Hello,
SwiftData is not working correctly with Swift Concurrency. And it’s sad after all this time.
I personally found a regression. The attached code works perfectly fine on iOS 17.5 but doesn’t work correctly on iOS 18 or iOS 18.1.
A model can be updated from the background (Task, Task.detached or ModelActor) and refreshes the UI, but as soon as the same item is updated from the View (fetched via a Query), the next background updates are not reflected anymore in the UI, the UI is not refreshed, the updates are not merged into the main.
How to reproduce:
Launch the app
Tap the plus button in the navigation bar to create a new item
Tap on the “Update from Task”, “Update from Detached Task”, “Update from ModelActor” many times
Notice the time is updated
Tap on the “Update from View” (once or many times)
Notice the time is updated
Tap again on “Update from Task”, “Update from Detached Task”, “Update from ModelActor” many times
Notice that the time is not update anymore
Am I doing something wrong? Or is this a bug in iOS 18/18.1?
Many other posts talk about issues where updates from background thread are not merged into the main thread. I don’t know if they all are related but it would be nice to have
1/ bug fixed, meaning that if I update an item from a background, it’s reflected in the UI, and
2/ proper documentation on how to use SwiftData with Swift Concurrency (ModelActor). I don’t know if what I’m doing in my buttons is correct or not.
Thanks,
Axel
import SwiftData
import SwiftUI
@main
struct FB_SwiftData_BackgroundApp: App {
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
.modelContainer(for: Item.self)
}
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
@Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext
@State private var simpleModelActor: SimpleModelActor!
@Query private var items: [Item]
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
VStack {
if let firstItem: Item = items.first {
Text(firstItem.timestamp, format: Date.FormatStyle(date: .omitted, time: .standard))
.font(.largeTitle)
.fontWeight(.heavy)
Button("Update from Task") {
let modelContainer: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let itemID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task {
let context: ModelContext = ModelContext(modelContainer)
guard let itemInContext: Item = context.model(for: itemID) as? Item else { return }
itemInContext.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try context.save()
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from Detached Task") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let itemID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let context: ModelContext = ModelContext(container)
guard let itemInContext: Item = context.model(for: itemID) as? Item else { return }
itemInContext.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try context.save()
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from ModelActor") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let persistentModelID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let actor: SimpleModelActor = SimpleModelActor(modelContainer: container)
await actor.updateItem(identifier: persistentModelID)
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from ModelActor in State") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let persistentModelID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let actor: SimpleModelActor = SimpleModelActor(modelContainer: container)
await MainActor.run {
simpleModelActor = actor
}
await actor.updateItem(identifier: persistentModelID)
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Divider()
.padding(.vertical)
Button("Update from View") {
firstItem.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
} else {
ContentUnavailableView(
"No Data",
systemImage: "slash.circle", //
description: Text("Tap the plus button in the toolbar")
)
}
}
.toolbar {
ToolbarItem(placement: .primaryAction) {
Button(action: addItem) {
Label("Add Item", systemImage: "plus")
}
}
}
}
}
private func addItem() {
modelContext.insert(Item(timestamp: Date.now))
try? modelContext.save()
}
}
@ModelActor
final actor SimpleModelActor {
var context: String = ""
func updateItem(identifier: Item.ID) {
guard let item = self[identifier, as: Item.self] else {
return
}
item.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try! modelContext.save()
}
}
@Model
final class Item: Identifiable {
var timestamp: Date
init(timestamp: Date) {
self.timestamp = timestamp
}
}
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