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Access network services and handle changes in network configurations using CFNetwork.

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Networking Resources
General: Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking TN3151 Choosing the right networking API Networking Overview document — Despite the fact that this is in the archive, this is still really useful. TLS for App Developers forums post Choosing a Network Debugging Tool documentation WWDC 2019 Session 712 Advances in Networking, Part 1 — This explains the concept of constrained networking, which is Apple’s preferred solution to questions like How do I check whether I’m on Wi-Fi? TN3135 Low-level networking on watchOS TN3179 Understanding local network privacy Adapt to changing network conditions tech talk TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products support article Understanding Also-Ran Connections forums post Extra-ordinary Networking forums post Foundation networking: Forums tags: Foundation, CFNetwork URL Loading System documentation — NSURLSession, or URLSession in Swift, is the recommended API for HTTP[S] on Apple platforms. Moving to Fewer, Larger Transfers forums post Testing Background Session Code forums post Network framework: Forums tag: Network Network framework documentation — Network framework is the recommended API for TCP, UDP, and QUIC on Apple platforms. WWDC 2025 Session 250 Use structured concurrency with Network framework — This is a great introduction to the new Network framework API introduced in appleOS 2026. Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol sample code (aka TicTacToe) Implementing netcat with Network Framework sample code (aka nwcat) Configuring a Wi-Fi accessory to join a network sample code Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework forums post NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post Wi-Fi (general): How to modernize your captive network developer news post Wi-Fi Fundamentals forums post Filing a Wi-Fi Bug Report forums post Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory forums post — This is part of the Extra-ordinary Networking series. Wi-Fi (iOS): TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview technote Wi-Fi Aware framework documentation Building peer-to-peer apps sample code WirelessInsights framework documentation iOS Network Signal Strength forums post Network Extension Resources Wi-Fi on macOS: Forums tag: Core WLAN Core WLAN framework documentation Secure networking: Forums tags: Security Apple Platform Security support document Preventing Insecure Network Connections documentation — This is all about App Transport Security (ATS). WWDC 2017 Session 701 Your Apps and Evolving Network Security Standards [1] — This is generally interesting, but the section starting at 17:40 is, AFAIK, the best information from Apple about how certificate revocation works on modern systems. WWDC 2025 Session 314 Get ahead with quantum-secure cryptography Available trusted root certificates for Apple operating systems support article Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 support article About upcoming limits on trusted certificates support article Apple’s Certificate Transparency policy support article What’s new for enterprise in iOS 18 support article — This discusses new key usage requirements. Prepare your network environment for stricter security requirements support article — This is primarily of interest to folks developing management software, for example, an MDM server. Technote 2232 HTTPS Server Trust Evaluation Technote 2326 Creating Certificates for TLS Testing QA1948 HTTPS and Test Servers Miscellaneous: More network-related forums tags: 5G, QUIC, Bonjour On FTP forums post Using the Multicast Networking Additional Capability forums post Investigating Network Latency Problems forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] This video is no longer available from Apple, but the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
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Sep ’26
Multiple unrelated apps hang at launch in NSURLBackgroundSession and are killed by iOS watchdog
Feedback ID: FB24937933 I’m seeing a persistent launch failure across multiple unrelated apps on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Affected apps include Telegram, Box, LinkedIn, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Shazam, and others. The behavior is consistent: I launch the app. The app stays on a black or frozen launch screen. After approximately 19–20 seconds, iOS terminates the app. Retrying may occasionally work temporarily, but the problem returns. Crash reports from multiple unrelated apps show essentially the same termination: EXC_CRASH / SIGKILL 0x8BADF00D scene-create watchdog transgression More importantly, the main thread repeatedly shows this pattern: xpc_connection_send_message_with_reply_sync NSXPCCONNECTION_IS_WAITING_FOR_A_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLY -[__NSURLBackgroundSession setupBackgroundSession] -[__NSURLBackgroundSession initWithConfiguration:delegate:delegateQueue:delegateDispatchQueue:] This appears to indicate that the app’s main thread is synchronously waiting for an XPC-backed system service while creating a background NSURLSession, and the response does not arrive before the scene-create watchdog timeout. I first reproduced this on iOS 26.6.2 and the problem still occurs after updating to iOS 27.0 (24A437). Troubleshooting already performed: • Force restart • Network Settings Reset • Background App Refresh disabled • VPN/proxy disabled • Affected apps deleted and reinstalled • iOS updated from 26.6.2 to 27.0 Because the same stack pattern is occurring across multiple unrelated third-party apps, as well as Apple apps such as Podcasts and Shazam, this does not appear to be isolated to a single application. Apple Support has also told me that similar cases have been reported and that the issue may be addressed in a future software update. Has anyone seen a system-level NSURLBackgroundSession / XPC service enter this kind of stuck state across multiple applications? Is there a known issue involving the background URLSession service or related networking daemon that could cause synchronous XPC calls during app launch to block until the watchdog terminates the process? I have submitted the full crash reports through Feedback Assistant under FB24937933.
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Background URLSession uploads stalled by scheduler budget policies
Our app supports large-file uploads (20 GB+) and uploads of many files. We use a background URLSession so transfers can continue if the user backgrounds the app. In separate affected-device captures, Console logs and a sysdiagnose show dasd declining upload activities under Energy Budget Policy or Data Budget Policy. Upload tasks are created and resumed, but no bytes are transferred. Subsequent uploads can also remain queued, including after earlier uploads are cancelled and the app is relaunched. The issue is intermittent but can persist: one device recovered after approximately 24 hours; another remained affected for several days. We have not established what causes recovery or how the relevant budget eligibility is computed or replenished. Foreground and power observations For the energy-budget reproduction, the user kept the app foregrounded. Application lifecycle logs and RunningBoard running-active-Visible notifications corroborate foreground/active state around the affected task creation and resume operations. The rejection repeatedly reports: Energy Budget Policy [energyBudget]: Required:1.00, Observed:0.00 Decision: MNP Battery samples were approximately 68%, with Low Power Mode off. New uploads using the same session succeeded while the device was connected to external power and were rejected again after disconnection. Discretionary configuration versus daemon classification Our upload-session factory does not set isDiscretionary to true. In a separate, successful reproduction, instrumentation read isDiscretionary from the actual owning URLSession.configuration at task creation: 10:35:04.234749-0500 Frame.io: Upload task 1 created in session com.frameio.backgroundSession.diagnostics, configured isDiscretionary: false The corresponding daemon entry was: 10:35:04.245137-0500 nsurlsessiond: NDSession <8BA476D9-E790-46B6-B1DA-0246E14BBDAF> Task <1B16494D-BBE8-448F-9297-9DB8772ADD92>.<1> current discretionary status for com.frame.FrameIO is discretionary (opt-in: 0) All five tasks in that successful upload showed this combination. We do not yet have the instrumented configuration readout from the failed energy-budget reproduction. Implementation notes Large files are split into smaller files to support resumable uploads through our backend API. Each part is submitted as a file-backed upload task through the same background session, using a stable session identifier across launches. Goal User-initiated uploads make progress while the app is foregrounded and the network is available, and continue when possible after backgrounding. We understand background execution is system-controlled, but need to avoid uploads remaining stalled for days with no actionable recovery. We are considering switching between foreground and background URLsessions when the app moves between the foreground and background, but have concerns about that the bookkeeping on that path could be a brittle pattern. We have also considered using a BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest for the entire upload, but have concerns about running into new scheduling issues there. Questions What session configuration and task-submission pattern does Apple recommend for this requirement? Is a background URLSession appropriate for both foreground and background uploading, or should we use a different architecture? Is it expected that tasks created and resumed while the app is foreground/active, with the owning session reporting isDiscretionary = false, can be blocked by Energy Budget or Data Budget Policy? If so, what supported approach allows these user-initiated uploads to progress while the app remains foregrounded? When this restriction persists across cancellation, new uploads, and app relaunch, what supported recovery mechanism should we implement? Can the app detect the restriction and take an effective action, rather than requiring external power or waiting an unknown amount of time? For 20 GB+ files and large upload batches split into file-backed tasks, are there recommended chunk sizes, outstanding-task limits, or session-management practices that prevent this failure mode? If the captured foreground behavior is unexpected, is this a known OS issue with an available fix or supported workaround? What additional evidence is needed to obtain a concrete remediation?
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1d
SOCKS5 proxies (from PAC or ProxyConfiguration) are never applied to QUIC, and NWConnection silently connects directly
On macOS 27.0.1 (26A434), a SOCKS5 proxy is applied to TCP connections but never to QUIC. This happens whether the proxy comes from a PAC file in the system proxy settings or from an explicit ProxyConfiguration. The system SOCKS5 client only ever sends CONNECT; it never sends UDP ASSOCIATE (RFC 1928, CMD 0x03), so it has no way to carry UDP. URLSession handles this by staying on TCP through the proxy. A QUIC NWConnection instead connects directly to the origin, as if no proxy were configured. Setup. The system proxy settings use a PAC URL (ProxyAutoConfigURLString in scutil --proxy; in my test it was installed through NEProxySettings.proxyAutoConfigurationURL). For the test host, a public site that serves HTTP/3, the PAC returns SOCKS5 127.0.0.1:<port>. For the explicit cases I used a local SOCKS5 server that logs every command it receives. With the system PAC, default parameters, no explicit proxy: URLSession, assumesHTTP3Capable = true: goes through the proxy over TCP (transaction metrics: h2, isProxyConnection == true, remote address 127.0.0.1:<port>). HTTP/3 isn't used, which is consistent: the proxy can't carry it. NWConnection, TLS: currentPath.remoteEndpoint is 127.0.0.1:<port>. The PAC is honored. NWConnection, QUIC (ALPN h3): .ready in about 170 ms, and currentPath.remoteEndpoint is the origin's own address. The PAC is ignored. With an explicit proxy, set via NWParameters.PrivacyContext.proxyConfigurations: QUIC with a working SOCKS5 server: .ready, and the server receives nothing — no CONNECT, no UDP ASSOCIATE. QUIC with the proxy pointing at a port nothing listens on: still .ready, still connected to the origin's own address. TLS with that same dead proxy: stays in .waiting with ECONNREFUSED. The proxy is honored for TCP. At no point did the SOCKS5 server receive a UDP ASSOCIATE request. Cases 3–5 are the concerning part. An app that configures a proxy, or a user or administrator who installs a PAC, reasonably expects traffic to go through the proxy or fail. Instead, QUIC traffic goes straight to the origin, which then sees the device's own address, and nothing in the API signals that the proxy was skipped. Minimal snippet: import Network let host: NWEndpoint.Host = "YOUR_HTTP3_HOST" // any public host that serves HTTP/3 let parameters = NWParameters(quic: NWProtocolQUIC.Options(alpn: ["h3"])) // Remove these four lines to test with the system PAC instead. let privacy = NWParameters.PrivacyContext(description: "socks5-quic") privacy.proxyConfigurations = [ ProxyConfiguration(socksv5Proxy: .hostPort(host: "127.0.0.1", port: 1099)) // nothing listens on 1099 ] parameters.setPrivacyContext(privacy) let connection = NWConnection(host: host, port: 443, using: parameters) connection.stateUpdateHandler = { state in if case .ready = state { // Prints the origin's own address. With NWParameters.tls instead of QUIC, // the same proxy configuration leaves the connection in .waiting (ECONNREFUSED). print(connection.currentPath?.remoteEndpoint as Any) } } connection.start(queue: .main) I filed this as FB24760235 on 09/13/2026 and haven't had a response, so I'd like to ask here: Is it intended that a QUIC NWConnection ignores both the system PAC and proxyConfigurations? If so, how can an app find out that a connection went direct? And shouldn't a connection that can't honor the configured proxy fail rather than bypass it? Is UDP ASSOCIATE support planned for the system SOCKS5 client, so that QUIC and other UDP traffic can follow a SOCKS5 proxy the way TCP does? Thanks!
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libquic.dylib crash during QUIC path migration on iOS 26 (quic_migration_probe_path / nw_protocol_data_access_buffer)
libquic.dylib crashes with a null/invalid buffer access in nw_protocol_data_access_buffer during QUIC connection path migration on iOS 26. App code is not in the stack — this is entirely within Apple system libraries. We are seeing a consistent crash on iOS 26 that does not reproduce on iOS 17 or iOS 18. The crash occurs on a background thread ("com.apple.network.connections") with no application code in the crashed thread's stack. The crash trace begins in quic_migration_probe_path and terminates in nw_protocol_data_access_buffer + 180, suggesting a use-after-free or buffer lifetime violation during QUIC connection path migration (e.g., Wi-Fi ↔ Cellular handoff). This crash does not appear to be reproducible on demand — it correlates with network path transitions while QUIC connections are active. Our app uses standard URLSession with default/ephemeral session configurations and does not explicitly enable HTTP/3; iOS 26 is automatically upgrading eligible connections. Crash thread (abbreviated): 0 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_packet + 144 1 libquic.dylib quic_conn_continue_sending + 424 2 libquic.dylib __quic_conn_send_frames_for_key_state_block_invoke_2 + 1244 3 Network nw_protocol_data_access_buffer + 180 ← crash 4 Network nw_protocol_data_copy_buffer 5 Network nw_endpoint_flow_output_frames 6 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_frames_for_key_state 7 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_frames 8 libquic.dylib quic_migration_probe_path + 1464 9 libquic.dylib quic_migration_path_established + 2608 10 libquic.dylib __quic_migration_path_event_block_invoke.21 11 libquic.dylib quic_migration_path_event 12 Network nw_protocol_implementation_connected There is no app code in the crashed thread. This is a regression introduced in iOS 26, where libquic.dylib was separated into its own dynamic library and new path migration probe logic was introduced.
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2d
URLSession fails with -1009 on physical iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 27 beta, works in Simulator
I’m building a SwiftUI app that fetches public JSON data using URLSession.shared. The request works correctly in the iPhone 17 Pro Max Simulator, but fails on my physical iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 27 beta. Endpoint: https://api.jolpi.ca/ergast/f1/2026/driverstandings.json?limit=100 Error: NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1009 “The Internet connection appears to be offline.” NWPath: unsatisfied (Denied over Wi-Fi interface) Resolved 0 endpoints in 1ms The device can access the endpoint through Safari, and the same request works in Simulator. VPN, cellular permissions, Wi-Fi changes, and ATS settings have been checked. Could this be an iOS 27 beta networking regression affecting URLSession on physical devices? Are there recommended workarounds or diagnostics?
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iOS app loses Internet access after updates: wifiDenied and native URLSession -1009
Hello, Feedback Assistant report: FB24876147. I develop a Unity-based iOS app. Some customers in mainland China report losing Internet access after an app update, while most installations continue working. We have received similar reports since at least iOS 16, across several years and multiple app releases. Earlier iOS versions are uncertain, and we cannot confirm that all historical occurrences share the same cause. Updates without networking-code changes can be followed by failures. A later update sometimes restores connectivity, but not consistently. Customer-reported recovery attempts: The app's wireless-data permissions appear enabled in Settings. Switching the app's network permission to another setting and back did not help users who reported trying it. Reset Network Settings also did not help users who reported trying it. Some users reported that deleting and reinstalling the app restored connectivity. At least one user reported that deletion and reinstallation did not help. These are customer reports, not controlled tests on our development devices. We would prefer a recovery that preserves local save data. Captured evidence from one affected installation: App version 1.89, build 1; Unity 2022.3.62f3. Device identifier: iPhone18,1; iOS 26.2.1. App in foreground. Capture time: 2026-09-07 13:04:31–13:04:32 UTC. An unfiltered Network.framework default-path monitor reported: status=unsatisfied reason=wifiDenied interface=Wi-Fi UnityWebRequest and a newly created native ephemeral NSURLSession both failed against our public HTTPS origin and Apple's independent test endpoint: https://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html The native requests failed after approximately 1 ms and 3 ms, with NSURLErrorDomain -1009, underlying kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork -1009, and no HTTP response. The native session allowed cellular, expensive and constrained network access, used normal TLS verification, and had waitsForConnectivity=false. It bypassed Unity's reachability precheck. CTCellularData changed from unknown to notRestricted. We understand this does not establish successful cellular connectivity or Wi-Fi permission. Important limitations: The native probes ran inside the same Unity-built process, not a separate standalone native app. The captured measurements demonstrate a Wi-Fi failure. Cellular failures and enabled Settings permissions are customer reports, not independently verified by these measurements. We cannot reliably reproduce the affected state on our development devices and do not have a focused Xcode project that reproduces it. An affected-device sysdiagnose is not yet available. Unity Customer QA reviewed this evidence, assessed it as an iOS network-policy issue rather than a Unity bug, and referred us to Apple. We are seeking Apple's investigation, not presenting that assessment as a confirmed root cause. The Code-Level Support form directed us to these forums because we cannot currently provide a focused reproducer. Questions: Which affected-device diagnostics or logging profiles would help identify why the effective network policy reports wifiDenied? How should we investigate an installation-specific issue when a new minimal app may not reproduce that installation state? Is there a supported, data-preserving recovery or application-side mitigation when permission changes and network resets do not help, and reinstallation is not consistently effective? We have diagnostic screenshots and relevant probe source available. Any customer system logs would be collected with consent and shared privately with Apple, not posted publicly. Thank you.
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Background HTTPS upload over cellular from a phoneless Apple Watch — any supported path?
I have a watchOS app on a cellular Apple Watch (Series 11, watchOS 26.6) that periodically uploads small HTTPS payloads to a backend. It needs to keep working when the paired iPhone is absent and the watch is on its own cellular connection. What I observe: Foreground, no phone, cellular: uploads work. Background, no phone, cellular-only (no Wi‑Fi): nothing uploads for hours. The instant the watch joins Wi‑Fi (app still in background): the whole backlog flushes at once via my background URLSession. My questions: Is a background URLSession transfer over cellular ever expected to run without Wi‑Fi (e.g. while charging), or is Wi‑Fi effectively required in practice? Any configuration that improves the odds? 2. During an active HKWorkoutSession (which keeps the app executing), will a high-level URLSession data task reliably complete over cellular with the phone absent? And is using a workout session to keep a non-fitness background uploader alive acceptable, or is there a sanctioned alternative? 3. Is there any other supported mechanism for periodic background cellular upload from a phoneless watch that I'm missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Memory leak in CFNetwork (PACClient/PACQuery) when using NETransparentProxyProvider with Auto Proxy Discovery enabled
Hello, I have encountered unexpected behavior when running a Network Extension that implements NETransparentProxyProvider. This extension is part of a DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution. If the "Auto proxy discovery" option is enabled for the Wi-Fi connection on the managed host, the leaks tool reports memory leaks with the following root cycles: ... 11 (1.03K) ROOT CYCLE: <CFRunLoopSource 0xa430cc540> [192] 10 (864 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACClient> 0xa430f4000> [224] CYCLE BACK TO <CFRunLoopSource 0xa430cc540> [192] 6 (400 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACQuery> 0xa43118080> [128] 2 (80 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: 0xa42ca9000 [32] 1 (48 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <__NSMallocBlock__ 0xa42804de0> [48] CFNetwork invocation function for block in PAC::PACClient::initialize(void const*, __CFURL cons..." 1 (32 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<BlockHolderVar<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>*, SmartBlockWithArgs<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>::Deleter> 0xa4343da80> [32] 2 (160 bytes) <NSURL 0xa42840310> [112] 1 (48 bytes) _clients --> <CFString 0xa42c08fc0> [48] 1 (160 bytes) <NWConcrete_nw_pac_resolver 0xa4280cb40> [160] 1 (48 bytes) <CFError 0xa42804ed0> [48] 1 (32 bytes) <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<__CFError*, Deleter_CFRelease> 0xa4343dc20> [32] ... 11 (1.03K) ROOT CYCLE: <CFRunLoopSource 0xa43128540> [192] 10 (864 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACClient> 0xa430f4a80> [224] CYCLE BACK TO <CFRunLoopSource 0xa43128540> [192] 6 (400 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACQuery> 0xa43118880> [128] 2 (80 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: 0xa428105e0 [32] 1 (48 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <__NSMallocBlock__ 0xa428887b0> [48] CFNetwork invocation function for block in PAC::PACClient::initialize(void const*, __CFURL cons..." 1 (32 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<BlockHolderVar<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>*, SmartBlockWithArgs<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>::Deleter> 0xa4343f5c0> [32] 2 (160 bytes) <NSURL 0xa428424c0> [112] 1 (48 bytes) _clients --> <CFString 0xa42c0a640> [48] 1 (160 bytes) <NWConcrete_nw_pac_resolver 0xa4280d7c0> [160] 1 (48 bytes) <CFError 0xa42888390> [48] 1 (32 bytes) <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<__CFError*, Deleter_CFRelease> 0xa4343f4c0> [32] ... The extension creates an nw_connection_t to the remote host for each handled flow like this: nw_parameters_t parameters = nw_parameters_create_secure_tcp(NW_PARAMETERS_DISABLE_PROTOCOL, NW_PARAMETERS_DEFAULT_CONFIGURATION); nw_endpoint_t connectTo = nw_endpoint_create_host([endpoint.hostname UTF8String], [endpoint.port UTF8String]); nw_connection_t connection = nw_connection_create(connectTo, parameters); When "Auto proxy discovery" is disabled, everything works as expected, and no memory leaks or issues are observed. Could you please advise on how to resolve or work around this issue? Thank you in advance!
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705
Sep ’26
Is HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) synchronous or asynchronous?
Hi Team, I'm trying to understand the behavior of the following API: HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) Specifically, does this API persist cookies synchronously, or does it perform the storage asynchronously in the background? Our use case is storing FCAP (frequency capping) cookies so they persist across app sessions. We call setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) and want to know whether the cookies are guaranteed to be written before the method returns, or if the actual persistence happens asynchronously. I couldn't find documentation describing the persistence semantics of this API, so I'd appreciate any clarification or guidance from Apple or anyone familiar with its implementation. Thanks
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930
Aug ’26
Enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) by default on iOS/iPadOS — FB24334961
I’d like to ask whether Apple plans to enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) opportunistically by default across the iOS/iPadOS system networking stack. Apple already exposes ECH support through sec_protocol_options_set_enable_encrypted_client_hello(), but there currently appears to be no system-wide preference, configuration profile, or MDM policy to enable ECH for normal system networking clients such as URLSession, CFNetwork, WebKit/Safari, and other apps relying on Apple’s networking stack. I tested this with a working ECH deployment: A domain publishes a valid DNS HTTPS/SVCB record containing an ech parameter. The corresponding TLS endpoint supports ECH. iOS successfully queries and receives the HTTPS/SVCB record. Safari / normal system networking clients then connect to the domain. Packet capture still shows the real SNI in the plaintext ClientHello, and ECH is not attempted. If the same connection is explicitly configured to enable ECH at the TLS protocol-options level, ECH can be used successfully. It would be useful if iOS/iPadOS could: Opportunistically enable ECH by default whenever TLS 1.3 and a valid ECHConfig are available. Optionally provide a system-wide / MDM policy for enabling ECH. Ideally provide an “ECH required” policy that fails closed rather than falling back to plaintext SNI. This would improve hostname privacy for applications using the system networking stack without requiring every application developer to explicitly opt in. I have submitted this through Feedback Assistant as: FB24334961 — Enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) by default for system TLS connections Has anyone found an existing system-level way to enable ECH, or does anyone know whether Apple plans to make this the default behavior?
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1.5k
Aug ’26
Concurrent upload tasks over HTTP/2: request bodies sent strictly sequentially (no stream interleaving) — starved tasks fail behind slow-POST protection
We maintain a large file-sync app. After our upload endpoint moved to HTTP/2, we found that when multiple NSURLSessionUploadTasks run concurrently, all tasks send their request headers immediately (multiplexed on a single connection — confirmed identical localPort via URLSessionTaskMetrics), but request bodies are transmitted essentially one task at a time: while one task's body saturates the uplink, the other tasks send zero body bytes for the entire duration (countOfBytesSent == 0). This reproduces with both background sessions (BackgroundUploadTask) and default sessions (LocalUploadTask), on Wi-Fi and cellular. iOS 26.5, Xcode 26.3, tasks created with uploadTask(with:fromFile:), multipart POST. This becomes a hard failure behind a load balancer with slow-POST (RUDY) protection: requests whose first body KB doesn't arrive within 5s are rejected with 408. The starved tasks fail even though the network is healthy. For comparison, OkHttp on Android writes bodies in interleaved 16KB DATA frames under identical conditions, so all streams pass the first-KB check. Metrics excerpt (4 concurrent uploads, one h2 connection): task 1: duration 18.7s, sent 180MB (full line rate) task 2: duration 22.8s, sent 43MB (transmitted only after task 1 finished) task 3: duration 46.0s, sent 247MB (after task 2) task 4: duration 5.2s, sent 0 bytes → 408 from the gateway In one run a starved stream sent exactly 65,536 bytes (the default initial stream window) and then stalled. Questions: Is this sender-side scheduling (no round-robin between streams' DATA frames) the expected CFNetwork behavior? Does URLSessionTask.priority influence HTTP/2 stream weighting for upload bodies? Is there any other way to influence bandwidth sharing between concurrent uploads? Is there any supported way to opt out of HTTP/2 (constrain ALPN to HTTP/1.1) or cap concurrent streams per connection from the client side? We believe there isn't, but would like to confirm. What is the recommended pattern for concurrent large uploads in this situation? Filed as FB24062619 with full sanitized metrics attached. Happy to provide more data.
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1.2k
Aug ’26
Verifying TLS 1.3 early_data behavior on iOS 26
Development environment Xcode 26.0 Beta 6 iOS 26 Simulator macOS 15.6.1 To verify TLS 1.3 session resumption behavior in URLSession, I configured URLSessionConfiguration as follows and sent an HTTP GET request: let config = URLSessionConfiguration.ephemeral config.tlsMinimumSupportedProtocolVersion = .TLSv13 config.tlsMaximumSupportedProtocolVersion = .TLSv13 config.httpMaximumConnectionsPerHost = 1 config.httpAdditionalHeaders = ["Connection": "close"] config.enablesEarlyData = true let session = URLSession(configuration: config, delegate: nil, delegateQueue: nil) let url = URL(string: "https://www.google.com")! var request = URLRequest(url: url) request.assumesHTTP3Capable = true request.httpMethod = "GET" let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in if let error = error { print("Error during URLSession data task: \(error)") return } if let data = data, let responseString = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) { print("Received data via URLSession: \(responseString)") } else { print("No data received or data is not UTF-8 encoded") } } task.resume() However, after capturing the packets, I found that the ClientHello packet did not include the early_data extension. It seems that enablesEarlyData on URLSessionConfiguration is not being applied. How can I make this work properly?
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999
Aug ’26
TLS 1.2 session ID 不复用
We have an iOS app (Alamofire 5.9+, backed by URLSession) that talks to a LAN dashcam: HTTP/1.1 TLS 1.2 The device runs an embedded C HTTPS server Responses commonly include Connection: close (a new TCP connection is opened for each request) From Wireshark, looking at Client Hello, we observe: First connection: full handshake; a Session ID is negotiated Next new TCP connection: Client Hello carries that Session ID and completes an abbreviated handshake (resumption succeeds) After that: the same Session ID is not reused again Questions we want to confirm For TLS 1.2 Session ID resumption (RFC 5246), does iOS / URLSession intentionally allow a cached session to be resumed at most once? Or can the same Session ID be resumed multiple times until it expires / is evicted from the cache? Without changing the overall LAN dashcam product model, how should the server be configured—e.g. moving to TLS 1.3 and/or HTTP/2—so that iOS clients can resume via Session Ticket and/or Session ID multiple times? What we have already ruled out / observed The client already uses a shared long-lived URLSession / Alamofire Session (we do not create a new session per request) The server often returns Connection: close, so each request uses a new TCP connection; we are discussing TLS session resumption across connections, not HTTP keep-alive We occasionally see TLS time of only ~10–20 ms, which suggests at least one successful session resumption has occurred
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613
Jul ’26
Background audio killed when a background URLSession finishes
Short version, in case it saves someone the trip I just took: if your app plays audio AND uses a background URLSession with sessionSendsLaunchEvents = true, playback can be killed mid-episode the moment you call the handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession completion handler, but only in a process that was launched into the background and never went foreground. There is no crash log and no jetsam event: applicationWillTerminate simply fires. To users it looks exactly like the app crashed while playing, which is how it was reported to me, and why I wasted a while looking for a crash that did not exist. My setup: podcast app, audio background mode a background URLSession (sessionSendsLaunchEvents = true, isDiscretionary = false) used only to refresh RSS feeds those feed downloads are started from a BGAppRefreshTask What happens: iOS launches the app into the background to run a BGAppRefreshTask. The scene connects unattached; the process never becomes foreground. The task starts a batch of feed downloads on the background session. They outlive the ~10 s refresh window and finish about two minutes later. Meanwhile the user presses Play on their AirPods. Playback starts, inside that same never-foreground process. The downloads finish. iOS calls handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession. I store the handler and invoke it on the main thread from urlSessionDidFinishEvents, as documented. ~1 ms later applicationWillTerminate fires and the audio stops. At that moment the app is playing audio: AVAudioSession active, category .playback, and -[UIApplication backgroundTimeRemaining] returning greatestFiniteMagnitude. A sysdiagnose shows audiomxd holding a MediaPlayback isPlayingProcessAssertion for the process, taken 27 s earlier, invalidated only as part of the teardown, and CMSessionMgr logging "pid ... is now Terminated. Background entitlement: YES" while IsPlayingOutput:YES. The tell, and the thing that took me longest to spot: if the process HAS been foreground at some point in its life, calling the identical completion handler on the identical session does not kill it, and playback carries on. Across a full day of logs, "has this process ever been foreground" is the only variable that predicts the kill. The audio background mode is not the problem, the app happily played for ~6 minutes as a never-foreground process on another occasion, and died only at the completion-handler call. Half of this is documented behaviour: the system takes a power assertion when it resumes you for the session, and calling the completion handler releases it. What I did not expect is that the audio assertion does not take over at that point. My workaround so far is sessionSendsLaunchEvents = false on the feed session. RSS refreshes are not urgent: the transfers still run in the background, and the system hands the results to me at the next launch, where my refresh task parses them. I'm still verifying if this works as expected. So, questions for anyone who has been here: Has anyone else with an audio app hit this? I have a hunch it shows up in the wild as unexplained "the app crashed while playing" reports, particularly for podcast and audiobook apps that refresh content in the background, because there is no crash log to point at. If you combine background audio with a background URLSession, how do you handle it? Do you avoid launch events entirely, or split urgent from non-urgent transfers across separate sessions? Is there a better pattern than turning launch events off for transfers that genuinely are not urgent? Filed as FB23789310 with a sysdiagnose and a timestamped log excerpt. If you have seen this too, a dupe would help.
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Jul ’26
Url Cache
Hi all, I have implemented a feature in my iOS application which checks the latest version available on App Store and if there is new update available it shows Pop to update the app. I am using this url for checki https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId= Issue: For some users this url returns old cached data which is previous version although new version is already live and i have verified this url directly via PostMan or other IDE.
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942
Jun ’26
URLSession on watchOS never fails over to watch's own Wi-Fi when paired iPhone has Bluetooth but no internet (-1200)
We develop a healthcare emergency-alerting app with a native watchOS companion app. We've hit a network routing issue on watchOS that we cannot work around with any public API, and it breaks a safety-critical flow (triggering an emergency alarm from the watch). Environment watchOS 26.5 on Apple Watch SE3, paired with iPhone SE 2nd Gen on iOS 26.5 Watch app deployment target: watchOS 9.0 Plain URLSession (async/await), default configuration plus waitsForConnectivity = false, allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess = true, allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess = true HTTPS to our own backend (valid public TLS certificate, no pinning) Steps to reproduce Pair the watch with the iPhone. Both on the same known Wi-Fi network. On the iPhone: turn OFF Wi-Fi and cellular data. Keep Bluetooth ON. The watch remains connected to its known Wi-Fi network (or would be, if the system brought the radio up). Trigger any HTTPS request from the watch app (foreground). Expected Since the companion iPhone has no internet, the watch should satisfy the request over its own Wi-Fi. Actual The request is routed through the companion link (ipsec1, "companion preference: prefer" in the logs) and fails after the TLS handshake dies inside the tunnel: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1200 "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made." _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=3, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-9816 (errSSLClosedNoNotify) The watch never fails over to its own Wi-Fi, no matter how many times we retry or how long we wait. The same request succeeds within seconds if the user disables Bluetooth on the iPhone (watch then joins Wi-Fi directly), or restores the iPhone's internet. What we already tried waitsForConnectivity = true doesn't help; a path exists (the tunnel), it just doesn't work. Fresh URLSession per retry, backoff retries still routed via the tunnel. Per TN3135 we understand low-level networking is not available to a normal app: we prototyped NWConnection with prohibitedInterfaceTypes = [.other], and indeed on device NWPathMonitor stays .unsatisfied even when the watch has working Wi-Fi, exactly as TN3135 describes. So Network framework is not an escape hatch for us, and we are not looking to abuse the audio-streaming/CallKit carve-outs. Questions Is the companion-preferred routing supposed to fail over to the watch's own Wi-Fi when the iPhone is reachable over Bluetooth but has no internet? If yes, on what timescale, and is there anything an app can do to help the system notice the dead path sooner? Is there ANY supported way for a foreground watchOS app to express "do not use the companion link for this request"? We found only the private _companionProxyPreference SPI, which we obviously can't ship. If the answer to both is "no", what is the recommended pattern for safety-critical requests in this state is failing fast and instructing the user to disable iPhone Bluetooth really the intended UX? Related earlier reports of the same behavior: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759321 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/107964
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Jun ’26
URLSession on watchOS never fails over to watch's own Wi-Fi when paired iPhone has Bluetooth but no internet (-1200)
We develop a healthcare emergency-alerting app with a native watchOS companion app. We've hit a network routing issue on watchOS that we cannot work around with any public API, and it breaks a safety-critical flow (triggering an emergency alarm from the watch). Environment watchOS 26.5 on Apple Watch SE3, paired with iPhone SE on iOS 26.5 Watch app deployment target: watchOS 9.0 Plain URLSession (async/await), default configuration plus waitsForConnectivity = false, allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess = true, allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess = true HTTPS to our own backend (valid public TLS certificate, no pinning) Steps to reproduce Pair the watch with the iPhone. Both on the same known Wi-Fi network. On the iPhone: turn OFF Wi-Fi and cellular data. Keep Bluetooth ON. The watch remains connected to its known Wi-Fi network (or would be, if the system brought the radio up). Trigger any HTTPS request from the watch app (foreground). Expected Since the companion iPhone has no internet, the watch should satisfy the request over its own Wi-Fi. Actual The request is routed through the companion link (ipsec1, "companion preference: prefer" in the logs) and fails after the TLS handshake dies inside the tunnel: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1200 "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made." _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=3, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-9816 (errSSLClosedNoNotify) The watch never fails over to its own Wi-Fi, no matter how many times we retry or how long we wait. The same request succeeds within seconds if the user disables Bluetooth on the iPhone (watch then joins Wi-Fi directly), or restores the iPhone's internet. What we already tried waitsForConnectivity = true doesn't help; a path exists (the tunnel), it just doesn't work. Fresh URLSession per retry, backoff retries still routed via the tunnel. Per TN3135 we understand low-level networking is not available to a normal app: we prototyped NWConnection with prohibitedInterfaceTypes = [.other], and indeed on device NWPathMonitor stays .unsatisfied even when the watch has working Wi-Fi, exactly as TN3135 describes. So Network framework is not an escape hatch for us, and we are not looking to abuse the audio-streaming/CallKit carve-outs. Questions Is the companion-preferred routing supposed to fail over to the watch's own Wi-Fi when the iPhone is reachable over Bluetooth but has no internet? If yes, on what timescale, and is there anything an app can do to help the system notice the dead path sooner? Is there ANY supported way for a foreground watchOS app to express "do not use the companion link for this request"? We found only the private _companionProxyPreference SPI, which we obviously can't ship. If the answer to both is "no", what is the recommended pattern for safety-critical requests in this state is failing fast and instructing the user to disable iPhone Bluetooth really the intended UX? Related earlier reports of the same behavior: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759321 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/107964
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879
Jun ’26
Reachability
Hello, We recently moved to the NWPath.Status implementation for reachability, is that the same reachability that powers URLSessionConfiguration.waitsForConnectivity? Or does the NWPath implementation rely on a specific network path such as cell only or wifi only? Is using NWPath still the best way to measure if the network is reachable? Thank you!
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Jun ’26
Networking Resources
General: Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Networking TN3151 Choosing the right networking API Networking Overview document — Despite the fact that this is in the archive, this is still really useful. TLS for App Developers forums post Choosing a Network Debugging Tool documentation WWDC 2019 Session 712 Advances in Networking, Part 1 — This explains the concept of constrained networking, which is Apple’s preferred solution to questions like How do I check whether I’m on Wi-Fi? TN3135 Low-level networking on watchOS TN3179 Understanding local network privacy Adapt to changing network conditions tech talk TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products support article Understanding Also-Ran Connections forums post Extra-ordinary Networking forums post Foundation networking: Forums tags: Foundation, CFNetwork URL Loading System documentation — NSURLSession, or URLSession in Swift, is the recommended API for HTTP[S] on Apple platforms. Moving to Fewer, Larger Transfers forums post Testing Background Session Code forums post Network framework: Forums tag: Network Network framework documentation — Network framework is the recommended API for TCP, UDP, and QUIC on Apple platforms. WWDC 2025 Session 250 Use structured concurrency with Network framework — This is a great introduction to the new Network framework API introduced in appleOS 2026. Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol sample code (aka TicTacToe) Implementing netcat with Network Framework sample code (aka nwcat) Configuring a Wi-Fi accessory to join a network sample code Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework forums post NWEndpoint History and Advice forums post Wi-Fi (general): How to modernize your captive network developer news post Wi-Fi Fundamentals forums post Filing a Wi-Fi Bug Report forums post Working with a Wi-Fi Accessory forums post — This is part of the Extra-ordinary Networking series. Wi-Fi (iOS): TN3111 iOS Wi-Fi API overview technote Wi-Fi Aware framework documentation Building peer-to-peer apps sample code WirelessInsights framework documentation iOS Network Signal Strength forums post Network Extension Resources Wi-Fi on macOS: Forums tag: Core WLAN Core WLAN framework documentation Secure networking: Forums tags: Security Apple Platform Security support document Preventing Insecure Network Connections documentation — This is all about App Transport Security (ATS). WWDC 2017 Session 701 Your Apps and Evolving Network Security Standards [1] — This is generally interesting, but the section starting at 17:40 is, AFAIK, the best information from Apple about how certificate revocation works on modern systems. WWDC 2025 Session 314 Get ahead with quantum-secure cryptography Available trusted root certificates for Apple operating systems support article Requirements for trusted certificates in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 support article About upcoming limits on trusted certificates support article Apple’s Certificate Transparency policy support article What’s new for enterprise in iOS 18 support article — This discusses new key usage requirements. Prepare your network environment for stricter security requirements support article — This is primarily of interest to folks developing management software, for example, an MDM server. Technote 2232 HTTPS Server Trust Evaluation Technote 2326 Creating Certificates for TLS Testing QA1948 HTTPS and Test Servers Miscellaneous: More network-related forums tags: 5G, QUIC, Bonjour On FTP forums post Using the Multicast Networking Additional Capability forums post Investigating Network Latency Problems forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] This video is no longer available from Apple, but the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
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Sep ’26
Multiple unrelated apps hang at launch in NSURLBackgroundSession and are killed by iOS watchdog
Feedback ID: FB24937933 I’m seeing a persistent launch failure across multiple unrelated apps on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Affected apps include Telegram, Box, LinkedIn, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Shazam, and others. The behavior is consistent: I launch the app. The app stays on a black or frozen launch screen. After approximately 19–20 seconds, iOS terminates the app. Retrying may occasionally work temporarily, but the problem returns. Crash reports from multiple unrelated apps show essentially the same termination: EXC_CRASH / SIGKILL 0x8BADF00D scene-create watchdog transgression More importantly, the main thread repeatedly shows this pattern: xpc_connection_send_message_with_reply_sync NSXPCCONNECTION_IS_WAITING_FOR_A_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLY -[__NSURLBackgroundSession setupBackgroundSession] -[__NSURLBackgroundSession initWithConfiguration:delegate:delegateQueue:delegateDispatchQueue:] This appears to indicate that the app’s main thread is synchronously waiting for an XPC-backed system service while creating a background NSURLSession, and the response does not arrive before the scene-create watchdog timeout. I first reproduced this on iOS 26.6.2 and the problem still occurs after updating to iOS 27.0 (24A437). Troubleshooting already performed: • Force restart • Network Settings Reset • Background App Refresh disabled • VPN/proxy disabled • Affected apps deleted and reinstalled • iOS updated from 26.6.2 to 27.0 Because the same stack pattern is occurring across multiple unrelated third-party apps, as well as Apple apps such as Podcasts and Shazam, this does not appear to be isolated to a single application. Apple Support has also told me that similar cases have been reported and that the issue may be addressed in a future software update. Has anyone seen a system-level NSURLBackgroundSession / XPC service enter this kind of stuck state across multiple applications? Is there a known issue involving the background URLSession service or related networking daemon that could cause synchronous XPC calls during app launch to block until the watchdog terminates the process? I have submitted the full crash reports through Feedback Assistant under FB24937933.
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491
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1d
Background URLSession uploads stalled by scheduler budget policies
Our app supports large-file uploads (20 GB+) and uploads of many files. We use a background URLSession so transfers can continue if the user backgrounds the app. In separate affected-device captures, Console logs and a sysdiagnose show dasd declining upload activities under Energy Budget Policy or Data Budget Policy. Upload tasks are created and resumed, but no bytes are transferred. Subsequent uploads can also remain queued, including after earlier uploads are cancelled and the app is relaunched. The issue is intermittent but can persist: one device recovered after approximately 24 hours; another remained affected for several days. We have not established what causes recovery or how the relevant budget eligibility is computed or replenished. Foreground and power observations For the energy-budget reproduction, the user kept the app foregrounded. Application lifecycle logs and RunningBoard running-active-Visible notifications corroborate foreground/active state around the affected task creation and resume operations. The rejection repeatedly reports: Energy Budget Policy [energyBudget]: Required:1.00, Observed:0.00 Decision: MNP Battery samples were approximately 68%, with Low Power Mode off. New uploads using the same session succeeded while the device was connected to external power and were rejected again after disconnection. Discretionary configuration versus daemon classification Our upload-session factory does not set isDiscretionary to true. In a separate, successful reproduction, instrumentation read isDiscretionary from the actual owning URLSession.configuration at task creation: 10:35:04.234749-0500 Frame.io: Upload task 1 created in session com.frameio.backgroundSession.diagnostics, configured isDiscretionary: false The corresponding daemon entry was: 10:35:04.245137-0500 nsurlsessiond: NDSession <8BA476D9-E790-46B6-B1DA-0246E14BBDAF> Task <1B16494D-BBE8-448F-9297-9DB8772ADD92>.<1> current discretionary status for com.frame.FrameIO is discretionary (opt-in: 0) All five tasks in that successful upload showed this combination. We do not yet have the instrumented configuration readout from the failed energy-budget reproduction. Implementation notes Large files are split into smaller files to support resumable uploads through our backend API. Each part is submitted as a file-backed upload task through the same background session, using a stable session identifier across launches. Goal User-initiated uploads make progress while the app is foregrounded and the network is available, and continue when possible after backgrounding. We understand background execution is system-controlled, but need to avoid uploads remaining stalled for days with no actionable recovery. We are considering switching between foreground and background URLsessions when the app moves between the foreground and background, but have concerns about that the bookkeeping on that path could be a brittle pattern. We have also considered using a BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest for the entire upload, but have concerns about running into new scheduling issues there. Questions What session configuration and task-submission pattern does Apple recommend for this requirement? Is a background URLSession appropriate for both foreground and background uploading, or should we use a different architecture? Is it expected that tasks created and resumed while the app is foreground/active, with the owning session reporting isDiscretionary = false, can be blocked by Energy Budget or Data Budget Policy? If so, what supported approach allows these user-initiated uploads to progress while the app remains foregrounded? When this restriction persists across cancellation, new uploads, and app relaunch, what supported recovery mechanism should we implement? Can the app detect the restriction and take an effective action, rather than requiring external power or waiting an unknown amount of time? For 20 GB+ files and large upload batches split into file-backed tasks, are there recommended chunk sizes, outstanding-task limits, or session-management practices that prevent this failure mode? If the captured foreground behavior is unexpected, is this a known OS issue with an available fix or supported workaround? What additional evidence is needed to obtain a concrete remediation?
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133
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1d
SOCKS5 proxies (from PAC or ProxyConfiguration) are never applied to QUIC, and NWConnection silently connects directly
On macOS 27.0.1 (26A434), a SOCKS5 proxy is applied to TCP connections but never to QUIC. This happens whether the proxy comes from a PAC file in the system proxy settings or from an explicit ProxyConfiguration. The system SOCKS5 client only ever sends CONNECT; it never sends UDP ASSOCIATE (RFC 1928, CMD 0x03), so it has no way to carry UDP. URLSession handles this by staying on TCP through the proxy. A QUIC NWConnection instead connects directly to the origin, as if no proxy were configured. Setup. The system proxy settings use a PAC URL (ProxyAutoConfigURLString in scutil --proxy; in my test it was installed through NEProxySettings.proxyAutoConfigurationURL). For the test host, a public site that serves HTTP/3, the PAC returns SOCKS5 127.0.0.1:<port>. For the explicit cases I used a local SOCKS5 server that logs every command it receives. With the system PAC, default parameters, no explicit proxy: URLSession, assumesHTTP3Capable = true: goes through the proxy over TCP (transaction metrics: h2, isProxyConnection == true, remote address 127.0.0.1:<port>). HTTP/3 isn't used, which is consistent: the proxy can't carry it. NWConnection, TLS: currentPath.remoteEndpoint is 127.0.0.1:<port>. The PAC is honored. NWConnection, QUIC (ALPN h3): .ready in about 170 ms, and currentPath.remoteEndpoint is the origin's own address. The PAC is ignored. With an explicit proxy, set via NWParameters.PrivacyContext.proxyConfigurations: QUIC with a working SOCKS5 server: .ready, and the server receives nothing — no CONNECT, no UDP ASSOCIATE. QUIC with the proxy pointing at a port nothing listens on: still .ready, still connected to the origin's own address. TLS with that same dead proxy: stays in .waiting with ECONNREFUSED. The proxy is honored for TCP. At no point did the SOCKS5 server receive a UDP ASSOCIATE request. Cases 3–5 are the concerning part. An app that configures a proxy, or a user or administrator who installs a PAC, reasonably expects traffic to go through the proxy or fail. Instead, QUIC traffic goes straight to the origin, which then sees the device's own address, and nothing in the API signals that the proxy was skipped. Minimal snippet: import Network let host: NWEndpoint.Host = "YOUR_HTTP3_HOST" // any public host that serves HTTP/3 let parameters = NWParameters(quic: NWProtocolQUIC.Options(alpn: ["h3"])) // Remove these four lines to test with the system PAC instead. let privacy = NWParameters.PrivacyContext(description: "socks5-quic") privacy.proxyConfigurations = [ ProxyConfiguration(socksv5Proxy: .hostPort(host: "127.0.0.1", port: 1099)) // nothing listens on 1099 ] parameters.setPrivacyContext(privacy) let connection = NWConnection(host: host, port: 443, using: parameters) connection.stateUpdateHandler = { state in if case .ready = state { // Prints the origin's own address. With NWParameters.tls instead of QUIC, // the same proxy configuration leaves the connection in .waiting (ECONNREFUSED). print(connection.currentPath?.remoteEndpoint as Any) } } connection.start(queue: .main) I filed this as FB24760235 on 09/13/2026 and haven't had a response, so I'd like to ask here: Is it intended that a QUIC NWConnection ignores both the system PAC and proxyConfigurations? If so, how can an app find out that a connection went direct? And shouldn't a connection that can't honor the configured proxy fail rather than bypass it? Is UDP ASSOCIATE support planned for the system SOCKS5 client, so that QUIC and other UDP traffic can follow a SOCKS5 proxy the way TCP does? Thanks!
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614
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1d
libquic.dylib crash during QUIC path migration on iOS 26 (quic_migration_probe_path / nw_protocol_data_access_buffer)
libquic.dylib crashes with a null/invalid buffer access in nw_protocol_data_access_buffer during QUIC connection path migration on iOS 26. App code is not in the stack — this is entirely within Apple system libraries. We are seeing a consistent crash on iOS 26 that does not reproduce on iOS 17 or iOS 18. The crash occurs on a background thread ("com.apple.network.connections") with no application code in the crashed thread's stack. The crash trace begins in quic_migration_probe_path and terminates in nw_protocol_data_access_buffer + 180, suggesting a use-after-free or buffer lifetime violation during QUIC connection path migration (e.g., Wi-Fi ↔ Cellular handoff). This crash does not appear to be reproducible on demand — it correlates with network path transitions while QUIC connections are active. Our app uses standard URLSession with default/ephemeral session configurations and does not explicitly enable HTTP/3; iOS 26 is automatically upgrading eligible connections. Crash thread (abbreviated): 0 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_packet + 144 1 libquic.dylib quic_conn_continue_sending + 424 2 libquic.dylib __quic_conn_send_frames_for_key_state_block_invoke_2 + 1244 3 Network nw_protocol_data_access_buffer + 180 ← crash 4 Network nw_protocol_data_copy_buffer 5 Network nw_endpoint_flow_output_frames 6 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_frames_for_key_state 7 libquic.dylib quic_conn_send_frames 8 libquic.dylib quic_migration_probe_path + 1464 9 libquic.dylib quic_migration_path_established + 2608 10 libquic.dylib __quic_migration_path_event_block_invoke.21 11 libquic.dylib quic_migration_path_event 12 Network nw_protocol_implementation_connected There is no app code in the crashed thread. This is a regression introduced in iOS 26, where libquic.dylib was separated into its own dynamic library and new path migration probe logic was introduced.
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2d
URLSession fails with -1009 on physical iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 27 beta, works in Simulator
I’m building a SwiftUI app that fetches public JSON data using URLSession.shared. The request works correctly in the iPhone 17 Pro Max Simulator, but fails on my physical iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 27 beta. Endpoint: https://api.jolpi.ca/ergast/f1/2026/driverstandings.json?limit=100 Error: NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1009 “The Internet connection appears to be offline.” NWPath: unsatisfied (Denied over Wi-Fi interface) Resolved 0 endpoints in 1ms The device can access the endpoint through Safari, and the same request works in Simulator. VPN, cellular permissions, Wi-Fi changes, and ATS settings have been checked. Could this be an iOS 27 beta networking regression affecting URLSession on physical devices? Are there recommended workarounds or diagnostics?
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734
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1w
iOS app loses Internet access after updates: wifiDenied and native URLSession -1009
Hello, Feedback Assistant report: FB24876147. I develop a Unity-based iOS app. Some customers in mainland China report losing Internet access after an app update, while most installations continue working. We have received similar reports since at least iOS 16, across several years and multiple app releases. Earlier iOS versions are uncertain, and we cannot confirm that all historical occurrences share the same cause. Updates without networking-code changes can be followed by failures. A later update sometimes restores connectivity, but not consistently. Customer-reported recovery attempts: The app's wireless-data permissions appear enabled in Settings. Switching the app's network permission to another setting and back did not help users who reported trying it. Reset Network Settings also did not help users who reported trying it. Some users reported that deleting and reinstalling the app restored connectivity. At least one user reported that deletion and reinstallation did not help. These are customer reports, not controlled tests on our development devices. We would prefer a recovery that preserves local save data. Captured evidence from one affected installation: App version 1.89, build 1; Unity 2022.3.62f3. Device identifier: iPhone18,1; iOS 26.2.1. App in foreground. Capture time: 2026-09-07 13:04:31–13:04:32 UTC. An unfiltered Network.framework default-path monitor reported: status=unsatisfied reason=wifiDenied interface=Wi-Fi UnityWebRequest and a newly created native ephemeral NSURLSession both failed against our public HTTPS origin and Apple's independent test endpoint: https://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html The native requests failed after approximately 1 ms and 3 ms, with NSURLErrorDomain -1009, underlying kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork -1009, and no HTTP response. The native session allowed cellular, expensive and constrained network access, used normal TLS verification, and had waitsForConnectivity=false. It bypassed Unity's reachability precheck. CTCellularData changed from unknown to notRestricted. We understand this does not establish successful cellular connectivity or Wi-Fi permission. Important limitations: The native probes ran inside the same Unity-built process, not a separate standalone native app. The captured measurements demonstrate a Wi-Fi failure. Cellular failures and enabled Settings permissions are customer reports, not independently verified by these measurements. We cannot reliably reproduce the affected state on our development devices and do not have a focused Xcode project that reproduces it. An affected-device sysdiagnose is not yet available. Unity Customer QA reviewed this evidence, assessed it as an iOS network-policy issue rather than a Unity bug, and referred us to Apple. We are seeking Apple's investigation, not presenting that assessment as a confirmed root cause. The Code-Level Support form directed us to these forums because we cannot currently provide a focused reproducer. Questions: Which affected-device diagnostics or logging profiles would help identify why the effective network policy reports wifiDenied? How should we investigate an installation-specific issue when a new minimal app may not reproduce that installation state? Is there a supported, data-preserving recovery or application-side mitigation when permission changes and network resets do not help, and reinstallation is not consistently effective? We have diagnostic screenshots and relevant probe source available. Any customer system logs would be collected with consent and shared privately with Apple, not posted publicly. Thank you.
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2w
Background HTTPS upload over cellular from a phoneless Apple Watch — any supported path?
I have a watchOS app on a cellular Apple Watch (Series 11, watchOS 26.6) that periodically uploads small HTTPS payloads to a backend. It needs to keep working when the paired iPhone is absent and the watch is on its own cellular connection. What I observe: Foreground, no phone, cellular: uploads work. Background, no phone, cellular-only (no Wi‑Fi): nothing uploads for hours. The instant the watch joins Wi‑Fi (app still in background): the whole backlog flushes at once via my background URLSession. My questions: Is a background URLSession transfer over cellular ever expected to run without Wi‑Fi (e.g. while charging), or is Wi‑Fi effectively required in practice? Any configuration that improves the odds? 2. During an active HKWorkoutSession (which keeps the app executing), will a high-level URLSession data task reliably complete over cellular with the phone absent? And is using a workout session to keep a non-fitness background uploader alive acceptable, or is there a sanctioned alternative? 3. Is there any other supported mechanism for periodic background cellular upload from a phoneless watch that I'm missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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521
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3w
Memory leak in CFNetwork (PACClient/PACQuery) when using NETransparentProxyProvider with Auto Proxy Discovery enabled
Hello, I have encountered unexpected behavior when running a Network Extension that implements NETransparentProxyProvider. This extension is part of a DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution. If the "Auto proxy discovery" option is enabled for the Wi-Fi connection on the managed host, the leaks tool reports memory leaks with the following root cycles: ... 11 (1.03K) ROOT CYCLE: <CFRunLoopSource 0xa430cc540> [192] 10 (864 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACClient> 0xa430f4000> [224] CYCLE BACK TO <CFRunLoopSource 0xa430cc540> [192] 6 (400 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACQuery> 0xa43118080> [128] 2 (80 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: 0xa42ca9000 [32] 1 (48 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <__NSMallocBlock__ 0xa42804de0> [48] CFNetwork invocation function for block in PAC::PACClient::initialize(void const*, __CFURL cons..." 1 (32 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<BlockHolderVar<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>*, SmartBlockWithArgs<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>::Deleter> 0xa4343da80> [32] 2 (160 bytes) <NSURL 0xa42840310> [112] 1 (48 bytes) _clients --> <CFString 0xa42c08fc0> [48] 1 (160 bytes) <NWConcrete_nw_pac_resolver 0xa4280cb40> [160] 1 (48 bytes) <CFError 0xa42804ed0> [48] 1 (32 bytes) <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<__CFError*, Deleter_CFRelease> 0xa4343dc20> [32] ... 11 (1.03K) ROOT CYCLE: <CFRunLoopSource 0xa43128540> [192] 10 (864 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACClient> 0xa430f4a80> [224] CYCLE BACK TO <CFRunLoopSource 0xa43128540> [192] 6 (400 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_emplace<PAC::PACQuery> 0xa43118880> [128] 2 (80 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: 0xa428105e0 [32] 1 (48 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <__NSMallocBlock__ 0xa428887b0> [48] CFNetwork invocation function for block in PAC::PACClient::initialize(void const*, __CFURL cons..." 1 (32 bytes) ROOT CYCLE: <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<BlockHolderVar<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>*, SmartBlockWithArgs<__CFString const*, __CFData const*, std::shared_ptr<__CFArray const>, std::shared_ptr<__CFError>>::Deleter> 0xa4343f5c0> [32] 2 (160 bytes) <NSURL 0xa428424c0> [112] 1 (48 bytes) _clients --> <CFString 0xa42c0a640> [48] 1 (160 bytes) <NWConcrete_nw_pac_resolver 0xa4280d7c0> [160] 1 (48 bytes) <CFError 0xa42888390> [48] 1 (32 bytes) <std::__shared_ptr_pointer<__CFError*, Deleter_CFRelease> 0xa4343f4c0> [32] ... The extension creates an nw_connection_t to the remote host for each handled flow like this: nw_parameters_t parameters = nw_parameters_create_secure_tcp(NW_PARAMETERS_DISABLE_PROTOCOL, NW_PARAMETERS_DEFAULT_CONFIGURATION); nw_endpoint_t connectTo = nw_endpoint_create_host([endpoint.hostname UTF8String], [endpoint.port UTF8String]); nw_connection_t connection = nw_connection_create(connectTo, parameters); When "Auto proxy discovery" is disabled, everything works as expected, and no memory leaks or issues are observed. Could you please advise on how to resolve or work around this issue? Thank you in advance!
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Sep ’26
Is HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) synchronous or asynchronous?
Hi Team, I'm trying to understand the behavior of the following API: HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) Specifically, does this API persist cookies synchronously, or does it perform the storage asynchronously in the background? Our use case is storing FCAP (frequency capping) cookies so they persist across app sessions. We call setCookies(_:for:mainDocumentURL:) and want to know whether the cookies are guaranteed to be written before the method returns, or if the actual persistence happens asynchronously. I couldn't find documentation describing the persistence semantics of this API, so I'd appreciate any clarification or guidance from Apple or anyone familiar with its implementation. Thanks
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930
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Aug ’26
Enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) by default on iOS/iPadOS — FB24334961
I’d like to ask whether Apple plans to enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) opportunistically by default across the iOS/iPadOS system networking stack. Apple already exposes ECH support through sec_protocol_options_set_enable_encrypted_client_hello(), but there currently appears to be no system-wide preference, configuration profile, or MDM policy to enable ECH for normal system networking clients such as URLSession, CFNetwork, WebKit/Safari, and other apps relying on Apple’s networking stack. I tested this with a working ECH deployment: A domain publishes a valid DNS HTTPS/SVCB record containing an ech parameter. The corresponding TLS endpoint supports ECH. iOS successfully queries and receives the HTTPS/SVCB record. Safari / normal system networking clients then connect to the domain. Packet capture still shows the real SNI in the plaintext ClientHello, and ECH is not attempted. If the same connection is explicitly configured to enable ECH at the TLS protocol-options level, ECH can be used successfully. It would be useful if iOS/iPadOS could: Opportunistically enable ECH by default whenever TLS 1.3 and a valid ECHConfig are available. Optionally provide a system-wide / MDM policy for enabling ECH. Ideally provide an “ECH required” policy that fails closed rather than falling back to plaintext SNI. This would improve hostname privacy for applications using the system networking stack without requiring every application developer to explicitly opt in. I have submitted this through Feedback Assistant as: FB24334961 — Enable Encrypted Client Hello (ECH, RFC 9849) by default for system TLS connections Has anyone found an existing system-level way to enable ECH, or does anyone know whether Apple plans to make this the default behavior?
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Aug ’26
Concurrent upload tasks over HTTP/2: request bodies sent strictly sequentially (no stream interleaving) — starved tasks fail behind slow-POST protection
We maintain a large file-sync app. After our upload endpoint moved to HTTP/2, we found that when multiple NSURLSessionUploadTasks run concurrently, all tasks send their request headers immediately (multiplexed on a single connection — confirmed identical localPort via URLSessionTaskMetrics), but request bodies are transmitted essentially one task at a time: while one task's body saturates the uplink, the other tasks send zero body bytes for the entire duration (countOfBytesSent == 0). This reproduces with both background sessions (BackgroundUploadTask) and default sessions (LocalUploadTask), on Wi-Fi and cellular. iOS 26.5, Xcode 26.3, tasks created with uploadTask(with:fromFile:), multipart POST. This becomes a hard failure behind a load balancer with slow-POST (RUDY) protection: requests whose first body KB doesn't arrive within 5s are rejected with 408. The starved tasks fail even though the network is healthy. For comparison, OkHttp on Android writes bodies in interleaved 16KB DATA frames under identical conditions, so all streams pass the first-KB check. Metrics excerpt (4 concurrent uploads, one h2 connection): task 1: duration 18.7s, sent 180MB (full line rate) task 2: duration 22.8s, sent 43MB (transmitted only after task 1 finished) task 3: duration 46.0s, sent 247MB (after task 2) task 4: duration 5.2s, sent 0 bytes → 408 from the gateway In one run a starved stream sent exactly 65,536 bytes (the default initial stream window) and then stalled. Questions: Is this sender-side scheduling (no round-robin between streams' DATA frames) the expected CFNetwork behavior? Does URLSessionTask.priority influence HTTP/2 stream weighting for upload bodies? Is there any other way to influence bandwidth sharing between concurrent uploads? Is there any supported way to opt out of HTTP/2 (constrain ALPN to HTTP/1.1) or cap concurrent streams per connection from the client side? We believe there isn't, but would like to confirm. What is the recommended pattern for concurrent large uploads in this situation? Filed as FB24062619 with full sanitized metrics attached. Happy to provide more data.
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Aug ’26
Verifying TLS 1.3 early_data behavior on iOS 26
Development environment Xcode 26.0 Beta 6 iOS 26 Simulator macOS 15.6.1 To verify TLS 1.3 session resumption behavior in URLSession, I configured URLSessionConfiguration as follows and sent an HTTP GET request: let config = URLSessionConfiguration.ephemeral config.tlsMinimumSupportedProtocolVersion = .TLSv13 config.tlsMaximumSupportedProtocolVersion = .TLSv13 config.httpMaximumConnectionsPerHost = 1 config.httpAdditionalHeaders = ["Connection": "close"] config.enablesEarlyData = true let session = URLSession(configuration: config, delegate: nil, delegateQueue: nil) let url = URL(string: "https://www.google.com")! var request = URLRequest(url: url) request.assumesHTTP3Capable = true request.httpMethod = "GET" let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in if let error = error { print("Error during URLSession data task: \(error)") return } if let data = data, let responseString = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) { print("Received data via URLSession: \(responseString)") } else { print("No data received or data is not UTF-8 encoded") } } task.resume() However, after capturing the packets, I found that the ClientHello packet did not include the early_data extension. It seems that enablesEarlyData on URLSessionConfiguration is not being applied. How can I make this work properly?
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999
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Aug ’26
TLS 1.2 session ID 不复用
We have an iOS app (Alamofire 5.9+, backed by URLSession) that talks to a LAN dashcam: HTTP/1.1 TLS 1.2 The device runs an embedded C HTTPS server Responses commonly include Connection: close (a new TCP connection is opened for each request) From Wireshark, looking at Client Hello, we observe: First connection: full handshake; a Session ID is negotiated Next new TCP connection: Client Hello carries that Session ID and completes an abbreviated handshake (resumption succeeds) After that: the same Session ID is not reused again Questions we want to confirm For TLS 1.2 Session ID resumption (RFC 5246), does iOS / URLSession intentionally allow a cached session to be resumed at most once? Or can the same Session ID be resumed multiple times until it expires / is evicted from the cache? Without changing the overall LAN dashcam product model, how should the server be configured—e.g. moving to TLS 1.3 and/or HTTP/2—so that iOS clients can resume via Session Ticket and/or Session ID multiple times? What we have already ruled out / observed The client already uses a shared long-lived URLSession / Alamofire Session (we do not create a new session per request) The server often returns Connection: close, so each request uses a new TCP connection; we are discussing TLS session resumption across connections, not HTTP keep-alive We occasionally see TLS time of only ~10–20 ms, which suggests at least one successful session resumption has occurred
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613
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Jul ’26
Background audio killed when a background URLSession finishes
Short version, in case it saves someone the trip I just took: if your app plays audio AND uses a background URLSession with sessionSendsLaunchEvents = true, playback can be killed mid-episode the moment you call the handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession completion handler, but only in a process that was launched into the background and never went foreground. There is no crash log and no jetsam event: applicationWillTerminate simply fires. To users it looks exactly like the app crashed while playing, which is how it was reported to me, and why I wasted a while looking for a crash that did not exist. My setup: podcast app, audio background mode a background URLSession (sessionSendsLaunchEvents = true, isDiscretionary = false) used only to refresh RSS feeds those feed downloads are started from a BGAppRefreshTask What happens: iOS launches the app into the background to run a BGAppRefreshTask. The scene connects unattached; the process never becomes foreground. The task starts a batch of feed downloads on the background session. They outlive the ~10 s refresh window and finish about two minutes later. Meanwhile the user presses Play on their AirPods. Playback starts, inside that same never-foreground process. The downloads finish. iOS calls handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession. I store the handler and invoke it on the main thread from urlSessionDidFinishEvents, as documented. ~1 ms later applicationWillTerminate fires and the audio stops. At that moment the app is playing audio: AVAudioSession active, category .playback, and -[UIApplication backgroundTimeRemaining] returning greatestFiniteMagnitude. A sysdiagnose shows audiomxd holding a MediaPlayback isPlayingProcessAssertion for the process, taken 27 s earlier, invalidated only as part of the teardown, and CMSessionMgr logging "pid ... is now Terminated. Background entitlement: YES" while IsPlayingOutput:YES. The tell, and the thing that took me longest to spot: if the process HAS been foreground at some point in its life, calling the identical completion handler on the identical session does not kill it, and playback carries on. Across a full day of logs, "has this process ever been foreground" is the only variable that predicts the kill. The audio background mode is not the problem, the app happily played for ~6 minutes as a never-foreground process on another occasion, and died only at the completion-handler call. Half of this is documented behaviour: the system takes a power assertion when it resumes you for the session, and calling the completion handler releases it. What I did not expect is that the audio assertion does not take over at that point. My workaround so far is sessionSendsLaunchEvents = false on the feed session. RSS refreshes are not urgent: the transfers still run in the background, and the system hands the results to me at the next launch, where my refresh task parses them. I'm still verifying if this works as expected. So, questions for anyone who has been here: Has anyone else with an audio app hit this? I have a hunch it shows up in the wild as unexplained "the app crashed while playing" reports, particularly for podcast and audiobook apps that refresh content in the background, because there is no crash log to point at. If you combine background audio with a background URLSession, how do you handle it? Do you avoid launch events entirely, or split urgent from non-urgent transfers across separate sessions? Is there a better pattern than turning launch events off for transfers that genuinely are not urgent? Filed as FB23789310 with a sysdiagnose and a timestamped log excerpt. If you have seen this too, a dupe would help.
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Jul ’26
Url Cache
Hi all, I have implemented a feature in my iOS application which checks the latest version available on App Store and if there is new update available it shows Pop to update the app. I am using this url for checki https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId= Issue: For some users this url returns old cached data which is previous version although new version is already live and i have verified this url directly via PostMan or other IDE.
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Jun ’26
URLSession on watchOS never fails over to watch's own Wi-Fi when paired iPhone has Bluetooth but no internet (-1200)
We develop a healthcare emergency-alerting app with a native watchOS companion app. We've hit a network routing issue on watchOS that we cannot work around with any public API, and it breaks a safety-critical flow (triggering an emergency alarm from the watch). Environment watchOS 26.5 on Apple Watch SE3, paired with iPhone SE 2nd Gen on iOS 26.5 Watch app deployment target: watchOS 9.0 Plain URLSession (async/await), default configuration plus waitsForConnectivity = false, allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess = true, allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess = true HTTPS to our own backend (valid public TLS certificate, no pinning) Steps to reproduce Pair the watch with the iPhone. Both on the same known Wi-Fi network. On the iPhone: turn OFF Wi-Fi and cellular data. Keep Bluetooth ON. The watch remains connected to its known Wi-Fi network (or would be, if the system brought the radio up). Trigger any HTTPS request from the watch app (foreground). Expected Since the companion iPhone has no internet, the watch should satisfy the request over its own Wi-Fi. Actual The request is routed through the companion link (ipsec1, "companion preference: prefer" in the logs) and fails after the TLS handshake dies inside the tunnel: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1200 "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made." _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=3, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-9816 (errSSLClosedNoNotify) The watch never fails over to its own Wi-Fi, no matter how many times we retry or how long we wait. The same request succeeds within seconds if the user disables Bluetooth on the iPhone (watch then joins Wi-Fi directly), or restores the iPhone's internet. What we already tried waitsForConnectivity = true doesn't help; a path exists (the tunnel), it just doesn't work. Fresh URLSession per retry, backoff retries still routed via the tunnel. Per TN3135 we understand low-level networking is not available to a normal app: we prototyped NWConnection with prohibitedInterfaceTypes = [.other], and indeed on device NWPathMonitor stays .unsatisfied even when the watch has working Wi-Fi, exactly as TN3135 describes. So Network framework is not an escape hatch for us, and we are not looking to abuse the audio-streaming/CallKit carve-outs. Questions Is the companion-preferred routing supposed to fail over to the watch's own Wi-Fi when the iPhone is reachable over Bluetooth but has no internet? If yes, on what timescale, and is there anything an app can do to help the system notice the dead path sooner? Is there ANY supported way for a foreground watchOS app to express "do not use the companion link for this request"? We found only the private _companionProxyPreference SPI, which we obviously can't ship. If the answer to both is "no", what is the recommended pattern for safety-critical requests in this state is failing fast and instructing the user to disable iPhone Bluetooth really the intended UX? Related earlier reports of the same behavior: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759321 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/107964
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Jun ’26
URLSession on watchOS never fails over to watch's own Wi-Fi when paired iPhone has Bluetooth but no internet (-1200)
We develop a healthcare emergency-alerting app with a native watchOS companion app. We've hit a network routing issue on watchOS that we cannot work around with any public API, and it breaks a safety-critical flow (triggering an emergency alarm from the watch). Environment watchOS 26.5 on Apple Watch SE3, paired with iPhone SE on iOS 26.5 Watch app deployment target: watchOS 9.0 Plain URLSession (async/await), default configuration plus waitsForConnectivity = false, allowsExpensiveNetworkAccess = true, allowsConstrainedNetworkAccess = true HTTPS to our own backend (valid public TLS certificate, no pinning) Steps to reproduce Pair the watch with the iPhone. Both on the same known Wi-Fi network. On the iPhone: turn OFF Wi-Fi and cellular data. Keep Bluetooth ON. The watch remains connected to its known Wi-Fi network (or would be, if the system brought the radio up). Trigger any HTTPS request from the watch app (foreground). Expected Since the companion iPhone has no internet, the watch should satisfy the request over its own Wi-Fi. Actual The request is routed through the companion link (ipsec1, "companion preference: prefer" in the logs) and fails after the TLS handshake dies inside the tunnel: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1200 "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made." _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=3, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-9816 (errSSLClosedNoNotify) The watch never fails over to its own Wi-Fi, no matter how many times we retry or how long we wait. The same request succeeds within seconds if the user disables Bluetooth on the iPhone (watch then joins Wi-Fi directly), or restores the iPhone's internet. What we already tried waitsForConnectivity = true doesn't help; a path exists (the tunnel), it just doesn't work. Fresh URLSession per retry, backoff retries still routed via the tunnel. Per TN3135 we understand low-level networking is not available to a normal app: we prototyped NWConnection with prohibitedInterfaceTypes = [.other], and indeed on device NWPathMonitor stays .unsatisfied even when the watch has working Wi-Fi, exactly as TN3135 describes. So Network framework is not an escape hatch for us, and we are not looking to abuse the audio-streaming/CallKit carve-outs. Questions Is the companion-preferred routing supposed to fail over to the watch's own Wi-Fi when the iPhone is reachable over Bluetooth but has no internet? If yes, on what timescale, and is there anything an app can do to help the system notice the dead path sooner? Is there ANY supported way for a foreground watchOS app to express "do not use the companion link for this request"? We found only the private _companionProxyPreference SPI, which we obviously can't ship. If the answer to both is "no", what is the recommended pattern for safety-critical requests in this state is failing fast and instructing the user to disable iPhone Bluetooth really the intended UX? Related earlier reports of the same behavior: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759321 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/107964
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Jun ’26
Reachability
Hello, We recently moved to the NWPath.Status implementation for reachability, is that the same reachability that powers URLSessionConfiguration.waitsForConnectivity? Or does the NWPath implementation rely on a specific network path such as cell only or wifi only? Is using NWPath still the best way to measure if the network is reachable? Thank you!
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Jun ’26