button," no offline library, no user-facing download feature. Decrypted files are ephemeral and protected. Decrypted media is written to the app's private sandbox (not accessible to users or other apps), played immediately, and deleted as soon as playback ends or the song is skipped. The decrypted file never persists beyond the current playback session. No file leakage. The decrypted content is never exposed via any sharing mechanism, file picker, or external storage. It exists only within the app's protected data directory for the duration of playback. Standard playback controls are preserved. Users initiate playback and can use play / pause / skip / seek — the same controls required by 4.5.2(i). No monetization of Apple Music access. The app does not charge for Apple Music playback, does not show ads around it, and does not collect or share user data. Our question Given that: Apple has no SDK presence on HarmonyOS, MusicKit JS DRM is technically non-functional on HarmonyOS WebView, the only way to deliver full-song playback to Apple Music subscribers on this platform is to decrypt the stream using the OS's native DRM (WisePlay) with strict ephemeral handling, is this playback approach acceptable under the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, provided that: decrypted content is never persisted, shared, or exposed to users, the app only serves subscribed Apple Music users with valid Music User Tokens, all usage remains within the scope of facilitating access to the user's own Apple Music subscription? We fully respect Apple's content protection requirements and are happy to adjust the implementation (e.g., stricter deletion timing, additional sandboxing, attestation) to comply. We just want to understand whether the fundamental approach — decrypting via the host OS's DRM because Apple's own CDMs are unavailable on this platform — is permissible, or whether Apple considers HarmonyOS out of scope for full-song playback entirely. Any guidance from the MusicKit team or community members who have dealt with non-Apple-platform constraints would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Is there a supported way to read on-screen text with the user's consent? (worker-safety / income-transparency app)
Hello, I am an independent developer in Argentina building an app for rideshare drivers, and I would like to know what the supported approach is on iOS before I build the wrong thing. The problem When a trip offer appears, the driver sees a fare, a distance and a duration. What they do not see is what is left after the cost of running their own car — fuel, maintenance, and very often the weekly rent they pay for the vehicle. Here those costs are high and change constantly, and drivers routinely accept trips that lose them money without realising it. They have about three seconds to decide, while driving. Our app reads the numbers already visible on the driver's own screen, subtracts that particular driver's cost per kilometre, and shows one figure: what this trip actually leaves them per hour. In our own field measurements with two drivers over several weeks, being able to see that number raised their hourly earnings and — just as important — kept their eyes off mental arithmetic at the wheel. What we will not do, on purpose I want to be explicit about this, because I know other tools in this category cut corners: We never ask for the driver's Uber or DiDi username or password, and we never connect to or automate their account. Some tools do, and that puts the driver's account — their livelihood — at risk of deactivation. We will not build that. We never accept or decline a trip for the driver. The decision and the tap are always theirs. We never store passenger data: no name, no rating, no photo, no exact address. Text recognition runs entirely on device, offline. The captured image is discarded immediately and never leaves the phone or reaches any server. No advertising, no data sales, no third-party trackers. The app does not read anything the driver is not already looking at, it only reads while the driver has explicitly turned it on for their shift, and it exists for one purpose: so that someone working long hours knows what an hour of their work is actually worth. My question On Android this is done with MediaProjection, with explicit user consent each session and a persistent system indicator. On iOS I understand a Broadcast Upload Extension is not intended for background processing, and that there is no overlay across apps. Is there any supported path on iOS for an app to read, with the user's explicit and repeated consent, text the user is already looking at on their own screen, in order to give that same user an immediate assessment of their own work? Accessibility APIs, a system extension point, anything. If there is no supported path, I would rather know now and design the iOS version around what is allowed, instead of shipping something that gets rejected or that quietly breaks the rules. Thank you.
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Can an iOS app programmatically enable Voice Isolation microphone mode?
Hi, I’m developing an iOS app that captures the user’s voice and sends the microphone input to an AI model for speech processing. For this use case, Voice Isolation provides a significantly better input signal in noisy environments. However, I’m currently unable to enable Voice Isolation programmatically when the app starts recording. As I understand it, microphone modes such as Automatic, Standard, Voice Isolation, and Wide Spectrum are controlled by the user through the system UI. My app can detect/observe the current microphone mode, but I have not found a public API that allows the app to select Voice Isolation itself. My questions are: Is there currently a supported public API to programmatically switch the microphone mode from Automatic/Standard → Voice Isolation? If direct selection is not supported, is there a recommended way for an app that primarily processes speech/voice input for an AI model to request or prefer Voice Isolation? Would using AVAudioSession with an appropriate voice-processing configuration, such as .voiceChat, or enabling voice processing through AVAudioEngine, provide equivalent Voice Isolation processing? Is AVCaptureDevice.showSystemUserInterface(.microphoneModes) the intended approach when an app needs the user to change the microphone mode? I understand that Apple may intentionally keep microphone-mode selection under user control. I’m mainly trying to determine whether there is a supported programmatic approach that I may have overlooked, rather than relying on a custom noise-suppression implementation. Any guidance on the recommended architecture for this use case would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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FairPlay Streaming Certificate Limit Reached – Unable to Revoke or Generate New Certificate
We are seeking assistance regarding an ongoing issue with FairPlay Streaming (FPS) certificates in our Apple Developer account. We are currently unable to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate because the Apple Developer portal displays: “Maximum number of certificates generated” The FairPlay Streaming Certificate option is disabled, and there is no option available to generate a new certificate. We have also checked our existing FairPlay Streaming certificates. When opening an existing certificate, the certificate details page only provides a Download option. There is no option to Revoke, Delete, or Remove the existing FairPlay Streaming certificate. We have attached screenshots showing: The FairPlay Streaming Certificate section displaying “Maximum number of certificates generated.” An existing FairPlay Streaming Certificate showing only the Download option, with no option to revoke or delete it. The FairPlay Streaming Test Certificate option showing that we are not allowed to perform the operation and should contact Apple Developer Program Support. Account information: Entity Name: DIGIZION PRIVATE LIMITED Team ID: HK7FAN55HP Certificate Type: FairPlay Streaming Certificate Name: DIGIZION PRIVATE LIMITED Certificate Expiration: Never The reason we need a new FairPlay Streaming certificate is that our server infrastructure experienced a crash. As a result, we permanently lost the private keys and certificate-related credentials associated with our previous FairPlay Streaming setup. Unfortunately, we did not have a backup of these private keys. Because the private keys were lost, we are unable to use the existing certificate credentials with our new server infrastructure. We therefore need to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate and configure our production DRM infrastructure again. However, we are currently blocked because the certificate generation limit has been reached, while the Apple Developer portal does not provide us with any option to revoke, delete, or remove an existing FairPlay Streaming certificate. We have already submitted approximately 10 support requests/messages to Apple regarding this same issue, but we have not received a response providing a solution or instructions for resolving the certificate limit issue. Could someone from Apple Developer Support or the FairPlay Streaming team please review this issue and advise us on how we can resolve it? We would greatly appreciate assistance with one of the following: Revoke/remove an existing FairPlay Streaming certificate so that we can generate a new certificate; or Reset or increase the FairPlay Streaming certificate generation limit for our Team ID; or Provide the correct procedure or an Apple-side solution that will allow us to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate. We understand that FairPlay Streaming certificates may have certificate-generation limitations. However, in our situation, the previous server crash resulted in the permanent loss of our private keys, and we have no backup from which we can recover them. This issue is currently blocking our production DRM/FairPlay Streaming integration and preventing us from completing our production infrastructure setup. We would therefore greatly appreciate it if Apple Developer Support could review Team ID HK7FAN55HP and help us either revoke an existing certificate or reset/increase the certificate generation limit so that we can generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate. Thank you for your time and assistance.
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AirPods Pro 3 Disconnecting from Apple Ultra 3 consistently
I have both apple devices, AirPods Pro 3 is up to date and Ultra 3 is on watch os 26.1 latest public beta. Each morning when I would go on my mindfulness app and start a meditation or listen to Apple Music on my watch and AirPods Pro 3, it will play for a few seconds then disconnects. My bluetooth settings on my watch says my AirPods is connected to my watch. I also have removed the tick about connecting automatically to iPhone on the AirPods setting in my iPhone. To fix this I invariably turn off my Apple Watch Ultra 3 and turn it on again. Then the connection becomes stable. I am not sure why I have to do this each morning. It is frustrating. I am not sure why this fix does not last long? Is there something wrong with my AirPods? Has anyone encountered this before?
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AVCaptureDevice.uniqueID for UVC devices is unstable - bug or overstated documentation?
The documentation for AVCaptureDevice.uniqueID states the following: Capture devices have a unique identifier that persists on one system across device connections and disconnections, application restarts, and reboots of the system itself. You can store the value returned by this property to recall or track the status of a specific device in the future. For UVC capture devices this documentation does not hold. The video uniqueID is a hex string of the form 0x<locationID><vendorID><productID>, and the identifying half is the locationID (bus number plus port path). Which identifies a port, not a device. I ran a suite of tests with three identical Elgato 4K X capture cards connected to a Mac Studio w/ M3 Ultra running macOS 26.5.2, and reproduced my findings on a MacBook w/ M3 Pro (same macOS version). See the script at the bottom of the post for how uniqueId & USB serial number are being retrieved. 1. The uniqueID follows the port. Swapping two cards between two built-in ports swaps their uniqueIDs: # Before swap. 4K X uid=0x2000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI 4K X uid=0x12000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R # After swapping the cards between the same two ports. 4K X uid=0x2000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R 4K X uid=0x12000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI An app that stored 0x2000000fd9009b to recall a specific capture card now silently opens another. 2. A reboot alone can swap uniqueIDs. External USB controllers (here, PCIe USB cards in two Thunderbolt enclosures) can race for bus numbers at boot, so with every cable left in place, a reboot swapped two of the cards: # Before reboot. 4K X uid=0x262000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R 4K X uid=0x252000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50423R73R # After reboot, no cables touched. 4K X uid=0x262000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50423R73R 4K X uid=0x252000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R This behavior is intermittent, a second reboot changed nothing, but a third caused another swap. Cards left alone in built-in ports retain their uniqueIDs across reboots in my testing; the failure requires dynamically enumerated external USB controllers. 3. Even the product ID tail can drift. One unit intermittently enumerates with idProduct 0x009c instead of 0x009b, same port (USB PCIe card in a Thunderbolt enclosure), cables untouched: # Before reboot. 4K X uid=0x222000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI # After reboot. 4K X uid=0x222000000fd9009c serial=A7SNB50424UBQI IOKit and AVFoundation agree each boot... So the change is upstream of both? I'm uncertain where to place blame for this specific issue (UVC device or macOS). Audio on the same physical units is unaffected. The audio uniqueID (AppleUSBAudioEngine:...:<serial>:...) embeds the USB serial and stayed stable through every test. So AVCaptureDevice can provide a stable per-device identifier, just not for UVC video devices. Questions: Is this a bug, or is the documentation overstating the persistence guarantee for USB video devices? What is the supported way to identify a specific physical UVC video device across reboots and port changes? The USB serial number is stable and is what I've fallen back on via IOKit, but there is no documented AVFoundation API to retrieve USB serial number from a UVC video AVCaptureDevice. Related: thread 803759, where the locationID-derived format is described. Script used for all output above (swift ./list-uvc.swift): import AVFoundation import IOKit func usbSerial(forLocation location: UInt32) -> String? { var iterator: io_iterator_t = 0 guard IOServiceGetMatchingServices(kIOMainPortDefault, IOServiceMatching("IOUSBHostDevice"), &iterator) == KERN_SUCCESS else { return nil } defer { IOObjectRelease(iterator) } var result: String? var service = IOIteratorNext(iterator) while service != 0 { var loc: UInt32 = 0 if let ref = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(service, "locationID" as CFString, kCFAllocatorDefault, 0)?.takeRetainedValue(), let num = ref as? NSNumber { loc = num.uint32Value } if loc == location, let ref = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(service, "USB Serial Number" as CFString, kCFAllocatorDefault, 0)?.takeRetainedValue(), let serial = ref as? String { result = serial } IOObjectRelease(service) if result != nil { break } service = IOIteratorNext(iterator) } return result } let session = AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession(deviceTypes: [.external], mediaType: .video, position: .unspecified) for device in session.devices { let uid = device.uniqueID let location = UInt32(truncatingIfNeeded: strtoull(uid, nil, 16) >> 32) let serial = usbSerial(forLocation: location) ?? "N/A" print("\(device.localizedName) uid=\(uid) serial=\(serial)") }
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iOS 27 CarPlay speaker issue
Connected my iphone 16 pro to my wireless carplay infotainment system, everything is okay but once a phonecall comes in, the audio just comes from one side of the car (passenger side). I've tried to connect my girlfriend's phone (non-apple) and it sounds fine with phone calls. I've tried resetting the systems on both the car and the phone. Music plays fine. Just the phone call situation is what is bothering at the moment.
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PhotoKit IMG_XXXX names for videos?
I save stills and videos with PHAssetCreationRequest. I do not set originalFilename. Photos saved with addResource(with: .photo, data:) show originalFilename values like IMG_XXXX.HEIC in PHAssetResource. Videos saved with addResource(with: .video, fileURL:) from AVCaptureMovieFileOutput keep the temp file name (a UUID .mov). The docs say that if originalFilename is omitted, Photos infers a name from the file URL when one is provided, otherwise it generates a name. Is there a supported way for a third-party app to get a system IMG_XXXX original filename for a newly saved video? Thank you.
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Can a MusicKit app add to the library without being the player?
Our macOS app uses MusicKit to search the Apple Music catalog and browse the customer's library. We are not using ApplicationMusicPlayer for playback. The customer's own Music app is the player, and our app is acting as a browser and remote for it. When the customer picks a catalog search result that is not already in their library, we would like to add it to their library, or to a playlist we create and clearly label as belonging to our app, so that it becomes playable from their library. Is using MusicLibrary to add a catalog item to the user's library a supported use of MusicKit in an app that does not itself play the content? Is creating and writing to a clearly labelled playlist of our own preferable to adding to the top-level library, or is either fine? Is there any supported way to hand a catalog item to the Music app for playback without adding it to the library first? We have tried open location with a music.apple.com URL, which opens the item's page but does not begin playback.
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Is MusicKit supported in a Mac app distributed outside the Mac App Store?
We are building a macOS application that we distribute directly from our website, signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized. It is not on the Mac App Store and we do not plan to put it there. We want to add MusicKit so a customer can browse and play their own Apple Music library inside our app. We have the MusicKit App Service available to enable on an explicit App ID matching the app's bundle identifier, and we understand that MusicKit is not gated by an entitlement and that no private key is needed on Apple platforms. What we cannot find addressed anywhere is the distribution channel itself. Will MusicAuthorization.request and MusicLibraryRequest work in a Developer ID signed and notarized app distributed outside the Mac App Store, or does MusicKit require Mac App Store distribution?
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AppleTV ContinuityCamera Scan QR Code issue
I found two issues with scan code to connect continuity cameras in tvOS QR code scanning connection timeout Scan the QR code to connect successfully, but the Camera has no data and the Capture Session does not report an exception. And these are not 100% reproduce.
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Building a library playlist on macOS that mixes catalog songs and the user's own uploads in a fixed order – supported route, and how to know when an upload is registered?
Our sandboxed macOS app digitises audio cassettes and builds one playlist per cassette in the user's Apple Music library that follows the tape's order: catalog songs where a title was recognised, and the user's own recordings (AAC files the app exported from the tape) where it was not. The user has an Apple Music subscription and Sync Library on. On macOS every write on MusicLibrary is marked @available(macOS, unavailable) in the 26.5 SDK – add, add(_:to:), createPlaylist and edit (see thread 844114, which got no answer). So we build the playlist through Music.app's scripting interface: make new user playlist, duplicate <library track> to <playlist> for catalog songs, add <file> to <playlist> for own recordings. That works, with one exception that leads to our questions. What we observe Reproducible on macOS 26.6.2 / Music 26; a standalone AppleScript is at the end. A playlist built in one go from 14 subscription tracks keeps all 14. The same playlist with one local file added after the second track: all 15 entries are there right after the build and one second later. About 15 s later the playlist has 3 entries – the two catalog entries before the file, the file, and nothing that was added after it. No error anywhere. If the file has been in the library for several minutes before the playlist is built, everything stays. Adding it to the library and waiting 45 s is not enough. Meanwhile the track's cloud status stays unknown, and GET /v1/me/library/search?types=library-songs does not list it (checked for 10 minutes). Emptying the playlist and building it again ~30 s after the entries were removed keeps everything, every time. That is what we do today; it costs 30–40 s per import, and we have to tell the user that entries were removed and put back. Our reading: while the freshly added file is not yet registered in iCloud Music Library, the playlist as pushed to the server is cut at the first item the server cannot reference, and the next sync adopts the shorter list for cloud items while keeping the local-only item in place. Questions Is there a supported way for a macOS app to create a library playlist and add tracks to it? Specifically: is the Apple Music API (POST /v1/me/library/playlists with relationships.tracks, and POST /v1/me/library/playlists/{id}/tracks) the intended route from a macOS app holding a MusicKit user token, and can such a playlist reference the user's own uploaded songs by their library id (i.…)? After a local file has been added to the library (via Music.app's add, or any other supported way), how can an app learn that iCloud Music Library has registered it, and what its library song id is? A notification, a MusicKit property, an Apple Music API endpoint? We would wait on that signal instead of rebuilding. Is the removal described above expected behaviour? Catalog ids are re-resolved at import time via id, ISRC and search as recommended in thread 122110, so stale catalog ids are not the cause. Reproduction Needs Sync Library on, at least 14 subscription tracks in the library, and a local audio file the library does not know yet. Prints the counts after 1 s, 21 s and 41 s, then cleans up. on run argv set localFile to POSIX file (item 1 of argv) tell application "Music" set cloudTracks to (every track of library playlist 1 whose cloud status is subscription) set idsBefore to persistent ID of every track of library playlist 1 set pl to make new user playlist with properties {name:"Reconciliation repro"} repeat with i from 1 to 2 duplicate (item i of cloudTracks) to pl end repeat set fileTrack to add localFile to pl set fileID to persistent ID of fileTrack repeat with i from 3 to 14 duplicate (item i of cloudTracks) to pl end repeat set n0 to count of tracks of pl delay 1 set n1 to count of tracks of pl delay 20 set n2 to count of tracks of pl delay 20 set n3 to count of tracks of pl delete pl if fileID is not in idsBefore then delete (first track of library playlist 1 whose persistent ID is fileID) return "after build: " & n0 & ", after 1 s: " & n1 & ", after 21 s: " & n2 & ", after 41 s: " & n3 end tell end run Output here: after build: 15, after 1 s: 15, after 21 s: 3, after 41 s: 3.
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2w
RAW 9: Color Differences between 9 and 8
Are color differences expected for any cameras? I have heard some reports, but have not seen it myself. If it's not expected, then I can get those people to file bugs.
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2w
visionOS Developer Strap: UVC video works, but how can I access the capture device’s USB Audio Class (UAC) audio?
I’m developing a native visionOS application that uses an external HDMI capture device connected to Apple Vision Pro through the Developer Strap. The goal is to use Apple Vision Pro as a low-latency display for external HDMI sources such as an Xbox Series X, including both the HDMI video and the original digital game audio. My current hardware path is: Xbox Series X → HDMI → Elgato 4K X → USB-C → Apple Vision Pro Developer Strap The Elgato 4K X receives both video and audio from the Xbox over HDMI. What is working UVC video capture is working successfully on visionOS. The external Elgato capture device can be used as the video source and the Xbox video is displayed correctly inside the Vision Pro application. I have also verified the Elgato 4K X independently on macOS, where the device is recognized correctly. The problem I cannot find a supported way on visionOS to access the USB Audio Class (UAC) audio interface associated with the capture device. I specifically need the digital game audio originating from: Xbox HDMI → Elgato 4K X → USB/UAC → visionOS I do not want to use the Apple Vision Pro’s built-in microphone. Selecting/capturing the Vision Pro microphone would only record environmental sound and is not a substitute for the digital HDMI audio stream. Apple’s visionOS documentation for external devices through the Developer Strap appears to focus on UVC video capture. I haven’t been able to determine whether the accompanying UAC interface of a UVC/UAC composite capture device is exposed to visionOS applications. What I’ve tried / verified Connected an Xbox Series X to the HDMI input of an Elgato 4K X. Connected the 4K X to Apple Vision Pro through the Developer Strap. Successfully discovered and received the external UVC video stream. Successfully displayed the Xbox video feed in visionOS. Confirmed that the 4K X itself is recognized and functional on macOS. Attempted to obtain audio corresponding to the external capture source. The Vision Pro microphone is available as an audio source, but this is not the audio source required. I have not found a documented visionOS API that exposes the 4K X’s USB/UAC audio endpoint through the Developer Strap. Questions Does visionOS currently support USB Audio Class input devices connected through the Apple Vision Pro Developer Strap? If a device exposes both UVC video and UAC audio interfaces, is there a supported way to associate/access both interfaces from a visionOS application? If UAC is supported, which framework/API should be used to discover the external audio endpoint — AVFoundation, Core Audio, or another API? Does accessing the UAC interface require an entitlement in addition to UVC device access? If generic UAC access through the Developer Strap is currently unavailable to third-party visionOS applications, is there a restricted/managed entitlement that developers can request? If this isn’t currently supported, what is Apple’s recommended architecture for receiving synchronized video and audio from an HDMI capture device on Apple Vision Pro? Ultimately, I’m trying to achieve: HDMI source → UVC video + UAC audio → visionOS application → video displayed in Vision Pro + audio played through Vision Pro speakers/AirPods Since UVC video from this exact hardware is already working, I’m primarily trying to determine whether access to the accompanying USB audio interface is possible with the current visionOS SDK, requires another entitlement/API, or is currently unsupported. Any guidance from Apple or developers who have worked with composite UVC/UAC devices on Vision Pro would be greatly appreciated.
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608
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Request path for com.apple.coremedia.allow-mpeg4streaming on tvOS
We maintain an existing iOS/tvOS App Store application that uses AVFoundation for authenticated streaming playback. One upstream provider supplies some account-entitled playback sessions as fragmented MP4 using ISO Common Encryption scheme cenc (AES-CTR). The provider controls the rendition, and no corresponding cbcs rendition is available to our client. We understand that Apple’s documented FairPlay Streaming path supports cbcs. We identified com.apple.coremedia.allow-mpeg4streaming as relevant to this playback case, but the entitlement is undocumented and does not appear under Capability Requests for our App ID. Apple Developer Support was unable to identify the request process and recommended posting this question in the forums and filing Feedback Assistant report FB24649355. Could an Apple engineer clarify: Is this entitlement available to third-party iOS/tvOS applications? If so, what is the official request process? We can provide additional technical information privately if an Apple engineer needs it.
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3w
Volumes issue
My volume will randomly go all the way down to mute or all the way up to full blast while I’m listen to music, watching a video, playing a game. I have all the volume safety features turned off. Does anyone else have this issue?
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3w
iOS 27 beta: setExposureModeCustom silently ignored on the front camera
On every iOS 27.0 beta, setExposureModeCustom has no effect on the front camera (.builtInTrueDepthCamera). exposureMode does change to .custom, but the sensor keeps auto-exposing: device.iso and device.exposureDuration report auto-exposure's values, not the requested ones, and frame brightness does not change. No error is thrown. The same code works on iOS 18.x and 26.x on the same devices. Device: iPhone 15 Pro, every iOS 27.0 beta. Also seen on iPhone 14 Pro Max, 16, 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max. Session: front camera, AVCaptureVideoDataOutput (BGRA) + AVCaptureDepthDataOutput. Format advertises ISO 20...1920, duration 0.00004...0.06667 s. isExposureModeSupported(.custom) is true. Repro: let auto-exposure settle, then try device.lockForConfiguration() device.setExposureModeCustom(duration: CMTime(value: 1, timescale: 15), iso: 1920, completionHandler: nil) device.unlockForConfiguration() then poll device.iso / device.exposureDuration (the completion handler never fires on this device) and measure frame luma. Readback, polled 0.8 s after the call: requested ISO 1920, 66.7 ms -> reported ISO 349, 60.0 ms requested ISO 20, 0.04 ms -> reported ISO 188, 66.5 ms Requesting the shortest exposure returns the longest, and the same ISO 1920 request returned 249, 349 and 450 on three consecutive runs, so these are auto-exposure's values. Frame luma stayed within 1% between the two phases. setExposureTargetBias, however, is honored on the same device: at +4 EV auto-exposure drives the sensor to ISO 1920 / 66.5 ms and at -4 EV to ISO 24 / 30.0 ms, moving mean luma from 49 to 232. So the sensor does reach the values setExposureModeCustom cannot set. Question: is this intentional or a regression, and how should an app detect that a custom exposure request was refused?
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3w
Does the TN3135 audio-session networking exception have a defined lifetime? Seeing a ~38.5 s revoke/re-grant cycle
TN3135 describes the exception that lets a watchOS app use low-level networking while it holds an active audio session. I have that working, and the app functions — but the network path is withdrawn and restored on a strikingly regular cycle, and I would like to know whether that is expected behaviour rather than something I am doing wrong. Setup Apple Watch Series 10 (Watch7,9), watchOS 26.5. Reproduced on a Series 6 (Watch6,2). UIBackgroundModes: [audio]; AVAudioSession category .playAndRecord, mode .spokenAudio; activated with the async activate(options:completionHandler:). NWConnection with NWProtocolWebSocket to a WebSocket relay over TLS. The app streams 16 kHz mono PCM continuously while transmitting and holds the socket open otherwise. Symptom NWPathMonitor reports .unsatisfied, then .satisfied about two seconds later, over and over. Measured with the iPhone powered off, so the watch was on its own Wi-Fi: Uptime between drops Outage 36.4 s 2.1 s 36.7 s 1.9 s 36.9 s 2.1 s The regularity is what prompts the question — uptime varies by ±0.3 s and the outage is consistently 2.0 s. That reads as a timeout expiring rather than radio behaviour. What I have ruled out Not the network or the server. A browser client on the same relay, same TLS, same wire protocol, holds a WebSocket indefinitely. Not the interface. Identical cadence over the companion ipsec1 tunnel with the iPhone present, and over the watch's own en0 with the iPhone powered off. Pinning requiredInterfaceType = .wifi while the iPhone is reachable fails outright — the path offers only ipsec1. Not audio-session interruption. I observe interruptionNotification, routeChangeNotification, mediaServicesWereResetNotification and silenceSecondaryAudioHintNotification. None fire at a drop. At the moment the path goes .unsatisfied, the engine is running and the player node is actively playing. Not session idleness. Playing continuous silence for the whole session, rather than only while reconnecting, made no difference — still 36.4 s. The control that surprised me To test whether this affects any long-lived watch socket or only audio-unlocked ones, I built a second app with no AVAudioSession at all, no audio background mode, holding a URLSessionWebSocketTask and kept alive by a WKExtendedRuntimeSession so screen sleep was not a factor. It never connected. NWPathMonitor reported .unsatisfied once and never changed, across a 30 s run, and every request failed with "The Internet connection appears to be offline." I had expected URLSession to be permitted regardless. Questions Does the audio-session networking exception in TN3135 have a defined lifetime, and is a periodic revoke/re-grant cycle expected? If so, is there a supported way to hold it continuously — or is the correct design simply to expect the interruption and reconnect through it? Is it expected that an app with no audio session gets no network path at all on watchOS, including via URLSession, even in the foreground with an extended runtime session?
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AVSpeechSynthesizer Enhanced voices produce silent audio in sandboxed Mac Catalyst app
I have reproduced an issue with AVSpeechSynthesizer on macOS 26.6.2 (25G83) using a minimal Mac Catalyst application. Environment macOS 26.6.2 (25G83) Apple Silicon Xcode 26.x Mac Catalyst AVSpeechSynthesizer Enhanced voice: com.apple.voice.enhanced.en-GB.Daniel The problem is specifically related to App Sandbox. Reproduction I created a completely new minimal Mac Catalyst application. With App Sandbox disabled: let synthesizer = AVSpeechSynthesizer() let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: "Hello, this is a test.") utterance.voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(identifier: "com.apple.voice.enhanced.en-GB.Daniel") synthesizer.speak(utterance) The Enhanced voice works normally. With App Sandbox enabled, with no other sandbox capabilities enabled, the same code no longer produces audible speech.
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782
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AirPods Sleep Detection pauses meditation playback with no API/callback to identify the reason
Good morning! I work on a meditation app, and since Sleep Detection was introduced for AirPods in iOS 26, we've been receiving complaints from users reporting that their meditation sessions unexpectedly stop after approximately 15–20 minutes when Sleep Detection is enabled. This seems to happen particularly during deep meditation sessions, where the user may remain still and exhibit behavior that could potentially be interpreted as falling asleep. I've also tested this on iOS 27 with the latest beta firmware available for AirPods Pro, and the same behavior still occurs. While investigating and debugging the issue, I found that there doesn't appear to be any public API that allows an app to determine that playback was paused specifically because of AirPods Sleep Detection. From the application's perspective, the AirPods appear to simply send a standard pause command to the AVPlayer, without providing any additional context or reason. There also doesn't seem to be an API that allows us to determine whether the user has Sleep Detection enabled. Even having access to that information would allow us to warn users that their meditation session could potentially be interrupted. AVAudioSession.InterruptionReason does not seem to help in this case either: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiosession/interruptionreason Is there currently any supported way for an app to: Detect that playback was paused specifically because of AirPods Sleep Detection? Determine whether Sleep Detection is enabled for the connected AirPods? Prevent Sleep Detection from pausing playback for specific apps or specific types of audio sessions? If none of these are currently possible, could Apple consider providing either a notification/callback indicating that Sleep Detection triggered the pause, or an option for users to exclude specific apps from Sleep Detection? This behavior is particularly problematic for meditation apps, since a user in a deep meditation session can easily be mistaken for someone who has fallen asleep. Other meditation apps appear to be affected by the same behavior as well. Best regards, Carlos Antunes
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MusicKit on HarmonyOS — playback approach for a platform without an official SDK, licensing question
Hello Apple Developer community, I'm building an Apple Music client for HarmonyOS (Huawei's operating system) and would like to clarify the licensing and technical approach before submitting to a third-party app store (Huawei AppGallery). I've read the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and App Store Review Guideline 4.5.2, but there are platform-specific constraints I'd like to discuss. Background Apple currently does not provide a MusicKit SDK for HarmonyOS. The available options are: MusicKit for iOS/macOS — not applicable (different OS) MusicKit for Android — ships as proprietary .aar binaries that cannot be redistributed and are not compatible with HarmonyOS's runtime MusicKit JS — available, but HarmonyOS WebView does not support FairPlay or Widevine EME, so full-song DRM playback through MusicKit JS does not work on this platform The only Apple Music API access path available to a HarmonyOS app is the REST API (api.music.apple.com) with a Developer Token (JWT, ES256) and a Music User Token obtained through the MusicKit JS authorization flow running inside a WebView. The technical constraint To deliver full-song playback for subscribed Apple Music users on HarmonyOS, our app retrieves the HLS playback URL via the Apple Music API, downloads the encrypted media segments, and decrypts them using HarmonyOS's native DRM system (WisePlay, the only CDM available on the platform). MusicKit JS's FairPlay/Widevine CDM is not compatible with HarmonyOS — WisePlay is the sole DRM implementation the OS exposes. We are aware that Section 4.5.2 states: "You may not, and You may not permit Your end users to, download, upload, or modify any MusicKit Content" and "You may play MusicKit Content only as rendered by the MusicKit APIs or MusicKit JS" What we want to clarify Our playback implementation works as follows, and we want to confirm whether it is acceptable under the license terms: No download service is offered to users. The download is purely an internal playback mechanism — the app fetches encrypted segments, decrypts them in memory / a protected sandbox, and plays them via the system AVPlayer. There is no "download button," no offline library, no user-facing download feature. Decrypted files are ephemeral and protected. Decrypted media is written to the app's private sandbox (not accessible to users or other apps), played immediately, and deleted as soon as playback ends or the song is skipped. The decrypted file never persists beyond the current playback session. No file leakage. The decrypted content is never exposed via any sharing mechanism, file picker, or external storage. It exists only within the app's protected data directory for the duration of playback. Standard playback controls are preserved. Users initiate playback and can use play / pause / skip / seek — the same controls required by 4.5.2(i). No monetization of Apple Music access. The app does not charge for Apple Music playback, does not show ads around it, and does not collect or share user data. Our question Given that: Apple has no SDK presence on HarmonyOS, MusicKit JS DRM is technically non-functional on HarmonyOS WebView, the only way to deliver full-song playback to Apple Music subscribers on this platform is to decrypt the stream using the OS's native DRM (WisePlay) with strict ephemeral handling, is this playback approach acceptable under the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, provided that: decrypted content is never persisted, shared, or exposed to users, the app only serves subscribed Apple Music users with valid Music User Tokens, all usage remains within the scope of facilitating access to the user's own Apple Music subscription? We fully respect Apple's content protection requirements and are happy to adjust the implementation (e.g., stricter deletion timing, additional sandboxing, attestation) to comply. We just want to understand whether the fundamental approach — decrypting via the host OS's DRM because Apple's own CDMs are unavailable on this platform — is permissible, or whether Apple considers HarmonyOS out of scope for full-song playback entirely. Any guidance from the MusicKit team or community members who have dealt with non-Apple-platform constraints would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Is there a supported way to read on-screen text with the user's consent? (worker-safety / income-transparency app)
Hello, I am an independent developer in Argentina building an app for rideshare drivers, and I would like to know what the supported approach is on iOS before I build the wrong thing. The problem When a trip offer appears, the driver sees a fare, a distance and a duration. What they do not see is what is left after the cost of running their own car — fuel, maintenance, and very often the weekly rent they pay for the vehicle. Here those costs are high and change constantly, and drivers routinely accept trips that lose them money without realising it. They have about three seconds to decide, while driving. Our app reads the numbers already visible on the driver's own screen, subtracts that particular driver's cost per kilometre, and shows one figure: what this trip actually leaves them per hour. In our own field measurements with two drivers over several weeks, being able to see that number raised their hourly earnings and — just as important — kept their eyes off mental arithmetic at the wheel. What we will not do, on purpose I want to be explicit about this, because I know other tools in this category cut corners: We never ask for the driver's Uber or DiDi username or password, and we never connect to or automate their account. Some tools do, and that puts the driver's account — their livelihood — at risk of deactivation. We will not build that. We never accept or decline a trip for the driver. The decision and the tap are always theirs. We never store passenger data: no name, no rating, no photo, no exact address. Text recognition runs entirely on device, offline. The captured image is discarded immediately and never leaves the phone or reaches any server. No advertising, no data sales, no third-party trackers. The app does not read anything the driver is not already looking at, it only reads while the driver has explicitly turned it on for their shift, and it exists for one purpose: so that someone working long hours knows what an hour of their work is actually worth. My question On Android this is done with MediaProjection, with explicit user consent each session and a persistent system indicator. On iOS I understand a Broadcast Upload Extension is not intended for background processing, and that there is no overlay across apps. Is there any supported path on iOS for an app to read, with the user's explicit and repeated consent, text the user is already looking at on their own screen, in order to give that same user an immediate assessment of their own work? Accessibility APIs, a system extension point, anything. If there is no supported path, I would rather know now and design the iOS version around what is allowed, instead of shipping something that gets rejected or that quietly breaks the rules. Thank you.
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3w
Can an iOS app programmatically enable Voice Isolation microphone mode?
Hi, I’m developing an iOS app that captures the user’s voice and sends the microphone input to an AI model for speech processing. For this use case, Voice Isolation provides a significantly better input signal in noisy environments. However, I’m currently unable to enable Voice Isolation programmatically when the app starts recording. As I understand it, microphone modes such as Automatic, Standard, Voice Isolation, and Wide Spectrum are controlled by the user through the system UI. My app can detect/observe the current microphone mode, but I have not found a public API that allows the app to select Voice Isolation itself. My questions are: Is there currently a supported public API to programmatically switch the microphone mode from Automatic/Standard → Voice Isolation? If direct selection is not supported, is there a recommended way for an app that primarily processes speech/voice input for an AI model to request or prefer Voice Isolation? Would using AVAudioSession with an appropriate voice-processing configuration, such as .voiceChat, or enabling voice processing through AVAudioEngine, provide equivalent Voice Isolation processing? Is AVCaptureDevice.showSystemUserInterface(.microphoneModes) the intended approach when an app needs the user to change the microphone mode? I understand that Apple may intentionally keep microphone-mode selection under user control. I’m mainly trying to determine whether there is a supported programmatic approach that I may have overlooked, rather than relying on a custom noise-suppression implementation. Any guidance on the recommended architecture for this use case would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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3w
FairPlay Streaming Certificate Limit Reached – Unable to Revoke or Generate New Certificate
We are seeking assistance regarding an ongoing issue with FairPlay Streaming (FPS) certificates in our Apple Developer account. We are currently unable to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate because the Apple Developer portal displays: “Maximum number of certificates generated” The FairPlay Streaming Certificate option is disabled, and there is no option available to generate a new certificate. We have also checked our existing FairPlay Streaming certificates. When opening an existing certificate, the certificate details page only provides a Download option. There is no option to Revoke, Delete, or Remove the existing FairPlay Streaming certificate. We have attached screenshots showing: The FairPlay Streaming Certificate section displaying “Maximum number of certificates generated.” An existing FairPlay Streaming Certificate showing only the Download option, with no option to revoke or delete it. The FairPlay Streaming Test Certificate option showing that we are not allowed to perform the operation and should contact Apple Developer Program Support. Account information: Entity Name: DIGIZION PRIVATE LIMITED Team ID: HK7FAN55HP Certificate Type: FairPlay Streaming Certificate Name: DIGIZION PRIVATE LIMITED Certificate Expiration: Never The reason we need a new FairPlay Streaming certificate is that our server infrastructure experienced a crash. As a result, we permanently lost the private keys and certificate-related credentials associated with our previous FairPlay Streaming setup. Unfortunately, we did not have a backup of these private keys. Because the private keys were lost, we are unable to use the existing certificate credentials with our new server infrastructure. We therefore need to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate and configure our production DRM infrastructure again. However, we are currently blocked because the certificate generation limit has been reached, while the Apple Developer portal does not provide us with any option to revoke, delete, or remove an existing FairPlay Streaming certificate. We have already submitted approximately 10 support requests/messages to Apple regarding this same issue, but we have not received a response providing a solution or instructions for resolving the certificate limit issue. Could someone from Apple Developer Support or the FairPlay Streaming team please review this issue and advise us on how we can resolve it? We would greatly appreciate assistance with one of the following: Revoke/remove an existing FairPlay Streaming certificate so that we can generate a new certificate; or Reset or increase the FairPlay Streaming certificate generation limit for our Team ID; or Provide the correct procedure or an Apple-side solution that will allow us to generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate. We understand that FairPlay Streaming certificates may have certificate-generation limitations. However, in our situation, the previous server crash resulted in the permanent loss of our private keys, and we have no backup from which we can recover them. This issue is currently blocking our production DRM/FairPlay Streaming integration and preventing us from completing our production infrastructure setup. We would therefore greatly appreciate it if Apple Developer Support could review Team ID HK7FAN55HP and help us either revoke an existing certificate or reset/increase the certificate generation limit so that we can generate a new FairPlay Streaming certificate. Thank you for your time and assistance.
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AirPods Pro 3 Disconnecting from Apple Ultra 3 consistently
I have both apple devices, AirPods Pro 3 is up to date and Ultra 3 is on watch os 26.1 latest public beta. Each morning when I would go on my mindfulness app and start a meditation or listen to Apple Music on my watch and AirPods Pro 3, it will play for a few seconds then disconnects. My bluetooth settings on my watch says my AirPods is connected to my watch. I also have removed the tick about connecting automatically to iPhone on the AirPods setting in my iPhone. To fix this I invariably turn off my Apple Watch Ultra 3 and turn it on again. Then the connection becomes stable. I am not sure why I have to do this each morning. It is frustrating. I am not sure why this fix does not last long? Is there something wrong with my AirPods? Has anyone encountered this before?
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AVCaptureDevice.uniqueID for UVC devices is unstable - bug or overstated documentation?
The documentation for AVCaptureDevice.uniqueID states the following: Capture devices have a unique identifier that persists on one system across device connections and disconnections, application restarts, and reboots of the system itself. You can store the value returned by this property to recall or track the status of a specific device in the future. For UVC capture devices this documentation does not hold. The video uniqueID is a hex string of the form 0x<locationID><vendorID><productID>, and the identifying half is the locationID (bus number plus port path). Which identifies a port, not a device. I ran a suite of tests with three identical Elgato 4K X capture cards connected to a Mac Studio w/ M3 Ultra running macOS 26.5.2, and reproduced my findings on a MacBook w/ M3 Pro (same macOS version). See the script at the bottom of the post for how uniqueId & USB serial number are being retrieved. 1. The uniqueID follows the port. Swapping two cards between two built-in ports swaps their uniqueIDs: # Before swap. 4K X uid=0x2000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI 4K X uid=0x12000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R # After swapping the cards between the same two ports. 4K X uid=0x2000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R 4K X uid=0x12000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI An app that stored 0x2000000fd9009b to recall a specific capture card now silently opens another. 2. A reboot alone can swap uniqueIDs. External USB controllers (here, PCIe USB cards in two Thunderbolt enclosures) can race for bus numbers at boot, so with every cable left in place, a reboot swapped two of the cards: # Before reboot. 4K X uid=0x262000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R 4K X uid=0x252000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50423R73R # After reboot, no cables touched. 4K X uid=0x262000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50423R73R 4K X uid=0x252000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB504219J0R This behavior is intermittent, a second reboot changed nothing, but a third caused another swap. Cards left alone in built-in ports retain their uniqueIDs across reboots in my testing; the failure requires dynamically enumerated external USB controllers. 3. Even the product ID tail can drift. One unit intermittently enumerates with idProduct 0x009c instead of 0x009b, same port (USB PCIe card in a Thunderbolt enclosure), cables untouched: # Before reboot. 4K X uid=0x222000000fd9009b serial=A7SNB50424UBQI # After reboot. 4K X uid=0x222000000fd9009c serial=A7SNB50424UBQI IOKit and AVFoundation agree each boot... So the change is upstream of both? I'm uncertain where to place blame for this specific issue (UVC device or macOS). Audio on the same physical units is unaffected. The audio uniqueID (AppleUSBAudioEngine:...:<serial>:...) embeds the USB serial and stayed stable through every test. So AVCaptureDevice can provide a stable per-device identifier, just not for UVC video devices. Questions: Is this a bug, or is the documentation overstating the persistence guarantee for USB video devices? What is the supported way to identify a specific physical UVC video device across reboots and port changes? The USB serial number is stable and is what I've fallen back on via IOKit, but there is no documented AVFoundation API to retrieve USB serial number from a UVC video AVCaptureDevice. Related: thread 803759, where the locationID-derived format is described. Script used for all output above (swift ./list-uvc.swift): import AVFoundation import IOKit func usbSerial(forLocation location: UInt32) -> String? { var iterator: io_iterator_t = 0 guard IOServiceGetMatchingServices(kIOMainPortDefault, IOServiceMatching("IOUSBHostDevice"), &iterator) == KERN_SUCCESS else { return nil } defer { IOObjectRelease(iterator) } var result: String? var service = IOIteratorNext(iterator) while service != 0 { var loc: UInt32 = 0 if let ref = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(service, "locationID" as CFString, kCFAllocatorDefault, 0)?.takeRetainedValue(), let num = ref as? NSNumber { loc = num.uint32Value } if loc == location, let ref = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(service, "USB Serial Number" as CFString, kCFAllocatorDefault, 0)?.takeRetainedValue(), let serial = ref as? String { result = serial } IOObjectRelease(service) if result != nil { break } service = IOIteratorNext(iterator) } return result } let session = AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession(deviceTypes: [.external], mediaType: .video, position: .unspecified) for device in session.devices { let uid = device.uniqueID let location = UInt32(truncatingIfNeeded: strtoull(uid, nil, 16) >> 32) let serial = usbSerial(forLocation: location) ?? "N/A" print("\(device.localizedName) uid=\(uid) serial=\(serial)") }
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iOS 27 CarPlay speaker issue
Connected my iphone 16 pro to my wireless carplay infotainment system, everything is okay but once a phonecall comes in, the audio just comes from one side of the car (passenger side). I've tried to connect my girlfriend's phone (non-apple) and it sounds fine with phone calls. I've tried resetting the systems on both the car and the phone. Music plays fine. Just the phone call situation is what is bothering at the moment.
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PhotoKit IMG_XXXX names for videos?
I save stills and videos with PHAssetCreationRequest. I do not set originalFilename. Photos saved with addResource(with: .photo, data:) show originalFilename values like IMG_XXXX.HEIC in PHAssetResource. Videos saved with addResource(with: .video, fileURL:) from AVCaptureMovieFileOutput keep the temp file name (a UUID .mov). The docs say that if originalFilename is omitted, Photos infers a name from the file URL when one is provided, otherwise it generates a name. Is there a supported way for a third-party app to get a system IMG_XXXX original filename for a newly saved video? Thank you.
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Can a MusicKit app add to the library without being the player?
Our macOS app uses MusicKit to search the Apple Music catalog and browse the customer's library. We are not using ApplicationMusicPlayer for playback. The customer's own Music app is the player, and our app is acting as a browser and remote for it. When the customer picks a catalog search result that is not already in their library, we would like to add it to their library, or to a playlist we create and clearly label as belonging to our app, so that it becomes playable from their library. Is using MusicLibrary to add a catalog item to the user's library a supported use of MusicKit in an app that does not itself play the content? Is creating and writing to a clearly labelled playlist of our own preferable to adding to the top-level library, or is either fine? Is there any supported way to hand a catalog item to the Music app for playback without adding it to the library first? We have tried open location with a music.apple.com URL, which opens the item's page but does not begin playback.
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Is MusicKit supported in a Mac app distributed outside the Mac App Store?
We are building a macOS application that we distribute directly from our website, signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized. It is not on the Mac App Store and we do not plan to put it there. We want to add MusicKit so a customer can browse and play their own Apple Music library inside our app. We have the MusicKit App Service available to enable on an explicit App ID matching the app's bundle identifier, and we understand that MusicKit is not gated by an entitlement and that no private key is needed on Apple platforms. What we cannot find addressed anywhere is the distribution channel itself. Will MusicAuthorization.request and MusicLibraryRequest work in a Developer ID signed and notarized app distributed outside the Mac App Store, or does MusicKit require Mac App Store distribution?
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