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CloudKit Documentation

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Git and iCloud
Hi guys, also those at Apple, I love what you all do and make, long time Linux user switched since silicon. But is there perhaps any timeline on improving the interaction between iCloud and git? Perhaps it is on me to check beforehand, but I enabled Desktop & Doc sync on iCloud (which included some git repos) and these now malfunction completely. Bad object errors, lost wheels, insanely long syncing, and worst of all - randomly removed environment variables! I only noticed when random stuff stopped working out of the blue; only after re-configuring zsh and doing scorched earth on brew did it click. I mean, there is a '.nosync' flaggy thing to add to dirs, but it isn't even officially supported. Moreover, when trying to disable sync for docs, it will delete local repos! So either it's disabling and starting all over again, or waiting for the sync to finish (which breaks things) and going through a long restoration process. I don't expect iCloud for the average Joe to be super specced for developers, but perhaps there could be room for some minor improvements that would at least prevent git repositories from completely breaking, e.g. just ignoring them or not syncing certain folder/file types. Restoring the whole thing (if even possible) is an extremely long and tedious process. Sorry for the rant, but I feel this might be appreciated. One of the things I like about this ecosystem, proprietary it is, is the seemliness and easy of use. If iCloud Drive is advertised as 'it will work', it's only fair that this would apply to developers too (and that they are not required to check beforehand whether it will break all of their git repositories). Or it is just me getting old. :) Cheers, Frans
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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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149
Jun ’25
Best approach to prevent SwiftData .transformable migration on iOS 26.1
We have an unreleased SwiftData app for iOS18+. While we were testing I saw reports on the forum about unexpected database migrations for codable arrays on iOS26.1. I'd like to ask a couple of questions: 1- Does this issue originate from the new Xcode version, or is it specific to iOS 26.1? 2- Is it possible to change our attribute so that users on older iOS versions receive the same model, preventing a migration from being triggered when they upgrade to iOS 26.1? One of our models looks like this: struct Point: Codable, Hashable { let x: Int let y: Int } @Model class Grid { private(set) var gridId: String = "" var points: [Point] = [] var updatedAt: Date = Date() private(set) var createdAt: Date = Date() #Index<Grid>([\.gridId]) ... } I can think of some options like: // 1 @Attribute(.transformable(by: CustomJsonTransformer.self)) var points: [Point] = [] // 2 @Attribute(.externalStorage) var points: [Point] = [] // 3 var points: Data = Data() // store points as data However, I'm not sure which one to use. What would you recommend to handle this, or is there a better strategy you would suggest?
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112
Nov ’25
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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141
Nov ’25
NSPersistentCloudKitContainer in duplicate processes
I have a single multiplatform application that I use NSPersistentCloudKitContainer on. This works great, except I noticed when I open two instances of the same process (not windows) on the same computer, which share the same store, data duplication and "Metadata Inconsistency" errors start appearing. This answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/67243833) says this is not supported with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. Is this indeed true? If it isn't allowed, is the only solution to disable multiple instances of the process via a lock file? I was thinking one could somehow coordinate a single "leader" process that syncs to the cloud, with the others using NSPersistentContainer, but this would be complicated when the "leader" process terminates. Currently, it seems iPad split views are new windows, not processes -- but overall I'm still curious :0 Thank you!
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8h
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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210
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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109
Aug ’25
Suspicious CloudKit Telemetry Data
Starting 20th March 2025, I see an increase in bandwidth and latency for one of my CloudKit projects. I'm using NSPersistentCloudKitContainer to synchronise my data. I haven't changed any CloudKit scheme during that time but shipped an update. Since then, I reverted some changes from that update, which could have led to changes in the sync behaviour. Is anyone else seeing any issues? I would love to file a DTS and use one of my credits for that, but unfortunately, I can't because I cannot reproduce it with a demo project because I cannot travel back in time and check if it also has an increase in metrics during that time. Maybe an Apple engineer can green-light me filing a DTS request, please.
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126
Apr ’25
Best approach for persisting anonymous user data across devices without account creation
I'm building a photo editing app with a token-based subscription system using RevenueCat and StoreKit. Users purchase subscriptions that grant tokens for AI generations. There are no user accounts, the app is fully anonymous. Currently, I generate an anonymous account ID via RevenueCat SDK and store it in iCloud Keychain. This allows users on the same iCloud account to restore both their subscription and token balance across devices. However, users on a different iCloud account can restore their subscription via Apple, but their token balance is lost because there's no way to link the anonymous IDs. The problem is that if a user switches iCloud accounts or gets a new device without the same iCloud, their purchased tokens are orphaned. The subscription restores fine through Apple, but the token balance tied to the old anonymous ID becomes inaccessible. I have a few constraints: no user accounts, no email or phone sign-in, must work across devices owned by the same person, and must comply with App Store guidelines. My questions are: Is iCloud Keychain the right tool for this, or is there a better approach? Would CloudKit with an anonymous record zone be more appropriate? Are there any recommended patterns for persisting consumable balances tied to anonymous users across device migrations? Any guidance would be appreciated.
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27
6d
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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101
Apr ’25
Stopping certain data models from syncing to cloudkit
Hi all, I am using SwiftData and cloudkit and I am having an extremely persistent bug. I am building an education section on a app that's populated with lessons via a local JSON file. I don't need this lesson data to sync to cloudkit as the lessons are static, just need them imported into swiftdata so I've tried to use the modelcontainer like this: static func createSharedModelContainer() -> ModelContainer { // --- Define Model Groups --- let localOnlyModels: [any PersistentModel.Type] = [ Lesson.self, MiniLesson.self, Quiz.self, Question.self ] let cloudKitSyncModels: [any PersistentModel.Type] = [ User.self, DailyTip.self, UserSubscription.self, UserEducationProgress.self // User progress syncs ] However, what happens is that I still get Lesson and MiniLesson record types on cloudkit and for some reason as well, whenever I update the data models or delete and reinstall the app on simulator, the lessons duplicate (what seems to happen is that a set of lessons comes from the JSON file as it should), and then 1-2 seconds later, an older set of lessons gets synced from cloudkit. I can delete the old set of lessons if I just delete the lessons and mini lessons record types, but if I update the data model again, this error reccurrs. Sorry, I don't know if I managed to explain this well but essentially I just want to stop the lessons and minilessons from being uploaded to cloudkit as I think this will fix the problem. Am I doing something wrong with the code?
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93
Apr ’25
SwiftData with CloudKit Sync Issue
I am using SwiftData with CloudKit to synchronize data across multiple devices, and I have encountered an issue: occasionally, abnormal sync behavior occurs between two devices (it does not happen 100% of the time—only some users have reported this problem). It seems as if synchronization between the two devices completely stops; no matter what operations are performed on one end, the other end shows no response. After investigating, I suspect the issue might be caused by both devices simultaneously modifying the same field, which could lead to CloudKit's logic being unable to handle such conflicts and causing the sync to stall. Are there any methods to avoid or resolve this situation? Of course, I’m not entirely sure if this is the root cause. Has anyone encountered a similar issue?
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93
3w
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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104
Apr ’25
Feedback/issues for SwiftData custom store
Hello, thank you Apple for supporting custom store with SwiftData and the Schema type is superb to work with. I have successfully set one up with SQL and have some feedback and issues regarding its APIs. There’s a highlighted message in the documentation about not using internal restricted symbols directly, but they contradict with the given protocols and I am concerned about breaking any App Store rules. Are we allowed to use these? If not, they should be opened up as they’re useful. BackingData is required to set up custom snapshots, initialization, and getting/setting values. And I want to use it with createBackingData() to directly initialize instances from snapshots when transferring them between server and client or concurrency. RelationshipCollection for casting to-many relationships from backing data or checking if an array contains a PersistentModel. SchemaProperty for type erasure in a collection. Schema.Relationship has KeyPath properties, but it is missing for Schema.Attribute and Schema.CompositeAttribute. Which means you can’t purely depend on the schema to map data. I am unable to access the properties of a custom struct type in a predicate unless I use Mirror with schemaMetadata() or CustomStringConvertible on the KeyPath directly to extract it. Trivial, but… the KeyPath property name is inconsistent (it’s all lowercase). It would be nice to retrieve property names from custom struct types, since you are unable access CodingKeys that are auto synthesized by Codable for structs. But I recently realized they’re a part Schema.CompositeAttribute, however I don’t know how to match these without the KeyPath… I currently map my entities using CodingKeys to their PredicateCodableKeyPathProviding.… but I wish for a simpler alternative! It’s unclear how to provide the schema to the snapshot before new models are created. I currently use a static property, but I want to make it flexible if more schemas and configurations are added later on. I considered saving and loading the schema in a temporary location, but doubtful that the KeyPath values will be available as they are not Codable. I suspect schemaMetadata() has the information I need to map the backing data without a schema for snapshots, but as mentioned previously, properties are inaccessible… Allow access to entity metatypes, like value types from SchemaProperty. They’re useful for getting data out of snapshots and casting them to CodingKeys and PredicateCodableKeyPathProviding. They do not carry over when you provide them in the Schema. I am unable to retrieve the primary key from PersistentIdentifier. It seems like once you create one, you can’t get it out, like the DataStoreConfiguration in ModelContainer is not the one you used to set it up. I cannot cast it, it is an entirely different struct? I have to use JSONSerialization to extract it, but I want to get it directly since it is not a column in my database. It is transformed when it goes to/from my tables. It’s unknown how to support some schema options, such as Spotlight and CloudKit. Allow for extending macro options, such as adding options to set as primary key, whether to auto increment, etc… You can create a schema for super and sub entities, but it doesn’t appear you can actually set them up from the @Model macro or use inheritance on these models… SwiftData history tracking seems incomplete for HistoryDelete, because that protocol requires HistoryTombstone, but this type cannot be instantiated, nor does it contain anything useful to infer from. As an aside, I want to create my own custom ModelActor that is a global actor. However, I’m unable to replicate the executor that Apple provides where the executor has a ModelContext, because this type does not conform to Sendable. So how did Apple do this? The documentation doesn’t mention unchecked Sendable, but I figure if the protocol is available then we would be able to set up our own. And please add concurrency features! Anyway, I hope for more continued support in the future and I am looking forward to what’s new this WWDC! 😊
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146
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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81
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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120
Jun ’25
SwiftData and @Query to find all records for the current date of a multidatepicker (Set = [])
I’m trying to build a CRUD app using SwiftData, @Query model and multidatepicker. The data from a multidatepicker is stored or persists in SwiftData as Set = []. My current dilemma is how to use SwiftData and @Query model Predicate to find all records on the current date. I can’t find any SwiftData documentation or examples @Query using Set = []. My CRUD app should retrieve all records for the current date. Unfortunately, I don’t know the correct @Query model syntax for Set = [].
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65
Apr ’25
Will transferring app affect iCloud's Documents folder access?
My app uses iCloud to let users sync their files via their private iCloud Drive, which does not use CloudKit. FileManager.default.url(forUbiquityContainerIdentifier: nil)?.appending(component: "Documents") I plan to transfer my app to another developer account, but I'm afraid it will affect the access of the app to the existing files in that folder. Apple documentation doesn't mention this case. Has anyone done this before and can confirm if the app will continue to work normally after transferring? Thanks
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87
May ’25