Trying to support undo & redo in an app that utilizes Swift Data and as with anything other than provided simplistic Apple demo examples the experience is not great.
The problem:
Im trying to build functionality that allows users to add items to an item group, where item and item group have a many-to-many relationship e.g. item group can hold many items and items can appear in multiple groups.
When trying to do so with relatively simple setup of either adding or removing item group from items relationship array, I am pretty consistently met with a hard crash after performing undo & redo. Sometimes it works the first few undo & redos but 95% of the time would crash on the first one.
Could not cast value of type 'Swift.Optional<Any>' (0x20a676be0) to 'Swift.Array<App.CodableStructModel>' (0x207a2bc08).
Where CodableStructModel is a Codable Value type inside Item.
Adding and removing this relationship should be undoable & redoable as typical for Mac interaction and is "supported" by SwiftData by default, meaning that the developer has to actively either wholly opt out of undo support in their modelContainer setup or do it on a per action scale with the only thing I know of:
modelContext.processPendingChanges()
modelContext.undoManager?.disableUndoRegistration()
.....
modelContext.processPendingChanges()
modelContext.undoManager?.enableUndoRegistration()
General rant on SwiftData:
Random crashes, inconsistencies, random cryptic errors thrown by the debugger and general lack of production level stability.
Each update breaks something new and there is very little guidance and communication from the Swift Data team on how to adapt and more importantly consideration for developers that have adopted Swift Data.
If SwiftData is not ready for production, it would go a long way to clearly communicate that and mark it as Beta product.
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Description:
I'm experiencing a critical issue with SwiftData custom migrations where objects created during migration appear to be inserted successfully but aren't persisted or found by queries after migration completes. The migration logs show objects being created, but subsequent queries return zero results.
Problem Details:
I'm migrating from schema version V2 to V3, which involves:
Renaming Person class to GroupData
Keeping the same data structure but changing the class name
Using a custom migration stage to copy data from old to new schema
Migration Code:
swift
static let migrationV2toV3 = MigrationStage.custom(
fromVersion: LinkMapV2.self,
toVersion: LinkMapV3.self,
willMigrate: { context in
do {
let persons = try context.fetch(FetchDescriptor<LinkMapV2.Person>())
print("Found (persons.count) Person objects to migrate") // ✅ Shows 11 objects
for person in persons {
let newGroup = LinkMapV3.GroupData(
id: person.id, // Same UUID
name: person.name,
// ... other properties
)
context.insert(newGroup)
print("Inserted GroupData: '\(newGroup.name)'") // ✅ Confirms insertion
}
try context.save() // ✅ No error thrown
print("Successfully migrated \(persons.count) objects") // ✅ Confirms save
} catch {
print("Migration error: \(error)")
}
},
didMigrate: { context in
do {
let groups = try context.fetch(FetchDescriptor<LinkMapV3.GroupData>())
print("Final GroupData count: \(groups.count)") // ❌ Shows 0 objects!
} catch {
print("Verification error: \(error)")
}
}
)
Console Output:
text
=== MIGRATION STARTED ===
Found 11 Person objects to migrate
Migrating Person: 'Riverside of pipewall' with ID: 7A08C633-4467-4F52-AF0B-579545BA88D0
Inserted new GroupData: 'Riverside of pipewall'
... (all 11 objects processed) ...
=== MIGRATION COMPLETED ===
Successfully migrated 11 Person objects to GroupData
=== MIGRATION VERIFICATION ===
New GroupData count: 0 // ❌ PROBLEM: No objects found!
What I've Tried:
Multiple context approaches:
Using the provided migration context
Creating a new background context with ModelContext(context.container)
Using context.performAndWait for thread safety
Different save strategies:
Calling try context.save() after insertions
Letting SwiftData handle saving automatically
Multiple save calls at different points
Verification methods:
Checking in didMigrate closure
Checking in app's ContentView after migration completes
Using both @Query and manual FetchDescriptor
Schema variations:
Direct V2→V3 migration
Intermediate V2.5 schema with both classes
Lightweight migration with @Attribute(originalName:)
Current Behavior:
Migration runs without errors
Objects appear to be inserted successfully
context.save() completes without throwing errors
But queries in didMigrate and post-migration return empty results
The objects seem to exist in a temporary state that doesn't persist
Expected Behavior:
Objects created during migration should be persisted and queryable
Post-migration queries should return the migrated objects
Data should be available in the main app after migration completes
Environment:
Xcode 16.0+
iOS 18.0+
SwiftData
Swift 6.0+
Key Questions:
Is there a specific way migration contexts should be handled for data to persist?
Are there known issues with object persistence in custom migrations?
Should we be using a different approach for class renaming migrations?
Is there a way to verify that objects are actually being written to the persistent store?
The migration appears to work perfectly until the verification step, where all created objects seem to vanish. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Additional Context from my investigation:
I've noticed these warning messages during migration that might be relevant:
text
SwiftData.ModelContext: Unbinding from the main queue. This context was instantiated on the main queue but is being used off it.
error: Persistent History (76) has to be truncated due to the following entities being removed: (Person)
This suggests there might be threading or context lifecycle issues affecting persistence.
Let me know if you need any additional information about my setup or migration configuration!
I work on an app that saves data to the Documents folder in the users iCloud Drive. This uses the iCloud -> iCloud Documents capability with a standard container.
We've noticed an issue where a user will delete the apps data by doing to Settings > {Name} > iCloud > Storage > App Name > select "delete data from iCloud", and then our app can no longer write to or create the Documents folder.
Once that happens, we get this error:
Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "You don't have permission to save the file "Documents" in the folder "iCloud~your~bundle~identifier"." UserInfo={NSFilePath=/private/var/mobile/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~your~bundle~identifier/Documents, NSURL=file:///private/var/mobile/Library/Mobile%20Documents/iCloud~your~bundle~identifier/Documents, NSUnderlyingError=0x1102c7ea0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 "Permission denied"}}
This is reproducible using the sample project here https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/synchronizing-documents-in-the-icloud-environment.
Steps to reproduce in that project:
Tap the plus sign in the top right corner to create a new document
Add a document name and tap "Save to Documents"
Go to Settings > {Name} > iCloud > Storage > SimpleiCloudDocument App Name > select "delete data from iCloud"
Reopen the app and repeat steps 1-2
Observe error on MainViewController+Document.swift:59
Deleting and reinstalling the app doesn't seem to help.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
"No records found"
If I create a new record on the console, I can copy the record name.
I can then query for recordName and get that individual record back.
BUT no other queries work. I cannot query all records. I cannot query by individual property.
Just returns "no records found"
Seems like my indexes got messed up. Is there a way to reset indexes on prod?
This is on a coredata.cloudkit managed zone.
Hello,
In our app, we’ve modeled our schema using inheritance introduced in iOS 26.0, and we’re implementing SwiftData History to re-fetch models only when necessary.
@Model public class Transaction {
@Attribute(.preserveValueOnDeletion)
public var date: Date = Date()
public var amount: Double = 0
public var memo: String?
}
@Model public final class Spending: Transaction {
public var installmentIndex: Int = 1
public var installment: Int = 1
public var installmentID: UUID?
}
If data has been deleted from database, we need to check a date property to determine whether to re-fetch datas.
To do this, we added the preserveValueOnDeletion attribute to date property so we could retrieve it from the History tombstone value.
However, after adding this attribute, a crash occurs. There is a console log
Could not cast value of type 'Swift.ReferenceWritableKeyPath<Shared.ModelSchemaV5.Transaction, Foundation.Date>' (0x106bf8328) to 'Swift.PartialKeyPath<Shared.ModelSchemaV5.Spending>' (0x1094f21d8).
and error log attached
StrictMoneyChecking-2025-11-07-105108.txt
I also tried this in the recent SampleTrip app, and fetching all history after a deletion causes the same crash.
Is this issue currently being worked on or under investigation?
I have implemented CKSyncEngine synchronization, and it works well. I can update data on one device and see the changes propagate to another device quickly. However, the initial sync when a user downloads the app on a new device is a significant issue for both me and my users.
One problem is that the sync engine fetches deletion events from the server. On a new device, the local database is empty, so these deletions are essentially no-ops. This would not be a big problem if there were only a few records or if it was fast. I measured the initial sync and found that there are 150 modified records and 62,168 deletions. Counting these alone takes over five minutes, even without processing them. The deletions do nothing because the local database has nothing to delete, yet they still add a significant delay.
I understand that the sync engine ensures consistency across all devices, but five minutes of waiting with the app open just to insert a small number of records is excessive. The problem would be worse if there were tens of thousands of new records to insert, since downloading and saving the data would take even longer.
This leads to a poor user experience. Users open the app and see data being populated for several minutes, or they are stuck on a screen that says the data is being synchronized with iCloud.
I am wondering if there is a way to make the sync engine ignore deletion events when the state serialization is nil. Alternatively, is there a recommended method for handling initial synchronization more efficiently?
One idea I considered is storing all the data as a backup in iCloud Documents, along with the state serialization at that point in time. When a user opens the app for the first time, I could download the file, extract the data, and set the state serialization to the saved value. I am not sure if this would work. I do not know if state serialization is tied to the device or if it only represents the point where the sync engine left off. My guess is that it might reference some local device storage.
I am not sure what else to try. I could fetch all data using CloudKit, create the sync engine with an empty state serialization, and let it fetch everything again, but that would still take a long time.
My records are very small, mostly a date when something happened and an ID referencing the parent. Since the app tracks watched episodes, I only store the date the user watched the episode and the ID of that episode.
I have a new app I am working on, it uses, a container id like com.me.mycompany.FancyApp.prod, the description in the app is My Fancy App. When I deploy the app via TestFlight on a real device, the sync seems to work, but when I view iCloud->Storage-List, I see my app icon, and the name "prod". Where did the name prod come from? It should be My Fancy App, which is the actual name of the App.
Hello,
the last days I was trying to solve a bug in my Unit Tests related to the CoreData "NSManagedObjectContextObjectsDidChange" Notification.
Im using some kind of Notification handler to save and abstract that for the UI and while the tests are running this notification was triggered with objects that doesn't exists anymore, which has resulted in a crash.
After some debugging I have detected, that the objects in here are really old. The objects here was from few tests ago, where a Merge Conflict happened. In the meantime there was a plenty of resets and deletes of the whole db. I have also seen that the bad notification is the first in the stack trace of the main thread, which is in my opinion also not usual.
So the real question is:
The only difference what I have found for the bad notification to the real notification, was the existence of the key "NSObjectsChangedByMergeChangesKey" in the UserInfo dictionary of the ObjectsDidChange Notification. But this key is nowhere found in the documentation of Apple. Also the search engines does not produce any result. So what is this key and when is this key contained in this notification and when not?
Maybe if I understand this, it helps me to understand the overall issue ...
I have developed an podcast app, where subscriped podcast & episodes synched with iCloud.
So its working fine with iOS & iPad with latest os version, but iCloud not synching in iPod with version 15.
Please help me to fix this.
Thanks
Devendra K.
I have a model with a FamilyActivitySelection, currently i'm using a codable struct to store it with UserDefaults, but would prefer strongly to transition to Swift Data
In my app, I've been using ModelActors in SwiftData, and using actors with a custom executor in Core Data to create concurrency safe services.
I have multiple actor services that relate to different data model components or features, each that have their own internally managed state (DocumentService, ImportService, etc).
The problem I've ran into, is that I need to be able to use multiple of these services within another service, and those services need to share the same context. Swift 6 doesn't allow passing contexts across actors.
The specific problem I have is that I need a master service that makes multiple unrelated changes without saving them to the main context until approved by the user.
I've tried to find a solution in SwiftData and Core Data, but both have the same problem which is contexts are not sendable. Read the comments in the code to see the issue:
/// This actor does multiple things without saving, until committed in SwiftData.
@ModelActor
actor DatabaseHelper {
func commitChange() throws {
try modelContext.save()
}
func makeChanges() async throws {
// Do unrelated expensive tasks on the child context...
// Next, use our item service
let service = ItemService(modelContainer: SwiftDataStack.shared.container)
let id = try await service.expensiveBackgroundTask(saveChanges: false)
// Now that we've used the service, we need to access something the service created.
// However, because the service created its own context and it was never saved, we can't access it.
let itemFromService = context.fetch(id) // fails
// We need to be able to access changes made from the service within this service,
/// so instead I tried to create the service by passing the current service context, however that results in:
// ERROR: Sending 'self.modelContext' risks causing data races
let serviceFromContext = ItemService(context: modelContext)
// Swift Data doesn't let you create child contexts, so the same context must be used in order to change data without saving.
}
}
@ModelActor
actor ItemService {
init(context: ModelContext) {
modelContainer = SwiftDataStack.shared.container
modelExecutor = DefaultSerialModelExecutor(modelContext: context)
}
func expensiveBackgroundTask(saveChanges: Bool = true) async throws -> PersistentIdentifier? {
// Do something expensive...
return nil
}
}
Core Data has the same problem:
/// This actor does multiple things without saving, until committed in Core Data.
actor CoreDataHelper {
let parentContext: NSManagedObjectContext
let context: NSManagedObjectContext
/// In Core Data, I can create a child context from a background context.
/// This lets you modify the context and save it without updating the main context.
init(progress: Progress = Progress()) {
parentContext = CoreDataStack.shared.newBackgroundContext()
let childContext = NSManagedObjectContext(concurrencyType: .privateQueueConcurrencyType)
childContext.parent = parentContext
self.context = childContext
}
/// To commit changes, save the parent context pushing them to the main context.
func commitChange() async throws {
// ERROR: Sending 'self.parentContext' risks causing data races
try await parentContext.perform {
try self.parentContext.save()
}
}
func makeChanges() async throws {
// Do unrelated expensive tasks on the child context...
// As with the Swift Data example, I am unable to create a service that uses the current actors context from here.
// ERROR: Sending 'self.context' risks causing data races
let service = ItemService(context: self.context)
}
}
Am I going about this wrong, or is there a solution to fix these errors?
Some services are very large and have their own internal state. So it would be very difficult to merge all of them into a single service. I also am using Core Data, and SwiftData extensively so I need a solution for both.
I seem to have trapped myself into a corner trying to make everything concurrency save, so any help would be appreciated!
I have the following lines of code to access data through CoreData.
import Foundation
import CoreData
import CloudKit
class CoreDataManager {
static let instance = CoreDataManager()
let container: NSPersistentCloudKitContainer
let context: NSManagedObjectContext
init() {
container = NSPersistentCloudKitContainer(name: "ABC")
container.loadPersistentStores(completionHandler: { (storeDescription, error) in
if let error = error as NSError? {
print(error.userInfo)
}
})
context = container.viewContext
context.automaticallyMergesChangesFromParent = true
context.mergePolicy = NSMergePolicy(merge: .mergeByPropertyObjectTrumpMergePolicyType)
}
func save() {
do {
try container.viewContext.save()
print("Saved successfully")
} catch {
print("Error in saving data: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
}
I have confirmed that I can share data between iPhone and iPad. Now, I need to use AppGroup as well. I have changed my code as follows.
import Foundation
import CoreData
import CloudKit
class CoreDataManager {
static let shared = CoreDataManager()
let container: NSPersistentContainer
let context: NSManagedObjectContext
init() {
container = NSPersistentCloudKitContainer(name: "ABC")
container.persistentStoreDescriptions = [NSPersistentStoreDescription(url: FileManager.default.containerURL(forSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier: "some group name")!.appendingPathComponent("CoreDataMama.sqlite"))]
container.loadPersistentStores(completionHandler: { (description, error) in
if let error = error as NSError? {
print("Unresolved error \(error), \(error.userInfo)")
}
})
context = container.viewContext
context.automaticallyMergesChangesFromParent = true
context.mergePolicy = NSMergePolicy(merge: .mergeByPropertyObjectTrumpMergePolicyType)
}
func save() {
do {
try container.viewContext.save()
print("Saved successfully")
} catch {
print("Error in saving data: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
}
Other files being unaltered, my sample apps aren't sharing data. What am I doing wrong? Just FYI, I'm using actual devices. Thank you for your reading this topic.
I'm trying to set up an application using SwiftData to have a number of models backed by a local datastore that's not synced to CloudKit, and another set of models that is. I was able to achieve this previously with Core Data using multiple NSPersistentStoreDescription instances.
The set up code looks something like:
do {
let fullSchema = Schema([
UnsyncedModel.self,
SyncedModel.self,
])
let localSchema = Schema([UnsyncedModel.self])
let localConfig = ModelConfiguration(schema: localSchema, cloudKitDatabase: .none)
let remoteSchema = Schema([SyncedModel.self])
let remoteConfig = ModelConfiguration(schema: remoteSchema, cloudKitDatabase: .automatic)
container = try ModelContainer(for: fullSchema, configurations: localConfig, remoteConfig)
} catch {
fatalError("Failed to configure SwiftData container.")
}
However, it doesn't seem to work as expected. If I remove the synced/remote schema and configuration then everything works fine, but the moment I add in the remote schema and configuration I get various different application crashes. Some examples below:
A Core Data error occurred." UserInfo={Reason=Entity named:... not found for relationship named:...,
Fatal error: Failed to identify a store that can hold instances of SwiftData._KKMDBackingData<...>
Has anyone ever been able to get a similar setup to work using SwiftData?
Hi,
I am currently experiencing some trouble when using parent model property in a predicate of a child model.
I have an Item class that define parent-child relationship:
@Model class Item {
var timestamp: Date
@Relationship(inverse: \Item.children)
var parent: Item?
var children: [Item]
init(parent: Item? = nil, children: [Item] = [], timestamp: Date = .now) {
self.parent = parent
self.children = children
self.timestamp = timestamp
}
}
I subclass this model like that:
@available(iOS 26, *)
@Model final class CollectionItem: Item { /* ... */ }
When i make a Query in my View like that the system crashes:
@Query(
filter: #Predicate<CollectionItem> { $0.parent == nil },
sort: \CollectionItem.name,
)
private var collections: [CollectionItem]
CrashReportError: Fatal Error in DataUtilities.swift
AppName crashed due to fatalError in DataUtilities.swift at line 85.
Couldn't find \CollectionItem.<computed 0x000000034005d4e8 (Optional<Item>)> on CollectionItem with fields [SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "name", keypath: \CollectionItem.<computed 0x000000034003c120 (String)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "icon", keypath: \CollectionItem.<computed 0x000000034003ca04 (Optional<String>)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "timestamp", keypath: \Item.<computed 0x0000000340048018 (Date)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "parent", keypath: \Item.<computed 0x0000000340048a4c (Optional<Item>)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: Optional(Relationship - name: , options: [], valueType: Any, destination: , inverseName: nil, inverseKeypath: Optional(\Item.<computed 0x0000000340048fe8 (Array<Item>)>))), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "children", keypath: \Item.<computed 0x0000000340048fe8 (Array<Item>)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil)]
When I query as Item it works but then i cannot sort on CollectionItem field and must add unnecessary down casting:
@Query(
filter: #Predicate<Item> { $0.parent == nil && $0 is CollectionItem },
)
private var items: [Item]
Am I missing something? Is it a platform limitation or a known issue?
I have a very simple CoreData model that has 1 entity and 2 attributes.
This code works fine:
.onChange(of: searchText) { _, text in
evnts.nsPredicate = text.isEmpty ? nil :NSPredicate(format: "eventName CONTAINS %@ " , text )
but I'd like to also search with the same text string for my second attribute (which is a Date). I believe an OR is appropriate for two conditions (find either one). See attempted code below:
evnts.nsPredicate = text.isEmpty ? nil : NSPredicate(format: "(eventName CONTAINS %@) OR (dueDate CONTAINS %i) " , text )
This crashes immediately %@ does the same. Is there a way to accomplish this?
How is SwiftUI not an option below?
Hi,
Before the iOS 17.2 update the saving behavior of SwiftData was very straightforward, by default it saves to persistence storage and can be configured to save in memory only. Now it saves to memory by default and to make it save to persistence storage we need to use modelContext.Save(). But if we don't quit the App the changes will be saved after a while to persistence storage even without running modelContext.Save() ! How confusing can that be for both developer and the user ! Am I missing something here ?
--
Kind Regards
Running Tahoe 26.1 in a virtual machine, I can't sign into my Apple account. There is an error message saying "Could not communicate with the server." Internet access otherwise seems to be working in the VM. I tried both UTM and VirtualBuddy. Is this supposed to work?
Hi everyone,
Complete newbie here. Building an app and trying to use Cloudkit. I've added the CloudKit capability, triple checked the entitlements file for appropriate keys, made sure the code signing entitlements are pointing to the correct entitlements file. I've removed and cleared all of those settings and even created a new container as well as refreshed the signing. I just can't seem to figure out why I keep getting this error:
Significant issue at CKContainer.m:747: In order to use CloudKit, your process must have a com.apple.developer.icloud-services entitlement. The value of this entitlement must be an array that includes the string "CloudKit" or "CloudKit-Anonymous".
Any guidance is greatly appreciated.
My project is using swiftData and I want to implement iCloud sync in it. Now, my data base doesnt have any optional attributes or relationships and CloudKit wants them to be optional.
So, rather than editing all code with unwrapping code for the optionals, how can I provide a bridge that does so in the last stage of actually saving to the store? Sort of, capture it in a proxy object before writing and after reading from the store.
Is there a neat way that can save a lot of debugging? I have code snippets from chat gpt and they are hard to debug. This is my first project in swiftUI.
Thanks.
Neerav
I have an app which uses key-value storage and will not sync data past a certain size -- meaning that device "A" will send the data to the cloud but device "B" will never receive the updated data. Device "B" will receive the NSUbiquitousKeyValueStoreDidChangeExternallyNotification that the KVS changed but the data is empty.
The data in in the KVS is comprised of 4 keys, each containing a value of NSData generated by NSKeyedArchiver. The NSData is comprised of property-list data types (e.g. numbers, strings, dates, etc.)
I've verified that the KVS meets the limits of:
A total of 1 MB per app, with a per-key limit of 1 MB
A per-key value size limit of 1 MB, and a maximum of 1024 keys
A maximum length for key strings is 64 bytes using UTF8 encoding
Also, the app has never received an NSUbiquitousKeyValueStoreQuotaViolationChange notification.
Of the 4 keys, 3 of them contain no more than 30 KB of data each. However, one of the keys can contain as much as 160 KB of data which will not sync to another device. Strangely, if I constrain the data to 100 KB it will work, however, that is not ideal as it is a fraction of the necessary data.
I don't see any errors in the debug log either.
Any suggestions on what to try next to get this working?