I'm using SwiftData with CloudKit and have been trying to migrate from
SchemaV1 to SchemaV2, but it seems reducing the Entities crashes my app.
// Example of migrating from V1 to V2
// Dropping `Person` because it's no longer needed
do {
// SchemaV1: Person.self, Author.self
// SchemaV2: Author.self
let schema = Schema(versionedSchema: SchemaV2.self)
return try ModelContainer(
for: schema,
migrationPlan: AppSchemaMigrationPlan.self,
configurations: ModelConfiguration(
cloudKitDatabase: .automatic)
)
} catch {
fatalError("Could not create ModelContainer: \(error)")
}
Is it possible to drop Entities in the Schema Migration Plan?
How can I delete the Person model from my Schema and CloudKit?
CloudKit
RSS for tagStore structured app and user data in iCloud containers that can be shared by all users of your app using CloudKit.
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I am attempting to migrate a cloudkit module that calls on manual cloudkit methods for fetching record zone changes, modifying records, etc to one that utilizes CKSyncEngine. I've got a basic implementation working with just a create method for one of my data models, however it seems like the sync engine keeps calling sync events on the same pending changes.
Here is my current flow:
The user will hit some button that lets them fill out a form to create a data model.
The user saves the form. This triggers a method that takes the resulting data model and queues it to the sync engine's state (engine.state.add(pendingRecordZoneChanges: pendingChanges)
I have my delegate method nextRecordZoneChangeBatch(_ context:...) implemented where it fetches the corresponding data model using the record ID and returns a batch containing the corresponding populated record from the data model.
I have the handleEvent(_ event:...) delegate method implemented where I handle both .fetchRecordZoneChanges and .sentRecordZoneChanges. I have set up .sentRecordZoneChanges to merge the server record into my local record (and persisted locally) so that the record change tags are the same.
After this last portion, it seems that the sync engine continues to keep pushing syncs/updates and I end up with numerous handleEvent(_ event:) calls that keep returning savedRecords (and occasionally failedRecordSaves).
Am I missing some step to remove the record from the changes after the sync engine recognizes that I have properly saved the record to the server?
Hi there
We're using CloudKit in our app which, generally, syncs data perfectly between devices. However, recently the sync has stopped working (some changes will never sync and the sync is delayed for several days even with the app open on all devices). CloudKit's logs show the error „You can't save and delete the same record" and „Already have a mirrored relationship registered for this key", etc. We’ve a hunch that this issue is related to a mirrored relationship of one database entity.
Our scenario:
We've subclassed the database entities.
The database model (which we can't share publicly) contains mirrored relationships.
We store very long texts in the database (similar to a Word document that contains markup data – in case that’s relevant).
Deleting all data and starting with a completely new container and bundle identifier didn’t help (we tried that multiple times).
This issue occurs on macOS (15.2(24C101) as well on iOS (18.2).
Any hints on how to get the sync working again? Should we simply avoid mirrored relationships?
Many thanks
I followed these two resources and setup history tracking in SwiftData.
SwiftData History tracking:
Track model changes with SwiftData history
For data deduplication: Sharing Core Data objects between iCloud users
In the sample app (CoreDataCloudKitShare), a uuid: UUID field is used for deduplication logic. It sorts the entities by their uuids, reserves the first one, and marks the others as deduplicated.
Would it be a viable solution to use a createdAt: Date field for the sort operation instead of a uuid field, or are dates inherently problematic?
Hey,
For some reason I see crashes for my iOS app related to CloudKit entitlements.
The crash happens on start up and it says:
"CKException - Application has malformed entitlements. Found value "*" for entitlement com.apple.developer.icloud-services, expected an array of strings"
I have checked my entitlements of the same build on App Store Connect and it shows "com.apple.developer.icloud-services: ( "CloudKit" )"
So I am not sure why users are having this issue. I haven't been able to reproduce it.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?
Thanks
My app has been in the App Store a few months. In that time I've added a few updates to my SwiftData schema using a MigrationPlan, and things were seemingly going ok. But then I decided to add CloudKit syncing. I needed to modify my models to be compatible. So, I added another migration stage for it, changed the properties as needed (making things optional or adding default values, etc.). In my tests, everything seemed to work smoothly updating from the previous version to the new version with CloudKit. So I released it to my users. But, that's when I started to see the crashes and error reports come in. I think I've narrowed it down to when users update from older versions of the app. I was finally able to reproduce this on my end, and Core Data is throwing an error when loading the ModelContainer saying "CloudKit integration requires that all attributes be optional, or have a default value set." Even though I did this in the latest schema. It’s like it’s trying to load CloudKit before performing the schema migration, and since it can’t, it just fails and won’t load anything. I’m kinda at a loss how to recover from this for these users other than tell them to delete their app and restart, but obviously they’ll lose their data that way. The only other idea I have is to setup some older builds on TestFlight and direct them to update to those first, then update to the newest production version and hope that solves it. Any other ideas? And what can I do to prevent this for future users who maybe reinstall the app from an older version too? There's nothing special about my code for loading the ModelContainer. Just a basic:
let container = try ModelContainer(
for: Foo.self, Bar.self,
migrationPlan: SchemaMigration.self,
configurations: ModelConfiguration(cloudKitDatabase: .automatic)
)
In a CloudKit private database, the Owner creates a custom zone and performs the following actions:
Creates CKRecord1 with CKShare1 and invites Participant1 to it.
Creates CKRecord2 with CKShare2 and invites Participant2 to it.
Creates CKRecordShared, which should be accessible to both Participant1 and Participant2.
How can I achieve step 3?
I observed that:
Setting a regular reference from CKRecord1 (or CKRecord2) to CKRecordShared does not automatically make CKRecordShared accessible to Participant1 (or Participant2).
CKRecordShared can only have one parent, so it cannot be directly linked via parent reference to both Participant1 and Participant2 at the same time.
One potential solution I see is to have the Owner create a separate CKShare for CKRecordShared and share it explicitly with each participant. However, this approach could lead to user errors, as it requires careful management of multiple shares for each participant.
Is there a better way to handle this scenario, ensuring that CKRecordShared is accessible to multiple participants without introducing unnecessary complexity or potential errors?
Hi,
I've been using Core Data + CloudKit via NSPersistentCloudKitContainer for several years now. Back then I just created my Core Data AND CloudKit fields by hand.
Now the time has come for a little lightweight migration to a new Core Data model, let's say I just needed to add one String attribute.
So I've done the Core Data local migration as usual, then added this to container code:
try? persistentContainer.initializeCloudKitSchema(options: NSPersistentCloudKitContainerSchemaInitializationOptions())
Run. And everything worked great. but…
Now I've noticed that CloudKit created new CKAsset fields for each String attribute that I had in Core Data (about 5 new CKAsset fields). Is this normal!? Why?
! Is it safe to deploy these changes to prod?
ty.
ChatGPT said: "This field is used internally by CloudKit to handle large string values. If the string value is small enough, it is stored in the normal String field, but if it exceeds the size limit (about 1KB), the string is automatically stored as a CKAsset."
Something I want to know
and all users of CKSyncEngine care about
I'm going to build a full stack solution using CKSyncEngine, but what's the near future and the support and maintenance priorities inside Apple for CKSyncEngine?
There is only one short video for CKSyncEngine, in 2023, no updates after that, no future plans mentioned. I'm worried that this technology be deprecated or not activity maintained. This is a complex technology, without being activity maintained (or open-sourced) there will be fatal production issues we the developer cannot solve.
The CK developer in the video stated that "many apps" were using the framework, but he did not list any. The only named is NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore, but NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore is too simple a use case. I wonder is apple's Notes.app using it, or going to use it? Is SwiftData using it?
API Problems
The API design seems a little bit tricky, not designed from a user's perspective.
handleEvent doesn't contain any context information about which batch. How do I react the event properly? Let's say our sync code and CKSyncEngine, and callbacks are all on a dedicated thread.
Consider this:
in nextRecordZoneChangeBatch you provided a batch of changes, let's call this BATCH 1, including an item in database with uuid "xxx" and name "yyy"
before the changes are uploaded, there are new changes from many OTHER BACKGROUND THREADS made to the database. item "xxx"'s name is now "zzz"
handle SentRecordZoneChanges event: I get records that uploaded or failed, but I don't know which BATCH the records belong to.
How do I decide if i have to mark "xxx" as finished uploading or not? If I mark xxx as finished that's wrong, the new name "zzz" is not uploaded.
I have to compare every field of xxx with the savedRecord to decide if I finished uploading or not? That is not acceptable as the performance and memory will be bad.
Other questions
I have to add recordIDs to state, and wait for the engine to react. I don't think this is a good idea, because recordID is a CloudKit concept, and what I want to sync is a local database. I don't see any rational for this, or not documented. If the engine is going to ask for a batch of records, you can get all record ids from the batch?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Tags:
iOS
CloudKit
Cloud and Local Storage
Core Data
In Apple Numbers and similar apps, a user can save a document to iCloud Drive, and collaborate with other users. From what I can gather, it seems to use two mechanisms: the document as a whole is synced via iCloud Drive, but when a collaboration is started, it seems to use CloudKit records to do live updates.
I am working on a similar app, that saves documents to iCloud Drive (on Mac, iPad, and iPhone). Currently it only syncs via iCloud Drive, re-reading the entire (often large) document when a remote change occurs. This can lead to a delay of several seconds (up to a minute) for the document to be saved, synced to the server, synced from the server, and re-read.
I'm working on adding a "live sync", i.e. the ability to see changes in as near to real-time as feasible, like in Apple's apps.
The document as a whole will remain syncing via iCloud Drive. My thought is to add a CloudKit CKRecord-based sync when two or more users are collaborating on a document, recording only the diffs for quick updates. The app would no longer re-read the entire document when iCloud Drive updates it while in use, and would instead read the CloudKit records and apply those changes. This should be much faster.
Is my understanding of how Apple does it correct? Does my proposed approach seem sensible? Has anyone else implemented something like this, with iCloud Drive-based documents and a CloudKit live sync?
In terms of technologies, I see that Apple now has a Shared with You framework, with the ability to use a NSItemProvider to start the collaboration. Which raises the question, should I use the iCloud Drive document for the collaboration (as I do now), or the CloudKit CKShare diff? I think I'd have to use the document as a whole, both so it works with the Send Copy option, and so a user that doesn't have the document gets it when using Collaborate. Once the collaboration is underway, I'd want to start the CloudKit channel. So I guess I'd save the CKShare to the server, get its URL, and save that in the document, so another user can read that URL as part of their initial load of the document from iCloud Drive?
Once two (or more) users have the document via iCloud Drive, and the CKShare via the embedded URL, I should be able to do further live-sync updates via CloudKit. If a user closes the document and re-opens it, they'd get the updates via iCloud Drive, so no need to apply any updates from before the document was opened.
Does all this sound reasonable, or am I overlooking some gotcha? I'd appreciate any advice from people who have experience with this kind of syncing.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Tags:
CloudKit
Cloud and Local Storage
iCloud Drive
I have encountered an issue with a customer’s data access after they migrated to a different iCloud account, and I’m looking for guidance.
The Situation:
The customer was logged into their account on my app, which was associated with a specific iCloud account (iCloud A).
They had all their app data available while using iCloud A.
The customer then switched to a new iCloud account (iCloud B) on the same device, while still using the same app account.
After switching iCloud accounts, their data is no longer visible in the app or my CloudKit dashboard.
My Investigation:
I accessed the customer’s CloudKit data via the CloudKit Console, acting as their iCloud account.
I couldn’t find the private database zone or any of their records when accessing iCloud A through the console.
I don’t believe the data was deleted since actions performed under iCloud B shouldn’t affect data stored in iCloud A.
My Hypothesis:
I suspect that the customer’s old iCloud account (iCloud A) may have downgraded or stopped paying for iCloud storage.
If the iCloud subscription is inactive or expired, could that prevent me from accessing their CloudKit data?
Would renewing the iCloud subscription for iCloud A restore access to the missing data?
Questions:
Does an unpaid or expired iCloud account restrict access to CloudKit records, even if they weren’t deleted?
Would paying for iCloud storage again restore the data previously stored in CloudKit?
Is there any way to recover the customer’s CloudKit data if they are unable to access their old iCloud account?
If anyone has a simpler approach to recovering the customer’s iCloud-stored app data or has experience dealing with iCloud migrations like this, I’d appreciate your insights. Thank you in advance for any advice!