When I use BGContinuedProcessingTask to submit a task, my iPhone 12 immediately shows a notification banner displaying the task’s progress. However, on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, there’s no response — the progress UI only appears in the Dynamic Island after I background the app. Why is there a difference in behavior between these two devices? Is it possible to control the UI so that the progress indicator only appears when the app moves to the background?

Hello, In a launched agent, I need to call into a third‑party library that may occasionally hang. At present, these calls are made from a separate thread, but if the thread hangs it cannot be terminated (pthread_cancel/pthread_kill are ineffective). Would Apple recommend isolating this functionality in a separate process that can be force‑terminated if it becomes unresponsive, or is there a preferred approach for handling such cases in launched agents? Can I use the system call fork() in launched agent? Thank you in advance!

I'm specifically focused on Live Activity, but I think this is somewhat a general question. The app could get a few callbacks when: There's a new payload (start, update, end) There's a new token (start, update) There's some other lifecycle event (stale, dismissed) Assuming that the user didn't force kill the app, would the app get launched in all these scenarios? When OS launches the app for a reason, should we wrap our tasks with beginBackgroundTask or that's unnecessary if we're expecting our tasks to finish within 30 seconds? Or the OS may sometimes be under stress and give you far less time (example 3 seconds) and if you're in slow internet, then adding beginBackgroundTask may actually come in handy?

I've experimentally seen that the notifications(named:) API of NotificationCenter appears to buffer observed notifications internally. In local testing it appears to be limited to 8 messages. I've been unable to find any documentation of this fact, and the behavior seems like it could lead to software bugs if code is not expecting notifications to potentially be dropped. Is this behavior expected and documented somewhere? Here is a sample program demonstrating the behavioral difference between the Combine and AsyncSequence-based notification observations: @Test nonisolated func testNotificationRace() async throws { let testName = Notification.Name("TestNotification") let notificationCount = 100 var observedAsyncIDs = [Int]() var observedCombineIDs = [Int]() let subscribe = Task { @MainActor in print("setting up observer...") let token = NotificationCenter.default.publisher(for: testName) .sink { value in let id = value.userInfo?["id"] as! Int observedCombineIDs.append(id) print("🚜 observed note with id: \(id)") } defer { extendLifetime(token) } for await note in NotificationCenter.default.notifications(named: testName) { let id: Int = note.userInfo?["id"] as! Int print("🚰 observed note with id: \(id)") observedAsyncIDs.append(id) if id == notificationCount { break } } } let post = Task { @MainActor in for i in 1...notificationCount { NotificationCenter.default.post( name: testName, object: nil, userInfo: ["id": i] ) } } _ = await (post.value, subscribe.value) #expect(observedAsyncIDs.count == notificationCount) // 🛑 Expectation failed: (observedAsyncIDs.count → 8) == (notificationCount → 100) #expect(observedCombineIDs == Array(1...notificationCount)) print("done") }

Hi everyone, could you help us? We implemented a Flutter library that basically makes a call every x minutes if the app is in the background, but when I generate the version via TestFlight for testing, it doesn't work. Can you help us understand why? Below is a more detailed technical description. Apple Developer Technical Support Request Subject: BGTaskScheduler / Background Tasks Not Executing in TestFlight - Flutter App with workmanager Plugin Issue Summary Background tasks scheduled using BGTaskScheduler are not executing when the app is distributed via TestFlight. The same implementation works correctly when running the app locally via USB/Xcode debugging. We are developing a Flutter application that needs to perform periodic API calls when the app is in the background. We have followed all documentation and implemented the required configurations, but background tasks are not being executed in the TestFlight build. App Information Field Value App Version 3.1.15 (Build 311) iOS Minimum Deployment Target iOS 15.0 Framework Flutter Flutter SDK Version ^3.7.2 Technical Environment Flutter Dependencies (Background Task Related) Package Version Purpose workmanager ^0.9.0+3 Main background task scheduler (uses BGTaskScheduler on iOS 13+) flutter_background_service ^5.0.5 Background service management flutter_background_service_android ^6.2.4 Android-specific background service flutter_local_notifications ^19.4.2 Local notifications for background alerts timezone ^0.10.0 Timezone support for scheduling Other Relevant Flutter Dependencies Package Version firebase_core 4.0.0 firebase_messaging (via native Podfile) sfmc (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) ^9.0.0 geolocator ^14.0.0 permission_handler ^12.0.0+1 Info.plist Configuration We have added the following configurations to Info.plist: UIBackgroundModes <key>UIBackgroundModes</key> <array> <string>location</string> <string>remote-notification</string> <string>processing</string> </array> ### BGTaskSchedulerPermittedIdentifiers ```xml <key>BGTaskSchedulerPermittedIdentifiers</key> <array> <string>br.com.unidas.apprac.ios.workmanager.carrinho_api_task</string> <string>br.com.unidas.apprac.ios.workmanager</string> <string>be.tramckrijter.workmanager.BackgroundTask</string> </array> **Note:** We included multiple identifier formats as recommended by the `workmanager` Flutter plugin documentation: 1. `{bundleId}.ios.workmanager.{taskName}` - Custom task identifier 2. `{bundleId}.ios.workmanager` - Default workmanager identifier 3. `be.tramckrijter.workmanager.BackgroundTask` - Plugin's default identifier (as per plugin documentation) ## AppDelegate.swift Configuration We have configured the `AppDelegate.swift` with the following background processing setup: ```swift // In application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) // Configuration to enable background processing via WorkManager // The "processing" mode in UIBackgroundModes allows WorkManager to use BGTaskScheduler (iOS 13+) // This is required to execute scheduled tasks in background (e.g., API calls) // Note: User still needs to have Background App Refresh enabled in iOS settings if UIApplication.shared.backgroundRefreshStatus == .available { // Allows iOS system to schedule background tasks with minimum interval UIApplication.shared.setMinimumBackgroundFetchInterval(UIApplication.backgroundFetchIntervalMinimum) } ## WorkManager Implementation (Dart/Flutter) ### Initialization ```dart /// Initializes WorkManager static Future<void> initialize() async { await Workmanager().initialize(callbackDispatcher, isInDebugMode: false); print('WorkManagerService: WorkManager initialized'); } ### Task Registration /// Schedules API execution after a specific delay ## Observed Behavior ### Works (Debug/USB Connection) - When running the app via Xcode/USB debugging - Background tasks are scheduled and executed as expected - API calls are made successfully when the app is backgrounded ### Does NOT Work (TestFlight) - When the app is distributed via TestFlight - Background tasks appear to be scheduled (no errors in code) - Tasks are **never executed** when the app is in background - We have tested with: - Background App Refresh enabled in iOS Settings - App used frequently - Device connected to WiFi and charging - Waited for extended periods (hours) ## Possible heart points 1. **Are there any additional configurations required for `BGTaskScheduler` to work in TestFlight/Production builds that are not required for debug builds?** 2. **Is the identifier format correct?** We are using: `br.com.unidas.apprac.ios.workmanager.carrinho_api_task` - Should it match exactly with the task name registered in code? 3. **Are there any known issues with Flutter's `workmanager` plugin and iOS BGTaskScheduler in production environments?** 4. **Is there any way to verify through logs or system diagnostics if the background tasks are being rejected by the system?** 5. **Could there be any conflict between our other background modes (`location`, `remote-notification`) and `processing`?** 6. **Does the Salesforce Marketing Cloud SDK (SFMC) interfere with BGTaskScheduler operations?** ## Additional Context - We have verified that `Background App Refresh` is enabled for our app in iOS Settings - The app has proper entitlements for push notifications and location services - Firebase, SFMC (Salesforce Marketing Cloud), and other SDKs are properly configured - The issue is **only** present in TestFlight builds, not in debug/USB-connected builds ## References - [Apple Documentation - BGTaskScheduler](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/backgroundtasks/bgtaskscheduler) - [Apple Documentation - Choosing Background Strategies](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/backgroundtasks/choosing_background_strategies_for_your_app) Thank you

I've tuned my task to be decently resilient, but I found a few issues that caused it to expire regularly. excessive CPU usage -> I'm actually running it behind ReactNative, and I found an issue where I was still updating ReactNative and thus it was keeping it alive the entire time the task was running. Removing this update helped improve stability not updating progress frequently enough ( see https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/809182?page=1#868247022) My feature request is, would it be possible to get a reason the task was expired in task.expirationHandler? That would be helpful for both the user and for debugging why the task was expired. Thanks!

I tried making a concurrency-safe data queue. It was going well, until memory check tests crashed. It's part of an unadvertised git project. Its location is: https://github.com/CTMacUser/SynchronizedQueue/commit/84a476e8f719506cbd4cc6ef513313e4e489cae3 It's the blocked-off method "`memorySafetyReferenceTypes'" in "SynchronizedQueueTests.swift." Note that the file and its tests were originally AI slop.

I'm working on an editor for Bevy games and wanted the following workflow: Launch the game process Host a Metal view for the game's render target Use an XPC service to transfer an MTLSharedTextureHandle Keep the connection for editor/game communication and hot reload As such I created the following editor service: public let XPCEditorServiceName = "org.bevy.editor" public enum XPCEditorMessage: Codable { case ping } public enum XPCEditorReply: Codable { case pong } extension XPCListener { static let bevy = try! XPCListener(service: XPCEditorServiceName) { request in request.accept(XPCEditorService.init) } } struct XPCEditorService: XPCPeerHandler { let session: XPCSession private func handle(_ message: XPCEditorMessage) -> XPCEditorReply? { switch message { case .ping: return .pong } } func handleIncomingRequest(_ message: XPCReceivedMessage) -> (any Encodable)? { do { return handle(try message.decode()) } catch { return nil } } func handleCancellation(error: XPCRichError) { print(error) } } and I initialize it in my app's App initializer: // Launch the XPC service print(XPCListener.bevy) I wanted to test this using an executable target with the following main.swift: let session = try XPCSession(xpcService: XPCEditorServiceName) let response: XPCEditorReply = try session.sendSync(XPCEditorMessage.ping) print("Connected to editor!") The editor prints Listener<org.bevy.editor>(Active) but the game fails with Underlying connection was invalidated. Reason: Connection init failed at lookup with error 3 - No such process What am I doing wrong? PS. Would also appreciate an example of sending & rendering the MTLSharedTextureHandle both in editor & game.

I have migrated my code to use SMAppService but am running into trouble deleting the old SMJobBless launchd registration using launchd remove. I am invoking this from a root shell when I detect the daemon and associated plist still exist, then also deleting those files. The remove seems to work (i.e. no errors returned) but launchd list shows the service is registered, with a status code of 28 I am using the same label for SMAppService as previously and suspect this is the reason for the problem. However, I am reluctant to change the label as there will a lot of code changes to do this. If I quit my application, disable the background job in System Settings and run sudo launchd remove in the Terminal then it is removed and my application runs as expected once the background job is re-enabled. Alternatively, a reboot seems to get things going. Any suggestions on to how I could do this more effectively welcome.

We are developing a watchOS application that records long audio sessions and uploads them to our backend in chunks (~5 MB each) using pre-signed URLs and URLSession background upload. Current behavior: While audio recording is active, uploads continue successfully even when the app is in the background. Once the recording stops, if multiple chunks (e.g., 10+) are still pending, the remaining uploads do not proceed in the background and appear to be suspended. We attempted to use WKExtendedRuntimeSession (mindfulness type) to allow sufficient time to enqueue background upload tasks, but the session is invalidated when the app goes to the background (e.g., wrist down or app inactive), which prevents reliable scheduling of uploads. Additionally, we added the entitlement: com.apple.developer.extended-runtime-session (mindfulness) in the Watch app entitlements file, but Xcode automatic signing fails with: “Provisioning profile does not include the com.apple.developer.extended-runtime-session entitlement.” It appears that the provisioning profile is not being updated to include this entitlement. Our questions: Is WKExtendedRuntimeSession (mindfulness) expected to support scheduling background URLSession uploads after the app goes to background? How should we reliably complete pending background uploads on watchOS after a long recording session ends? Is there any additional entitlement or recommended approach for this use case? Why is the extended runtime entitlement not being applied to the provisioning profile despite being added in the entitlements file? We are aiming to follow Apple-recommended practices for long-running tasks and background uploads on watchOS. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, I am developing a macOS Launch Daemon (packaged as a bundle) that acts as an XPC server. For debugging purposes, I am trying to run the daemon's executable directly from the terminal via sudo ./mydaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/myexecutable. Initially, I added the com.apple.security.application-groups entitlement to the daemon. However, when starting the process, it failed to create the XPC service with the following errors: Unsatisfied entitlements: com.apple.security.application-groups Soft-restriction provisioning profile validation failure: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=, unsatisfiedEntitlements=, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] To resolve the profile validation failure, I registered a new App Group in the Apple Developer Portal, generated a new provisioning profile for the daemon that includes this group, and embedded it into the bundle (Contents/embedded.provisionprofile). Now, the previous profile error is gone, but I am getting a new identity conflict error, and the XPC listener still fails: Two equal instances have unequal identities. <anon<myproc_name>(501) pid=2818 AUID=501> and <anon<myproc_name>(501)(262) pid=2818 AUID=262> listener failed to activate: xpc_error=[1: Operation not permitted] My questions are: What exactly causes the Two equal instances have unequal identities error? I noticed the Audit UID difference (AUID=501 vs AUID=262). Why does NSXPCListener still fail with Operation not permitted? What is the recommended workflow for debugging a Launch Daemon that requires an App Group provisioning profile for XPC communication? Thank you in advance!

Hi all, I'm working on a cross-platform runtime that manages a pool of threads (think game engine / emulator style... dozens of guest threads mapped 1:1 to host pthreads). It was originally written for Linux and Windows and we're now porting to macOS on Apple Silicon. We've hit a wall with a deadlock on macOS and traced it back to our use of POSIX unnamed semaphores (sem_init / sem_wait / sem_post) for thread suspend and resume. We were unaware these have never actually been implemented on macOS, sem_init silently returns -1 with ENOSYS and then sem_wait just hangs forever. That explains our deadlock. The tricky part is how we use them. Our suspend mechanism works by sending SIGUSR1 to a target thread via pthread_kill. The signal handler then calls sem_wait to block the thread in place until another thread calls sem_post to resume it. So whatever we replace sem_init/sem_wait with needs to be safe to call from inside a signal handler. From what I can tell: dispatch_semaphore_wait is not documented as async-signal-safe pthread_cond_wait is also not async-signal-safe os_sync_wait_on_address looks promising but requires macOS 14.4+ which is a pretty high floor We could spin on a std::atomic with .wait() / .notify_all() but I've seen reports of high wake latency (up to 15ms) in libc++'s implementation on macOS My questions: What's the recommended way to block a thread inside a signal handler on macOS? Is there an async-signal-safe wait primitive I'm missing? Would restructuring to avoid blocking in the signal handler entirely be the better approach? For example, having the signal handler just set an atomic flag and then checking it at yield points — would that be the expected pattern on macOS? For the non-signal-handler suspend/resume paths, is dispatch_semaphore_t the right replacement for sem_t, or is there something better suited for high-frequency thread synchronization in 2026? Separately, we're also using ucontext (makecontext/swapcontext) for a fiber system on macOS and hitting issues on native arm64, it works under Rosetta but breaks natively. We have a setjmp/longjmp + manual stack pivot backend we can switch to. Is there any plan to fix or un-deprecate the ucontext functions on arm64, or should we just move off them permanently?

Platform: iOS 26 (23E254) Xcode: 26.0 Reproduces on: Debug builds AND TestFlight Summary: I'm using Apple-Hosted Managed Background Assets with on-demand download policy. The .aar archives download successfully (correct file size, status = downloaded), but the contents are never extracted into the asset pack namespace. AssetPackManager.shared.contents(at:) returns fileNotFound for all path variants, and url(for: FilePath(".")) returns a URL that exists but contains zero children. Root Cause from Sysdiagnose: The backgroundassets.user daemon logs reveal this error on every download attempt: A bundle record couldn't be looked up for the application identifier "AtlasDrift.SnapTrail": Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10814 "(null)" UserInfo={_LSFile=LSBindingEvaluator.mm, _LSLine=1973, _LSFunction=runEvaluator} Error code -10814 is kLSApplicationNotFoundErr. The BA daemon downloads the .aar blob, then attempts to find the app bundle via LaunchServices to locate the extension for extraction — but the LS lookup fails. Without the extension, extraction never occurs. Verified Configuration Everything matches the documentation and WWDC sessions: Extension embedded at SnapTrail.app/Extensions/BackgroundDownloadExtension.appex Bundle IDs: App = AtlasDrift.SnapTrail, Extension = AtlasDrift.SnapTrail.BackgroundDownloadExtension (correct parent-child pattern) Extension point: com.apple.background-asset-downloader-extension Product type: com.apple.product-type.extensionkit-extension Protocol: StoreDownloaderExtension from StoreKit (for Apple-hosted packs) App group: group.AtlasDrift.SnapTrail (matching in both app and extension entitlements) Info.plist keys: BAAppGroupID, BAHasManagedAssetPacks = YES BAUsesAppleHosting = YES (no BAInitialDownloadRestrictions or other BA keys) .aar Packaging Archives built with xcrun ba-package from the Assets directory. Manifest format: { "assetPackID": "ireland", "downloadPolicy": { "onDemand": {} }, "fileSelectors": [{ "directory": "POIRegions/ireland/IR" }], "platforms": ["iOS"] } Uploaded via App Store Connect API with assetType: "ASSET". Diagnostic Observations AssetPackManager.shared.assetPack(withID:) returns valid metadata (correct download size) ensureLocalAvailability(of:) completes without error assetPackIsAvailableLocally(withID:) returns true url(for: FilePath(".")) returns a URL that exists but has zero children (empty namespace) contents(at:) returns fileNotFound for all path variants tested The extension never runs — breadcrumb file written in init() is never created The -10814 error appears in daemon logs for every download cycle Questions Has anyone successfully used Apple-Hosted Managed Background Assets on iOS 26 beta? Is the daemon's LaunchServices integration known to be broken in this seed? Is there anything about the bundle identifier format or provisioning profile setup that could cause the BA daemon's LS lookup to fail, even though the app installs and runs fine otherwise? Are there any additional Info.plist keys or entitlements beyond what's documented that might be required for the daemon to locate the app bundle? Any guidance would be appreciated. I've filed a Feedback report with the full sysdiagnose attached.

Hello together, the user is able to do recordings with my app. The recordings also runs, while the App is in Background. I have Background Modes Audio & Background enabled. When the user accidentally terminates the App while the recording is still running, the whole recording is lost. I tried AppDelegate applicationWillTerminate on my iOS 26 App and it works perfectly to wrap up the LiveActivity that is shown while the recording is active. But it does not save the Audio and also doesn't update the Widgets (they are interactive and show a different state while recording and stay stuck in recording-state on accidental termination). Any ideas? Best wishes, Dominik

My software installs a privileged daemon using the SMAppService api. After removing the executables and recompiling the software I sometimes find that it needs to be registered again. After doing this, i.e. ensuring the application is properly registered and enabled in Login Items & Extensions the helper is not run when initiated from XPC. SMAppService.status has returned .enabled, and there is a valid job dictionary for the helper. I check the job dictionary with a function called updatePenaltyBoxStatus() that was given to me by a friend but I think originated from Apple. If I logoff (or reboot), login again, manually open Login Items & Extensions to check registration, then retry the application, it works. I don't mind doing this but it is probably a bit much for a lot of my users. Is there a reliable way to do this programatically? Here is my Swift translation of updatePenaltyBoxStatus. I fetch the job dictionary with SMJobCopyDictionary() prior to calling isInPenaltyBox(). I also had to write C wrapper functions for the WIFEXITED and WIFEXITSTATUS macros. func isInPenaltyBox(_ dict: Dictionary<String, Any>?) -> Bool { guard let jobDict = dict else { // If the helper was in the penalty box, unregistering it doesn't change that. So don't override a previous helperInPenaltyBox value return m_penalty_box } if let lastExitStatusObj = jobDict["LastExitStatus"] as? NSNumber { let lastExitStatus = lastExitStatusObj.intValue if wifexited(Int32(lastExitStatus)) == 0 { // It might've stopped or exited due to a signal or whatever. // Regardless, it didn't meet our criteria for winding up in the penalty box. m_penalty_box = false } // Now get the exit status and check for `EX_CONFIG`. let status = wexitstatus(Int32(lastExitStatus)) let newInPenaltyBox = status == EX_CONFIG if m_penalty_box != newInPenaltyBox { Logger.instance.log( "Penalty box change: " + m_ident + " old: " + String(m_penalty_box) + " new: " + String(newInPenaltyBox)) } m_penalty_box = newInPenaltyBox } return m_penalty_box }

Hello, We are currently investigating an issue where our app is being terminated by the system while running in the background. At the moment, the app does not perform any significant background activity, and memory usage remains relatively low (approximately 150–200 MB). Despite this, the app is still being terminated in the background, even under conditions where other apps appear to remain active. From our investigation so far, the issue does not appear to be related to: High memory consumption Explicit background task misuse Application crashes on our side For additional context, we had previously used silent push notifications to trigger heavy upload operations in the background. Since we suspected this behavior might be contributing to the issue, we completely stopped using this mechanism approximately two weeks ago. However, the background terminations are still occurring. We would like to better understand the possible causes of this behavior. Specifically, could this be related to: Watchdog terminations Background assertion or lifecycle violations RunningBoard resource management Jetsam policies Background execution timeouts Any other system-level resource or process management constraints We would greatly appreciate any guidance on how to identify the root cause or which logs/diagnostics we should focus on to further investigate the issue. Thank you.

I have one report from a customer, who migrated all data from his old MacBook to a new one. His is on Tahoe 26.5.1 (25F80). Here is my relevant code: + (BOOL)enableLoginItem:(BOOL)enable { NSOperatingSystemVersion osv = NSProcessInfo.processInfo.operatingSystemVersion; if (osv.majorVersion >= 13) { NSError* error; SMAppService* service = [SMAppService loginItemServiceWithIdentifier:MY_HELPER_APP_ID]; if (![service registerAndReturnError:&error] && error) @throw error; return YES; } return SMLoginItemSetEnabled((__bridge CFStringRef)MY_HELPER_APP_ID, enable); } What should I do to re-enable the login helper?

Hi everyone! I'm writing a watch app using backgroud refresh. But the backround task was not triggered either on simulator or real watch device. main code

An XPC service’s process has a system-managed lifecycle: the process is launched on-demand when another process tries to connect to it, and the system can decide to kill it when system resources are low. XPC services can tell the system when they shouldn’t be killed using xpc_transaction_begin/end. Do extensions created with ExtensionFoundation and/or ExtensionKit have the same behavior?

I am developing the application in Mac. My requirement is to start the application automatically when user login. I have tried adding the plist file in launch agents, But it doesn't achieve my requirement. Please find the code added in the launch agents &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; &lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"&gt; &lt;plist version="1.0"&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;Label&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;com.sftk.secure&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;ProgramArguments&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;/Applications/Testing.app/Contents/MacOS/Testing&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;RunAtLoad&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;KeepAlive&lt;/key&gt; &lt;false/&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; &lt;/plist&gt; I have tried by adding manually in the setting, but it was opened sometimes and closed suddenly. On open manually it works. Please provide a solution to start the application automatically on system starts