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iCloud Drive changes in iOS 18.4 and later break stated API
The NSMetadataUbiquitousItemDownloadingStatusKey indicates the status of a ubiquitous (iCloud Drive) file. A key value of NSMetadataUbiquitousItemDownloadingStatusDownloaded is defined as indicating there is a local version of this file available. The most current version will get downloaded as soon as possible . However this no longer occurs since iOS 18.4. A ubiquitous file may remain in the NSMetadataUbiquitousItemDownloadingStatusDownloaded state for an indefinite period. There is a workaround: call [NSFileManager startDownloadingUbiquitousItemAtURL: error:] however this shouldn't be necessary, and introduces delays over the previous behaviour. Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Is this a permanent change? FB17662379
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132
May ’25
CoreData w/ Private and Shared Configurations
I have a CoreData model with two configuration - but several problems. Notably the viewContext only shows data from the .private configuration. Here is the setup: The private configuration holds entities, for example, User and Course and the shared one holds entities, for example, Player and League. I setup the NSPersistentStoreDescriptions to use the same container but with a databaseScope of .private/.shared and with the configuration of "Private"/"Shared". loadPersistentStores() does not report an error. If I try container.initializeCloudKitSchema() only the .private configuration produces CKRecord types. If I create a companion app using one configuration (w/ all entities) the schema initialization creates all CKRecord types AND I can populate some data in the .private and a created CKShare. I see that data in the CloudKit dashboard. If I axe the companion app and run the real thing w/ two configurations, the viewContext only has the .private data. Why? If when querying history I use NSPersistentHistoryTransaction.fetchRequest I get a nil return when using two configurations (but non-nil when using one).
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85
Apr ’25
Prevent data loss from delayed schema deployment
Hi all, I recently discovered that I forgot to deploy my CloudKit schema changes from development to production - an oversight that unfortunately went unnoticed for 2.5 months. As a result, any data created during that time was never synced to iCloud and remains only in the local CoreData store. Once I pushed the schema to production, CloudKit resumed syncing new changes as expected. However, this leaves me with a gap: there's now a significant amount of data that would be lost if users delete or reinstall the app. Before I attempt to implement a manual backup or migration strategy, I was wondering: Does NSPersistentCloudKitContainer keep track of local changes that couldn't be synced doe to the missing schema and automatically reattempt syncing them now that the schema is live? If not, what would be the best approach to ensure this "orphaned" data gets saved to CloudKit retroactively. Thanks in advance for any guidance or suggestions.
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154
Jun ’25
Core Data and Swift 6 concurrency: returning an NSManagedObject
We're in the process of migrating our app to the Swift 6 language mode. I have hit a road block that I cannot wrap my head around, and it concerns Core Data and how we work with NSManagedObject instances. Greatly simplied, our Core Data stack looks like this: class CoreDataStack { private let persistentContainer: NSPersistentContainer var viewContext: NSManagedObjectContext { persistentContainer.viewContext } } For accessing the database, we provide Controller classes such as e.g. class PersonController { private let coreDataStack: CoreDataStack func fetchPerson(byName name: String) async throws -> Person? { try await coreDataStack.viewContext.perform { let fetchRequest = NSFetchRequest<Person>() fetchRequest.predicate = NSPredicate(format: "name == %@", name) return try fetchRequest.execute().first } } } Our view controllers use such controllers to fetch objects and populate their UI with it: class MyViewController: UIViewController { private let chatController: PersonController private let ageLabel: UILabel func populateAgeLabel(name: String) { Task { let person = try? await chatController.fetchPerson(byName: name) ageLabel.text = "\(person?.age ?? 0)" } } } This works very well, and there are no concurrency problems since the managed objects are fetched from the view context and accessed only in the main thread. When turning on Swift 6 language mode, however, the compiler complains about the line calling the controller method: Non-sendable result type 'Person?' cannot be sent from nonisolated context in call to instance method 'fetchPerson(byName:)' Ok, fair enough, NSManagedObject is not Sendable. No biggie, just add @MainActor to the controller method, so it can be called from view controllers which are also main actor. However, now the compiler shows the same error at the controller method calling viewContext.perform: Non-sendable result type 'Person?' cannot be sent from nonisolated context in call to instance method 'perform(schedule:_:)' And now I'm stumped. Does this mean NSManageObject instances cannot even be returned from calls to NSManagedObjectContext.perform? Ever? Even though in this case, @MainActor matches the context's actor isolation (since it's the view context)? Of course, in this simple example the controller method could just return the age directly, and more complex scenarios could return Sendable data structures that are instantiated inside the perform closure. But is that really the only legal solution? That would mean a huge refactoring challenge for our app, since we use NSManageObject instances fetched from the view context everywhere. That's what the view context is for, right? tl;dr: is it possible to return NSManagedObject instances fetched from the view context with Swift 6 strict concurrency enabled, and if so how?
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121
Apr ’25
CloudKit with Unreal Engine
Hi everyone, Im trying to set up CloudKit for my Unreal Engine 5.4 project but seem to be hitting some roadblocks on how to set up the Record Types. From my understanding I need to set up a "file" record type with a "contents" asset field - but even with this it doesn't seem to work :( Any unreal engine devs with some experience on this who could help me out? Thanks!
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120
Sep ’25
CloudKit sign in error in normal tab
Hi, I'm trying to sign in with Apple CloudKit. I'm using the following code: 'use client'; import { CLOUDKIT_CONSTANTS } from '@/constants/cloudkit'; import { setCloudKitConfigured } from '@/lib/cloudkitSingleton'; import { CloudKitStatic } from '@/types/cloudkit'; import Script from 'next/script'; declare global { interface Window { CloudKit: CloudKitStatic; } } export default function Home() { const initializeCloudKit = async () =&gt; { console.info('⭐️ initializeCloudKit - start'); // 古い認証情報を削除 try { // LocalStorageから古い認証情報を削除 const keysToRemove = []; for (let i = 0; i &lt; localStorage.length; i++) { const key = localStorage.key(i); if (key &amp;&amp; (key.includes('cloudkit') || key.includes('CloudKit'))) { keysToRemove.push(key); } } keysToRemove.forEach(key =&gt; localStorage.removeItem(key)); // SessionStorageからも削除 const sessionKeysToRemove = []; for (let i = 0; i &lt; sessionStorage.length; i++) { const key = sessionStorage.key(i); if (key &amp;&amp; (key.includes('cloudkit') || key.includes('CloudKit'))) { sessionKeysToRemove.push(key); } } sessionKeysToRemove.forEach(key =&gt; sessionStorage.removeItem(key)); console.log('古い認証情報を削除しました'); } catch (cleanupError) { console.warn('認証情報のクリーンアップ中にエラー:', cleanupError); } try { const cloudKit = window.CloudKit.configure({ containers: [ { containerIdentifier: 'XXXXXX', apiTokenAuth: { apiToken: 'XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX', persist: false, signInButton: { id: 'cloudkit-sign-in-button', theme: 'black', }, signOutButton: { id: 'cloudkit-sign-out-button', theme: 'black', }, }, environment: 'development', }, ], }); console.info('⭐️ cloudKit', cloudKit); setCloudKitConfigured(true); const container = cloudKit.getDefaultContainer(); console.info('⭐️ CloudKit configured, setting up auth...'); // 初期認証状態をチェック try { const initialUser = await container.setUpAuth(); console.info('⭐️ setUpAuth result:', initialUser); } catch (authError) { console.info('⭐️ setUpAuth error (expected for unauthenticated):', authError); } // CloudKitの標準コールバックも併用(念のため) try { container.whenUserSignsIn().then((userInfo: any) =&gt; { console.info('⭐️ CALLBACK: whenUserSignsIn fired!', userInfo); }); container.whenUserSignsOut().then(() =&gt; { console.info('⭐️ CALLBACK: whenUserSignsOut fired!'); }); } catch (callbackError) { console.info('⭐️ Callback setup error (non-critical):', callbackError); } console.info('⭐️ initializeCloudKit - completed'); } catch (error) { console.error('⭐️ Critical CloudKit initialization error:', error); } }; return ( &lt;&gt; &lt;Script src="https://cdn.apple-cloudkit.com/ck/2/cloudkit.js" strategy="afterInteractive" onLoad={() =&gt; { initializeCloudKit(); }} onError={error =&gt; { console.error('⭐️ CloudKit initialization error:', error); }} /&gt; &lt;div id="cloudkit-sign-in-button" /&gt; &lt;div id="cloudkit-sign-out-button" /&gt; &lt;/&gt; ); } In Chrome secret tab, I can sign in successfully. But in Chrome normal tab, I can't sign in. In normal tab, following error occurs on sign in button click: cloudkit.js:14 Uncaught (in promise) Error: UNKNOWN_ERROR cloudkit.js:14 GET https://api.apple-cloudkit.com/database/1/XXXXXX/XXXXXX/public/users/caller?ckjsBuildVersion=2420ProjectDev22&amp;ckjsVersion=2.6.4&amp;clientId=XXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXX&amp; ckAPIToken=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX 421 (Misdirected Request) I think, cloudkit instance has re-initialized when I click the sign in button only in normal tab. So I can't sign in. Do you have any idea what might be causing the error ? Thanks in advance for your help!
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118
Aug ’25
Which characters in filenames cause iCloud document sync issues?
Apple's iCloud File Management documentation says to "avoid special punctuation or other special characters" in filenames, but doesn't specify which characters. I need a definitive list to implement filename sanitization in my shipping app. Confirmed issues Our iOS app (CyberTuner, App Store, 15 years shipping on App Store) manages .rcta files in the iCloud ubiquity container via NSFileManager APIs. We've confirmed two characters causing sync failures: Ampersand (&): A file named Yamaha CP70 & CP80.rcta caused repeated "couldn't be backed up" dialogs. ~12 users reported this independently. Replacing & resolved it immediately. No other files in the same directory were affected. Percent (%): A file with % in the filename was duplicated by iCloud sync (e.g., filename% 1.rcta, filename% 2.rcta), and the original was lost. Currently reproducing across multiple devices. Both characters have special meaning in URL encoding (% is the escape character, & is the query parameter separator), which suggests the issue may be in URL handling within the sync pipeline. What I'm looking for: A definitive list of characters that cause problems in the iCloud sync pipeline specifically — not APFS restrictions, but CloudDocs/FileProvider/server-side issues. Confirmation whether these characters are problematic: & % # ? + / : * " < > | Is there a system API for validating or sanitizing filenames for iCloud compatibility before writing to the ubiquity container? Our users are piano technicians who naturally name files "Steinway & Sons" — we need to know exactly what to sanitize rather than guessing. Environment: iOS 17–26, Xcode 26.1, APFS, NSFileManager ubiquity container APIs Bundle FEEDBACK ASSISTANT ID FB21900837
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Is it possible to use an additional local ModelContainer in a document based SwiftData app?
I have a document based SwiftData app in which I would like to implement a persistent cache. For obvious reasons, I would not like to store the contents of the cache in the documents themselves, but in my app's data directory. Is a use case, in which a document based SwiftData app uses not only the ModelContainers from the currently open files, but also a ModelContainer writing a database file in the app's documents directory (for cache, settings, etc.) supported? If yes, how can you inject two different ModelContexts, one tied to the currently open file and one tied to the local database, into a SwiftUI view?
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70
Apr ’25
Consequences of incorrect VersionedSchema.versionIdentifier
About 4 months ago, I shipped the first version of my app with 4 versioned schemas that, unintentionally, had the same versionIdentifier of 1.2.0 in 2 of them: V1: 1.0.0 V2: 1.1.0 V3: 1.2.0 V4: 1.2.0 They are ordered correctly in the MigrationPlan, and they are all lightweight. Migration works, SwiftData doesn't crash on init and I haven't encountered any issues related to this. The app syncs with iCloud. Questions, preferable for anybody with knowledge of SwiftData internals: What will break in SwiftData when there are 2 duplicate numbers? Not that I would expect it to be safe, but does it happen to be safe to ship an update that changes V4's version to 1.3.0, what was originally intended?
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162
Jul ’25
NSMetadataQuery not searching subdirectories in external ubiquity container
Testing Environment: iOS 18.4.1 / macOS 15.4.1 I am working on an iOS project that aims to utilize the user's iCloud Drive documents directory to save a specific directory-based file structure. Essentially, the app would create a root directory where the user chooses in iCloud Drive, then it would populate user generated files in various levels of nested directories. I have been attempting to use NSMetadataQuery with various predicates and search scopes but haven't been able to get it to directly monitor changes to files or directories that are not in the root directory. Instead, it only monitors files or directories in the root directory, and any changes in a subdirectory are considered an update to the direct children of the root directory. Example iCloud Drive Documents (Not app's ubiquity container) User Created Root Directory (Being monitored) File A Directory A File B An insertion or deletion within Directory A would only return a notification with userInfo containing data for NSMetadataQueryUpdateChangedItemsKey relating to Directory A, and not the file or directory itself that was inserted or deleted. (Query results array also only contain the direct children.) I have tried all combinations of these search scopes and predicates with no luck: query.searchScopes = [ rootDirectoryURL, NSMetadataQueryUbiquitousDocumentsScope, NSMetadataQueryAccessibleUbiquitousExternalDocumentsScope, ] NSPredicate(value: true) NSPredicate(format: "%K LIKE '*.md'", NSMetadataItemFSNameKey) NSPredicate(format: "%K BEGINSWITH %@", NSMetadataItemPathKey, url.path(percentEncoded: false)) I do see these warnings in the console upon starting my query: [CRIT] UNREACHABLE: failed to get container URL for com.apple.CloudDocs [ERROR] couldn't fetch remote operation IDs: NSError: Cocoa 257 "The file couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." "Error returned from daemon: Error Domain=com.apple.accounts Code=7 "(null)"" But I am not sure what to make of that, since it does act normally for finding updates in the root directory. Hopefully this isn't a limitation of the API, as the only alternative I could think of would be to have multiple queries running for each nested directory that I needed updates for.
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138
May ’25
Developing App User Privacy
Hey everyone, I have a question. When creating an app, how should I design a message table that involves personal privacy? The content is stored locally on the user's device, and then encrypted in the server database? How should I design it?
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70
Jan ’26
iCloud Database Errors and Limits
We are currently implementing a custom iCloud sync for our macOS and iOS apps using CloudKit. Syncing works fine as long as the number of record sends is relatively small. But when we test with a large number of changes ( 80,000+ CKRecords ) we start running into problems. Our sending strategy is very conservative to avoid rate limits: We send records sequentially in batches of 250 records With about 2 seconds pause between operations Records are small and contain no assets (assets are uploaded separately) At some point we start receiving: “Database commit size exceeds limit” After that, CloudKit begins returning rate-limit errors with retryAfter-Information in the error. We wait for the retry time and try again, but from this moment on, nothing progresses anymore. Every subsequent attempt fails. We could not find anything in the official documentation regarding such a “commit size” limit or what triggers this failure state. So my questions are: Are there undocumented limits on the total number of records that can exist in an iCloud database (private or shared)? Is there a maximum volume of record modifications a container can accept within a certain timeframe, even if operations are split into small batches with pauses? Is it possible that sending large numbers of records in a row can temporarily or permanently “stall” a CloudKit container? Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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199
Nov ’25
CloudKit Query on Custom Indexed Field fails with misleading "createdBy is not queryable" error
Hello everyone, I am experiencing a persistent authentication error when querying a custom user profile record, and the error message seems to be a red herring. My Setup: I have a custom CKRecord type called ColaboradorProfile. When a new user signs up, I create this record and store their hashed password, salt, nickname, and a custom field called loginIdentifier (which is just their lowercase username). In the CloudKit Dashboard, I have manually added an index for loginIdentifier and set it to Queryable and Searchable. I have deployed this schema to Production. The Problem: During login, I run an async function to find the user's profile using this indexed loginIdentifier. Here is the relevant authentication code: func autenticar() async { // ... setup code (isLoading, etc.) let lowercasedUsername = username.lowercased() // My predicate ONLY filters on 'loginIdentifier' let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "loginIdentifier == %@", lowercasedUsername) let query = CKQuery(recordType: "ColaboradorProfile", predicate: predicate) // I only need these specific keys let desiredKeys = ["password", "passwordSalt", "nickname", "isAdmin", "isSubAdmin", "username"] let database = CKContainer.default().publicCloudDatabase do { // This is the line that throws the error let result = try await database.records(matching: query, desiredKeys: desiredKeys, resultsLimit: 1) // ... (rest of the password verification logic) } catch { // The error always lands here logDebug("Error authenticating with CloudKit: \(error.localizedDescription)") await MainActor.run { self.errorMessage = "Connection Error: \(error.localizedDescription)" self.isLoading = false self.showAlert = true } } } The Error: Even though my query predicate only references loginIdentifier, the catch block consistently reports this error: Error authenticating with CloudKit: Field 'createdBy' is not marked queryable. I know createdBy (the system creatorUserRecordID) is not queryable by default, but my query isn't touching that field. I already tried indexing createdBy just in case, but the error persists. It seems CloudKit cannot find or use my index for loginIdentifier and is incorrectly reporting a fallback error related to a system field. Has anyone seen this behavior? Why would CloudKit report an error about createdBy when the query is explicitly on an indexed, custom field? I'm new to Swift and I'm struggling quite a bit. Thank you,
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228
Sep ’25
Open child windows for a document in a document based SwiftData app
In a document based SwiftData app for macOS, how do you go about opening a (modal) child window connected to the ModelContainer of the currently open document? Using .sheet() does not really result in a good UX, as the appearing view lacks the standard window toolbar. Using a separate WindowGroup with an argument would achieve the desired UX. However, as WindowGroup arguments need to be Hashable and Codable, there is no way to pass a ModelContainer or a ModelContext there: WindowGroup(id: "myWindowGroup", for: MyWindowGroupArguments.self) { $args in ViewThatOpensInAWindow(args: args) } Is there any other way?
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83
Apr ’25
Using Observation class for multiple SwiftData Models
Greetings i have an app that uses three different SwiftData models and i want to know what is the best way to use the them accross the app. I though a centralized behaviour and i want to know if it a correct approach.First let's suppose that the first view of the app will load the three models using the @Enviroment that work with @Observation. Then to other views that add data to the swiftModels again with the @Environment. Another View that will use the swiftData models with graph and datas for average and min and max.Is this a corrent way? or i should use @Query in every view that i want and ModelContext when i add the data. @Observable class CentralizedDataModels { var firstDataModel: [FirstDataModel] = [] var secondDataModel: [SecondDataModel] = [] var thirdDataModel: [ThirdDataModel] = [] let context: ModelContext init(context:ModelContext) { self.context = context } }
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144
Jun ’25
Export/Import data with SwiftData
Hi ! Would anyone know (if possible) how to create backup files to export and then import from the data recorded by SwiftData? For those who wish, here is a more detailed explanation of my case: I am developing a small management software with customers and events represented by distinct classes. I would like to have an "Export" button to create a file with all the instances of these 2 classes and another "Import" button to replace all the old data with the new ones from a previously exported file. I looked for several solutions but I'm a little lost...
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148
May ’25
SwiftData - disable Persistent History Tracking
Hello, I am building a pretty large database (~40MB) to be used in my SwiftData iOS app as read-only. While inserting and updating the data, I noticed a substantial increase in size (+ ~10MB). A little digging pointed to ACHANGE and ATRANSACTION tables that apparently are dealing with Persistent History Tracking. While I do appreciate the benefits of that, I prefer to save space. Could you please point me in the right direction?
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106
Apr ’25
ForEach and RandomAccessCollection
I'm trying to build a custom FetchRequest that I can use outside a View. I've built the following ObservableFetchRequest class based on this article: https://augmentedcode.io/2023/04/03/nsfetchedresultscontroller-wrapper-for-swiftui-view-models @Observable @MainActor class ObservableFetchRequest&lt;Result: Storable&gt;: NSObject, @preconcurrency NSFetchedResultsControllerDelegate { private let controller: NSFetchedResultsController&lt;Result.E&gt; private var results: [Result] = [] init(context: NSManagedObjectContext = .default, predicate: NSPredicate? = Result.E.defaultPredicate(), sortDescriptors: [NSSortDescriptor] = Result.E.sortDescripors) { guard let request = Result.E.fetchRequest() as? NSFetchRequest&lt;Result.E&gt; else { fatalError("Failed to create fetch request for \(Result.self)") } request.predicate = predicate request.sortDescriptors = sortDescriptors controller = NSFetchedResultsController(fetchRequest: request, managedObjectContext: context, sectionNameKeyPath: nil, cacheName: nil) super.init() controller.delegate = self fetch() } private func fetch() { do { try controller.performFetch() refresh() } catch { fatalError("Failed to fetch results for \(Result.self)") } } private func refresh() { results = controller.fetchedObjects?.map { Result($0) } ?? [] } var predicate: NSPredicate? { get { controller.fetchRequest.predicate } set { controller.fetchRequest.predicate = newValue fetch() } } var sortDescriptors: [NSSortDescriptor] { get { controller.fetchRequest.sortDescriptors ?? [] } set { controller.fetchRequest.sortDescriptors = newValue.isEmpty ? nil : newValue fetch() } } internal func controllerDidChangeContent(_ controller: NSFetchedResultsController&lt;any NSFetchRequestResult&gt;) { refresh() } } Till this point, everything works fine. Then, I conformed my class to RandomAccessCollection, so I could use in a ForEach loop without having to access the results property. extension ObservableFetchRequest: @preconcurrency RandomAccessCollection, @preconcurrency MutableCollection { subscript(position: Index) -&gt; Result { get { results[position] } set { results[position] = newValue } } public var endIndex: Index { results.endIndex } public var indices: Indices { results.indices } public var startIndex: Index { results.startIndex } public func distance(from start: Index, to end: Index) -&gt; Int { results.distance(from: start, to: end) } public func index(_ i: Index, offsetBy distance: Int) -&gt; Index { results.index(i, offsetBy: distance) } public func index(_ i: Index, offsetBy distance: Int, limitedBy limit: Index) -&gt; Index? { results.index(i, offsetBy: distance, limitedBy: limit) } public func index(after i: Index) -&gt; Index { results.index(after: i) } public func index(before i: Index) -&gt; Index { results.index(before: i) } public typealias Element = Result public typealias Index = Int } The issue is, when I update the ObservableFetchRequest predicate while searching, it causes a Index out of range error in the Collection subscript because the ForEach loop (or a List loop) access a old version of the array when the item property is optional. List(request, selection: $selection) { item in VStack(alignment: .leading) { Text(item.content) if let information = item.information { // here's the issue, if I leave this out, everything works Text(information) .font(.callout) .foregroundStyle(.secondary) } } .tag(item.id) .contextMenu { if Item.self is Client.Type { Button("Editar") { openWindow(ClientView(client: item as! Client), id: item.id!) } } } } Is it some RandomAccessCollection issue or a SwiftUI bug?
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142
May ’25