Hello,
I am trying to implement a subscriber which specifies its own demand for how many elements it wants to receive from a publisher.
My code is below:
import Combine
var array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
struct ArraySubscriber<T>: Subscriber {
typealias Input = T
typealias Failure = Never
let combineIdentifier = CombineIdentifier()
func receive(subscription: any Subscription) {
subscription.request(.max(4))
}
func receive(_ input: T) -> Subscribers.Demand {
print("input,", input)
return .max(4)
}
func receive(completion: Subscribers.Completion<Never>) {
switch completion {
case .finished:
print("publisher finished normally")
case .failure(let failure):
print("publisher failed due to, ", failure)
}
}
}
let subscriber = ArraySubscriber<Int>()
array.publisher.subscribe(subscriber)
According to Apple's documentation, I specify the demand inside the receive(subscription: any Subscription) method, see link.
But when I run this code I get the following output:
input, 1
input, 2
input, 3
input, 4
input, 5
input, 6
input, 7
publisher finished normally
Instead, I expect the subscriber to only "receive" elements 1, 2, 3, 4 from the array.
How can I accomplish this?
Processes & Concurrency
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On MacOS 26 Tahoe, we are getting a background warning message stating, “App is running in the background…”
Is this expected behavior on the new OS?
Thanks
Asutos
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Hi all,
I’ve built an Electron application that uses two child processes:
An Express.js server
A Python executable (packaged .exe/binary)
During the development phase, everything works fine — the Electron app launches, both child processes start, and the app functions as expected.
But when I create a production build for macOS, the child processes don’t run.
Here’s a simplified snippet from my electron.mjs:
import { app, BrowserWindow } from "electron";
import { spawn } from "child_process";
import path from "path";
let mainWindow;
const createWindow = () => {
mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
width: 1200,
height: 800,
webPreferences: {
nodeIntegration: true,
},
});
mainWindow.loadFile("index.html");
// Start Express server
const serverPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "server", "index.js");
const serverProcess = spawn(process.execPath, [serverPath], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
// Start Python process
const pythonPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "python", "myapp");
const pythonProcess = spawn(pythonPath, [], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
serverProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Server process error:", err));
pythonProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Python process error:", err));
};
app.whenReady().then(createWindow);
I’ve already done the following:
Configured package.json with the right build settings
Set up extraResources / asarUnpack to include the server and Python files
Verified both child processes work standalone
Questions:
What’s the correct way to package and spawn these child processes for macOS production builds?
Do I need to move them into a specific location (like Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked) and reference them differently?
Is there a more reliable pattern for handling Express + Python child processes inside an Electron app bundle?
Any insights or working examples would be really appreciated!
I'm working on a Mac app that receives a process ID via NSXPCConnection, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to determine whether that process is a native macOS app like Safari—with bundles and all—or just a script launched by something like Node or Python. The executable is signed with a Team ID using codesign.
I was thinking about getting the executable's path as one way to handle it, but I’m wondering if there’s a more reliable method than relying on the folder structure.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
XPC
Inter-process communication
Hello im creating an expo module using this new API, but the problem i found currently testing this functionality is that when the task fails, the notification error doesn't go away and is always showing the failed task notification even if i start a new task and complete that one.
I want to implement this module into the production app but i feel like having always the notification error might confuse our users or find it a bit bothersome.
Is there a way for the users to remove this notification?
Best regards!
Some users of my Mac app are complaining of redrawing delays. Based on what I see in logs, my GCD timer event handlers are not being run in a timely manner although the runloop is still pumping events: sometimes 500ms pass before a 15ms timer runs. During this time, many keypresses are routed through -[NSApplication sendEvent:], which is how I know it's not locked up in synchronous code.
This issue has not been reported in older versions of macOS.
I start the timer like this:
_gcdUpdateTimer = dispatch_source_create(DISPATCH_SOURCE_TYPE_TIMER, 0, 0, dispatch_get_main_queue());
dispatch_source_set_timer(_gcdUpdateTimer,
dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, period * NSEC_PER_SEC),
period * NSEC_PER_SEC,
0.0005 * NSEC_PER_SEC);
dispatch_source_set_event_handler(_gcdUpdateTimer, ^{
…redraw…
});
I was stuck on a long train journey this weekend, so I thought I’d use that time to write up the process for installing a launchd daemon using SMAppService. This involves a number of deliberate steps and, while the overall process isn’t too hard — it’s certainly a lot better than with the older SMJobBless — it’s easy to accidentally stray from the path and get very confused.
If you have questions or comments, start a new thread in the App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency subtopic and tag it with Service Management.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Getting Started with SMAppService
This post explains how to use SMAppService to install a launchd daemon. I tested these instructions using Xcode 26.0 on macOS 15.6.1. Things are likely to be slightly different with different Xcode and macOS versions.
Create the container app target
To start, I created a new project:
I choose File > New > Project.
In the template picker, I chose macOS > App.
In options page, I set the Product Name field to SMAppServiceTest [1].
And I selected my team in the Team popup.
And I verified that the Organization Identifier was set to com.example.apple-samplecode, the standard for Apple sample code [1].
I selected SwiftUI in the Interface popup. There’s no requirement to use SwiftUI here; I chose it because that’s what I generally use these days.
And None in the Testing System popup.
And None in the Storage popup.
I then completed the new project workflow.
I configured basic settings on the project:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the SMAppServiceTest target.
At the top I selected Signing & Capabilities.
In the Signing section, I made sure that “Automatically manage signing” was checked.
And that my team was selected in the Team popup.
And that the bundle ID of the app ended up as com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest.
Still in the Signing & Capabilities tab, I removed the App Sandbox section.
Note It’s possible to use SMAppService to install a daemon from a sandboxed app, but in that case the daemon also has to be sandboxed. That complicates things, so I’m disabling the sandbox for the moment. See Enable App Sandbox, below, for more on this.
Next I tweaked some settings to make it easier to keep track of which target is which:
At the top, I selected the Build Settings tab.
I changed the Product Name build setting from $(TARGET_NAME) to SMAppServiceTest.
On the left, I renamed the target to App.
I chose Product > Scheme > Manage Schemes.
In the resulting sheet, I renamed the scheme from SMAppServiceTest to App, just to keep things in sync.
[1] You are free to choose your own value, of course. However, those values affect other values later in the process, so I’m giving the specific values I used so that you can see how everything lines up.
Create the daemon target
I then created a daemon target:
I chose File > New > Target.
In the template picker, I chose macOS > Command Line Tool.
In the options page, I set the Product Name field to Daemon.
And I selected my team in the Team popup.
And I verified that the Organization Identifier was set to com.example.apple-samplecode, the standard for Apple sample code.
I selected Swift in the Language popup.
And verified that SMAppServiceTest was set in the Project popup.
I clicked Finish.
I configured basic settings on the target:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the Daemon target.
At the top I selected Signing & Capabilities.
In the Signing section, I made sure that “Automatically manage signing” was checked.
And that my team was selected in the Team popup.
Note The Bundle Identifier field is blank, and that’s fine. There are cases where you want to give a daemon a bundle identifier, but it’s not necessary in this case.
Next I tweaked some settings to make it easier to keep track of which target is which:
At the top, I selected the Build Settings tab.
I changed the Product Name build setting from $(TARGET_NAME) to SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
I forced the Enable Debug Dylib Support to No.
IMPORTANT To set it to No, you first have to set it to Yes and then set it back to No.
I edited Daemon/swift.swift to look like this:
import Foundation
import os.log
let log = Logger(subsystem: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest", category: "daemon")
func main() {
log.log("Hello Cruel World!")
dispatchMain()
}
main()
This just logs a ‘first light’ log message and parks [1] the main thread in dispatchMain().
Note For more about first light log points, see Debugging a Network Extension Provider.
[1] Technically the main thread terminates in this case, but I say “parks” because that’s easier to understand (-:
Test the daemon executable
I selected the Daemon scheme and chose Product > Run. The program ran, logging its first light log entry, and then started waiting indefinitely.
Note Weirdly, in some cases the first time I ran the program I couldn’t see its log output. I had to stop and re-run it. I’m not sure what that’s about.
I chose Product > Stop to stop it. I then switched back the App scheme.
Embed the daemon in the app
I added a build phase to embed the daemon executable into app:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the App target.
At the top I selected Build Phases.
I added a new copy files build phase.
I renamed it to Embed Helper Tools.
I set its Destination popup to Executables.
I clicked the add (+) button under the list and selected SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
I made sure that Code Sign on Copy was checked for that.
I then created a launchd property list file for the daemon:
In the Project navigator, I selected SMAppServiceTestApp.swift.
I chose Product > New > File from Template.
I selected the Property List template.
In the save sheet, I named the file com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist.
And made sure that the Group popup was set to SMAppServiceTest.
And that only the App target was checked in the Targets list.
I clicked Create to create the file.
In the property list editor, I added two properties:
Label, with a string value of com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
BundleProgram, with a string value of Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
I added a build phase to copy that property list into app:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the App target.
At the top I selected Build Phases.
I added a new copy files build phase.
I renamed it to Copy LaunchDaemons Property Lists.
I set its Destination popup to Wrapper.
And set the Subpath field to Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons.
I disclosed the contents of the Copy Bundle Resources build phase.
I dragged com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist from the Copy Bundle Resources build phase to the new Copy LaunchDaemons Property Lists build phase.
I made sure that Code Sign on Copy was unchecked.
Register and unregister the daemon
In the Project navigator, I selected ContentView.swift and added the following to the imports section:
import os.log
import ServiceManagement
I then added this global variable:
let log = Logger(subsystem: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest", category: "app")
Finally, I added this code to the VStack:
Button("Register") {
do {
log.log("will register")
let service = SMAppService.daemon(plistName: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist")
try service.register()
log.log("did register")
} catch let error as NSError {
log.log("did not register, \(error.domain, privacy: .public) / \(error.code)")
}
}
Button("Unregister") {
do {
log.log("will unregister")
let service = SMAppService.daemon(plistName: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist")
try service.unregister()
log.log("did unregister")
} catch let error as NSError {
log.log("did not unregister, \(error.domain, privacy: .public) / \(error.code)")
}
}
IMPORTANT None of this is code is structured as I would structure a real app. Rather, this is the absolutely minimal code needed to demonstrate this API.
Check the app structure
I chose Product > Build and verified that everything built OK. I then verified that the app’s was structured correctly:
I then choose Product > Show Build Folder in Finder.
I opened a Terminal window for that folder.
In Terminal, I changed into the Products/Debug directory and dumped the structure of the app:
% cd "Products/Debug"
% find "SMAppServiceTest.app"
SMAppServiceTest.app
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/_CodeSignature
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest.debug.dylib
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/__preview.dylib
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Resources
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Info.plist
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/PkgInfo
There are a few things to note here:
The com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist property list is in Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons.
The daemon executable is at Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
The app is still built as debug dynamic library (SMAppServiceTest.debug.dylib) but the daemon is not.
Test registration
I chose Product > Run. In the app I clicked the Register button. The program logged:
will register
did not register, SMAppServiceErrorDomain / 1
Error 1 indicates that installing a daemon hasn’t been approved by the user. The system also presented a notification:
Background Items Added
“SMAppServiceTest” added items that can
run in the background for all users. Do you
want to allow this?
Options > Allow
> Don’t Allow
I chose Allow and authenticated the configuration change.
In Terminal, I verified that the launchd daemon was loaded:
% sudo launchctl list com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
{
"LimitLoadToSessionType" = "System";
"Label" = "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon";
"OnDemand" = true;
"LastExitStatus" = 0;
"Program" = "Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon";
};
IMPORTANT Use sudo to target the global launchd context. If you omit this you end up targeting the launchd context in which Terminal is running, a GUI login context, and you won't find any launchd daemons there.
I started monitoring the system log:
I launched the Console app.
I pasted subsystem:com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest into the search box.
I clicked “Start streaming”.
Back in Terminal, I started the daemon:
% sudo launchctl start com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
In Console, I saw it log its first light log point:
type: default
time: 17:42:20.626447+0100
process: SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
subsystem: com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest
category: daemon
message: Hello Cruel World!
Note I’m starting the daemon manually because my goal here is to show how to use SMAppService, not how to use XPC to talk to a daemon. For general advice about XPC, see XPC Resources.
Clean up
Back in the app, I clicked Unregister. The program logged:
will unregister
did unregister
In Terminal, I confirmed that the launchd daemon was unloaded:
% sudo launchctl list com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
Could not find service "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon" in domain for system
Note This doesn’t clean up completely. The system remembers your response to the Background Items Added notification, so the next time you run the app and register your daemon it will be immediately available. To reset that state, run the sfltool with the resetbtm subcommand.
Install an Agent Rather Than a Daemon
The above process shows how to install a launchd daemon. Tweaking this to install a launchd agent is easy. There are only two required changes:
In the Copy Launch Daemon Plists copy files build phase, set the Subpath field to Contents/Library/LaunchAgents.
In ContentView.swift, change the two SMAppService.daemon(plistName:) calls to SMAppService.agent(plistName:).
There are a bunch of other changes you should make, like renaming everything from daemon to agent, but those aren’t required to get your agent working.
Enable App Sandbox
In some cases you might want to sandbox the launchd job (the term job to refer to either a daemon or an agent.) This most commonly crops up with App Store apps, where the app itself must be sandboxed. If the app wants to install a launchd agent, that agent must also be sandboxed. However, there are actually four combinations, of which three are supported:
App Sandboxed | Job Sandboxed | Supported
------------- | ------------- | ---------
no | no | yes
no | yes | yes
yes | no | no [1]
yes | yes | yes
There are also two ways to sandbox the job:
Continue to use a macOS > Command Line Tool target for the launchd job.
Use an macOS > App target for the launchd job.
In the first approach you have to use some low-level build settings to enable the App Sandbox. Specifically, you must assign the program a bundle ID and then embed an Info.plist into the executable via the Create Info.plist Section in Binary build setting.
In the second approach you can use the standard Signing & Capabilities editor to give the job a bundle ID and enable the App Sandbox, but you have to adjust the BundleProgram property to account for the app-like wrapper.
IMPORTANT The second approach is required if your launchd job uses restricted entitlements, that is, entitlements that must be authorised by a provisioning profile. In that case you need an app-like wrapper to give you a place to store the provisioning profile. For more on this idea, see Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement.
For more background on how provisioning profiles authorise the use of entitlements, see TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles.
On balance, the second approach is the probably the best option for most developers.
[1] When SMAppService was introduced it was possible to install a non-sandboxed daemon from a sandboxed app. That option is blocked by macOS 14.2 and later.
Hello,
An application I am working on would like to schedule push notifications for a medication reminder app. I am trying to use BGTaskScheduler to wake up periodically and submit the notifications based on the user's medication schedule.
I set up the task registration in my AppDelegate's didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method:
BGTaskScheduler.shared.register(
forTaskWithIdentifier: backgroundTaskIdentifier,
using: nil) { task in
self.scheduleNotifications()
task.setTaskCompleted(success: true)
self.scheduleAppRefresh()
}
scheduleAppRefresh()
I then schedule the task using:
func scheduleAppRefresh() {
let request = BGAppRefreshTaskRequest(identifier: backgroundTaskIdentifier)
request.earliestBeginDate = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: 60 * 1)
do {
try BGTaskScheduler.shared.submit(request)
} catch {
}
}
In my testing, I can see the background task getting called once, but if I do not launch the application during the day. The background task does not get called the next day.
Is there something else I need to add to get repeated calls from the BGTaskScheduler?
Thank You,
JR
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
Background Tasks
User Notifications
This comes up over and over, here on the forums and elsewhere, so I thought I’d post my take on it. If you have questions or comments, start a new thread here on the forums. Put it in the App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency subtopic and tag it with Concurrency.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Waiting for an Async Result in a Synchronous Function
On Apple platforms there is no good way for a synchronous function to wait on the result of an asynchronous function.
Lemme say that again, with emphasis…
On Apple platforms there is no good way for a synchronous function to wait on the result of an asynchronous function.
This post dives into the details of this reality.
Prime Offender
Imagine you have an asynchronous function and you want to call it from a synchronous function:
func someAsynchronous(input: Int, completionHandler: @escaping @Sendable (_ output: Int) -> Void) {
… processes `input` asynchronously …
… when its done, calls the completion handler with the result …
}
func mySynchronous(input: Int) -> Int {
… calls `someAsynchronous(…)` …
… waits for it to finish …
… results the result …
}
There’s no good way to achieve this goal on Apple platforms. Every approach you might try has fundamental problems.
A common approach is to do this working using a Dispatch semaphore:
func mySynchronous(input: Int) -> Int {
fatalError("DO NOT WRITE CODE LIKE THIS")
let sem = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)
var result: Int? = nil
someAsynchronous(input: input) { output in
result = output
sem.signal()
}
sem.wait()
return result!
}
Note This code produces a warning in the Swift 5 language mode which turns into an error in the Swift 6 language mode. You can suppress that warning with, say, a Mutex. I didn’t do that here because I’m focused on a more fundamental issue here.
This code works, up to a point. But it has unavoidable problems, ones that don’t show up in a basic test but can show up in the real world. The two biggest ones are:
Priority inversion
Thread pools
I’ll cover each in turn.
Priority Inversion
Apple platforms have a mechanism that helps to prevent priority inversion by boosting the priority of a thread if it holds a resource that’s needed by a higher-priority thread. The code above defeats that mechanism because there’s no way for the system to know that the threads running the work started by someAsynchronous(…) are being waited on by the thread blocked in mySynchronous(…). So if that blocked thread has a high-priority, the system can’t boost the priority of the threads doing the work.
This problem usually manifests in your app failing to meet real-time goals. An obvious example of this is scrolling. If you call mySynchronous(…) from the main thread, it might end up waiting longer than it should, resulting in noticeable hitches in the scrolling.
Threads Pools
A synchronous function, like mySynchronous(…) in the example above, can be called by any thread. If the thread is part of a thread pool, it consumes a valuable resource — that is, a thread from the pool — for a long period of time. The raises the possibility of thread exhaustion, that is, where the pool runs out of threads.
There are two common thread pools on Apple platforms:
Dispatch
Swift concurrency
These respond to this issue in different ways, both of which can cause you problems.
Dispatch can choose to over-commit, that is, start a new worker thread to get work done while you’re hogging its existing worker threads. This causes two problems:
It can lead to thread explosion, where Dispatch starts dozens and dozens of threads, which all end up blocked. This is a huge waste of resources, notably memory.
Dispatch has an hard limit to how many worker threads it will create. If you cause it to over-commit too much, you’ll eventually hit that limit, putting you in the thread exhaustion state.
In contrast, Swift concurrency’s thread pool doesn’t over-commit. It typically has one thread per CPU core. If you block one of those threads in code like mySynchronous(…), you limit its ability to get work done. If you do it too much, you end up in the thread exhaustion state.
WARNING Thread exhaustion may seem like just a performance problem, but that’s not the case. It’s possible for thread exhaustion to lead to a deadlock, which blocks all thread pool work in your process forever.
There’s a trade-off here. Swift concurrency doesn’t over-commit, so it can’t suffer from thread explosion but is more likely deadlock, and vice versa for Dispatch.
Bargaining
Code like the mySynchronous(…) function shown above is fundamentally problematic. I hope that the above has got you past the denial stage of this analysis. Now let’s discuss your bargaining options (-:
Most folks don’t set out to write code like mySynchronous(…). Rather, they’re working on an existing codebase and they get to a point where they have to synchronously wait for an asynchronous result. At that point they have the choice of writing code like this or doing a major refactor.
For example, imagine you’re calling mySynchronous(…) from the main thread in order to update a view. You could go down the problematic path, or you could refactor your code so that:
The current value is always available to the main thread.
The asynchronous code updates that value in an observable way.
The main thread code responds to that notification by updating the view from the current value.
This refactoring may or may not be feasible given your product’s current architecture and timeline. And if that’s the case, you might end up deploying code like mySynchronous(…). All engineering is about trade-offs. However, don’t fool yourself into thinking that this code is correct. Rather, make a note to revisit this choice in the future.
Async to Async
Finally, I want to clarify that the above is about synchronous functions. If you have a Swift async function, there is a good path forward. For example:
func mySwiftAsync(input: Int) async -> Int {
let result = await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
someAsynchronous(input: input) { output in
continuation.resume(returning: output)
}
}
return result
}
This looks like it’s blocking the current thread waiting for the result, but that’s not what happens under the covers. Rather, the Swift concurrency worker thread that calls mySwiftAsync(…) will return to the thread pool at the await. Later, when someAsynchronous(…) calls the completion handler and you resume the continuation, Swift will grab a worker thread from the pool to continue running mySwiftAsync(…).
This is absolutely normal and doesn’t cause the sorts of problems you see with mySynchronous(…).
IMPORTANT To keep things simple I didn’t implement cancellation in mySwiftAsync(…). In a real product it’s important to support cancellation in code like this. See the withTaskCancellationHandler(operation:onCancel:isolation:) function for the details.
Hi,
I am programming in C and would like to use Grand Central Dispatch for parallel computing (I mostly do physics based simulations). I remember there used to be example codes provided by Apple, but can't find those now. Instead I get the plain documentation. May anyone point me to the correct resources? It will be greatly appreciated. Thanks ☺.
I have several combine pipelines in my watch and iPhone app. While background tasks on the iPhone work correctly (the combine pipelines all activate), on the watch the pipelines do not get activated. I have an internal log reporting that data is being fed to the sources but is not propagating to the sinks.
Thoughts?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
watchOS
Combine
Background Tasks
Hello everyone,
I’m a new developer still learning as I go. I’m building a simple watchOS app that tracks Apple Watch battery consumption, records hourly usage data, and uses that information to predict battery life in hours.
I’ve run into an issue where background refresh completely stalls after charging and never recovers, regardless of what I do. The only way to restore normal behavior is to restart the watch.
Background refresh can work fine for days, but if the watch is charging and a scheduled background refresh tries to run during that period, it appears to be deferred—and then remains in that deferred state indefinitely. Even reopening the app or scheduling new refreshes doesn’t recover it.
Has anyone else encountered this behavior? Is there a reliable workaround?
I’ve seen a few reports suggesting that there may be a regression in scheduleBackgroundRefresh() on watchOS 26, where tasks are never delivered after certain states.
Any insights or confirmations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
First, our app communicates with our blood glucose monitor (CGM) using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
On an iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 26.0.1, Bluetooth communication works properly even when the app is in the background and locked. Even if the phone and CGM are disconnected, the app continues to scan in the background and reconnects when the phone and CGM are back in close proximity. It won't be dormant in the background or when the screen is locked. This effectively ensures that diabetic users can monitor their blood glucose levels in real time.
However, after using iOS 26.0.1 on the iPhone 17, we've received user feedback about frequent disconnections in the background. Our logs indicate that Bluetooth communication is easily disconnected when switching to the background, and then easily dormant by the system, especially when the user's screen is locked. This situation significantly impacts users' blood glucose monitoring, and users are unacceptable. What can be done?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
IOBluetooth
Background Tasks
Core Bluetooth
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,
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/802443
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/servicemanagement/updating-helper-executables-from-earlier-versions-of-macos
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ServiceManagement/updating-your-app-package-installer-to-use-the-new-service-management-api#Run-the-sample-launch-agent
Read these.
Earlier we had a setup with SMJobBless, now we have migrated to SMAppService.
Everything is working fine, the new API seems easier to manage, but we are having issues with updating the daemon.
I was wondering, what is the right process for updating a daemon from app side?
What we are doing so far:
App asks daemon for version
If version is lower than expected:
daemon.unregister(), wait a second and daemon.register() again.
The why?
We have noticed that unregistering/registering multiple times, of same daemon, can cause the daemon to stop working as expected. The daemon toggle in Mac Settings -> Login Items & Extensions can be on or off, but the app can still pickup daemon running, but no daemon running in Activity monitor. Registration/unregistration can start failing and nothing helps to resolve this, only reseting with sfltool resetbtm and a restart seems to does the job. This is usually noticeable for test users, testing same daemon version with different app builds.
In production app, we also increase the bundle version of daemon in plist, in test apps we - don't.
I haven't found any sources of how the update of pre-bundled app daemon should work.
Initial idea is register/unregister, but from what I have observed, this seems to mess up after multiple registrations.
I have a theory, that sending the daemon a command to kill itself after app update, would load the latest daemon.
Also, I haven't observed for daemon, with different build versions to update automatically.
What is the right way to update a daemon with SMAppService setup?
Thank you in advance.
Hi,
This post is coming from frustration of working on using BGContinuedProcessingTask for almost 2 weeks, trying to get it to actually complete in the background after the app is backgrounded.
My process will randomlly finish and not finish and have no idea why.
I'm properly using and setting
task?.progress.totalUnitCount = [some number]
task?.progress.completedUnitCount = [increment as processed]
I know this, because it all looks propler as long as the app insn't backgrounded. So it's not a progress issue. The task will ALWAYS complete.
The device has full power, as it is plugged in as I run from within Xcode. So, it's not a power issue.
Yes, the process will take a few minutes, but I thought that is BGContinuedProcessingTask purpose in iOS 26. For long running process that a user could place in the background and leave the app, assuming the process would actually finish.
Why bother introducing a feature that only works with short tasks that don't actually need long running time in the first place.
TCC Permission Inheritance for Python Process Launched by Swift App in Enterprise Deployment
We are developing an enterprise monitoring application that requires a hybrid Swift + Python architecture due to strict JAMF deployment restrictions. We must deploy a macOS application via ABM/App Store Connect, but our core monitoring logic is in a Python daemon. We need to understand the feasibility and best practices for TCC permission inheritance in this specific setup.
Architecture
Component
Bundle ID
Role
Deployment
Swift Launcher
com.athena.AthenaSentry
Requests TCC permissions, launches Python child process.
Deployed via ABM/ASC.
Python Daemon
com.athena.AthenaSentry.Helper
Core monitoring logic using sensitive APIs.
Nested in Contents/Helpers/.
Both bundles are signed with the same Developer ID and share the same Team ID.
Required Permissions
The Python daemon needs to access the following sensitive TCC-controlled services:
Screen Recording (kTCCServiceScreenCapture) - for capturing screenshots.
Input Monitoring (kTCCServiceListenEvent) - for keystroke/mouse monitoring.
Accessibility (kTCCServiceAccessibility) - a prerequisite for Input Monitoring.
Attempts & Workarounds
We have attempted to resolve this using:
Entitlement Inheritance: Added com.apple.security.inherit to the Helper's entitlements.
Permission Proxy: Swift app maintains active event taps to try and "hold" the permissions for the child.
Foreground Flow: Keeping the Swift app in the foreground during permission requests.
Questions
Is this architecture supported? Can a Swift parent app successfully request TCC permissions that a child process can then use?
TCC Inheritance: What are the specific rules for TCC permission inheritance between parent/child processes in enterprise environment?
What's the correct approach for this enterprise use case? Should we:
Switch to a Single Swift App? (i.e., abandon the Python daemon and rewrite the core logic natively in Swift).
Use XPC Services? (instead of launching the child process directly).
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
Enterprise
Entitlements
Privacy
Scripting
I've adopted the new BGContinuedProcessingTask in iOS 26, and it has mostly been working well in internal testing. However, in production I'm getting reports of the tasks failing when the app is put into the background.
A bit of info on what I'm doing: I need to download a large amount of data (around 250 files) and process these files as they come down. The size of the files can vary: for some tasks each file might be around 10MB. For other tasks, the files might be 40MB. The processing is relatively lightweight, but the volume of data means the task can potentially take over an hour on slower internet connections (up to 10GB of data).
I set the totalUnitCount based on the number of files to be downloaded, and I increment completedUnitCount each time a file is completed.
After some experimentation, I've found that smaller tasks (e.g. 3GB, 10MB per file) seem to be okay, but larger tasks (e.g. 10GB, 40MB per file) seem to fail, usually just a few seconds after the task is backgrounded (and without even opening any other apps). I think I've even observed a case where the task expired while the app was foregrounded!
I'm trying to understand what the rules are with BGContinuedProcessingTask and I can see at least four possibilities that might be relevant:
Is it necessary to provide progress updates at some minimum rate? For my larger tasks, where each file is ~40MB, there might be 20 or 30 seconds between progress updates. Does this make it more likely that the task will be expired?
For larger tasks, the total time to complete can be 60–90 mins on slower internet connections. Is there some maximum amount of time the task can run for? Does the system attempt some kind of estimate of the overall time to complete and expire the task on that basis?
The processing on each file is relatively lightweight, so most of the time the async stream is awaiting the next file to come down. Does the OS monitor the intensity of workload and suspend the task if it appears to be idle?
I've noticed that the task UI sometimes displays a message, something along the lines of "Do you want to continue this task?" with a "Continue" and "Stop" option. What happens if the user simply ignores or doesn't see this message? Even if I tap "Continue" the task still seems to fail sometimes.
I've read the docs and watched the WWDC video, but there's not a whole lot of information on the specific issues I mention above. It would be great to get some clarity on this, and I'd also appreciate any advice on alternative ways I could approach my specific use case.
I would like to know whether BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest supports executing asynchronous tasks internally, or if it can only execute synchronous tasks within BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest?
Our project is very complex, and we now need to use BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest to perform some long-running operations when the app enters the background (such as video encoding/decoding & export). However, our export interface is an asynchronous function, for example video.export(callback: FinishCallback). This export call returns immediately, and when the export completes internally, it calls back through the passed-in callback. So when I call BGTaskScheduler.shared.register to register a BGContinuedProcessingTask, what should be the correct approach? Should I directly call video.export(nil) without any waiting, or should I wait for the export function to complete in the callback?
For example:
BGTaskScheduler.shared.register(forTaskWithIdentifier: "com.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx", using: nil) { task in
guard let continuedTask = task as? BGContinuedProcessingTask else {
task.setTaskCompleted(success: false)
return
}
let scanner = SmartAssetsManager.shared
let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)
continuedTask.expirationHandler = {
logError(items: "xwxdebug finished.")
semaphore.signal()
}
logInfo(items: "xwxdebug start!")
video.export { _ in
semaphore.signal()
}
semaphore.wait()
logError(items: "xwxdebug finished!")
}
If I create a BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest, register it, and then "do work" within it appropriately reporting progress, and before my task has finished doing all the work it had to do, its expirationHandler triggers...
does the task later try again?
Or does it lose the execution opportunity until the app is next re-launched to the foreground?
In my testing, I never saw my task execute again once expired (which suggests the latter?).
I was able to easily force this expiry by starting my task, backgrounding my app, then launching the iOS Camera App. My example is just using test code inspired from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/backgroundtasks/performing-long-running-tasks-on-ios-and-ipados
let request = BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest(identifier: taskIdentifier, title: "Video Upload", subtitle: "Starting Upload")
request.strategy = .queue
BGTaskScheduler.shared.register(forTaskWithIdentifier: taskIdentifier, using: nil) { task in
guard let task = task as? BGContinuedProcessingTask else { return }
print("i am a good task")
var wasExpired = false
task.expirationHandler = {
wasExpired = true
}
let progress = task.progress
progress.totalUnitCount = 100
while !progress.isFinished && !wasExpired {
progress.completedUnitCount += 1
let formattedProgress = String(format: "%.2f", progress.fractionCompleted * 100)
task.updateTitle(task.title, subtitle: "Completed \(formattedProgress)%")
sleep(1)
}
if progress.isFinished {
print ("i was a good task")
task.setTaskCompleted(success: true)
} else {
print("i was not a good task")
task.setTaskCompleted(success: false)
}
}
try? BGTaskScheduler.shared.submit(request)
Apologies if this is clearly stated somewhere and I'm missing it.