When my app enter to background, I start a background task, and when Expiration happens, I end my background task. The code likes below: backgroundTask = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^{ dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ if (backgroundTask != UIBackgroundTaskInvalid) { [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:backgroundTask]; backgroundTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid; [self cancel]; } }); }]; When the breakpoint is triggered at the endBackgroundTask line, I also get the following log: [BackgroundTask] Background task still not ended after expiration handlers were called: <UIBackgroundTaskInfo: 0x282d7ab40>: taskID = 36, taskName = Called by MyApp, from MyMethod, creationTime = 892832 (elapsed = 26). This app will likely be terminated by the system. Call UIApplication.endBackgroundTask(:) to avoid this. The log don't appear every time, so why is that? Is there something wrong with my code?

Hi, I have received the following report after app termination. I have researched online but cannot determine the root cause. Any tips or ideas would help please. Could it be Location Services, UserNotification Services, or Network Requests? Thank you, Brendan Translated Report (Full Report Below) Incident Identifier: 6CD59A17-15B1-4F4E-AE84-0286F22893A4 CrashReporter Key: 3d12fb7359053239708afd24c7eed0267a9cc601 Hardware Model: iPhone13,3 Process: AnchorNet3 [5605] Path: /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/5EA7F893-D562-45B8-8995-5EAB15F85A7E/AnchorNet3.app/AnchorNet3 Identifier: com.sailsecrets.AnchorNet3 Version: 3.17 (3.17) Code Type: ARM-64 (Native) Role: Foreground Parent Process: launchd [1] Coalition: com.sailsecrets.AnchorNet3 [1443] Date/Time: 2025-02-06 00:12:03.6136 +0100 Launch Time: 2025-02-05 22:11:19.4220 +0100 OS Version: iPhone OS 18.2 (22C5131e) Release Type: Beta Baseband Version: 5.20.03 Report Version: 104 Exception Type: EXC_RESOURCE (SIGKILL) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000020000, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: PORT_SPACE 14123288431434006528 (Limit 131072 ports) Exceeded system-wide per-process Port Limit Triggered by Thread: 3 Thread 0 name: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread Thread 0: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e27414e4 kevent_id + 8 1 libdispatch.dylib 0x198f51b40 _dispatch_kq_poll + 228 2 libdispatch.dylib 0x198f51080 _dispatch_event_loop_poke + 340 3 QuartzCore 0x192d4631c CA::Context::commit_transaction(CA::Transaction*, double, double*) + 17164 4 QuartzCore 0x192cb8d58 CA::Transaction::commit() + 648 5 QuartzCore 0x192cb8764 CA::Transaction::flush_as_runloop_observer(bool) + 88 6 UIKitCore 0x193a3fd14 _UIApplicationFlushCATransaction + 52 7 UIKitCore 0x193a3d1e0 __setupUpdateSequence_block_invoke_2 + 332 8 UIKitCore 0x193a3d054 UIUpdateSequenceRun + 84 9 UIKitCore 0x193a3f984 schedulerStepScheduledMainSection + 172 10 UIKitCore 0x193a3d5a0 runloopSourceCallback + 92 11 CoreFoundation 0x1911f1f3c CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION + 28 12 CoreFoundation 0x1911f1ed0 __CFRunLoopDoSource0 + 176 13 CoreFoundation 0x1911f4b30 __CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 244 14 CoreFoundation 0x1911f3d2c __CFRunLoopRun + 840 15 CoreFoundation 0x191246274 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 588 16 GraphicsServices 0x1de34d4c0 GSEventRunModal + 164 17 UIKitCore 0x193d8f480 -[UIApplication run] + 816 18 UIKitCore 0x1939b5410 UIApplicationMain + 340 19 SwiftUI 0x195b43e30 closure #1 in KitRendererCommon(:) + 168 20 SwiftUI 0x195b43d60 runApp(:) + 100 21 SwiftUI 0x195b43c44 static App.main() + 180 22 AnchorNet3.debug.dylib 0x1025e97bc static MainApp.$main() + 40 23 AnchorNet3.debug.dylib 0x1025eaacc __debug_main_executable_dylib_entry_point + 12 24 dyld 0x1b7352de8 start + 2724 Thread 1 name: com.apple.CoreMotion.MotionThread Thread 1: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2741788 mach_msg2_trap + 8 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744e98 mach_msg2_internal + 80 2 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744db0 mach_msg_overwrite + 424 3 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744bfc mach_msg + 24 4 CoreFoundation 0x1911f47f4 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 160 5 CoreFoundation 0x1911f3ea0 __CFRunLoopRun + 1212 6 CoreFoundation 0x191246274 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 588 7 CoreFoundation 0x191259814 CFRunLoopRun + 64 8 CoreMotion 0x19e89cc5c 0x19e88d000 + 64604 9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x21bcfb7d0 _pthread_start + 136 10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x21bcfb480 thread_start + 8 Thread 2 name: com.apple.uikit.eventfetch-thread Thread 2: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2741788 mach_msg2_trap + 8 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744e98 mach_msg2_internal + 80 2 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744db0 mach_msg_overwrite + 424 3 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2744bfc mach_msg + 24 4 CoreFoundation 0x1911f47f4 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 160 5 CoreFoundation 0x1911f3ea0 __CFRunLoopRun + 1212 6 CoreFoundation 0x191246274 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 588 7 Foundation 0x18fdc8338 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] + 212 8 Foundation 0x18ff24e24 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runUntilDate:] + 64 9 UIKitCore 0x193e22a74 -[UIEventFetcher threadMain] + 420 10 Foundation 0x18feb4194 NSThread__start + 724 11 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x21bcfb7d0 _pthread_start + 136 12 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x21bcfb480 thread_start + 8 Thread 3 name: com.apple.SwiftUI.AsyncRenderer Thread 3 Crashed: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e274162c _kernelrpc_mach_port_allocate_trap + 8 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e2748478 mach_port_allocate + 36 2 QuartzCore 0x192d4552c CA::Context::commit_transaction(CA::Transaction*, double, double*) + 13596 3 QuartzCore 0x192cb8d58 CA::Transaction::commit() + 648 4 QuartzCore 0x192cb8764 CA::Transaction::flush_as_runloop_observer(bool) + 88 5 CoreFoundation 0x19119f894 CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION + 36 6 CoreFoundation 0x19119f3e8 __CFRunLoopDoObservers + 552 7 CoreFoundation 0x1912462c0 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 664 8 Foundation 0x18fdc8338 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] + 212 9 Foundation 0x18fdc4500 -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) run] + 64 10 SwiftUI 0x195c276d8 specialized static DisplayLink.asyncThread(arg:) + 792 11 SwiftUI 0x195c273a8 @objc static DisplayLink.asyncThread(arg:) + 72 &lt;&gt;

I'm developing a macOS application that tracks the duration of a user's session using a timer, which is displayed both in the main window and in an menu bar extra view. I have a couple of questions regarding the timer's behavior: What happens to the timer if the user closes the application's window (causing the app to become inactive) but does not fully quit it? Does the timer continue to run, pause, or behave in some other way? Will the app nap feature stop the timer when app is in-active state? When the application is inactive and the system is either in sleep mode or locked, does the timer’s tolerance get affected? In other words, will the timer fire with any additional delay compared to its scheduled time under these conditions?

My app uses SMAppService to register a privileged helper, the helper registers without errors, and can be seen in System Settings. I can get a connection to the service and a remote object proxy, but the helper process cannot be found in Activity Monitor and the calls to the proxy functions seem to always fail without showing any specific errors. What could be causing this situation?

Hi everyone, I’m Jaswanth. My friends and I are students working on a project where we’ve developed a website and a companion app. Here’s the key functionality: When two users enter a virtual room, one of them is prompted to download a desktop app. The app is built with Python and uses psutil to check for certain running processes. It does not send any data over the internet. It has a GUI that clearly shows the system is being monitored , it’s not hidden or running in the background silently. We want to sign and notarize the app to make sure it runs on macOS without warning users. However, we’re concerned that since the app accesses system process information, it might be flagged as malicious. Before we pay for the Apple Developer Program, we wanted to ask: Will an app like this (which only reads running processes and does not exfiltrate or hide activity) be eligible for notarization? Thanks in advance for any insights. We'd appreciate any clarity before moving forward. Best, Jaswanth

SMAppService Error 108 "Unable to read plist" on macOS 15 Sequoia - Comprehensive Test Case Summary We have a fully notarized SMAppService implementation that consistently fails with Error 108 "Unable to read plist" on macOS 15 Sequoia, despite meeting all documented requirements. After systematic testing including AI-assisted analysis, we've eliminated all common causes and created a comprehensive test case. Error: SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=108 "Unable to read plist: com.keypath.helperpoc.helper" 📋 Complete Repository: https://github.com/malpern/privileged_helper_help What We've Systematically Verified ✅ Perfect bundle structure: Helper at Contents/MacOS/, plist at Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons/ Correct SMAuthorizedClients: Embedded in helper binary via CREATE_INFOPLIST_SECTION_IN_BINARY=YES Aligned identifiers: Main app, helper, and plist all use consistent naming Production signing: Developer ID certificates with full Apple notarization and stapling BundleProgram paths: Tested both Contents/MacOS/helperpoc-helper and simplified helperpoc-helper Entitlements: Tested with and without com.apple.developer.service-management.managed-by-main-app What Makes This Different Systematic methodology: Not a "help me debug" post - we've done comprehensive testing Expert validation: AI analysis helped eliminate logical hypotheses Reproduction case: Minimal project that demonstrates the issue consistently Complete documentation: All testing steps, configurations, and results documented Use Case Context We're building a keyboard remapper that integrates with https://github.com/jtroo/kanata and needs privileged daemon registration for system-wide keyboard event interception. Key Questions Does anyone have a working SMAppService implementation on macOS 15 Sequoia? Are there undocumented macOS 15 requirements we're missing? Is Error 108 a known issue with specific workarounds? Our hypothesis: This appears to be a macOS 15 system-level issue rather than configuration error, since our implementation meets all documented Apple requirements but fails consistently. Has anyone encountered similar SMAppService issues on macOS 15, or can confirm a working implementation?

Hello, I have a question regarding the behavior of BGProcessingTaskRequest when the app is force-quit by the user via the App Switcher. Based on common understanding and various discussions — including the following Apple Developer Forum threads: Waking up an iOS app after app is … | Apple Developer Forums Will BGAppRefreshTaskRequest will … | Apple Developer Forums Background fetch after app is forc… | Apple Developer Forums …it is widely understood that iOS prevents background execution (such as background fetch, push notifications, or BGTaskScheduler) after a user force-quits an app via the App Switcher. However, in my app, I have observed that a scheduled BGProcessingTaskRequest still executes even after the app has been explicitly terminated via App Switcher. The task is scheduled using submit(_:error:), and it is clearly running some time after the app has been closed by the user. That said, the task does run, but it appears to operate under tighter constraints — for example, it may be allowed to run for a shorter duration, and network requests appear to be more restricted compared to when the app is not force-quit. My questions are: Are there any documented or undocumented exceptions that allow this kind of behavior after force-quit? Could this be a bug or a behavior change in recent iOS versions? (I am observing this on iOS 18.3, 18.4, and 18.5) Any insights, experiences, or clarifications from Apple engineers or fellow developers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

We would be creating N NWListener objects and M NWConnection objects in our process' communication subsystem to create server sockets, accepted client sockets on server and client sockets on clients. Both NWConnection and NWListener rely on DispatchQueue to deliver state changes, incoming connections, send/recv completions etc. What DispatchQueues should I use and why? Global Concurrent Dispatch Queue (and which QoS?) for all NWConnection and NWListener One custom concurrent queue (which QoS?) for all NWConnection and NWListener? (Does that anyways get targetted to one of the global queues?) One custom concurrent queue per NWConnection and NWListener though all targetted to Global Concurrent Dispatch Queue (and which QoS?)? One custom concurrent queue per NWConnection and NWListener though all targetted to single target custom concurrent queue? For every option above, how am I impacted in terms of parallelism, concurrency, throughput &amp; latency and how is overall system impacted (with other processes also running)? Seperate questions (sorry for the digression): Are global concurrent queues specific to a process or shared across all processes on a device? Can I safely use setSpecific on global dispatch queues in our app?

I'm a developer using Lazarus Pascal, so converting ObjC and Swift comes with its challenges. I'm trying to figure how to properly use SMAppService to add my application as a login item for the App Store. I have learned that the old method (&lt; macOS 13) uses a helper tool, included in the app bundle, which calls the now deprecated SMLoginItemSetEnabled. Now this is already quite a pain to deal with if you're not using XCode, not to mention converting the headers being rather complicated when you're not experienced with doing this. The "new" method (as of macOS 13) is using SMAppService. Can anyone explain how to use this? The documentation (for me anyway) is a not very clear about that and neither are examples that can be found all over the Internet. My main question is: Can I now use the SMAppService functions to add/remove a login item straight in my application, or is a helper tool still required?

I am trying to create an app bundle with an xpc service. The main app creates a keychain item, and attempts to share (keychain access groups) with the xpc service it includes in its bundle. However, the xpc service always encounters a 'user interaction not allowed' error regardless of how I create the keychain item. kSecAttrAccessiblei is set to kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly, the keychain access group is set for both the main app and the xpc service and in the provisioning profile. I've tried signing and notarizing. Is it ever possible for an xpc service to access the keychain? This all on macos 15.5.

my app need tracking location all the time both foreground and background. Please suggest how to prevent the app from being terminated. or detect when app is terminated.

Hello, aspiring programmer here. I am developing a StepCounter APP, which keeps track of how many steps I have taken and sends to an MQTT server. I am trying to make this happen even while the app is not in focus, but so far I have not been able to get this working. First tried with silent background music, which seemed pretty inconsistent and inpractical, since I usually play youtube videoes while walking, making the app stop with its silent audio. Then tried GPS, which didnt really do anything (could be implementation problem). Has anyone made background processing work for their apps?

Hello 👋 Our team added com.apple.security.temporary-exception.apple-events: com.apple.Terminal recently to our Mac app to be able to tell the terminal to execute a specific command line automatically for the user when clicking a button but we've been rejected during review because of this entitlement so for now we've deleted it and deleted the associated feature. It concerns the following feature (see attachment). Context: Among other things the application enable to review pull request changes (remote) and we would like a button to automatically clone the pull request on disk when user click a button. We would like to use terminal for security reason as when cloning using git command we need ssh keys or other credential and there's no reason (rather than technical ones) that the user provide us such private information that is stored in the ~/.ssh. We prefer think the other way around and tell the user what to execute instead (no credentials involved or shared). We referred to: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Miscellaneous/Reference/EntitlementKeyReference/Chapters/AppSandboxTemporaryExceptionEntitlements.html I admit it's unclear for me if this will imply a 100% rejection or if these entitlements are deprecated. Is "com.apple.security.temporary-exception.apple-events: com.apple.Terminal" an entitlement that is reserved for special Apple partners ? Is it an entitlement that we should demonstrate usage first ? Or should we completely remove the feature if we distribute through the App Store ? Is Apple advice for other APIs to develop such features (execute command line for the user) when distributing through the App Store ? As said we've disabled the feature for now. Thank you in advance for those who will take time to answer this,

Hello, aspiring programmer here. I am developing a StepCounter APP, which keeps track of how many steps I have taken and sends to an MQTT server. I am trying to make this happen even while the app is not in focus, but so far I have not been able to get this working. First tried with silent background music, which seemed pretty inconsistent and inpractical, since I usually play youtube videoes while walking, making the app stop with its silent audio. Then tried GPS, which didnt really do anything (could be implementation problem). Has anyone made background processing work for their apps?

I've discovered that a system network extension can communicate with a LaunchDaemon (loaded using SMAppService) over XPC, provided that the XPC service name begins with the team ID. If I move the launchd daemon plist to Contents/Library/LaunchAgents and swap the SMAppService.daemon calls to SMAppService.agent calls, and remove the .privileged option to NSXPCConnection, the system extension receives "Couldn't communicate with a helper application" as an error when trying to reach the LaunchAgent advertised service. Is this limitation by design? I imagine it is, but wanted to check before I spent any more time on it.

when we use raise in GCD, the signal handler is executed asynchronously, whereas in pthread, it is executed synchronously as expected. example: #include &lt;Foundation/Foundation.h&gt; #include &lt;pthread/pthread.h&gt; static void HandleSignal(int sigNum, siginfo_t* signalInfo, void* userContext) { printf("handle signal %d\n", sigNum); printf("begin sleep\n"); sleep(3); printf("end sleep\n"); } void InstallSignal(void) { static const int g_fatalSignals[] = { SIGABRT, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGSYS, SIGTRAP, }; int fatalSignalsCount = sizeof(g_fatalSignals) / sizeof(int); struct sigaction action = {{0}}; action.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO | SA_ONSTACK; #if defined(__LP64__) action.sa_flags |= SA_64REGSET; #endif sigemptyset(&amp;action.sa_mask); action.sa_sigaction = &amp;HandleSignal; struct sigaction pre_sa; for(int i = 0; i &lt; fatalSignalsCount; i++) { int sigResult = sigaction(g_fatalSignals[i], &amp;action, &amp;pre_sa); } } void* RaiseAbort(void *userdata) { raise(SIGABRT); printf("signal handler has finished\n"); return NULL; } int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) { InstallSignal(); dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(0, 0), ^{ raise(SIGABRT); // abort(); // abort() is ok RaiseAbort(nullptr); }); // pthread is ok // pthread_t tid; // int ret = pthread_create(&amp;tid, NULL, RaiseAbort, NULL); // if (ret != 0) { // fprintf(stderr, "create thread failed\n"); // return EXIT_FAILURE; // } [[NSRunLoop mainRunLoop] run]; return 0; } console log: signal handler has finished handle signal 6 begin sleep end sleep

I'm developing a safety-critical monitoring app that needs to fetch data from government APIs every 30 minutes and trigger emergency audio alerts for threshold violations. The app must work reliably in background since users depend on it for safety alerts even while sleeping. Main Challenge: iOS background limitations seem to prevent consistent 30-minute intervals. Standard BGTaskScheduler and timers get suspended after a few minutes in background. Question: What's the most reliable approach to ensure consistent 30-minute background monitoring for a safety-critical app where missed alerts could have serious consequences? Are there special entitlements or frameworks for emergency/safety applications? The app needs to function like an alarm clock - working reliably even when backgrounded with emergency audio override capabilities.

Hello, We're seeing some strange crashes and noticed the following. It's unclear if related or not. The contract for xpc_main, which internally calls dispatch_main, is This function never returns. and they are appropriately peppered with __attribute__((__noreturn__)). Documentation states: This function “parks” the main thread and waits for blocks to be submitted to the main queue. However, internally, dispatch_main calls pthread_exit. pthread_exit's documentation states that: After a thread has terminated, the result of access to local (auto) variables of the thread is undefined. Thus, references to local variables of the exiting thread should not be used for the pthread_exit() value_ptr parameter value. I'd say the two contracts of This function never returns. and thread exiting with its storage released are diametrically opposed and can create nuanced issues. Consider the following code: struct asd { int a; }; struct asd* ptr; void fff(void* ctx) { while(true) { printf("%d\n", ptr->a); ptr->a = (ptr->a + 1); usleep(100000); } } int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) { struct asd zxc; zxc.a = 1; ptr = &zxc; dispatch_async_f(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0), NULL, fff); dispatch_main(); return 0; } This is a gross over-simplification of the code we have, but in the same "spirit". We have a C++ object that is created on the stack and exposes one of its members as a global pointer, with the assumption that it would never release. What I understand from This function never returns is that the calling thread remains dormant and its stack remains alive. What I understand from pthread_exit is that the thread is killed (this is verified with a debugger attached) and its stack storage is released. Another thing that is throwing me off is that no sanitizer that is provided by clang/Xcode catches this issue. I don't see any special handling of the internal pthread_t in libdispatch to keep the stack storage alive. Our code is more complex, but can be solved by allocating the initial object on the heap, rather than on the stack. But still I would like to understand if this is the expected behavior. Perhaps my preconception of __attribute__((__noreturn__)) is wrong, and accessing stack variables post call to a __attribute__((__noreturn__)) function is UB? Thanks

Hi, I have a hard time getting my head wrapped around the possibilities of running a app or a task in a app in the background. I have a app where I utilize MusicKit to create a playlist in Apple Music, and add songs to the playlist. Now the songs added are picked from choices made by the user, and the total number of songs to add is 75, and that takes some time. And if the user switches to a different app or the phone is locked, the add songs logic stops, and then starts again as soon as the app is active again. What I am trying to achieve is of course for this to keep processing also when the app is not active, so basically to keep it running in the background. But this is where I struggle to understand how I can do that - The available choice seems to be BGTaskScheduler, but that just does not seem correct. From what I understand it just schedules a task, and it will be processed whenever the app or phone "feels like it" (again, my understanding, might be wrong), and that won't work in my scenario. I want the task to start when the user taps a button, and just keep running until it is finished, regardless of if the app is active or not. Any pointers, tips, advices out there on how I can achieve this?

Every time macOS goes to sleep the processes get suspended which is expected. But during the sleep period, all processes keep coming back and they all get a small execution window where they make some n/w requests. Regardless of what power settings i have. It also does not matter whether my app is a daemon or not Is there any way that i can disable this so that when system is in sleep, it stays in suspended, no intermittent execution window? I have tried disabling Wake for network access setting but processes still keep getting intermittent execution window. Is there any way that i can prevent my app from coming back while in sleep. I don't want my app to get execution window, perform some executions and then get suspended not knowing when it will get execution window again?