Construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for your macOS app using AppKit.

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Xcode unit test "Creating more than one Application"
When I try to make a unit test target for my macOS app that uses Objective-C, running tests fails, and the debugging log shows a message "Creating more than one Application". If, on the other hand, when I create the unit test target, I select "None" as the target to be tested, and then add all my sources to that target, my tests work. So, I can get my testing done, but I think I must be doing something wrong. By the way, along with the error message, there is a stack crawl: 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff8140410aa __exceptionPreprocess + 242 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007ff813b660b7 objc_exception_throw + 48 2 Foundation 0x00007ff814f19bd8 -[NSCalendarDate initWithCoder:] + 0 3 AppKit 0x00007ff817030062 -[NSApplication init] + 1718 4 XCTestCore 0x000000010774b0df -[XCTestDriver _createTestBundlePrincipalClassInstance] + 82 5 XCTestCore 0x0000000107749338 -[XCTestDriver _runTests] + 111 6 XCTestCore 0x000000010770f194 _XCTestMain + 126 7 libXCTestBundleInject.dylib 0x0000000106e8982d __copy_helper_block_e8_32s + 0 8 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc9a91 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 12 9 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc99ca __CFRunLoopDoBlocks + 398 10 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc883d __CFRunLoopRun + 898 11 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc7e51 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560 12 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52f3d RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292 13 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52b84 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 199 14 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52aa8 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 64 15 AppKit 0x00007ff8170689d8 _DPSNextEvent + 858 16 AppKit 0x00007ff817067882 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1214 17 AppKit 0x00007ff817059ef7 -[NSApplication run] + 586 18 AppKit 0x00007ff81702e111 NSApplicationMain + 817 19 PlainCalc 0x00000001057d0a91 main + 65 20 dyld 0x00007ff813b93418 start + 1896
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204
Aug ’25
NSTableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes:columnIndexes:) causes wrong subview layout when usesAutomaticRowHeights = true
I have a table view where each row has two labels, one left-aligned and one right-aligned. I would like to reload a single row, but doing so causes the right-aligned label to hug the left-aligned label. Before the reload: After the reload: Reloading the whole table view instead, or disabling automatic row height, solves the issue. Can a single row be reloaded without resorting to these two workarounds? I created FB13534100 1.5 years ago but got no response. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSTableViewDataSource, NSTableViewDelegate { override func loadView() { let tableView = NSTableView() tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false tableView.dataSource = self tableView.delegate = self tableView.usesAutomaticRowHeights = true let column = NSTableColumn() column.width = 400 tableView.addTableColumn(column) let scrollView = NSScrollView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 500, height: 500)) scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false scrollView.documentView = tableView view = scrollView Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 2, repeats: false) { _ in print("reload") tableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 2), columnIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 0)) // tableView.reloadData() } } func numberOfRows(in tableView: NSTableView) -> Int { return 5 } func tableView(_ tableView: NSTableView, viewFor tableColumn: NSTableColumn?, row: Int) -> NSView? { let cell = NSTableCellView() let textField1 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "hello") textField1.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false let textField2 = NSTextField(wrappingLabelWithString: "world") textField2.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false textField2.alignment = .right let stack = NSStackView(views: [ textField1, textField2 ]) stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false stack.distribution = .fill cell.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.topAnchor, constant: 0), stack.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.leadingAnchor, constant: 0), stack.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.bottomAnchor, constant: 0), stack.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.trailingAnchor, constant: 0)]) return cell } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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148
Aug ’25
How can I connect NSTableCellView.textField to a SwiftUI view?
When using NSTableView or NSOutlineView, if you use an NSTableCellView and wire up the .imageView and .textField properties then you get some "free" behaviour with respect to styling and sizing of those fields. (ex: They reflect the user's preferred "Sidebar Icon Size" as selected in Settings. ) If I'm using a SwiftUI View inside an NSTableCellView, is there any way to connect a Text or Image to those properties? Consider the following pseudo code: struct MyCellView: View { let text: String let url: URL? var body: some View { HStack { Image(...) // How to indicate this is .imageView? Text(...) // How to indicate this is .textField? } } } final class MyTableCellView: NSTableCellView { private var hostingView: NSHostingView<MyCellView>! init() { self.hostingView = NSHostingView(rootView: MyCellView(text: "", url: nil)) self.addSubview(self.hostingView) } func configureWith(text: String, url: URL) { let rootView = MyCellView(text: text, url: url) hostingView.rootView = rootView // How can I make this connection? self.textField = rootView.??? self.imageView = rootView.??? } } I'm ideally looking for a solution that works on macOS 15+.
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140
Aug ’25
Crash when assigning NSImage to `@objc dynamic var` property
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app which I don't quite understand. It seems the following line caused the crash: myEntity.image = newImage where myEntity is of type MyEntity: class MyEntity: NSObject, Identifiable { @objc dynamic var image: NSImage! ... } The code is called on the main thread. According to the crash report, thread 0 makes that assignment, and at the same time thread 16 is calling [NSImageView asynchronousPreparation:prepareResultUsingParameters:]. What could cause such a crash? Could I be doing something wrong or is this a bug in macOS? crash.crash
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262
Aug ’25
vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat Fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat When Trying to Convert CMYK to RGB
So I get JPEG data in my app. Previously I was using the higher level NSBitmapImageRep API and just feeding the JPEG data to it. But now I've noticed on Sonoma If I get a JPEG in the CMYK color space the NSBitmapImageRep renders mostly black and is corrupted. So I'm trying to drop down to the lower level APIs. Specifically I grab a CGImageRef and and trying to use the Accelerate API to convert it to another format (to hopefully workaround the issue... CGImageRef sourceCGImage = `CGImageCreateWithJPEGDataProvider(jpegDataProvider,` NULL, shouldInterpolate, kCGRenderingIntentDefault); Now I use vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat... with the following values for source and destination formats: Source format: (derived from sourceCGImage) bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 32 colorSpace = (kCGColorSpaceICCBased; kCGColorSpaceModelCMYK; Generic CMYK Profile) bitmapInfo = kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault version = 0 decode = 0x000060000147f780 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault Destination format: bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 24 colorSpace = (DeviceRBG) bitmapInfo = 8197 version = 0 decode = 0x0000000000000000 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault But vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat. Now if I change the destination format to use 32 bitsPerpixel and use alpha in the bitmap info the vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat does not return an error but I get a black image just like NSBitmapImageRep
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1.6k
Aug ’25
Sleep State Notification Inconsistencies on MacBook Devices When Unplugged
There are inconsistent behaviors in sleep/wake notification callbacks across different MacBook devices and macOS versions when the device is not connected to power, with or without external displays, entering sleep mode by closing the lid, and waking up from sleep by opening the lid. When monitoring the following Objective-C notifications: NSWorkspaceScreensDidSleepNotification NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Different devices exhibit varying notification trigger patterns: Some devices trigger all four notifications properly Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification These inconsistencies make it challenging to implement reliable sleep/wake detection logic across different MacBook models and macOS versions.
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109
Aug ’25
NSToolbar doesn't restore displayMode when NSWindow.titleVisibility = .hidden
Apparently when setting a window to hide its title, the toolbar's displayMode is not restored when relaunching the app. For example, by default my app sets to show toolbar icons only, but when right-clicking it, selecting "Icon and Text" and relaunching the app, it's again "Icon Only". Is there a workaround? I've filed FB17144212. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSToolbarDelegate { override func viewDidAppear() { let toolbar = NSToolbar(identifier: "toolbar") toolbar.delegate = self toolbar.autosavesConfiguration = true toolbar.displayMode = .iconOnly view.window?.titleVisibility = .hidden view.window?.toolbar = toolbar view.window?.toolbarStyle = .unified } func toolbarAllowedItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbarDefaultItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbar(_ toolbar: NSToolbar, itemForItemIdentifier itemIdentifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier, willBeInsertedIntoToolbar flag: Bool) -> NSToolbarItem? { let item = NSToolbarItem(itemIdentifier: itemIdentifier) item.image = NSImage(named: NSImage.addTemplateName)! item.label = "item" return item } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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102
Aug ’25
How to speed-up initial UI rendering faster in AppKit?
I am developing an AppKit application in MacOS with Swift. Our application requires a complex, multi-windowed interface and must deliver a very fast, responsive experience. As a performance test, I built a sample app that creates 3 windows programmatically, each containing 500 NSTextFields (with each text-field assigned 35 different properties). Code flow: https://gist.github.com/Raunit-TW/5ac58ac9c6584f93e2ee201aa8118139 This takes around 77 milliseconds to render the windows - I need to find a way to reduce this time, as low as possible. Thanks.
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194
Aug ’25
[TextKit2] - Wrong document height sometimes ?
Hello 👋 I'm playing with the Apple TextKit2 sample app (particularly on macOS). I found that on some long document the evaluated height given by enumerateTextLayoutFragments API is wrong (or at least not I expect) which imply I can no longer scroll in my document even if I have not reached the end of it (which is not what I expect as you can guess). I'm clearly missing a point here. I can reproduce it on the Apple sample app by only changing the text content: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/UIKit/using-textkit-2-to-interact-with-text Using TextKit2, is it my responsability as developer to check that I've reached end of the scrollview whether not being at the end location of the document and call some specific TextKit2 API to invalidate estimation or something ? Here is an updated version of the Apple sample app with another text content that show the issue. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jtTD84oqGAG4_A9DfqFl_yHmbLKhF1e8/view?usp=sharing Environment: Xcode 16.4 - macOS 15.6 If someone could help me with this, I would be extremely grateful. It puzzles me. NB: I've observed that resizing the window a bit seems to force a new layout and make TextKit2 returns a more accurate height, ... until you reach the end of the document.
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193
Aug ’25
Xcode 26 XIB ignores difference between NSView frame and alignment rectangles
In the last three betas of Xcode 26, opening XIB files that rely on the older struts-and-springs setup (rather than Auto Layout) has exposed a new problem: Xcode 26 ignore the difference between a view’s frame and alignment rectangle. If you had arranged views using their frame rectangle (the default for the old method) this causes two problems: All UI widgets are both larger and no longer aligned. Switching between frame and alignment rectangles while configuring any NSView (through the inspector setting) has no effect. Is anyone else seeing this? It’s one thing to convert a few smaller views to Auto-layout (its reliance on alignment rectangles makes it immune to the "death" of frame rectangle-based layout) it is a rather different task to re-layout thousands of UI widgets as a result of this one bug. Filed as FB18835363
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Jul ’25
Structured concurrency + preconcurrency API (SFAuthorizationPluginView)
I'm having trouble dealing with concurrency with the SFAuthorizationPluginView. Does anybody know how this can be solved? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/securityinterface/sfauthorizationpluginview The crux of it is: If I inherit an object as part of an API, and the API is preconcurrency, and thus is nonisolated (but in reality is @MainActor), how do I return a @MainActor GUI element? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/securityinterface/sfauthorizationpluginview/firstresponder() The longer story: I made my view class inherit SFAuthorizationPluginView. The API is preconcurrency (but not marked as preconcurrency) I started using concurrency in my plugin to retrieve data over XPC. (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xpc/xpcsession + https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/withcheckedthrowingcontinuation(isolation:function:_:)) Once I retrieve the data over XPC, I need to post it on GUI, hence I've set my view class as @MainActor in order to do the thread switch. Swift compiler keeps complaining: override func firstResponder() -&gt; NSResponder? { return usernameField } "Main actor-isolated property 'usernameField' can not be referenced from a nonisolated context; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode" override func firstResponder() -&gt; NSResponder? { MainActor.assumeIsolated { return usernameField } } "Sending 'self' risks causing data races; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode" I think fundamentally, the API is forcing me to give away a @MainActor variable through a nonisolated function, and there is no way to shut up the compiler. I've tried @preconcurrency and it has no effect as far as I can tell. I've also tried marking the function explicitly as nonisolated. The rest of the API are less problematic, but returning a GUI variable is exceptionally difficult.
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Jul ’25
No MDM settings to control macOS pasteboard privacy?
For context, my company develops a data loss prevention (DLP) product. Part of our functionality is the ability to detect sensitive data being pasted into a web browser or cloud-based app. The AppKit release notes for April 2025 document an upcoming “macOS pasteboard privacy” feature, which will presumably ship in macOS 26. Using the user default setting “EnablePasteboardPrivacyDeveloperPreview” documented in the release notes, I tested our agent under macOS 15.5, and encountered a modal alert reading " is trying to access the pasteboard" almost immediately, when the program reads the General pasteboard to scan its contents. Since our product is aimed at enterprise customers (and not individual Mac users), I believed Apple would implement a privacy control setting for this new feature. This would allow our customers to push a configuration profile via MDM, with the “Paste from Other Apps” setting for our application preset to “Allow”, so that they can install our product on their endpoints without manual intervention. Unfortunately, as of macOS 26 beta 4 (25A5316i), there does not seem to be any such setting documented under Device Management — for example in PrivacyPreferencesPolicyControl.Services, which lists a number of similar settings. Without such a setting available, a valuable function of our product will be effectively crippled when macOS 26 is released. Is there such a setting (that I've overlooked)? If not, allow me to urge Apple to find the resources to implement one, so that our customers can preset “Paste from Other Apps” to “Allow” for our application.
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723
Jul ’25
SwiftUI APIs for macOS app
What are the SwiftUI equivalent of NSSplitViewController.automaticallyAdjustsSafeAreaInsets NSToolbarItem.style These were introduced in the WWDC 2025 session named "Build an AppKit app with the new design". Jeff introduced only the AppKit API's while there was no mention of SwiftUI API
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284
Jul ’25
Set edge effect style in AppKit
In macOS 26 beta 2 it is possible to set an edge effect style via UIKit using the .scrollEdgeEffectStyle property. (note: I haven't tested this, I'm just looking at the documentation). See: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view/scrolledgeeffectstyle(_:for:) Is there an equivalent API for AppKit-based apps? I can't seem to find any additions in NSView or NSScrollView or elsewhere that seem relevant. Scroll edge effects are mentioned in the "Build an AppKit app with the new design" talk here, which heavily implies it must be possible from AppKit: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/310/?time=567
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410
Jul ’25
Where is the NSToolbarItem badge property in macOS Tahoe?
According the video "Build an AppKit app with the new design" (https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/310/), it is now possible to add a badge on a NSToolbarItem object. However, in don't see a badge in the NSToolbar API. The code example in the video includes for example "NSItemBadge.count(4)", but the only Google result for this is the video mentioned above. Is this still work in progress or I'm overlooking something?
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131
Jul ’25
Debug an issue with NSWindow becoming narrow
For months now we're trying to find an issue with one of our apps, were a window suddenly becomes narrow and can't be resized horizontally any more. It's a bug that only happens sporadically and we can't provide a "focused test project" to demonstrate the issue; thus we can't ask for code-level support at this moment. To debug this issue, we've overwritten a private method on NSWindow that gets the constrained window min and max sizes (valuable hint of Kristin from the AppKit team in a WWDC 2025 one-on-one session where I was able to show it to her in my debugger). When the bug hits, the maxSize's width (usually 10000) becomes smaller than the minSize's width. One way (but not the only one) to trigger this issue is to move the window from one display to another and back. Sometimes the bug triggers after a few back-and-forth movements, sometimes it takes minutes to trigger or I give up… but for other people the bug happens seemingly out of nowhere (of course there must be a trigger but we haven't noticed common patterns yet). It looks like an AutoLayout issue since a suspicious thing happens when the bug triggers: calling constraintsAffectingLayoutForOrientation:NSLayoutConstraintOrientationHorizontal on the NSThemeFrame usually returns just two constraints. But when the bug triggers, it returns a whole bunch of constraints, related to all kind of views of our app. Asking the NSThemeFrame for its direct constraints still shows the same two constraints are present and active (NSWindow-current-width and NSWindow-x-anchor). How to proceed in hunting down this issue when we're unable to produce a demo project? We can only reproduce the bug with our big product, and only sporadically: sometimes I can trigger it in a minute, sometimes it takes me 15 minutes or even more. Issue happens on macOS 15 (currently running 15.5).
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162
Jul ’25
Force NSDocument save panel to select most specific type in format popup button
My app supports different plain text file formats, including the standard .txt and Markdown. When creating a new document, my app already asks which format it should have, so when saving it, I would expect that the save panel already selects that format in the popup button, but currently it always selects "Plain Text". For example, I would expect for a Markdown document that it selects "Markdown" instead of "Plain Text". Is there a way to force it to select the most specific format matching the document format?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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Jul ’25
Xcode unit test "Creating more than one Application"
When I try to make a unit test target for my macOS app that uses Objective-C, running tests fails, and the debugging log shows a message "Creating more than one Application". If, on the other hand, when I create the unit test target, I select "None" as the target to be tested, and then add all my sources to that target, my tests work. So, I can get my testing done, but I think I must be doing something wrong. By the way, along with the error message, there is a stack crawl: 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff8140410aa __exceptionPreprocess + 242 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007ff813b660b7 objc_exception_throw + 48 2 Foundation 0x00007ff814f19bd8 -[NSCalendarDate initWithCoder:] + 0 3 AppKit 0x00007ff817030062 -[NSApplication init] + 1718 4 XCTestCore 0x000000010774b0df -[XCTestDriver _createTestBundlePrincipalClassInstance] + 82 5 XCTestCore 0x0000000107749338 -[XCTestDriver _runTests] + 111 6 XCTestCore 0x000000010770f194 _XCTestMain + 126 7 libXCTestBundleInject.dylib 0x0000000106e8982d __copy_helper_block_e8_32s + 0 8 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc9a91 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 12 9 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc99ca __CFRunLoopDoBlocks + 398 10 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc883d __CFRunLoopRun + 898 11 CoreFoundation 0x00007ff813fc7e51 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560 12 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52f3d RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292 13 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52b84 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 199 14 HIToolbox 0x00007ff81da52aa8 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 64 15 AppKit 0x00007ff8170689d8 _DPSNextEvent + 858 16 AppKit 0x00007ff817067882 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1214 17 AppKit 0x00007ff817059ef7 -[NSApplication run] + 586 18 AppKit 0x00007ff81702e111 NSApplicationMain + 817 19 PlainCalc 0x00000001057d0a91 main + 65 20 dyld 0x00007ff813b93418 start + 1896
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204
Activity
Aug ’25
universal clipboard not working when App not touched
I have a voice chat app that frequently writes to the universal clipboard. This works fine most of the time, but I've noticed that if I don't touch the screen for a long time, the universal clipboard information I read on my Mac won't update until I touch the app screen again. How can I fix this?
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0
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0
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82
Activity
Aug ’25
NSTableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes:columnIndexes:) causes wrong subview layout when usesAutomaticRowHeights = true
I have a table view where each row has two labels, one left-aligned and one right-aligned. I would like to reload a single row, but doing so causes the right-aligned label to hug the left-aligned label. Before the reload: After the reload: Reloading the whole table view instead, or disabling automatic row height, solves the issue. Can a single row be reloaded without resorting to these two workarounds? I created FB13534100 1.5 years ago but got no response. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSTableViewDataSource, NSTableViewDelegate { override func loadView() { let tableView = NSTableView() tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false tableView.dataSource = self tableView.delegate = self tableView.usesAutomaticRowHeights = true let column = NSTableColumn() column.width = 400 tableView.addTableColumn(column) let scrollView = NSScrollView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 500, height: 500)) scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false scrollView.documentView = tableView view = scrollView Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 2, repeats: false) { _ in print("reload") tableView.reloadData(forRowIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 2), columnIndexes: IndexSet(integer: 0)) // tableView.reloadData() } } func numberOfRows(in tableView: NSTableView) -> Int { return 5 } func tableView(_ tableView: NSTableView, viewFor tableColumn: NSTableColumn?, row: Int) -> NSView? { let cell = NSTableCellView() let textField1 = NSTextField(labelWithString: "hello") textField1.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false let textField2 = NSTextField(wrappingLabelWithString: "world") textField2.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false textField2.alignment = .right let stack = NSStackView(views: [ textField1, textField2 ]) stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false stack.distribution = .fill cell.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.topAnchor, constant: 0), stack.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.leadingAnchor, constant: 0), stack.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.bottomAnchor, constant: 0), stack.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cell.trailingAnchor, constant: 0)]) return cell } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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148
Activity
Aug ’25
How can I connect NSTableCellView.textField to a SwiftUI view?
When using NSTableView or NSOutlineView, if you use an NSTableCellView and wire up the .imageView and .textField properties then you get some "free" behaviour with respect to styling and sizing of those fields. (ex: They reflect the user's preferred "Sidebar Icon Size" as selected in Settings. ) If I'm using a SwiftUI View inside an NSTableCellView, is there any way to connect a Text or Image to those properties? Consider the following pseudo code: struct MyCellView: View { let text: String let url: URL? var body: some View { HStack { Image(...) // How to indicate this is .imageView? Text(...) // How to indicate this is .textField? } } } final class MyTableCellView: NSTableCellView { private var hostingView: NSHostingView<MyCellView>! init() { self.hostingView = NSHostingView(rootView: MyCellView(text: "", url: nil)) self.addSubview(self.hostingView) } func configureWith(text: String, url: URL) { let rootView = MyCellView(text: text, url: url) hostingView.rootView = rootView // How can I make this connection? self.textField = rootView.??? self.imageView = rootView.??? } } I'm ideally looking for a solution that works on macOS 15+.
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2
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140
Activity
Aug ’25
Is it possible to create a Finder-like sidebar on Tahoe using AppKit?
I'm using IB to create an NSOutlineView. I configure it: [_outlineView setStyle:NSTableViewStyleSourceList] I put it in an NSSplitView. What I get is an old-style sidebar with a VisualEffect background and no rounded rect border.
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3
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159
Activity
Aug ’25
Crash when assigning NSImage to `@objc dynamic var` property
Xcode downloaded a crash report for my app which I don't quite understand. It seems the following line caused the crash: myEntity.image = newImage where myEntity is of type MyEntity: class MyEntity: NSObject, Identifiable { @objc dynamic var image: NSImage! ... } The code is called on the main thread. According to the crash report, thread 0 makes that assignment, and at the same time thread 16 is calling [NSImageView asynchronousPreparation:prepareResultUsingParameters:]. What could cause such a crash? Could I be doing something wrong or is this a bug in macOS? crash.crash
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11
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262
Activity
Aug ’25
vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat Fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat When Trying to Convert CMYK to RGB
So I get JPEG data in my app. Previously I was using the higher level NSBitmapImageRep API and just feeding the JPEG data to it. But now I've noticed on Sonoma If I get a JPEG in the CMYK color space the NSBitmapImageRep renders mostly black and is corrupted. So I'm trying to drop down to the lower level APIs. Specifically I grab a CGImageRef and and trying to use the Accelerate API to convert it to another format (to hopefully workaround the issue... CGImageRef sourceCGImage = `CGImageCreateWithJPEGDataProvider(jpegDataProvider,` NULL, shouldInterpolate, kCGRenderingIntentDefault); Now I use vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat... with the following values for source and destination formats: Source format: (derived from sourceCGImage) bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 32 colorSpace = (kCGColorSpaceICCBased; kCGColorSpaceModelCMYK; Generic CMYK Profile) bitmapInfo = kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault version = 0 decode = 0x000060000147f780 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault Destination format: bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 24 colorSpace = (DeviceRBG) bitmapInfo = 8197 version = 0 decode = 0x0000000000000000 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault But vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat. Now if I change the destination format to use 32 bitsPerpixel and use alpha in the bitmap info the vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat does not return an error but I get a black image just like NSBitmapImageRep
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1.6k
Activity
Aug ’25
Sleep State Notification Inconsistencies on MacBook Devices When Unplugged
There are inconsistent behaviors in sleep/wake notification callbacks across different MacBook devices and macOS versions when the device is not connected to power, with or without external displays, entering sleep mode by closing the lid, and waking up from sleep by opening the lid. When monitoring the following Objective-C notifications: NSWorkspaceScreensDidSleepNotification NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Different devices exhibit varying notification trigger patterns: Some devices trigger all four notifications properly Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceDidWakeNotification Some devices fail to trigger NSWorkspaceWillSleepNotification These inconsistencies make it challenging to implement reliable sleep/wake detection logic across different MacBook models and macOS versions.
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1
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109
Activity
Aug ’25
NSToolbar doesn't restore displayMode when NSWindow.titleVisibility = .hidden
Apparently when setting a window to hide its title, the toolbar's displayMode is not restored when relaunching the app. For example, by default my app sets to show toolbar icons only, but when right-clicking it, selecting "Icon and Text" and relaunching the app, it's again "Icon Only". Is there a workaround? I've filed FB17144212. class ViewController: NSViewController, NSToolbarDelegate { override func viewDidAppear() { let toolbar = NSToolbar(identifier: "toolbar") toolbar.delegate = self toolbar.autosavesConfiguration = true toolbar.displayMode = .iconOnly view.window?.titleVisibility = .hidden view.window?.toolbar = toolbar view.window?.toolbarStyle = .unified } func toolbarAllowedItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbarDefaultItemIdentifiers(_ toolbar: NSToolbar) -> [NSToolbarItem.Identifier] { return [.init(rawValue: "item")] } func toolbar(_ toolbar: NSToolbar, itemForItemIdentifier itemIdentifier: NSToolbarItem.Identifier, willBeInsertedIntoToolbar flag: Bool) -> NSToolbarItem? { let item = NSToolbarItem(itemIdentifier: itemIdentifier) item.image = NSImage(named: NSImage.addTemplateName)! item.label = "item" return item } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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102
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Aug ’25
How to speed-up initial UI rendering faster in AppKit?
I am developing an AppKit application in MacOS with Swift. Our application requires a complex, multi-windowed interface and must deliver a very fast, responsive experience. As a performance test, I built a sample app that creates 3 windows programmatically, each containing 500 NSTextFields (with each text-field assigned 35 different properties). Code flow: https://gist.github.com/Raunit-TW/5ac58ac9c6584f93e2ee201aa8118139 This takes around 77 milliseconds to render the windows - I need to find a way to reduce this time, as low as possible. Thanks.
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3
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194
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Aug ’25
[TextKit2] - Wrong document height sometimes ?
Hello 👋 I'm playing with the Apple TextKit2 sample app (particularly on macOS). I found that on some long document the evaluated height given by enumerateTextLayoutFragments API is wrong (or at least not I expect) which imply I can no longer scroll in my document even if I have not reached the end of it (which is not what I expect as you can guess). I'm clearly missing a point here. I can reproduce it on the Apple sample app by only changing the text content: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/UIKit/using-textkit-2-to-interact-with-text Using TextKit2, is it my responsability as developer to check that I've reached end of the scrollview whether not being at the end location of the document and call some specific TextKit2 API to invalidate estimation or something ? Here is an updated version of the Apple sample app with another text content that show the issue. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jtTD84oqGAG4_A9DfqFl_yHmbLKhF1e8/view?usp=sharing Environment: Xcode 16.4 - macOS 15.6 If someone could help me with this, I would be extremely grateful. It puzzles me. NB: I've observed that resizing the window a bit seems to force a new layout and make TextKit2 returns a more accurate height, ... until you reach the end of the document.
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3
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193
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Aug ’25
Xcode 26 XIB ignores difference between NSView frame and alignment rectangles
In the last three betas of Xcode 26, opening XIB files that rely on the older struts-and-springs setup (rather than Auto Layout) has exposed a new problem: Xcode 26 ignore the difference between a view’s frame and alignment rectangle. If you had arranged views using their frame rectangle (the default for the old method) this causes two problems: All UI widgets are both larger and no longer aligned. Switching between frame and alignment rectangles while configuring any NSView (through the inspector setting) has no effect. Is anyone else seeing this? It’s one thing to convert a few smaller views to Auto-layout (its reliance on alignment rectangles makes it immune to the "death" of frame rectangle-based layout) it is a rather different task to re-layout thousands of UI widgets as a result of this one bug. Filed as FB18835363
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4
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674
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Jul ’25
Structured concurrency + preconcurrency API (SFAuthorizationPluginView)
I'm having trouble dealing with concurrency with the SFAuthorizationPluginView. Does anybody know how this can be solved? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/securityinterface/sfauthorizationpluginview The crux of it is: If I inherit an object as part of an API, and the API is preconcurrency, and thus is nonisolated (but in reality is @MainActor), how do I return a @MainActor GUI element? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/securityinterface/sfauthorizationpluginview/firstresponder() The longer story: I made my view class inherit SFAuthorizationPluginView. The API is preconcurrency (but not marked as preconcurrency) I started using concurrency in my plugin to retrieve data over XPC. (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xpc/xpcsession + https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/withcheckedthrowingcontinuation(isolation:function:_:)) Once I retrieve the data over XPC, I need to post it on GUI, hence I've set my view class as @MainActor in order to do the thread switch. Swift compiler keeps complaining: override func firstResponder() -&gt; NSResponder? { return usernameField } "Main actor-isolated property 'usernameField' can not be referenced from a nonisolated context; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode" override func firstResponder() -&gt; NSResponder? { MainActor.assumeIsolated { return usernameField } } "Sending 'self' risks causing data races; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode" I think fundamentally, the API is forcing me to give away a @MainActor variable through a nonisolated function, and there is no way to shut up the compiler. I've tried @preconcurrency and it has no effect as far as I can tell. I've also tried marking the function explicitly as nonisolated. The rest of the API are less problematic, but returning a GUI variable is exceptionally difficult.
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762
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Jul ’25
No MDM settings to control macOS pasteboard privacy?
For context, my company develops a data loss prevention (DLP) product. Part of our functionality is the ability to detect sensitive data being pasted into a web browser or cloud-based app. The AppKit release notes for April 2025 document an upcoming “macOS pasteboard privacy” feature, which will presumably ship in macOS 26. Using the user default setting “EnablePasteboardPrivacyDeveloperPreview” documented in the release notes, I tested our agent under macOS 15.5, and encountered a modal alert reading " is trying to access the pasteboard" almost immediately, when the program reads the General pasteboard to scan its contents. Since our product is aimed at enterprise customers (and not individual Mac users), I believed Apple would implement a privacy control setting for this new feature. This would allow our customers to push a configuration profile via MDM, with the “Paste from Other Apps” setting for our application preset to “Allow”, so that they can install our product on their endpoints without manual intervention. Unfortunately, as of macOS 26 beta 4 (25A5316i), there does not seem to be any such setting documented under Device Management — for example in PrivacyPreferencesPolicyControl.Services, which lists a number of similar settings. Without such a setting available, a valuable function of our product will be effectively crippled when macOS 26 is released. Is there such a setting (that I've overlooked)? If not, allow me to urge Apple to find the resources to implement one, so that our customers can preset “Paste from Other Apps” to “Allow” for our application.
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2
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723
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Jul ’25
SwiftUI APIs for macOS app
What are the SwiftUI equivalent of NSSplitViewController.automaticallyAdjustsSafeAreaInsets NSToolbarItem.style These were introduced in the WWDC 2025 session named "Build an AppKit app with the new design". Jeff introduced only the AppKit API's while there was no mention of SwiftUI API
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3
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284
Activity
Jul ’25
Set edge effect style in AppKit
In macOS 26 beta 2 it is possible to set an edge effect style via UIKit using the .scrollEdgeEffectStyle property. (note: I haven't tested this, I'm just looking at the documentation). See: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view/scrolledgeeffectstyle(_:for:) Is there an equivalent API for AppKit-based apps? I can't seem to find any additions in NSView or NSScrollView or elsewhere that seem relevant. Scroll edge effects are mentioned in the "Build an AppKit app with the new design" talk here, which heavily implies it must be possible from AppKit: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/310/?time=567
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410
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Jul ’25
Where is the NSToolbarItem badge property in macOS Tahoe?
According the video "Build an AppKit app with the new design" (https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/310/), it is now possible to add a badge on a NSToolbarItem object. However, in don't see a badge in the NSToolbar API. The code example in the video includes for example "NSItemBadge.count(4)", but the only Google result for this is the video mentioned above. Is this still work in progress or I'm overlooking something?
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1
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131
Activity
Jul ’25
allowsExpansionToolTips in SwiftUI?
Is there a SwiftUI version of NSControl.allowsExpansionToolTips? That is, showing a tool tip with the full text when (and only when) a text item is truncated? Or do I need to use a hosting view to get that behavior?
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2
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521
Activity
Jul ’25
Debug an issue with NSWindow becoming narrow
For months now we're trying to find an issue with one of our apps, were a window suddenly becomes narrow and can't be resized horizontally any more. It's a bug that only happens sporadically and we can't provide a "focused test project" to demonstrate the issue; thus we can't ask for code-level support at this moment. To debug this issue, we've overwritten a private method on NSWindow that gets the constrained window min and max sizes (valuable hint of Kristin from the AppKit team in a WWDC 2025 one-on-one session where I was able to show it to her in my debugger). When the bug hits, the maxSize's width (usually 10000) becomes smaller than the minSize's width. One way (but not the only one) to trigger this issue is to move the window from one display to another and back. Sometimes the bug triggers after a few back-and-forth movements, sometimes it takes minutes to trigger or I give up… but for other people the bug happens seemingly out of nowhere (of course there must be a trigger but we haven't noticed common patterns yet). It looks like an AutoLayout issue since a suspicious thing happens when the bug triggers: calling constraintsAffectingLayoutForOrientation:NSLayoutConstraintOrientationHorizontal on the NSThemeFrame usually returns just two constraints. But when the bug triggers, it returns a whole bunch of constraints, related to all kind of views of our app. Asking the NSThemeFrame for its direct constraints still shows the same two constraints are present and active (NSWindow-current-width and NSWindow-x-anchor). How to proceed in hunting down this issue when we're unable to produce a demo project? We can only reproduce the bug with our big product, and only sporadically: sometimes I can trigger it in a minute, sometimes it takes me 15 minutes or even more. Issue happens on macOS 15 (currently running 15.5).
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162
Activity
Jul ’25
Force NSDocument save panel to select most specific type in format popup button
My app supports different plain text file formats, including the standard .txt and Markdown. When creating a new document, my app already asks which format it should have, so when saving it, I would expect that the save panel already selects that format in the popup button, but currently it always selects "Plain Text". For example, I would expect for a Markdown document that it selects "Markdown" instead of "Plain Text". Is there a way to force it to select the most specific format matching the document format?
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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6
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178
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Jul ’25