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accessibilityElements excludes the unlisted subviews – How to Fix?
I have a parent view containing 10 subviews. To control the VoiceOver navigation order, I set only a few elements in accessibilityElements. However, the remaining elements are not being focused or are completely inaccessible. Is this the expected behavior? If I only specify a subset of elements in accessibilityElements, does it exclude the rest? What’s the best way to ensure all elements remain accessible while customising the order?
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172
Apr ’25
Developer Mode Restart without HomeButton
After enabling Developer Mode on my iPhone and restarting it, the device asks me to press the Home button to confirm. Unfortunately, my Home button is broken, so I can’t access Developer Mode. The iPhone itself still works, but I can’t enable the mode. Is there any way to bypass this without the Home button?
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101
Mar ’25
accessibilityActivationPoint Not Working When Set Directly on UITableViewCell
I’m trying to set the accessibilityActivationPoint directly on a UITableViewCell so that VoiceOver activate on a specific button inside the cell. However, this approach doesn’t seem to work. Instead, when I override the accessibilityActivationPoint property inside the UITableViewCell subclass and return the desired point, it works as expected. Why doesn’t setting accessibilityActivationPoint directly on the cell work, but overriding it inside the cell does? Is there a recommended approach for handling this scenario? The following approach works, override var accessibilityActivationPoint: CGPoint { get { return convert(toggleSwitch.center, to: nil) } set{ super.accessibilityActivationPoint = newValue } } but setting accessibility point directly not works private func configureAccessibility() { isAccessibilityElement = true accessibilityLabel = titleLabel.text accessibilityTraits = .toggleButton accessibilityActivationPoint = self.convert(toggleSwitch.center, to: self) accessibilityValue = toggleSwitch.accessibilityValue }
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137
Apr ’25
Programmatically force VoiceOver to read parentheses for math expressions
How can I force VoiceOver to read parentheses for math expressions like this: Text("(2+3)×4") // VoiceOver: Two plus three, times four I’m looking for a way to have VoiceOver announce parentheses (e.g. “left paren”, “right paren”) without relying on NumberFormatter.Style.spellOut or .speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation(), as both have drawbacks. Using .spellOut breaks braille output and Rotor › Characters menu by turning numbers and symbols into words. And .speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation() makes VoiceOver overly verbose—for example, it reads “21” as “twenty hyphen one.” Is there a better way to selectively announce specific punctuation like parentheses while keeping numbers and symbols intact for braille and Rotor use?
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375
Jul ’25
Handling Keyboard Hotkeys and Shortcuts across Multiple Languages
We have a requirement to manage the shortcuts and hotkeys in our application, and have it to be intuitive and support multi-lingual fully. The understanding that we have currently is that most universal shortcuts and hotkeys on MacOS/iOS are expressed using English/Latin characters’ – and now, when a ‘pure foreign language physical or virtual keyboard’ is the ‘input device’ – we are unclear how the user would invoke such a hotkey. Now, considering cases where other language keyboards have no Latin characters, in these environments, managing shortcuts and hotkeys becomes a rather difficult task. Taking a very simple example, the shortcut for Printing a page is Command/Control + 'P'. This can be an issue on Non English character keyboards like Arabic, where not only are there no letters for P, there is also no equivalent phonetic character as well, since the language itself does not have it. Also – when we are wanting customizability of a hotkey by the user, how would the user express ‘which is the key combination for a given action they want to perform’. So, based on these conditions, in order to provide the most comprehensive and optimal experience for the user in their own language, what is it that Apple recommend we do here, for Hotkeys/Shortcuts support in Pure Languages
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947
Dec ’25
Microphone Not Working When Running Unity Vision Pro App Normally
} // Start listening to the microphone public void StartListening() { if (!isListening) { #if UNITY_IOS || UNITY_TVOS microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, 44100); #else try { microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, 16000); // Use 16,000 Hz instead of 44,100 if (microphoneInput == null) { microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, AudioSettings.outputSampleRate); } #endif isListening = true; Debug.Log(Microphone.devices.Length + " Started listening..."); debugText.text = Microphone.devices.Length + "- Started listening..."; } catch (System.Exception e) { Debug.LogError($"Starting microphone failed: {e.Message}"); debugText.text = $"Starting microphone failed: {e.Message}"; } } } void Update() { if (isListening && microphoneInput != null) { // Analyze the audio for voice activity float volume = GetAverageVolume(); if (volume > detectionThreshold) { Debug.Log("User is speaking!"); lastVoiceTime = Time.time; SoundDetected = true; if (Time.time - lastVoiceTime > silenceDuration) { Debug.Log("User is silent."); debugText.text = volume.ToString() + " - User is silent."; } slider.value = volume; } } } private float GetAverageVolume() { float[] samples = new float[128]; microphoneInput.GetData(samples, Microphone.GetPosition(null)); float sum = 0f; foreach (float sample in samples) { sum += Mathf.Abs(sample); } return sum / samples.Length; } Problem: When I build and run the app from Xcode, the microphone works fine, and I receive input. However, when running the app normally (outside of Xcode), I can’t seem to access the microphone. The debug logs indicate no microphone is detected. Question: Is there any additional configuration I need to do for the microphone to work in a normal (non-Xcode) run on Vision Pro? Or any common issues that could be causing the microphone access to fail in this scenario? Thanks in advance for any insights! Best, Siddharth
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470
Feb ’25
Hi,I applied for the COMMUNICATION capability failed, what should I do next?
Hi,I applied for the COMMUNICATION capability, but have a message that I already have the driving task app entitlement. After that ,I have applied one more time ,there is no reply anymore. I do not have the com.apple.developer.carplay-communication capability, that means I can not apply this capability? What should i do next to get this capatibility? Thanks
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1.1k
Jul ’25
Is there any way to make user forced update?
Hi I'm planning to make macos App and distribute to MacOS App Store. The question is should i make force update when update is needed. The reason why I want to make this feature is I don't want to make user use previous version of app. My plan is like this. when app needed update, make user reach special page that describe why update is needed and set a button that can download new version of app. the download will be automatically doing at background don't need to visit app store. I search several forums and gpt but there is no positive reply of this.. so finally i make a post to know is there no way to make this. Thank you!
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475
Mar ’25
NSAlert button background/contrast
If I use NSAlert the buttons look like this: The Cancel button has a gray background. We got complaints about the bad contrast and people pointed out that the alerts from System Settings look like this: Here the Cancel button has a white background. Unfortunately I did not find out how to make the buttons in my own alerts look like those in System Settings. Setting the button's bezel color to white did not work. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks. Best regards, Marc
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568
Feb ’25
Attempting to go directly to a help book page results in the main help book page being displayed instead
There is an issue with Help Books that started with the release of macOS 14.4. The issue is that when an app attempts to go directly to a Help Book page, the help viewer opens to the Help Book's main index page, rather than the specific page requested. As I investigated the issue I found that the requested page was actually part of help viewer's navigation history, and all I had to do was to click the Back navigation arrow and the requested page would be displayed. So it seems like the requested page is momentarily visited but is then (for whatever reason) quickly replaced by the main index page. Our app uses the AHGotoPage() API for directly accessing our Help Book's pages. This is the same mechanism/code that our app has used for more than a decade and has never caused us any issues. Everything works fine on macOS 14.3.0 and earlier. I've scoured the documentation and can't find any newer APIs for accessing Help pages. I've also tried various other things (e.g. reworking the code, creating new indexes for the app's Help, etc.), but none of it seems to make a difference. As far as I can tell, the issue seems to stem from some change made to the OS. So my questions are: Is this a known bug? And if so, is there any ETA on a fix? Is there something different we should be doing for newer versions of the OS (create indexes differently, use a different API, etc.)?
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2.0k
Oct ’25
[macOS 15.4] Game Controller Background Input Capture Broken - Accessibility App No Longer Functions
Our application, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gamecontroller-mapper/id6737088417 which maps game controller inputs to keyboard/mouse events system-wide, has stopped functioning properly after the macOS 15.4 update. Specifically, the app can no longer capture game controller inputs when running in the background, severely impacting its core functionality. Environment macOS version: 15.4 Previous working versions: All versions prior to 15.4 App type: Background utility with accessibility permissions Hardware: All game controller brands compatible with macOS Detailed Description Before macOS 15.4 Our application correctly captured game controller inputs from any brand connected to Mac and successfully translated them to keyboard/mouse events system-wide. Users could control any application (e.g., scrolling through documents in Preview using controller buttons) while our app ran in the background with the accessibility permissions granted. After macOS 15.4 The application only works when it has active focus (is in the foreground). When any other application gains focus, our app completely stops receiving or detecting any input events from the game controller while running in the background. For instance, pressing the 'down' button on the controller while another app is active results in no event being registered within our application. We've tried updating the app to work in accessory mode (in the menubar), but the issue persists. Steps to Reproduce Install our application on macOS 15.3 or earlier Grant accessibility permissions when prompted Connect a compatible game controller (e.g., Xbox or other controller) Open another application (e.g., Preview with a PDF document) Press buttons on the controller to navigate the document without touching the keyboard Expected result on 15.3: Controller inputs are translated to keyboard events, even when our app is in the background Upgrade to macOS 15.4 Repeat steps 2-5 Actual result on 15.4: Controller inputs are only translated to keyboard events when our application has focus Technical Implementation Our app uses: CGEvent.tapCreate() to create a global event tap CGEvent for simulating keyboard and mouse events GCController.extendedGamepad?.valueChangedHandler for detecting controller inputs Proper NSAccessibilityUsageDescription and appropriate entitlements GCController.shouldMonitorBackgroundEvents = true to ensure controller events continue when the app is inactive Possible Relation to Recent Changes We noticed in the macOS 15.4 Release Notes: Game Controller - Resolved Issues: Fixed: Game controllers might stop responding when accessibility features, such as Voice Over, are enabled. (141497799) We suspect this fix might have introduced a regression or intentional limitation affecting applications like ours that rely on background event simulation with game controller input. Impact This change severely impacts: Applications designed to use game controllers as assistive input devices for users who may have difficulty using traditional keyboard and mouse inputs Applications for media control, presentation navigation, and other similar use cases Users who rely on our application for accessibility purposes Questions Is this an intentional security change or an unintended side effect of the controller fix mentioned in the release notes? Are there any new APIs or alternative approaches we should implement to restore functionality? If this is a system bug, when can we expect a fix? We would greatly appreciate any guidance on how to restore our application's functionality. Thank you for your assistance.
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360
Apr ’25
`accessibilityUserInputLabels` is ignored on `UIBarButtonItem`
accessibilityUserInputLabels is working fine with any view I tried this on. Meaning that the control can be toggled with the provided alternative names when using Voice Control. When setting this property on any UIBarButtonItem though, it seems Voice Control ignores the alternative names provided by setting accessibilityUserInputLabels. For comparison, accessibilityLabel works perfectly when set on UIBarButtonItem. Is anyone facing the same issue? Using Xcode 16.0 (16A242) on iOS 18
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596
Aug ’25
Ipad 7th generation
I updated with 18.3 beta, but lost video and audio option with that update, I tried to restore with itune in windows 11, got struck between. Forcefully turned off ipad, after two tries got off.... Off like blinked out screen... Not tried all tricks to on, can't on....please tell a solution. Used all your advices in internet. It was 90% charged, working superbly. So far no risk... Please help me. No charging icon, no sign of life. How can On?
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492
Feb ’25
Programmatically Modifying Per Application or System Wide Color Filters using Cocoa/Swift in MacOS?
I'm looking into how to programmatically control color filters in the Accessibility settings under "System Settings" -> "Accessibility" -> "Color Filters"--in particular the "Intensity" and "Filter type" settings. As far as I have gathered, changing this setting can only be accomplished using the CoreGraphics APIs or Accessibility APIs (I've poked around GitHub, Stack Overflow, and queried some LLMs), but there doesn't seem to be a clear cut example for doing this using public facing APIs, without ripping off source code from another project wholesale or using private APIs. My goal is to overlay a color filter at either a per-application or system level to help with accessibility. If there's a way to overlay this capability on an application-by-application basis as a third-party developer, that would be the most ideal scenario. For example, modifying the look and feel/UX for Launchpad, Photos, etc, as a third-party developer without accessing the source code of the application that I'm modifying the look/feel for (with appropriate user consent of course).
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380
Jul ’25
VoiceOver doesn't work for AVRoutePickerView wrapped in UIViewRepresentable
Hi, I've wrapped AVRoutePickerView in SwiftUI using pretty much the code given here, with a few changes: func makeUIView(context: Context) -> UIView { let routePickerView = AVRoutePickerView() // Configure the button's color. //routePickerView.delegate = context.coordinator //routePickerView.backgroundColor = .secondarySystemBackground routePickerView.tintColor = .accent routePickerView.activeTintColor = .accent // Indicate whether your app prefers video content. routePickerView.prioritizesVideoDevices = false return routePickerView } I commented out routePickerView.delegate = context.coordinator because it doesn't compile; context.coordinator is of type Void and I'm not sure how to fix that. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the issue. Anyway, this works fine without VoiceOver; if I tap the button, I get the AirPlay popover. But in VoiceOver, if I select the button and double-tap, nothing happens… it just reads the button's accessibilityLabel again. How can I get the AirPlay popover to show in VoiceOver?
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396
Aug ’25