At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Developer Tools. Will my project codebase be used for training when I use Xcode's intelligent assistant powered by cloud-based models? When using ChatGPT without logging in, your data will not be used to improve any models. If you log in to a ChatGPT account, this is based on your ChatGPT account settings, which allows you to opt-out (it defaults to on). When using Xcode with accounts for other model providers, you should check with the policies of your provider. And finally, at no point will any portion of your codebase be used to train or improve any Apple models. We'd love to make our SwiftUI Previews (and soon, Playgrounds) as snappy as possible. Is there any way to skip certain build steps, such as running linters? It seems the build environment is exactly the same (compared to a debug build), but maybe there's a trick. Starting with Xcode 16, SwiftUI previews use the exact same build artifacts as the regular build. The new Playgrounds support in Xcode 26 uses these build artifacts too. Shell script build phases are the most common thing that introduces extra build time, so as a first step, try turning off all shell script build phases (like linters) to get an idea if that’s the issue. If those build phases add significant time to your build, consider moving some of those phases into asynchronous steps, such as running linters before committing instead of on every build. If you do need a shell script build phase to run during your build, make sure to explicitly define the input and output files, as that is a huge way to improve your build performance. Are we able to provide additional context for the models, like coding standards? Documentation for third party dependencies? Documentation on your own codebase that explains things like architecture and more? In general, Xcode will automatically search for the right context based on the question and the evolving answer, as the model can interact multiple times with your project as it develops an answer. This will automatically pick up the coding style of the code it sees, and can include files that contain architecture comments, etc. Beyond automatic context, you can manually attach other documents, even if they aren't in your project. For example, you could make a file with rules and ideas and attach it, and it will influence the response. We are very aware of other kinds of automatic context like rule files, etc, though Xcode does not support these at this time. Once ChatGPT is enabled for Coding Intelligence in Xcode 26, and I sign into my existing ChatGPT account, will the ChatGPT Coding Intelligence model in Xcode know about chat conversations on Xcode development done previously in the ChatGPT Mac app? Xcode does not use information from other conversations, and conversations started in Xcode are not accessible in the web UI or ChatGPT app. Is there a plan to make SwiftUI views easier to locate and understand in the view hierarchy like UIKit views? SwiftUI uses a declarative paradigm to define your user interface. That allows you to specify what you want, with the system translating that into an efficient representation at runtime. Unlike traditional AppKit and UIKit, seeing the runtime representation of SwiftUI views isn't sufficient in order to understand why it's not doing what you want. This year, we introduced a SwiftUI Instrument that shows why things are happening, like view re-rendering. Is it possible to use the AI chat with ChatGPT Enterprise? My company doesn't allow us to use the general ChatGPT, only the enterprise version they have setup that prevents data from being leaked Yes, Xcode 26 supports logging into any existing ChatGPT account, including enterprise accounts. If that does not meet your needs, you can also setup a local server that implements the popular chat completions REST API to talk to your enterprise account how you need. Now that Icon Composer is here, how does it complement or replace existing vector design tools such as Sketch for icon design? Icon Composer complements your existing vector design tools. You should continue to create your shapes, gradients, and layers in another tool like Sketch, and compose the exported SVG layers in Icon Composer. Once you bring your layers into Icon Composer, you can then use it to influence the translucency, blur, and specular highlights for your icon. What’s one feature or improvement in the new Xcode that you personally think developers will love, but might not immediately discover? Maybe something tucked away or quietly powerful that’s flown under the radar so far? One feature we're particularly excited about is the new power profiler for iOS, which gives you further insights into the energy consumption of your app beyond what was possible with the energy instrument previously. You can learn more about how to use this instrument and how it can help you greatly reduce your apps battery usage in the documentation, as well as the session Profile and optimize power usage in your app. There were also improvements in accessibility this year with Voice Control, where you can naturally speak your Swift code to Xcode, and it understands the Swift syntax as you speak. To see it in action, take a look at the demonstration in What’s new in Xcode 26. We have a software advisory council that is very sensitive to having our private information going to the cloud in any form. What information do you have to help me guide Xcode and Apple Intelligence through the acceptance process? One thing you can do is configure a proxy for your enterprise that implementing the popular Chat Completions API endpoint protocol. When using a model provider via URL, you can use your proxy endpoint to inspect the network traffic for anything that you do not want sent outside of your enterprise, and then forward the traffic through the proxy to your chosen model provider. Are there list of recommended LLMs to use with Xcode via Intelligence/Local? I've tried Gemma3-12B, but.. I hope there are better options? Apple doesn't have a published list of recommended local models. This is a fast-moving space, and so a recommendation would become out of date very quickly as new models are released. We encourage you to try out the local model support in Xcode 26 with models that you find meet your needs, and let us and the community know! (continued below)

Hey guys, so I've read a lot of previous issues opened before opening this one, and I am doing it because none of the info found solved my problem. So, I am trying to build my app which it has a custom Info.plist file. But i keep getting the issue of multiple command when trying to build. Here is how it;s configured: Info.plist has the target membership correct Build Setting is set to 'NO' under "Generate Info.plist File" The path is correct, in the same folder as the ContentView And here is what I've already tried to fix the issue: Check in Build Phases if the wasn't a duplication: There isn't Removing the Info.plist from the "Copy Bundle Resources": When I do this, than I get another issue which is "Build input file cannot be found. Did you forget to declare this file as an output of a script phase or custom build rule which produces it?" Switching the Build to Legacy Build System: Nothing changed Deleting the manually created Info.plist file and changing the Build Settings to 'YES' under "Generate Info.plist File": I get the same issue "Build input file cannot be found. Did you forget to declare this file as an output of a script phase or custom build rule which produces it?" Deleted the Derived Data multiple times Deleted the Info.plist file and re-added it through File > New File Anyway, this is my last resource to find some help here in the forum. Any insight is valid P.S: XCode version 16.1

Our CI process uses XcodeBuild tools. It used to work very well. The shell code is as follows: step 1 "++++++++++++++++clean++++++++++++++++" xcodebuild clean -workspace ${WORKSPACE_NAME}.xcworkspace \ -scheme ${SCHEME_NAME} \ -configuration ${configuration} step 2 "+++++++++++++++++archive+++++++++++++++++" xcodebuild archive -workspace ${WORKSPACE_NAME}.xcworkspace \ -scheme ${SCHEME_NAME} \ -configuration ${configuration} \ -archivePath ${ARCHIVE_PATH} -allowProvisioningUpdates YES step 3 "+++++++++++++++++ipa+++++++++++++++++" xcodebuild -exportArchive \ -archivePath ${ARCHIVE_PATH} \ -exportPath "${IPA_PATH}" \ -exportOptionsPlist ${EXPORT_METHOD_PLIST_PATH} \ -allowProvisioningUpdates YES But after upgrading to xcode16, every time I execute the step3, it fails. The error log is like this ** ARCHIVE SUCCEEDED ** 2024-11-08 16:19:54.360 xcodebuild[36487:6743710] [MT] IDEDistribution: -[IDEDistributionLogging _createLoggingBundleAtPath:]: Created bundle at path "/var/folders/ch/1mvd9gz11cn8zy9h254qz2600000gn/T/xxx.xcdistributionlogs". error: exportArchive No Accounts error: exportArchive Provisioning profile "iOS Team Store Provisioning Profile: com.xxx" doesn't include signing certificate "Apple Distribution: xxx Co Ltd (xxx)". ** EXPORT FAILED ** At this time, my Apple developer account disappeared in xcode-setting-account, and it automatically logged out. If I log in again and execute the shell command, the above phenomenon will reappear. What is the cause of this, and what do I need to do to solve this problem? I look forward to your reply

i am unable to deploy the iOS app with automation using below command: ios-deploy --bundle /Users/XXXX/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/iOSClient2-XXXXXXX/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/iOSClient2.app/ --id 00008020-XXXXXXXXX --justlaunch --verbose with the error: ------ Debug phase ------ Starting debug of 00008120-000C713236E0A01E (D38AP, D38AP, uknownos, unkarch, 18.1, 22B83) a.k.a. 'Svt’s iPhone' connected through USB... Device Class: iPhone build: 22B83 version: 18.1 Found Xcode developer dir /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer version: 18.0 version: 18 2024-11-08 15:26:09.531 ios-deploy[33496:644410] [ !! ] Unable to locate DeviceSupport directory with suffix 'DeveloperDiskImage.dmg'. This probably means you don't have Xcode installed, you will need to launch the app manually and logging output will not be shown! Observation: Xcode 16 missing the DeviceSupport for iOS17 and above. /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/.... Xcode: Version 16.1 (16B40 iOS: iOS17 and above

Sometimes, I receive old location data from the location manager.

I am developing an app for Vehicle owners with a built-in map navigation feature with voice navigation support. The app works fine without voice navigation but when I use voice navigation it occasionally crashes and it crashes while voice navigation is not in progress. What makes it impossible to diagnose is that even though it crashed 10 times on the flight, I don't see any crash reports in 'Apple Connect'. I tried running it in a simulator and it didn't crash there! but on a real device, when I drive with the app navigating me I crashes abruptly after a few minutes and it's not while the voice navigation is speaking! I also ran the app without AVFoundation and it did not crash then. So I am 100% sure it is something with this AVFoundation framework. If anyone can help find the problem in my following code it would be really helpful. import SwiftUI import AVFoundation struct DirectionHeaderView: View { @Environment(\.colorScheme) var bgMode: ColorScheme var directionSign: String? var nextStepDistance: String var instruction: String @Binding var showDirectionsList: Bool @Binding var height: CGFloat @StateObject var locationDataManager: LocationDataManager @State private var synthesizer = AVSpeechSynthesizer() @State private var audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() @State private var lastInstruction: String = "" @State private var utteranceDistance: String = "" @State private var isStepExited = false @State private var range = 20.0 var body: some View { VStack { HStack { VStack { if let directionSign = directionSign { Image(systemName: directionSign) } if !instruction.contains("Re-calculating the route...") { Text("\(nextStepDistance)") .onChange(of: nextStepDistance) { let distance = getDistanceInNumber(distance: nextStepDistance) if distance <= range && !isStepExited { startVoiceNavigation(with: instruction) isStepExited = true } } } } Spacer() Text(instruction) .onAppear { isStepExited = false utteranceDistance = nextStepDistance range = nextStepRange(distance: utteranceDistance) startVoiceNavigation(with: "In \(utteranceDistance), \(instruction)") } .onChange(of: instruction) { isStepExited = false utteranceDistance = nextStepDistance range = nextStepRange(distance: utteranceDistance) startVoiceNavigation(with: "In \(utteranceDistance), \(instruction)") } .padding(10) Spacer() } } .padding(.horizontal,10) .background(bgMode == .dark ? Color.black.gradient : Color.white.gradient) } func startVoiceNavigation(with utterance: String) { if instruction.isEmpty || utterance.isEmpty { return } if instruction.contains("Re-calculating the route...") { synthesizer.stopSpeaking(at: AVSpeechBoundary.immediate) return } let thisUttarance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: utterance) lastInstruction = instruction if audioSession.category == .playback && audioSession.categoryOptions == .mixWithOthers { DispatchQueue.main.async { synthesizer.speak(thisUttarance) } } else { setupAudioSession() DispatchQueue.main.async { synthesizer.speak(thisUttarance) } } } func setupAudioSession() { do { try audioSession.setCategory(AVAudioSession.Category.playback, options: AVAudioSession.CategoryOptions.mixWithOthers) try audioSession.setActive(true) } catch { print("error:\(error.localizedDescription)") } } func nextStepRange(distance: String) -> Double { var thisStepDistance = getDistanceInNumber(distance: distance) if thisStepDistance != 0 { switch thisStepDistance { case 0...200: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return thisStepDistance/1.5 } else { return thisStepDistance/2 } case 201...300: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return 120 } else { return 100 } case 301...500: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return 150 } else { return 125 } case 501...1000: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return 250 } else { return 200 } case 1001...10000: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return 250 } else { return 200 } default: if locationDataManager.speed >= 90 { return 250 } else { return 200 } } } return 200 } func getDistanceInNumber(distance: String) -> Double { var thisStepDistance = 0.0 if distance.contains("km") { let stepDistanceSplits = distance.split(separator: " ") let stepDistanceText = String(stepDistanceSplits[0]) if let dist = Double(stepDistanceText) { thisStepDistance = dist * 1000 } } else { var stepDistanceSplits = distance.split(separator: " ") var stepDistanceText = String(stepDistanceSplits[0]) if let dist = Double(stepDistanceText) { thisStepDistance = dist } } return thisStepDistance } } #Preview { DirectionHeaderView(directionSign: "", nextStepDistance: "", instruction: "", showDirectionsList: .constant(false), height: .constant(0), locationDataManager: LocationDataManager()) }

I have this error for 5 min : title: Waiting to reconnect to {Iphone_Name} content: Previous preparation error: The developer disk image could not be mounted on this device.. Error mounting image: 0xe800010f (kAMDMobileImageMounterPersonalizedBundleMissingVariantError: The bundle image is missing the requested variant for this device.) after a while : title: The developer disk image could not be mounted on this device. content: Error mounting image: 0xe800010f (kAMDMobileImageMounterPersonalizedBundleMissingVariantError: The bundle image is missing the requested variant for this device.) What has been tryed : - Xcode : clean - Xcode : close - Iphone : unpluged - Iphone : Remove trusted device - Iphone : Remove Dev mode - Iphone : Re-active dev mode (then reboot) - Iphone : Accepte dev mode - Iphone : wait 5 min - Iphone : connect to the macbook pro (M1) - Iphone : accepte first form - XCode : start it - Iphone : accepte second form - XCode : select my project THEN BUG SAME PLAIN OLD APPLE BUG (again and again) (I have try it like 20 times, i'm fed up now) I have paid for a pro (100euros) account to be able to push to my brand new iphone. I have tried everything, like : remove xcode, re-install it. No Update for the iphone. sudo installer -pkg /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Resources/Packages/XcodeSystemResources.pkg -target / What I can do : - Buy a subscription to store my iphone on icloud (cause basic option is already full) - Ask a refound for the iphone (obviously not working) and my apple subscription developers. And fix my old iphone. No point to buy brand new device that is not working. Also, same error with my brand new ipad pro 16 pouce. I can't push to the store, cause you ask screen shot. But I can't start the apps, so i can't have screen shot. So i have to change my plans in terms of project. Please help, before I switch to a full web stack based on rust

In several places on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/configuring-your-app-icon I read: "In the Project navigator, select an asset catalog." But my Project Navigator does NOT contain any "asset catalog". So it's impossible to follow the instructions of the documentation, and thus specify a new app icon (set). I can add that I use Xcode 16.1 on MacOS 15.0.1 Sequoia. I have added a screen shot to document what I am saying. I have also reported this error in https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/15738182

When attempting to fix an issue that is only happening on a specific iOS build I noticed that I am not able to install that specific build on my simulator. Is there any way to get specific iOS builds that are not available through Xcode? Example: The bug I am trying to fix is only happening on 17.6.1 and 17.7.1. These specific builds are not available through Xcode. Attempted Resolution: I found a iPhone14,5_17.6.1_21G101_Restore.ipsw file but was not able to import it into Xcode for use nor was I able to use it on a physical device.

We have a daemon (/Library/LaunchDaemons) that has been calling setuid (usr/include/unistd.h) for some time. Launchd allowed that until we started compiling using Xcode 16 (maybe even Xcode 15). But now we have to remove that call for launchd to allow the daemon to run. That's not really an issue to remove that call but it is very mysterious that it only fails in Sonoma. Works in Sequoia and Monterey. Why is that? We found this after adding some logging to our daemon plist: The application with bundle ID <redacted> is running setugid(), which is not allowed. Exiting. We're actually calling setuid.

In "Create asset catalogs and sets" - https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/dev10510b1f7 - I read this: " Create an iOS or tvOS launch screen image set: Choose App Icons & Launch Images > New [OS] Launch Image from the Add button (+) or from the Editor > Add Assets menu. For an iOS app, you can also change the default launch screen source to an image set. " But neither the Editor -> Add New Asset menu nor the Add button (+) menu contains an "App Icons & Launch Images" item. I can add that I use Xcode 16.1. So again, the Xcode documentation is quite misleading and confusing! My (real) question is if it is possible to give Xcode ONE launch image from which Xcode creates all necessary image sizes automatically? Or do we still need the apps and services that creates a bunch of launch images from ONE image?

Really stumped on this issue my team is seeing with the Xcode 16 Beta (both Xcode 16 version 6 and Xcode 16.1). Wondering if anyone was having a similar issue and if this is a bug or something configured incorrectly. Basically, when I go to build settings and search for anything related to "Swift Compiler" nothing shows up. The only thing that appears with "Swift" in the title is under the User Defined keys (see attached) As such, I'm unable to change the Swift version for the project and I'm stuck in Swift 6 language mode which we're not quite ready for yet. This is only occurring on one of our targets. Our other app projects are behaving as expected. The project in question has the main target we build the project with and 2 support frameworks. The supporting frameworks are also working correctly. Its just the primary build target giving us fits. Curious if anyone is seeing something similar or has suggestions. Thanks!

Hi, Is it possible to manually create collapsable areas in Xcode when it doesn't show automatically , for example variables definition area in views ? Kind Regards

I recently compiled my macOS App with Swift 6 in Xcode 16 (was using Swift 5 previously) and noticed that AppKit Integration doesn't appear to be working as before. All my instances of NSHostingView which allow me to add a SwiftUI View to an AppKit NSWindow view controller no longer respond to mouse input anymore. All my NSHostingView instances display but refuse to accept any user interaction. Has anyone else noticed this and is there a workaround to get NSHostingView to once again be able to accept user/mouse events with Swift 6?

Inquiry about Open Source Release of Xcode 15's ld Source Code Dear Apple Developer Support Team, I hope this email finds you well. I am a developer with a keen interest in Apple's development toolchain. I noticed that Xcode 15 uses a new version of the linker (ld), and I'm particularly interested in its source code. I would like to inquire about: When will the source code for the ld linker used in Xcode 15 be made available as open source? Your response would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Best regards, Panghu

let videoURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: path ?? "") let asset = AVURLAsset(url: videoURL, options: nil) let imageGenerator = AVAssetImageGenerator(asset: asset) imageGenerator.appliesPreferredTrackTransform = true let time = CMTimeMultiplyByRatio(asset.duration, multiplier: 1, divisor: 2) // THIS LINE GIVES ISSUE: "'duration' was deprecated in iOS 16.0: Use load(.duration) instead". I CANNOT FIGURE OUT THE CORRECT SYNTAX FOR CHANGING asset.duration TO REPLACE WITH load(.duration). HELP WITH THE CORRECT SYNTAX WOULD BE HELPFUL.

Hi everyone, Since updating to Xcode 16.1 on macOS Sequoia 15.0.1, I’m having issues with my app not launching on my iOS device. The app finishes compiling in Xcode without any errors, but it never appears to launch on the device—it either gets stuck indefinitely or doesn’t show any progress on the device screen. Details of the Issue: Xcode shows that the app is launching, but there’s no progress on the device. Tried on multiple devices with the same result. Troubleshooting Steps I’ve Tried: Cleaned the build folder and deleted derived data. Verified the deployment target matches the device’s iOS version. Checked provisioning profiles and code signing settings. Restarted both Xcode and my device. Tried connecting over both USB and Wi-Fi. Workaround Found: Unpairing the device from Xcode, pairing it again, then turning off Wi-Fi on the device before building allows the app to launch successfully. Has anyone else experienced this with Xcode 16.1? Any tips on a more permanent solution or other troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello! Recently, I noticed that my build isn’t including additional assets (icons). I tried using two different versions of Xcode (16.1 and 15.4) on separate Macs, but I’m getting the same result. Not all icons are being included in the build. However, I found that if I set my minimum deployment version to 14, all of the icons appear as expected. Starting from target version 15 in Xcode, no additional icons are included. Is there any way to resolve this?

I have one project, it has one Swift (AppKit) App and one C++ dylib project, I don't have problem in build the dylib, but when build the UI App, there will be an error: "ld: multiple errors: file cannot be open()ed, errno=2 path=/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/AppDelegate.o in '/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/AppDelegate.o'; file cannot be open()ed, errno=2 path=/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/ViewController.o in '/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/ViewController.o'; file cannot be open()ed, errno=2 path=/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/GeneratedAssetSymbols.o in '/Users/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/doodle-girdwlxpmnbetjdldjvdgddoetub/Build/Intermediates.noindex/doodle.build/Debug/doodle.build/Objects-normal/arm64/GeneratedAssetSymbols.o' clang++: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)" Clean project folder and rebuild - it won't fix I tried remove the two Swift files and added it again- it won't fix Delete DerivedData folder - it won't fix I upgraded to Xcode 16.1 - also tried above, it won't fix BUT: the project doesn't have any problem when build with Xcode 15

I used to download and replace the app container when I was testing, essentially downloading the container from the live app, and restoring it into the test app in order to not affect the live app, but to test major changes on "live" data. it seems the option for downloading and replacing in Xcode no longer works, I will sometimes get a container downloaded, other times it only part downloads. I can never seem to get it to replace. No errors, but it doesn't work on the new device. It used to be that devices & simulators showed when it was downloading and replacing but it no longer does that. Is there another way of doing this? Currently I'm having to take a backup of the live phone, restore on the test device, then delete all the unneeded apps, otherwise the restore takes ages, then backup the test device and restore every time I need to restart.

I regularly talk to developers debugging hard-to-reproduce problems. I have some general advice on that topic. I’ve posted this to DevForums before, and also sent similar info to folks who’ve opened a DTS incident, but I figured I should write it down properly. If you have questions or comments, put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Put it in the Developer Tools & Services > General topic area and tag it with Debugging. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Using a Sysdiagnose Log to Debug a Hard-to-Reproduce Problem Some problems are hard to reproduce in your office. These usually fall into one of two categories: Environment specific — This is where some of your users can easily reproduce the problem, but you can’t reproduce it in your environment. Intermittent — In this case the problem could affect any user, but it’s hard to predict when a given user will see the problem. A key tool in debugging such problems is the sysdiagnose log. This post explains how to make this technology work for you. IMPORTANT A sysdiagnose log might contain private information. If you ask a user to send you a log, make sure they understand the privacy impact of that. If you want to see how Apple handles this, run the sysdiagnose command on a fresh Mac and read through it’s initial prompt. Sysdiagnose Logs All Apple platforms can generate sysdiagnose logs. For instructions on how to do this, see our Bug Reporting > Profiles and Logs page. The resulting log is a .tar.gz file. Unpacking that reveals a bunch of files. The most critical of these is system_logs.logarchive, which is a snapshot of the system log. For more information about the system log, including links to the documentation, see Your Friend the System Log. This log snapshot includes many thousands of log entries (I just took a log snapshot on my Mac and it had 22.8 million log entries!). That can be rather daunting. To avoid chasing your tail, it pays to do some preparation. Preparation The goal here is to create a set of instructions that you can give to your user to capture an actionable sysdiagnose log. That takes some preparation. To help orient yourself in the log, add log points to your code to highlight the problem. For example, if you’re trying to track down a keychain problem where SecItemCopyMatching intermittently fails with errSecMissingEntitlement ( -34018 ), add a log point like this: import os.log let log = Logger(subsystem: "com.example.waffle-varnish", category: "keychain") func … { let err = SecItemCopyMatching(…) log.log("SecItemCopyMatching failed, err: \(err)") } When you look through a log, find this specific failure by searching for SecItemCopyMatching failed, err: -34018. You might also add log points at the start and end of an operation, which helps establish a time range of interest. Log points like this have a very low overhead and it’s fine to leave them enabled in your released product. However, in some cases you might want to make more extensive changes, creating a debug build specifically to help investigate your problem. Think about how you’re going to get that debug build to the affected users. You might, for example, set up a special TestFlight group for folks who’ve encountered this issue. Go to Bug Reporting > Profiles and Logs and look for debug profiles that might help your investigation. For example, if you’re investigating a Network Extension issue, the VPN (Network Extension) debug profile will enable useful debug logging. Now craft your instructions for your user. Include things like: Your take on the privacy impact on this Instructions on how to get the necessary build of your product If there’s a debug profile, instructions on how to install that Instructions on how to trigger the sysdiagnose log And on how to send it to you IMPORTANT Make sure to stress how important it is that the user triggers the sysdiagnose immediately after seeing the problem. Finally, test your steps. Do an initial test in your office, to make sure that the log captures the info you need. Then do an end-to-end test with someone who’s about as technically savvy as your users, to make sure that your instructions make sense to Real People™. Prompting for a Sysdiagnose Log In some cases it might not be obvious to the user when to trigger a sysdiagnose log. Imagine you’re hunting the above-mentioned errSecMissingEntitlement error and it only crops up when your product is performing some task in the background. The user doesn’t see that failure, they’re not even running your app!, so they don’t know that action is required. A good option here is to add code to actively monitor for the failure and post a local notification requesting that the user trigger a sysdiagnose log. Continuing the above example, you might write code like this: func … { let err = SecItemCopyMatching(…) log.log("SecItemCopyMatching failed, err: \(err)") if err == errSecMissingEntitlement { … post a local notification … } } Obviously this is quite intrusive so, depending on the market for your product, you might not want to deploy this to all users. Perhaps you can restrict it to your internal testers, or your external beta testers, or a particularly savvy set of customers. You can use the applefeedback URL scheme to make it easy for users to run Feedback Assistant. For more info about that, see Developer > Bug Reporting. Looking at the System Log Once you have your sysdiagnose log, unpack it and open the system log snapshot (system_logs.logarchive) in Console. The hardest part is knowing where to start. That’s why adding your own log entries, as discussed in Preparation, is so important. A good general process is: Search for log entries from your subsystem. An easy way to initiate that search is to paste the text subsystem:SSS, where SSS is your subsystem, into the Search field. Continuing the above example, find that log entry by pasting in subsystem:com.example.waffle-varnish. Identify the log entry that indicates the problem and select it. Then remove your search and work backwards through the log looking for system log entries related to your issue. The relevant log entries might not be within the time range shown by Console. Customise that by selecting values from the Showing popup in the pane divider. Once you have a rough idea of the timeframe involved, select Custom from that popup to focus on that range. If the log is showing stuff that’s not relevant to your problem, Console has some great facilities for filtering those out. For the details, choose Help > Console Help. Talk to Apple A key benefit of this approach is that, if your investigation suggests that this is a system bug, you can file a bug report and attach this sysdiagnose log to it. The setup described above is exactly the sort of info needed to analyse the bug. Likewise, if you start a thread here on DevForums about your issue, your friendly neighbourhood DTS engineer will find that sysdiagnose log very handy. Revision History 2024-11-14 Added a reference to the applefeedback URL scheme. Made other minor editorial changes. 2023-10-13 First posted.