Bug Report: ScreenCaptureKit System Audio Capture Crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Summary
When using ScreenCaptureKit to capture system audio for extended periods, the application crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS in Swift's error handling runtime. The crash occurs in swift_getErrorValue when trying to process an error from the SCStream delegate method didStopWithError. This appears to be a framework-level issue in ScreenCaptureKit or its underlying ReplayKit implementation.
Environment
macOS Sonoma 14.6.1
Swift 5.8
ScreenCaptureKit framework
Detailed Description
Our application captures system audio using ScreenCaptureKit's audio capture capabilities. After successfully capturing for several minutes (typically after 3-4 segments of 60-second recordings), the application crashes with an EXC_BAD_ACCESS error. The crash happens when the Swift runtime attempts to process an error in the SCStreamDelegate.stream(_:didStopWithError:) method.
The crash consistently occurs in swift_getErrorValue when attempting to access the class of what appears to be a null object. This suggests that the error being passed from the system framework to our delegate method is malformed or contains invalid memory.
Steps to Reproduce
Create an SCStream with audio capture enabled
Add audio output to the stream
Start capture and write audio data to disk
Allow the capture to run for several minutes (3-5 minutes typically triggers the issue)
The app will crash with EXC_BAD_ACCESS in swift_getErrorValue
Code Sample
func stream(_ stream: SCStream, didStopWithError error: Error) {
print("Stream stopped with error: \(error)") // Crash occurs before this line executes
}
func stream(_ stream: SCStream, didOutputSampleBuffer sampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer, of type: SCStreamOutputType) {
guard type == .audio, sampleBuffer.isValid else { return }
// Process audio data...
}
Expected Behavior
The error should be properly propagated to the delegate method, allowing for graceful error handling and recovery.
Actual Behavior
The application crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS when the Swift runtime attempts to process the error in swift_getErrorValue.
Crash Log Details
Thread #35, queue = 'com.apple.NSXPCConnection.m-user.com.apple.replayd', stop reason = EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x0)
frame #0: 0x0000000194c3088c libswiftCore.dylib`swift::_swift_getClass(void const*) + 8
frame #1: 0x0000000194c30104 libswiftCore.dylib`swift_getErrorValue + 40
frame #2: 0x00000001057fba30 shadow`NewScreenCaptureService.stream(stream=0x0000600002de6700, error=Swift.Error @ 0x000000016b7b5e30) at NEW+ScreenCaptureService.swift:365:15
frame #3: 0x00000001057fc050 shadow`@objc NewScreenCaptureService.stream(_:didStopWithError:) at <compiler-generated>:0
frame #4: 0x0000000219ec5ca0 ScreenCaptureKit`-[SCStreamManager stream:didStopWithError:] + 456
frame #5: 0x00000001ca68a5cc ReplayKit`-[RPScreenRecorder stream:didStopWithError:] + 84
frame #6: 0x00000001ca696ff8 ReplayKit`-[RPDaemonProxy stream:didStopWithError:] + 224
Printing description of stream._streamQueue:
error: ObjectiveC.id:4294967281:18: note: 'id' has been explicitly marked unavailable here
public typealias id = AnyObject
^
error: /var/folders/v4/3xg1hmp93gjd8_xlzmryf_wm0000gn/T/expr23-dfa421..cpp:1:65: 'id' is unavailable in Swift: 'id' is not available in Swift; use 'Any'
Swift._DebuggerSupport.stringForPrintObject(Swift.UnsafePointer<id>(bitPattern: 0x104ae08c0)!.pointee)
^~
ObjectiveC.id:2:18: note: 'id' has been explicitly marked unavailable here
public typealias id = AnyObject
^
warning: /var/folders/v4/3xg1hmp93gjd8_xlzmryf_wm0000gn/T/expr23-dfa421..cpp:5:7: initialization of variable '$__lldb_error_result' was never used; consider replacing with assignment to '_' or removing it
var $__lldb_error_result = __lldb_tmp_error
~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_
Before the crash, we observed this error message in the console:
[ERROR] *****SCStream*****RemoteAudioQueueOperationHandlerWithError:1015 Error received from the remote queue -16665
Additional Context
The issue occurs consistently after approximately 3-4 successful audio segment recordings of 60 seconds each
Commenting out custom segment rotation logic does not prevent the crash
The crash involves XPC communication with Apple's ReplayKit daemon
The error appears to be corrupted or malformed when crossing the XPC boundary
Workarounds Attempted
Added proper thread safety for all published properties using DispatchQueue.main.async
Implemented more robust error handling in the delegate methods
None of these approaches prevented the crash since it occurs at the Swift runtime level before our code executes.
Impact
This issue prevents reliable long-duration audio capture using ScreenCaptureKit.
This bug significantly limits the usefulness of ScreenCaptureKit for any application requiring continuous system audio capture for more than a few minutes.
Perhaps this issue might be related to a macOS bug where the system dialog indicates that the screen is being shared, even though nothing is actually being shared. Moreover, when attempting to stop sharing, nothing happens.
Audio
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AVAudioSessionCategoryOptionAllowBluetooth is marked as deprecated in iOS 8 in iOS 26 beta 5 when this option was not deprecated in iOS 18.6. I think this is a mistake and the deprecation is in iOS 26. Am I right?
It seems that the substitute for this option is "AVAudioSessionCategoryOptionAllowBluetoothHFP". The documentation does not make clear if the behaviour is exactly the same or if any difference should be expected... Has anyone used this option in iOS 26? Should I expect any difference with the current behaviour of "AVAudioSessionCategoryOptionAllowBluetooth"?
Thank you.
iPhoneやiPadにおいて、画面上のボタンなどをタップした際に、特定の楽器音を発音させる方法をご存知の方いらっしゃいませんか?
現在音楽学習アプリを作成途中で、画面上の鍵盤や指板のボタン状のframeに、単音又は和音を割当て発音させる事を考えております
SwiftUIのcodeのみで実現できないでしょうか
嘗て、MIDIのlevel1の楽器の発音機能があった様に記憶していますが、現在のOS上では同様の機能を実装してないように思えます
皆様のお知恵をお貸しください
I have a SwiftUI app - (https://youtu.be/VbAfUk_eYl0?si=JxUBh0Bpb-vc1E1U) - which I thought was almost ready for release - a manager for airdropped audio files from Logic Pro or other music creation applications. It uses AVAudioEngine and AVAudioPlayerNode to play audio, and the MediaPlayer API to integrate with car audio and similar, all of which works well.
It does not currently have an explicit CarPlay integration (and I'm slightly horrified at the amount of work that is going to require).
I had the good or bad luck of getting a loaner car with carplay while mine is being repaired yesterday, and lo and behold, when connected to the vehicle via CarPlay, there is no audio output in the vehicle at all. The now playing panel correctly shows the information my app provides about the currently playing song; the player node believes it is playing, the AVAudioSession is configured as it should be. But there is no sound.
Obviously I cannot ship it in this state.
I've tried fiddling with the parameters the AVAudioSession is configured with, in case there was some parameter that was preventing audio output, to no avail - currently:
var options = AVAudioSession.CategoryOptions()
options.insert(.allowAirPlay)
options.insert(.allowBluetooth)
options.insert(.allowBluetoothA2DP)
try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: options)
try? session.setPreferredIOBufferDuration(0.002) // ~96 samples at 44.1kHz
try? session.setPrefersNoInterruptionsFromSystemAlerts(true)
try? session.setPrefersInterruptionOnRouteDisconnect(false)
try session.setActive(true, options: [.notifyOthersOnDeactivation])
All diagnostics within the app show the player operating correctly - files are played and flushed; AVAudioPlayerNodeCompletionCallbacks are called when they should be. But the output is not audible in the vehicle.
I would much prefer to ship this app without full-blown CarPlay integration, but with working audio when connected via CarPlay, and work on full CarPlay integration for the next release.
Is there some secret handshake I am just missing to make this work?
I have a simple AVAudioEngine graph as follows:
AVAudioPlayerNode -> AVAudioUnitEQ -> AVAudioUnitTimePitch -> AVAudioUnitReverb -> Main mixer node of AVAudioEngine.
I noticed that whenever I have AVAudioUnitTimePitch or AVAudioUnitVarispeed in the graph, I noticed a very distinct crackling/popping sound in my Airpods Pro 2 when starting up the engine and playing the AVAudioPlayerNode and unable to find the reason why this is happening. When I remove the node, the crackling completely goes away. How do I fix this problem since i need the user to be able to control the pitch and rate of the audio during playback.
import AVKit
@Observable @MainActor
class AudioEngineManager {
nonisolated private let engine = AVAudioEngine()
private let playerNode = AVAudioPlayerNode()
private let reverb = AVAudioUnitReverb()
private let pitch = AVAudioUnitTimePitch()
private let eq = AVAudioUnitEQ(numberOfBands: 10)
private var audioFile: AVAudioFile?
private var fadePlayPauseTask: Task<Void, Error>?
private var playPauseCurrentFadeTime: Double = 0
init() {
setupAudioEngine()
}
private func setupAudioEngine() {
guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Song name goes here", withExtension: "mp3") else {
print("Audio file not found")
return
}
do {
audioFile = try AVAudioFile(forReading: url)
} catch {
print("Failed to load audio file: \(error)")
return
}
reverb.loadFactoryPreset(.mediumHall)
reverb.wetDryMix = 50
pitch.pitch = 0 // Increase pitch by 500 cents (5 semitones)
engine.attach(playerNode)
engine.attach(pitch)
engine.attach(reverb)
engine.attach(eq)
// Connect: player -> pitch -> reverb -> output
engine.connect(playerNode, to: eq, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(eq, to: pitch, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(pitch, to: reverb, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(reverb, to: engine.mainMixerNode, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
}
func prepare() {
guard let audioFile else { return }
playerNode.scheduleFile(audioFile, at: nil)
}
func play() {
DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
engine.prepare()
try? engine.start()
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
playerNode.play()
fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel()
playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0
fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
while true {
let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: true)
// Ramp up volume until 1 is reached
if volume >= 1 { break }
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume
try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10))
playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01
}
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 1
}
}
}
}
func pause() {
fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel()
playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0
fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
while true {
let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: false)
// Ramp down volume until 0 is reached
if volume <= 0 { break }
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume
try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10))
playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01
}
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 0
playerNode.pause()
// Shut down engine once ramp down completes
DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
engine.pause()
}
}
}
private func updateVolume(for x: Double, rising: Bool) -> Float {
if rising {
// Fade in
return Float(pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x)))
} else {
// Fade out
return Float(1 - (pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x))))
}
}
func setPitch(_ value: Float) {
pitch.pitch = value
}
func setReverbMix(_ value: Float) {
reverb.wetDryMix = value
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var audioManager = AudioEngineManager()
@State private var pitch: Float = 0
@State private var reverb: Float = 0
var body: some View {
VStack(spacing: 20) {
Text("🎵 Audio Player with Reverb & Pitch")
.font(.title2)
HStack {
Button("Prepare") {
audioManager.prepare()
}
Button("Play") {
audioManager.play()
}
.padding()
.background(Color.green)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.cornerRadius(10)
Button("Pause") {
audioManager.pause()
}
.padding()
.background(Color.red)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.cornerRadius(10)
}
VStack {
Text("Pitch: \(Int(pitch)) cents")
Slider(value: $pitch, in: -2400...2400, step: 100) { _ in
audioManager.setPitch(pitch)
}
}
VStack {
Text("Reverb Mix: \(Int(reverb))%")
Slider(value: $reverb, in: 0...100, step: 1) { _ in
audioManager.setReverbMix(reverb)
}
}
}
.padding()
}
}
We have application using PTT Framework to record audio messages when app is backgrounded. Right now we are using AVAudioRecorder for that purpose. And problem is one specific user has frequent issue - recorded audio contains only silence.
I've checked almost everything I can imagine but didn't find any possible reason of issue.
Conditions:
AVAudioRecorder uses following configuration:
[
AVEncoderAudioQualityKey: AVAudioQuality.low.rawValue,
AVFormatIDKey : kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC,
AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 1,
AVSampleRateKey: 16000.0
]
App waits both didBeginTransmitting and didActivate audioSession from PTChannelManager (audio session has playback category at that moment)
App does AVAudioSession category change to playAndRecord
App gets routeChangeNotification with categoryChange and category = playAndRecord
There is no any interruption notifications from AVAudioSession during recording
There is no any error notification from AVAudioRecorder
Any idea what exactly I do wrong? Is there anything else I should check?
Thanks in advance.
P.S. it looks like recording audio with AudioUnit has the same issue, but let's exclude it from question atm for simplicity.
Since many users like me use Apple Music on Android, the app is almost as feature-rich as iOS. It would be fantastic if the developers could add the new iOS 26 features to the Android app, along with a minor UI change. I know it’s challenging to implement liquid glass on Android hardware or design, but features like auto-mix, pronunciation, and translation could be added.
kindly consider this request !!!!
So experimenting with the new SpeechTranscriber, if I do:
let transcriber = SpeechTranscriber(
locale: locale,
transcriptionOptions: [],
reportingOptions: [.volatileResults],
attributeOptions: [.audioTimeRange]
)
only the final result has audio time ranges, not the volatile results.
Is this a performance consideration? If there is no performance problem, it would be nice to have the option to also get speech time ranges for volatile responses.
I'm not presenting the volatile text at all in the UI, I was just trying to keep statistics about the non-speech and the speech noise level, this way I can determine when the noise level falls under the noisefloor for a while.
The goal here was to finalize the recording automatically, when the noise level indicate that the user has finished speaking.
Hi, I'm working on an AUv3 project.
The app itself displays my icon.
However the Auv3 extension does not display any icon in any host app (AUM, Drambo, etc.0).
I thought that the extension would inherit the host app icon but that it does not appear to be the case.
I tried to add the icon as a 1024x1024 file to the extension target and the update my extension plist file withe a CFBundleIconFile key but no luck either.
It must surely be really easy. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Audio
The AVB AVnu MILAN Convention has a groweing Population. Many big companies (Cisco, Meyer Sound, d&b Audio, l‘acoustics, Presonus, digico etc.) implements the AVB AVnu Milan Standards. Is there a plan on the Apple side to also implement AVnu Milan on top of the AVB Protocol?
The advantage for Apple Sound would be a great Integration in the professionell Audio market and a more stable intergration on top of the AVB protocol. The atdecc work, but Not that stable.
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Audio
Hello,
I’m new here. I'm developing an iOS app and I’d like to know whether it is possible to detect if a phone call is being recorded by another app running in the background.
I’ve already reviewed the documentation for CallKit and AVAudioSession, but I couldn’t find anything related. My expectation was that iOS might provide some callback or API to indicate if a call is being recorded (third-party apps), but so far I haven’t found a way.
My questions are:
Does iOS expose any API to detect if a call is being recorded?
If not, is there any indirect, Apple's policy compliant method (e.g., microphone usage events) that can be relied upon?
Or is this something that iOS explicitly prevents for privacyreasons?
Expecting solutions that align with Apple’s policies and would be accepted under the App Store Review Guidelines.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
Hi all,
I'm working on an audio visualizer app that plays files from the user's music library utilizing MediaPlayer and AVAudioEngine. I'm working on getting the music library functionality working before the visualizer aspect.
After setting up the engine for file playback, my app inexplicably crashes with an EXC_BREAKPOINT with code = 1. Usually this means I'm unwrapping a nil value, but I think I'm handling the optionals correctly with guard statements. I'm not able to pinpoint where it's crashing. I think it's either in the play function or the setupAudioEngine function. I removed the processAudioBuffer function and my code still crashes the same way, so it's not that. The device that I'm testing this on is running iOS 26 beta 3, although my app is designed for iOS 18 and above.
After commenting out code, it seems that the app crashes at the scheduleFile call in the play function, but I'm not fully sure.
Here is the setupAudioEngine function:
private func setupAudioEngine() {
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .default)
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
print("Audio session error: \(error)")
}
engine.attach(playerNode)
engine.attach(analyzer)
engine.connect(playerNode, to: analyzer, format: nil)
engine.connect(analyzer, to: engine.mainMixerNode, format: nil)
analyzer.installTap(onBus: 0, bufferSize: 1024, format: nil) { [weak self] buffer, _ in
self?.processAudioBuffer(buffer)
}
}
Here is the play function:
func play(_ mediaItem: MPMediaItem) {
guard let assetURL = mediaItem.assetURL else {
print("No asset URL for media item")
return
}
stop()
do {
audioFile = try AVAudioFile(forReading: assetURL)
guard let audioFile else {
print("Failed to create audio file")
return
}
duration = Double(audioFile.length) / audioFile.fileFormat.sampleRate
if !engine.isRunning {
try engine.start()
}
playerNode.scheduleFile(audioFile, at: nil)
playerNode.play()
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
self?.isPlaying = true
self?.startDisplayLink()
}
} catch {
print("Error playing audio: \(error)")
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
self?.isPlaying = false
self?.stopDisplayLink()
}
}
}
Here is a link to my test project if you want to try it out for yourself:
https://github.com/aabagdi/VisualMan-example
Thanks!
Is there a recommended way on macOS 26 Tahoe to take a CoreAudio AudioObjectID and use it to lookup the underlying USB LocationID?
I previously used AudioObjectID to query the corresponding DeviceUID with kAudioDevicePropertyDeviceUID. Then I queried for the IOService matching kIOAudioEngineClassName with property kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey matching DeviceUID, and I loaded kUSBDevicePropertyLocationID from the result.
This fails on macOS 26, because the IO Registry for the device has an entry for usbaudiod rather than AppleUSBAudioEngine, and usbaudiod does not include a kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey property (or any other property to map it to a CoreAudio DeviceUID).
My use-case here is a piece of audio recording software that allows configuring a set of supported audio devices via USB HID prior to recording. I present the user with a list of CoreAudio devices to use, but without a way to lookup the underlying USB LocationID, I cannot guarantee that the configured device matches the selected device (e.g. if the user plugged in two identical microphones).
I am trying to debug the AAX version of my plugin (MIDI effect) on Pro Tools, but I am getting the following error (Mac console) when attempting to load it:
dlsym cannot find symbol g_dwILResult in CFBundle etc..
I used Xcode 16.4 to build the plugin.
Has anybody come across the same or a similar message?
Best,
Achillefs
Axart Labs
I’m using the shared instance of AVAudioSession. After activating it with .setActive(true), I observe the outputVolume, and it correctly reports the device’s volume.
However, after deactivating the session using .setActive(false), changing the volume, and then reactivating it again, the outputVolume returns the previous volume (before deactivation), not the current device volume. The correct volume is only reported after the user manually changes it again using physical buttons or Control Center, which triggers the observer.
What I need is a way to retrieve the actual current device volume immediately after reactivating the audio session, even on the second and subsequent activations.
Disabling and re-enabling the audio session is essential to how my application functions.
I’ve tested this behavior with my colleagues, and the issue is consistently reproducible on iOS 18.0.1, iOS 18.1, iOS 18.3, iOS 18.5 and iOS 18.6.2. On devices running iOS 17.6.1 and iOS 16.0.3, outputVolume correctly reflects the current volume immediately after calling .setActive(true) multiple times.
Environment→ ・Device: iPad 10th generation ・OS:**iOS18.3.2
We're using AVAudioPlayer to play a sound when a button is tapped. In our use case, this button can be tapped very frequently — roughly every 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. Each tap triggers the following function:
var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer?
func soundPlay(resource: String, type: String){
guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: resource, ofType: type) else {
return
}
do {
audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: path))
audioPlayer!.delegate = self
try audioSession.setCategory(.playback)
} catch {
return
}
self.audioPlayer!.play()
}
The issue is that under high-frequency tapping (especially around 0.1–0.15s intervals), the app occasionally crashes. The crash does not occur every time, but it happens randomly — sometimes within 30 seconds, within 1 minute, or even 3 minutes of continuous tapping.
Interestingly, adding a delay of 0.2 seconds between button taps seems to prevent the crash entirely. Delays shorter than 0.2 seconds (e.g.,0.15s,0.18s) still result in occasional crashes.
My questions are:
**Is this expected behavior from AVAudioPlayer or AVAudioSession?
Could this be a known issue or a limitation in AVFoundation?
Is there any documentation or guidance on handling frequent sound playback safely?**
Any insights or recommendations on how to handle rapid, repeated audio playback more reliably would be appreciated.
Hi,
Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question in, but could you please advise if I can use Apple Digital Masters logo (badge) in my iOS app that is playing music from Apple Music service?
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Audio
I have a music app I'm developing and having a weird issue where I can see now playing info for every other platform than tvOS. As far as I can tell I have correctly configured the MPNowPlayingInfoCenter
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = nowPlayingInfo MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().playbackState = .playing
Are there any extra requirements to get my app's now-playing info showing in control center on tvOS? Another strange issue that might be related is I can use the apple TV remote to pause audio but not resume playback, so I feel like there's something I'm missing about registering audio playback on tvOS specifically.
Hi,
On macOS I used to open MP3 and MP4 files with ExtAudioFile. For a few years it doesn't work anymore.
So I decided to try different macOS API using the AudioFileID of AudioToolbox framework.
I decided to write a test:
https://gist.github.com/joelkraehemann/7f5b241b52ca38c3a765c138fb647588
It fails right here:
AudioFileOpenWithCallbacks()
By telling OSStatus error 1954115647, which means kAudioFileUnsupportedFileTypeError.
The filename was set to an MP4 file:
~/Music/test.mp4
Howto fix this?
regards, Joël
I found that the aggregated device correctly obtains input channels in the standard microphone mode. However, in voice isolation mode, it only retrieves channels from the first sub-device in the aggregated device's list. If I want to properly obtain channel information in voice isolation mode, how should I do it?