Multipeer Connectivity support

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Multipeer Connectivity does not support operating in the background; it's really that simply. You may be able to get some things to work, but I recommend that you not go down that path because, when you do unsupported things, you run the risk of future changes breaking your code.

The networking stack does, in general, support operating in the background. Where things start to go wrong is if your app gets suspended in the background. Technote 2277 Networking and Multitasking has the details. So, if your already have a way to prevent your app from suspended—for example, it's an audio app that's playing music—you can use other networking APIs in the background quite successfully.

OTOH, if you can't avoid suspending in the background, you will have to look at APIs that let you make progress while you're suspended; that typically means using NSURLSession background session support, possibly in conjunction with UIApplication's background fetch support.

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Quinn "The Eskimo!"
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

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Building a remote control type of app would I be allowed to keep the connection between the iPhone and the Mac?

Is there any other way to have a uninterrupted communication when app in the background that would build on bluetooth rather than wifi only?

• Peer-to-peer Bluetooth networking is no longer supported on our platforms, so that’s a dead end.

• In contrast, Core Bluetooth, the API for Bluetooth, supports a couple of useful background modes. I’m not the right person to held you with that. I recommend that you create a new thread with the details. Make sure you tag it with Core Bluetooth.

Hello,

I was wondering if you found a fix for this? I'm having the same issue from 7 years ago :)

Thanks

Hello, I'm using MulitpeerNetworking in an App for Long- and Tripplejump (JumpControl). A camera is located close to the take-off-board and is controlled by another device connected via Multipeer-Networking-API. Usually this works fine even for several meters distance. In real events, when there are more other devices around the connectivity becomes more and more unstable. Connection is lost or cannot be established again. Is there a way to make this connection more stable or at least get more information about the circumstances that makes it unstable? Is there a possibility to connect two iOS-Devices via cable-connection to improve stability?

My general advice here is to avoid Multipeer Connectivity, and instead focus your efforts on Network framework. TN3151 Choosing the right networking API talks about this more, and I have specific guidance in Moving from Multipeer Connectivity to Network Framework.

Connection is lost or cannot be established again.

One key issue with Multipeer Connectivity is that it’s tricky to separate link-layer issues — that is, problems with peer-to-peer Wi-Fi — from transport layer issues. That makes investigating problems like this a lot harder than it is with Network framework, which makes a clear distinction between the two.

Is there a possibility to connect two iOS-Devices via cable-connection to improve stability?

Yep, just use Ethernet, along with two USB Ethernet dongles, which iOS supports out the box.

That definitely works with Network framework. I suspect it’ll work with Multipeer Connectivity as well, but it’s not something I’ve tried because… well… see all of the above.

ps If you have follow-up questions about this stuff, please put them in a new thread. DevForums works better that way (this thread was started over 10 years ago!).

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"