We're seeing differences in the purchase dialog and overall presentation when testing with Sandbox accounts compared to commercially available apps. Are these UI differences are expected and are simply a characteristic of the Sandbox testing environment, or if there are any configuration requirements that affect the purchase sheet appearance? It would be helpful to know whether developers should expect the production purchase UI to match App Store apps once the app is distributed through TestFlight/App Store, or if there are additional factors involved. Sandbox UI Expected UI

Hi everyone, We are developing a live TV streaming app for tvOS that allows users to watch live channels, replay content, and manage cloud recordings. We are struggling to integrate Siri for a seemingly basic use case: switching the live TV channel by voice (e.g. "Hey Siri, switch to channel X on [our app]"). Here is what we have tried and observed: App Intents — we implemented custom intents, but Siri does not resolve them to our app for channel-switching requests. Shortcuts — we added Shortcuts support, but users have to explicitly configure them; Siri never proactively picks our app. In-app and out-of-app — the issue happens in both contexts. When the user asks Siri to switch to a channel, it either does nothing or suggests other applications, never ours. Our questions: Is there a specific INPlayMediaIntent configuration or domain required to handle live TV channel switching via Siri on tvOS? Is proper Siri integration for live TV gated behind the Apple Video Partner Program? If so, is there any public documentation or a path for apps outside the US to access it? Has anyone successfully implemented voice-driven live channel switching on tvOS outside of the Video Partner Program? Any guidance or pointers to relevant WWDC sessions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I have purchased an universal, non-official Apple TV remote, with a little more buttons than on the official one (i.e. the CH-/CH+) buttons. I wanted to use the GCMicroGamepad property from the underlying GCController (from GameController framework), in order to use these buttons, but although I've linked this remote to my Apple TV device (in Settings > Remotes and Devices > Learn Remote), my app doesn't recognize it (it's not being listed in GCController.controllers()). So my question is, is there something specific I can do so I can use this remote as a GCController? Or maybe is there something specific to hardware that I have to know for this to work? Thank you.

Hi, We identified massive amounts of leaked memory with the tvOS 26 standard player user interface as soon as chapters (navigation markers) are involved. Artwork images associated with chapters are not correctly released anymore, leaking memory in chunks of several MiBs. Over time apps will be terminated by the system due to excessive memory consumption. The issue was reported to Apple as tvOS 26 regression: Huge memory leaks associated with navigation marker artworks displayed in the tvOS standard user interface, filed under FB21160665.

Hi everyone, We're experiencing an unusually long App Review delay for our tvOS application and wanted to check if anyone else is seeing the same behaviour or has any suggestions. App Details Platform: tvOS Xcode Version: 26.4.1 Submission Type: App Update Distribution: App Store Status: In Review Issue We submitted an app update last week, and it remained in the "In Review" state for approximately one week with no updates. Since there was no progress, we rejected that submission, uploaded a new build, and submitted it again. The new build has now also been "In Review" for the last 5 days. Apple has not rejected the app or provided any review notes or requests for additional information. The status simply remains "In Review". What we've tried Submitted an Expedited Review Request. Contacted Apple using the App Review "Contact Us" option. We have not received any response to either request. Since there is no rejection or feedback, we don't have any indication that there is an issue with the app itself. Questions Is anyone else currently experiencing unusually long review times for tvOS apps? Is this likely to be an App Review backlog or a known issue on Apple's side? Has anyone had success getting a response through App Review support or Developer Support in a similar situation? Is there anything else we can do besides waiting? Any insights or recent experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Is there any UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities string that can be used to restrict an app to Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) or later hardware? I can’t find one. I’m working on a tvOS app that uses Continuity Camera. That feature only works on Apple TV 4K (2nd gen) and Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) hardware. There seems be no way to warn App Store customers that the app will not work on Apple TV 4K (1st gen). In the App Store or TestFlight, a user with a 1st gen device incorrectly sees a compatibility note that the app “Works on this Apple TV”. Setting a minimum OS version is not currently a helpful path for me — even tvOS 26.5 is compatible with 1st generation hardware. I can’t think of a good way to prevent users with an incompatible Apple TV 4K from installing an app that won’t work on their 1st generation devices. Any ideas? Am I missing something?

I just updated to tvOS 27 and I saw... nothing. It still uses the tvOS 26 icons and none of the Liquid Glass design changes the other platforms received are there (like the new outlines and depth of buttons). Even the highlights angle on the icons is still 45 degrees. Is this to be expected? Why is tvOS 27 the only platform that does not get these refinements? Not even updating the icons is sad...

Hi :-) I need some advice to fix the following issues in SwiftUI. I don't have the source code myself, but I'd like to help the programmer fix the problem quickly. So I'm looking for a few lines of Example-Code that I can show these Code-Lines to help resolve this quickly. 1. "Jumping shadow" when swiping => The Shadow under the Genre.Buttons jumps when you swipe through them. 2. Liquid Glass Flicker => The Liquid Glass EDGE on a poster or on the buttons flickers (abruptly disappear) when switching from one page to another Can someone help me? Bets regards, Christian :)

My tvOS app includes the purchase of subscriptions, and I am updating the code with Storekit 2.0. I have seen other apps that present the "Confirm with Apple Device" UI upon selection of a product, but for me I only ever see an alert confirming the purchase. I have tested this using Xcode storekit data and a sandbox account. I have also attempted using Storekit views and passing the UIWindowScene to the purchase(confirmIn: ) parameter, but neither made any difference. Is there some limitation that prevents that UI from showing in debug builds?

Hey team, This is a weird one, when Siri + "On-Screen Actions" are enabled in the Apple TV settings (General Settings), LazyVStack experiences severe main-thread hangs and very high CPU usage. The issue only occurs when Siri + On-Screen Actions are enabled in Apple TV device settings (General Settings). Disabling On-Screen Actions completely resolves the issue. The issue has been verified on multiple Apple TV devices, running tvOS 26.3, 26.4 and 26.5. The behavior was not observed in Simulators, only on an actual device. This seems to be caused by some type of accessibility overlap with SwiftUI. Running the below code with "On-Screen Actions" enabled in the Siri settings will demonstrate a complete hang of the CPU at 100% struct TestData { let id = UUID() var title: String } struct TestView: View { @State private var test: [TestData] = [] var body: some View { ScrollView { LazyVStack { ForEach(self.test, id: \.id) { data in Button { } label: { Text(data.title) } } } } .task { var arr: [TestData] = [] for _ in 0..<30000 { let data = TestData(title: "Title") arr.append(data) } self.test = arr } } } Already submited a bug report FB22758928

Hi Team,   We were using the API, ' https://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=tvSoftware&term=digital+signa&limit=10&country=US' for searching and fetching apple TV applications within our product. But we found that the API response is null currently. When going through iTunes Search API: Constructing Searches, we found that 'tvSoftware' is no longer an entity.   Could you please let me know what's the 'entity' value that we need to use for fetching Apple TV applications?

Hi internet friends! I'm looking for people to test my new Apple TV application. If you like movie and TV or indie created stories please let me know. Looking for honest feedback :) This is my first time building an application outside of my corporate job so I'm very excited!!!!

Description: I’m developing a tvOS app using SwiftUI where we play background audio (music) in the Welcome screen, with support for offline playback via local caching. 🔹 Feature Overview App fetches audio metadata from API Starts streaming audio (HLS .m3u8) immediately In parallel, downloads the raw audio file (.mp3) Once download completes: Switches playback from streaming → local file On next launch (offline mode), app plays audio from local storage 🔹 Issue This flow works perfectly on the Simulator, but on a real Apple TV device: Audio plays for a few seconds (2–5 sec) and then stops Especially after switching from streaming → local file No explicit AVPlayer error is logged Playback sometimes stops after UI updates or periodic API refresh 🔹 Implementation Details Using AVPlayer with AVPlayerItem Background audio controlled via a shared manager (singleton) Files stored locally using FileManager (currently using .cachesDirectory) Switching playback using: player.replaceCurrentItem(with: AVPlayerItem(url: localURL)) player.play() 🔹 Observations Works reliably on Simulator On device: Playback stops silently Seems related to lifecycle, buffering, or file access No issues when continuously streaming (without switching to local) 🔹 Questions Is there any limitation or known issue with AVPlayer when switching from streaming (HLS) to local file playback on tvOS? Are there specific requirements for playing locally cached media files on tvOS (e.g., file location, permissions, or sandbox behavior)? What is the recommended storage location and size limit for cached media files on tvOS? We understand tvOS has limited persistent storage Is .cachesDirectory the correct approach for this use case? Are there known differences in AVPlayer behavior between Simulator and real Apple TV devices (especially regarding buffering or lifecycle)? What is the recommended approach for implementing offline background audio on tvOS apps? 🔹 Goal We want to implement a reliable system where: Audio streams initially Seamlessly switches to local file after download Continues playing without interruption Supports offline playback on subsequent launches Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Description: I’m developing a tvOS app using SwiftUI where we play background audio (music) in the Welcome screen, with support for offline playback via local caching. Feature Overview: App fetches audio metadata from API Starts streaming audio (HLS .m3u8) immediately In parallel, downloads the raw audio file (.mp3) Once download completes: Switches playback from streaming → local file On next launch (offline mode), app plays audio from local storage Issue: This flow works perfectly on the Simulator, but on a real Apple TV device: Audio plays for a few seconds (2–5 sec) and then stops Especially after switching from streaming → local file No explicit AVPlayer error is logged Playback sometimes stops after UI updates or periodic API refresh Implementation Details: Using AVPlayer with AVPlayerItem Background audio controlled via a shared manager (singleton) Files stored locally using FileManager (currently using .cachesDirectory) Switching playback using: player.replaceCurrentItem(with: AVPlayerItem(url: localURL)) player.play() Observations: Works reliably on Simulator On device: -- Playback stops silently -- Seems related to lifecycle, buffering, or file access No issues when continuously streaming (without switching to local) Questions: Is there any limitation or known issue with AVPlayer when switching from streaming (HLS) to local file playback on tvOS? Are there specific requirements for playing locally cached media files on tvOS (e.g., file location, permissions, or sandbox behavior)? What is the recommended storage location and size limit for cached media files on tvOS? We understand tvOS has limited persistent storage Is .cachesDirectory the correct approach for this use case? Are there known differences in AVPlayer behavior between Simulator and real Apple TV devices (especially regarding buffering or lifecycle)? What is the recommended approach for implementing offline background audio on tvOS apps? Goal: We want to implement a reliable system where: Audio streams initially Seamlessly switches to local file after download Continues playing without interruption Supports offline playback on subsequent launches Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The AppIntent feature is available on tvOS since OS 16. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appintents I tried a real basic integration where I just want simply open a specific tab in my tabbar. But the perform action gets never called. Is it really possible already to use AppIntent on tvOS? Or is this feature still mostly targeted for mobile devices? Also, the documentaiton says so often something about shortcuts app and features, that are not available on tvOS, that I started doubting that the AppIntent is really usable on tvOS. If AppIntents are available and usable for tvOS, what could be wrong, so that I do not see the expected results?

I'm triaging the issue with the fast scrolling on UIScrollView and I'm really upset how little to no info this component is on the internet. Like i disabled scrolling and yet after holding the dpad down to scroll downward eventually the fast scroll mechanism is used. The issue I have is that I have a setup where the scrollview scrolling is disabled and whenever cells are focused it'll scroll to the cell's position for that cells to focused on top left side of the scrollview. I start off with the cell placed at position x of 1000. I scroll down enough to enable fast scrolling. While fast scrolling vertically, i press left a couple of time and it somewhat scroll horizontally. Actual scrollView index is suddenly placed to x:0 instead of let say x:950-1000 Expected should be scrolled to the left of cell at position x 1000. Attached the stack trace and the log showcasing it and run it on simulator tvos 26.2. Initial properties of the scrollview we set up scroll = [UIScrollView new]; scroll.contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior = UIScrollViewContentInsetAdjustmentNever; scroll.automaticallyAdjustsScrollIndicatorInsets = false; [scroll setDirectionalLockEnabled:TRUE]; [scroll setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0)]; scroll.bounces = FALSE; scroll.delaysContentTouches = FALSE; scroll.showsVerticalScrollIndicator = FALSE; scroll.showsHorizontalScrollIndicator = FALSE; The plan for me at least is to somehow disable the horizontal scrolling interaction of it when fast scrolling is enabled, without accessing the private components of it.

HealthKit is currently not supported on macOS nor tvOS, despite being supported by visionOS. Support for macOS was last asked about[1] here in 2018. My goal is to display interactive data visualisations over workouts collected in HealthKit on macOS. Will this be possible to do in the near future using HealthKit directly? If not, can I somehow read the information from an iPhone and display it on the mac? Cheers, Rodrigo [1] https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/94937

Have a peculiar problem I'm not able to solve. Working on an app with a mapview in the max zoomed out globe level. For some reason this morning Xcode froze/crashed when I was working and I had to force quit to get it back up. Then a new issue of graphical artifacts on the space section of the Mapview showed up. This Tuesday has now been spent in full on trying to solve this to no avail. I created a new project for iOS/iPadOS and added a similar map implementation. It works fine. I used Claude to help me after a few reinstalls of Xcode with this. I asked claude to summarize - this is what has been done: Claude generative AI summary starts here---------- Here's a complete summary of everything attempted: The Problem SwiftUI tvOS app with MapKit globe view showing severe rendering artifacts — corrupted pixels surrounding the globe. Started after Xcode crashed while the tvOS simulator was actively running. iOS simulator, macOS Maps app, and all native apps work perfectly. Only tvOS simulator MapKit is affected. Hardware Confirmed Fine Geekbench 6 Metal GPU score: 124,666 (normal for M1 Max) Apple Diagnostics (Apple Silicon method): No issues found macOS Maps globe renders perfectly Everything That Was Attempted Simulator resets: Erased all simulator content and settings Created brand new simulator devices Deleted derived data Killed CoreSimulator service Runtime reinstalls: Removed and reinstalled tvOS platform runtime multiple times Tested on Xcode 26.3 and 26.4 beta — same issue on both Installed fresh tvOS runtime after full Xcode reinstall Cache clearing: ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.CoreSimulator ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.iphonesimulator.savedState All Metal shader caches in /private/var/folders/ including: com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRenderingServices.SimMetalHost com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRenderingServices.SimRenderServer com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService com.apple.iphonesimulator com.apple.dt.Xcode com.apple.dt.xcodebuild com.apple.CoreSimulator.simctl ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/XcodeToMetalToolchainIndexMapping.plist ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/SDKToSimulatorIndexMapping.plist ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData Full Xcode reinstall: Deleted Xcode completely Removed ~/Library/Developer Removed all Xcode-related caches and preferences Fresh install from Mac App Store APFS simulator volume cleanup (required disabling SIP): Discovered 138GB of orphaned APFS simulator volumes in /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Volumes/ that were protected by SIP and couldn't be deleted normally These volumes were left in a corrupted/limbo state from the original Xcode crash Temporarily disabled SIP via Recovery Mode Successfully deleted all orphaned volumes Re-enabled SIP Reinstalled fresh tvOS runtime Metal Toolchain: Found three leftover Metal Toolchains (17A324, 17A5241c, 17A5295f) in Xcode settings Cleared toolchain index mapping file Reinstalled fresh Metal Toolchain with new tvOS runtime Current State Fresh Xcode installation Fresh tvOS runtime All simulator volumes cleared SIP re-enabled Issue still persists What Has NOT Been Checked /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Cryptex /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Images /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles Conclusion This is almost certainly a bug triggered by the hard Xcode crash corrupting something at a level that has survived complete reinstallation of Xcode and all simulator components. The corruption is somewhere in a system-level component that normal developer tools cannot reach. Requires Apple Developer Technical Support or escalation via Feedback Assistant with the full timeline and screenshots. For Apple's reference: Machine: MacBook Pro M1 Max Xcode: 26.3 / 26.4 beta (both affected) Started: After hard Xcode crash while tvOS simulator was actively rendering MapKit globe Affected: tvOS simulator MapKit globe only Not affected: iOS simulator, macOS Maps, all native apps ----------(Claude generative AI summary ends here) ----------- Anyone seen this before? Absolutely wild. Can't think of more things to try. Been eyeing a new Macbook for a while. Strange coincidence that the new M5 Macbook Pros dropped today :D But in sum it does not seem like a GPU issue since the same rendering works on the iOS sim. Thanks!

UIHostingConfiguration on tvOS: focus permanently broken with multiple focusable SwiftUI views Hi everyone, I'm working on a tvOS app with a UICollectionView. Some cells embed SwiftUI content via UIHostingConfiguration, specifically a row of 3 buttons that should be individually focusable. The cell itself returns canBecomeFocused = false so focus passes through to the SwiftUI buttons. The problem: after navigating focus into that section once, it becomes permanently unfocusable. Focus enters briefly, then immediately exits to nil on its own, without any user input. From that point on, the focus engine completely skips the section. The exact same SwiftUI view works perfectly when embedded via UIHostingController instead. How to reproduce Press DOWN to move focus into the UIHostingConfiguration section Focus lands on a SwiftUI button for a split second Focus exits on its own and bumps to another section The section is now dead, focus skips it on every subsequent navigation What the system logs say (-UIFocusLoggingEnabled YES) Right when focus enters, the system reports the SwiftUI focus items as "disappearing": Ignoring focus update request for disappearing focus environment <UIKitFocusSectionResponderItem> Then when searching for a new focusable item: <SwiftUI._UIInheritedView> → (warning) No focusable items found. <UIHostingContentView> → (warning) No focusable items found. === unable to find focused item in context. retrying with updated request. === The views are still in the hierarchy (verified by pointer), but the UIHostingContentView no longer exposes its virtual focus items. I also see mismatched parentFocusEnvironment on those items, pointing to a _UIHostingView from a completely different cell. What I've tried I've spent a lot of time on this with my colleagues, dug through the very limited documentation available online, and even used AI agents to help brainstorm. We tested 10 different approaches, none worked: Overriding preferredFocusEnvironments to point to the UIHostingContentView setNeedsFocusUpdate() / updateFocusIfNeeded(), rescan finds nothing Forcing UIKit redraws (setNeedsLayout, setNeedsDisplay) Removing .focusSection() Removing all SwiftUI animations, identical behavior Using canFocusItemAt: delegate instead of cell subclass, identical remembersLastFocusedIndexPath = true, causes a separate focus trap configurationUpdateHandler + setNeedsUpdateConfiguration(), config is rebuilt but virtual items stay deregistered Verified the UIHostingContentView never leaves the hierarchy. It doesn't, its internal state is just corrupted My workaround I switched to UIHostingController with proper view controller containment. It works because the hosting controller is a full UIFocusEnvironment, so the focus engine can traverse it and it correctly maintains its virtual items. Has anyone encountered this? Is there a known pattern for using UIHostingConfiguration on tvOS with multiple focusable SwiftUI elements? Or should I just file a Feedback? Thanks for any help! You can find the code here : https://github.com/ThomasDutartre/focus-problem-tvos I recored the problem here : https://youtu.be/yPfM5AvU2ko

UIHostingConfiguration on tvOS: focus permanently broken with multiple focusable SwiftUI views Hi everyone, I'm working on a tvOS app with a UICollectionView. Some cells embed SwiftUI content via UIHostingConfiguration, specifically a row of 3 buttons that should be individually focusable. The cell itself returns canBecomeFocused = false so focus passes through to the SwiftUI buttons. The problem: after navigating focus into that section once, it becomes permanently unfocusable. Focus enters briefly, then immediately exits to nil on its own, without any user input. From that point on, the focus engine completely skips the section. The exact same SwiftUI view works perfectly when embedded via UIHostingController instead. How to reproduce Press DOWN to move focus into the UIHostingConfiguration section Focus lands on a SwiftUI button for a split second Focus exits on its own and bumps to another section The section is now dead, focus skips it on every subsequent navigation What the system logs say (-UIFocusLoggingEnabled YES) Right when focus enters, the system reports the SwiftUI focus items as "disappearing": Ignoring focus update request for disappearing focus environment <UIKitFocusSectionResponderItem> Then when searching for a new focusable item: <SwiftUI._UIInheritedView> → (warning) No focusable items found. <UIHostingContentView> → (warning) No focusable items found. === unable to find focused item in context. retrying with updated request. === The views are still in the hierarchy (verified by pointer), but the UIHostingContentView no longer exposes its virtual focus items. I also see mismatched parentFocusEnvironment on those items, pointing to a _UIHostingView from a completely different cell. What I've tried I've spent a lot of time on this with my colleagues, dug through the very limited documentation available online, and even used AI agents to help brainstorm. We tested 10 different approaches, none worked: Overriding preferredFocusEnvironments to point to the UIHostingContentView setNeedsFocusUpdate() / updateFocusIfNeeded(), rescan finds nothing Forcing UIKit redraws (setNeedsLayout, setNeedsDisplay) Removing .focusSection() Removing all SwiftUI animations, identical behavior Using canFocusItemAt: delegate instead of cell subclass, identical remembersLastFocusedIndexPath = true, causes a separate focus trap configurationUpdateHandler + setNeedsUpdateConfiguration(), config is rebuilt but virtual items stay deregistered Verified the UIHostingContentView never leaves the hierarchy. It doesn't, its internal state is just corrupted My workaround I switched to UIHostingController with proper view controller containment. It works because the hosting controller is a full UIFocusEnvironment, so the focus engine can traverse it and it correctly maintains its virtual items. Has anyone encountered this? Is there a known pattern for using UIHostingConfiguration on tvOS with multiple focusable SwiftUI elements? Or should I just file a Feedback? Thanks for any help!