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

Dear Apple Support, I am reporting a critical issue affecting parental control apps like my app, Choreio, which is live on the App Store. When Screen Time settings are configured to require a parent’s password for changes, parents must log in on their child’s device to make any adjustments. This restriction is expected to extend to apps using the Screen Time API, such as Choreio. However, I’ve discovered a significant bug: children can bypass this restriction by simply toggling off Choreio in the Screen Time settings—without needing the parent’s password. This effectively disables the app and defeats its purpose as a parental control tool. Please address this issue as soon as possible to ensure the intended functionality of parental controls. Let me know if you need any additional information to assist with resolving this. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Best regards, Jeff Houston STEPS TO REPRODUCE Here are the steps to reproduce the issue clearly: Install Choreio from the App Store on the child’s phone. Enable parental controls in Screen Time and set it to require the parent’s password for any changes to Screen Time settings. Go to the Screen Time settings on the child’s phone. Observe that the child can simply toggle off Choreio, effectively deactivating the app, without needing the parent’s password. Expected behavior: Toggling off Choreio should require the parent’s password, just like it does for other Screen Time settings. Let me know if additional details are needed!

Our company enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization in July 2024. Everything was fine for several months, but in early January 2025, our developer noticed that the certificates were missing. When we logged into our developer account, we were shocked to see a page prompting us to “Enroll Today”—as if we had never joined in the first place. Clicking the enrollment button led us to an error page stating we cannot enroll. We immediately reached out to Apple Developer Support via email, but despite multiple attempts, we received no response. Strangely, our apps remain live on the App Store, App Store Connect functions as usual, and we continue receiving payments every month. However, we are completely blocked from developing and releasing updates. Today, I managed to reach Apple by phone. After being transferred to a senior representative, I was told they couldn’t tell me why this was happening. They only confirmed that a request had been made and that I should “wait.” That’s it—no explanation, no timeline, nothing. While it’s somewhat reassuring that they acknowledge the issue, I’ve already seen other developers with the same problem go unanswered for months. My suspicion? This account might be linked to an individual developer account from way back in 2015 when Apple’s registration process was far less strict. Could that be the issue? No idea—because Apple won’t say a word. Meanwhile, both of our apps have been exposed to several bugs, and customers are waiting for updates. If there’s still no response from Apple, I have no choice but to register a new account—purely to continue supporting our users. CASE ID: 102508598957

Hi all, I’ve got a usability question about accessibility navigation. My app has a lot of carousels (horizontally scrolling lists of content with far more elements than can fit on the screen). Often, these are just images, but sometimes, they’re cards with multiple subelements. In our previous implementation, each card was a single accessibility element, and we exposed the subelements as accessibility custom actions. Despite this, users frequently mentioned navigating with VoiceOver as a pain point. It takes a long time to navigate through and navigate past these carousels. To solve this, I converted my carousels into a single adjustable element, so users can navigate through it with one swipe, and they can still access the elements by adjusting the values up and down. I got this advice from this 2018 WWDC talk. Is this still the recommended advice? Or is there a new, preferred way to do this? Additionally, I had to get a little creative with the second carousel, the one with multiple subelements. Some of these were interactive (imagine a card with a description, an upvote button, and a downvote button). Adjustable elements override the accessibility custom actions VoiceOver gesture, so I can’t expose the individual buttons as actions. Instead, I made each subelement in each card in the carousel one of the adjustable values. Swiping up would go from description 1 to upvote button 1 to downvote button 1 to description 2, etc. Double tapping with VoiceOver would perform whatever action the carousel is currently on. So if I adjust the value to the element at index 2 (say, downvote 1), double tapping would trigger the downvote button’s action. Does this make sense? Is there a better way to do this? This seemed to be the best compromise between screenreader navigation speed, exposing all actions, and the existing UI.

This was working a few days ago, but it has since stopped and I can't figure out why. I've tried resetting TCC, double-checking my entitlements, restarting, deleting and rebuilding, and nothing works. My app is a sandboxed macOS SwiftUI LSUIElement app that, when invoked, checks to see if the frontmost process is Terminal, then tries to get the frontmost window’s title. func getFrontmostWindowTitle() throws -> String? { let trusted = AXIsProcessTrusted() print("getFrontmostWindowTitle AX trusted: \(trusted)") guard let app = NSWorkspace.shared.frontmostApplication else { return nil } let appElement = AXUIElementCreateApplication(app.processIdentifier) var focusedWindow: AnyObject? let status = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appElement, kAXFocusedWindowAttribute as CFString, &focusedWindow) guard status == .success, let window = focusedWindow else { if status == .cannotComplete { throw Errors.needAccessibilityPermission } return nil } var title: AnyObject? let titleStatus = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(window as! AXUIElement, kAXTitleAttribute as CFString, &title) guard titleStatus == .success else { return nil } return title as? String } I recently renamed the app, but the Bundle ID has not yet changed. I have com.apple.security.accessibility set to YES in the Entitlements file (although i had to add it manually), and a NSAccessibilityUsageDescription string set in Info.plist. The first time I ran this, macOS nicely prompted for permission. Now it won't do that, even when I use AXIsProcessTrustedWithOptions() to try to force it. If I use tccutil to reset accessibility and apple events, it still doesn't prompt. If I drag my app from the build products folder to System Settings, it gets added to the system TCC DB (not the user DB). It shows an auth value of 2 for my app: % sudo sqlite3 "/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db" "SELECT client,auth_value FROM access WHERE service='kTCCServiceAccessibility' OR service='kTCCServiceAppleEvents';" com.latencyzero.<redacted>|2 <redactd> I'm at a loss as to what went wrong. I proved out the concept earlier and it worked, and have since spent a lot of time enhancing and polishing the app, and now things aren't working and I'm starting to worry.

I’ve noticed that the VoiceOver reads currency amounts correctly when they are below thousand. Then, for higher amounts, for example 12.225,34 € VoiceOver reads ‘twelve point two two five thirty four euros’ If the amount is formatted without the thousand separator (12225,34 €) this problem doesn’t exist. (VO reads twelve thousand two hundred and twenty five euros and thirty four cents) Why is the thousand separator a problem for VoiceOver if this formatting is coming from the currency and locale? This issue exists in English. I changed my device language to Italian and German and in both cases the number was read correctly even with the separator. Is there a way to make it work in English?

There are several ways we are supposed to be able to control a11y (accessibility) focus in FKA (Full Keyboard Access) mode. We should be able to set up an @AccessibilityFocusState variable that contains an enum for the different views that we want to receive a11y focus. That works from VO (VoiceOver) but not from FKA mode. See this sample project on Github: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79067665/how-to-manage-accessibilityfocusstate-for-swiftui-accessibility-keyboard Similarly, we are supposed to be able to use accessibilitySortPriority to control the order that views are selected when a user using FKA tabs between views. That also works from VO but not from FKA mode. In the sample code below, the `.accessibilitySortPriority() ViewModifiers cause VO to change to a non-standard order when you swipe between views, but it has no effect in FKA mode. Is there a way to either set the a11y focus or change the order in which the views are selected that actually works in SwiftUI when the user is in FKA mode? Code that should cause FKA to tab between text fields in a custom order: struct ContentView: View { @State private var val1: String = "val 1" @State private var val2: String = "val 2" @State private var val3: String = "val 3" @State private var val4: String = "val 4" var body: some View { VStack { TextField("Value 1", text: $val1) .accessibilitySortPriority(3) VStack { TextField("Value 2", text: $val2) .accessibilitySortPriority(1) } HStack { TextField("Value 3", text: $val3) .accessibilitySortPriority(2) TextField("Value 4", text: $val4) .accessibilitySortPriority(4) } } .padding() } }```

Hi Guys, I've been trying for two weeks to sign up for the Apple Developer program. I've tried to pay the $99 but it didnt go off my account. Now my accoun tis in pending mode and there is no response from apple support. I've ogged about 10 tickets over the past two weeks. Any advice here? I am getting desperate.

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.

Hello, in an AVSpeechSynthesisProviderAudioUnit sending word position to host using AVSpeechSynthesisMarker / AVSpeechSynthesisMarker.Mark.word seems to be broken on iOS 18. On the app/client side all the events are received immediately whereas they should be received synchronised with the audio. The exact same code works perfectly on iOS 17 On the AVSpeechSynthesisProviderAudioUnit the AVSpeechSynthesisMarker are appended with the correct Position/SampleOffset let wordPos = NSMakeRange(characterRange.location, characterRange.length) let marker = AVSpeechSynthesisMarker(markerType: AVSpeechSynthesisMarker.Mark.word, forTextRange:wordPos, atByteSampleOffset:byteSampleOffset) // also tried with // let marker = AVSpeechSynthesisMarker(wordRange:wordPos, atByteSampleOffset:byteSampleOffset) markerArray.append(marker) print("word : pos \(characterRange) - offset \(byteSampleOffset)") // send events to host speechSynthesisOutputMetadataBlock?(markerArray, self.request!) word : pos {7, 7} - offset 2208 word : pos {15, 8} - offset 37612 word : pos {24, 6} - offset 80368 word : pos {31, 3} - offset 118652 word : pos {35, 2} - offset 128796 ... But on the client side they are all received in the same time (at the beginning of speech) whereas on iOS 17 they arrive sync to the audio. func speechSynthesizer(_ synthesizer: AVSpeechSynthesizer, willSpeakRangeOfSpeechString characterRange: NSRange, utterance: AVSpeechUtterance) { print("characterRange : \(characterRange)") } Using Apple Voice/engine works so there is obviously something to change but documentation of AVSpeechSynthesisProviderAudioUnit / AVSpeechSynthesisMarker seems unchanged Thanks in advance

Have tried to join the developer programme and says its still pending after 3 days. Anyone any idea how long the procedure takes??

I am developing an application for macOS that runs exclusively in the menu bar, and in this application, I am using a ColorPicker to allow the user to choose a color. However, the ColorPicker is not working properly in the menu bar. What should I do to resolve this issue?

I have mulling over this for many years ,Uralic and Siberian language user interface Support.Ainu of Japan is only supported by writing roman and rendering into Katakana with a few small modified characters there is no user interface ,spell,grammar checker,dictionary ,translator ,of course the Ainu has few terms in modern vocabulary but Iam studying the language in order to find words and coin new ones, iPhone hoomi-ye-p electric speak thing. I am looking for other peple who have the same idea.

Following the official documentation, I'm trying to create a set of three localised Help Books. The Help Books should be available in Spanish, English and Polish. Presently, I'm trying to complete English version. App Structure This is the plugin application consisting of main app and the plugin. The main app structure would looks as follows: Files . <XcodeProject Top> ├── Localizable.xcstrings ├── MyAppExtension │   ├── MyAppExtension.swift │   └── <other swift files>.swift ├──MyApp │ ├── Info.plist │   ├── +Array.swift │   ├── +ButtonStyle.swift │   ├── <other app swift files>.swift ├── Resources     └── MyApp.help └── MyApp.help └── Contents ├── Info.plist └── Resources ├── English.lproj │   ├── ExactMatch.plist │   ├── InfoPlist.strings │   ├── MyApp.helpindex │   ├── MyApp.html │   └── pgs └── shrd MyApp / MyApp.help / Info.plist file Consists the following values: Bundle name: MyApp HPDBookAccessPath: MyApp.html HPDBookTitle: My App Help Default localization: en_gb MyApp / Info.plist file Contains the following entries: Help Book directory name: MyApp.help Help Book Identifier: MyApp Help Build phase The Copy Bundle Resources copies MyApp.help in MyApp/Resources. Questions Is the provided folder structure valid for creating a localised help books Is there anything that is missing from across Info.plist files or is in the wrong places? Why the MyApp -> Help opens the main help menu, not the app help

Environment：xcode 16.2 WidgetKit： Image(uiImage: UIImage(named: "jp_jump")!).resizable().scaledToFit().frame(width: 58, height: 16).padding(EdgeInsets(top: 0, leading: 16, bottom: 0, trailing: 0)) ”jp_jump“： Local color picture load widget crashes info: Thread 4: EXC_RESOURCE (RESOURCE_TYPE_MEMORY: high watermark memory limit exceeded) (limit=30 MB)

It is outrageous that Apple continue to fail to implement the Fullscreen API web standard for web apps on iPhone only, which is so important to accessibility and web app functionality. The only possible reason for this block is commercial: to promote iOS apps instead of browser based web apps. To quote a client from a major agency just now - a typical enquiry : We value accessibility greatly, and we noticed that the embedded player is missing a full screen button on iPhone. Everything else works perfectly fine, including a full screen button that appears on the mobile webpage on android devices. Is there any way we can include a button to enable full screen view for our viewers in your player that are going to watch it on iOS devices? To which, as usual, we have to reply: Apple unfortunately block fullscreen mode from being used with all web applications on iPhone. Apple will allow this to be displayed fullscreen on MacBooks and iPads, but currently not on on iPhone - so we have to hide the fullscreen button there. So fullscreen works on all devices and browsers apart from on iPhone. As you've seen with Android, all other devices and browsers follow the universal 'Fullscreen API' web standard to allow full screen. You're probably familiar with seeing the fullscreen button on normal linear videos on iPhone. These use Apple's native video player, which doesn't let buttons and scripts be used on top of it - just a single video, not an interactive web application. Our player looks like a video player but it is actually a web app combining multiple different video clips connected together by code and styling. They block it on iPhones for reasons known only to them, but the assumption is that it is to incentivise people to make iOS apps instead of web apps. The web development community is hopeful that Apple will change this unfortunate restriction soon, but we have been waiting a long time in vain. We have to send this to a lot of people. It's a very bad look for Apple. In less than a month it will be 2025. We have been waiting years for this. The web standard documentation showing universal support on other devices and browsers is here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fullscreen_API This is not acceptable. It is time for Apple to stop blocking this important accessibility web standard for commercial reasons - only on iPhone. To whoever is in charge of these decisions in the Safari/Webkit team: Please just enable Fullscreen API for web apps on iPhone as soon as possible.

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?

it’s been exactly 7 days after I request early access to image playground. Nothing happening yet still not activated even though I have the latest iOS 18.2 beta installed.

VoiceOver does not support the plist property CFBundleSpokenName. This is wrong and should be fixed. Ultimately the issue I am dealing with is that our app name is UWCU, and instead of VoiceOver pronouncing each letter, it tries to read this as a word and horribly butchers our organization's/app's name. Alternatives such as using U.W.C.U. and U W C U are not acceptable. @Apple, I know you're first response is going to be "no, it is working perfectly," but quite frankly you are wrong. I know you feel strongly about this, given your response in posts like this: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/734545?answerId=760084022 HOWEVER, with iOS 18, your argument for "VoiceOver should read what's on the screen" doesn't hold water anymore. With iOS 18, you Apple have added a new feature that lets users customize their home screens and completely remove the name of apps. Here's your own guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/customize-apps-and-widgets-on-the-home-screen-iph385473442/ios Quoted from your guide: Make the icons bigger: Tap Large. (In large size, the names of the apps disappear.) With large icons + VoiceOver turned on, VoiceOver still reads the app name even though it has disappeared from the screen. So, your own argument "VoiceOver should read the text as it appears on the screen" is invalid, because there is NO text on the screen. If you can't tell, I'm pretty peeved about all this. There's a reason why screen readers support aria attributes to help deliver the right accessible experience. It's a simple ask for VoiceOver to do the same thing.

When would it be a good idea to utilize numbered lists with VoiceOver accessibility. As an example, for tab bars it will read about "2 of 5". In speaking with an Accessibility engineer at WWDC this year, the said that its good practice, but we ran out of time in the call to dig further deeper. When or how do you know when you should read out the item count "2 of 5". It makes sense to me in say a tab group or a chip group, but I don't see it being good in say potentially a UITableView with potentially a various number of sections of which each section itself can include multiple cells. I've had trouble finding additional guidance on this topic, if anyone can provide recommendations or their thoughts, that would be great.