Hi, I would like to use macro-mode for the custom camera using AVCaptureDevice in my project. This feature might help to automatically adjust and switch between lenses to get a close up clear image. It looks like this feature is not available and there are no open apis to achieve macro mode from Apple. Is there a way to get this functionality in the custom camera without losing the image quality. Please let me know if this is possible. Thanks you, Adil Thamarasseri

Based on the iPhone 14 Max camera, implement model recognition and draw a rectangular box around the recognized object. The width and height are calculated using LiDAR and displayed in centimeters on the real-time updated image.

I'm developing an iOS app using AVFoundation for real-time video capture and object detection. While implementing torch functionality with camera switching (between Wide and Ultra-Wide lenses), I encountered a critical issue where the camera freezes when toggling the torch while the Ultra-Wide camera is active. Issue If the torch is ON and I switch from Wide to Ultra-Wide, the camera freezes If the Ultra-Wide camera is active and I try to turn the torch ON, the camera freezes The iPhone Camera app allows using the torch while recording video with the Ultra-Wide lens, so this should be possible via AVFoundation as well. Code snippet DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async { [weak self] in guard let self = self else { return } let isSwitchingToUltraWide = !self.isUsingFisheyeCamera let cameraType: AVCaptureDevice.DeviceType = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? .builtInUltraWideCamera : .builtInWideAngleCamera let cameraName = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? "Ultra Wide" : "Wide" guard let selectedCamera = AVCaptureDevice.default(cameraType, for: .video, position: .back) else { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.showAlert(title: "Camera Error", message: "\(cameraName) camera is not available on this device.") } return } do { let currentInput = self.videoCapture.captureSession.inputs.first as? AVCaptureDeviceInput self.videoCapture.captureSession.beginConfiguration() if isSwitchingToUltraWide && self.isFlashlightOn { self.forceEnableTorchThroughWide() } if let currentInput = currentInput { self.videoCapture.captureSession.removeInput(currentInput) } let videoInput = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: selectedCamera) self.videoCapture.captureSession.addInput(videoInput) self.videoCapture.captureSession.commitConfiguration() self.videoCapture.updateVideoOrientation() DispatchQueue.main.async { if let barButton = sender as? UIBarButtonItem { barButton.title = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? "Wide" : "Ultra Wide" barButton.tintColor = isSwitchingToUltraWide ? UIColor.systemGreen : UIColor.white } print("Switched to \(cameraName) camera.") } self.isUsingFisheyeCamera.toggle() } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.showAlert(title: "Camera Error", message: "Failed to switch to \(cameraName) camera: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } Expected Behavior Torch should be able to work when Ultra-Wide is active, just like the iPhone Camera app does. The camera should not freeze when switching between Wide and Ultra-Wide with the torch ON. AVCaptureSession should not crash when toggling the torch while Ultra-Wide is active. Questions & Help Needed Is this a known issue with AVFoundation? How does the iPhone Camera app allow using the torch while recording in Ultra-Wide? What’s the correct way to switch between Wide and Ultra-Wide cameras without freezing when the torch is active? Info Device tested: iPhone 13 Pro / iPhone 15 Pro / Iphone 15 iOS Version: iOS 17.3 / iOS 18.0 Xcode Version: 16.2

We are encountering a critical, intermittently occurring crash issue when accessing photo data using PHAssetResourceManager.writeDataForAssetResource on iOS 18. The problem does not arise on iOS 17 or earlier versions. We have been unable to identify a consistent reproduction path. Based on user feedback, the issue seems to involve Live Photo and Raw image files. Our investigation has revealed that the crash occurs in the +[PISchema identifier] method of the PhotoImaging Framework. When called manually, this method causes a crash on iOS 18 but works without issues on iOS 17. Reproduction Steps: 1.Fetch PHAsset. 2.Get PHAssetResource by [PHAssetResource assetResourcesForAsset:]. 3.Call [PHAssetResourceManager writeDataForAssetResource:toFile:options:completionHandler:]. Crash Log: Incident Identifier: CFD60092-FDB1-43B4-BA42-3F507F7B8B96 CrashReporter Key: 260b4780989083a54e0cb451930fe9a3bed64862 Hardware Model: iPhone13,4 AppStoreTools: 16C5031b AppVariant: 1:iPhone13,4:18 Code Type: ARM-64 (Native) Role: Foreground Parent Process: launchd [1] Date/Time: 2025-02-15 19:07:57.7054 +0800 Launch Time: 2025-02-15 19:07:55.4106 +0800 OS Version: iPhone OS 18.3.1 (22D72) Release Type: User Baseband Version: 5.20.03 Report Version: 104 Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: SIGNAL 6 Abort trap: 6 Terminating Process: mCloud_iPhone [11109] Triggered by Thread: 11 Application Specific Information: abort() called Thread 11 name: Dispatch queue: com.apple.NSXPCConnection.m-user.com.apple.photos.service Thread 11 Crashed: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x1e850b2d4 __pthread_kill + 8 1 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x221b4959c pthread_kill + 268 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x19ec24b08 abort + 128 3 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdcdbdec -[NUAssertionPolicyAbort notifyAssertion:] + 68 4 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdcdbbf4 -[NUAssertionPolicyComposite notifyAssertion:] + 160 5 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdcdc098 -[NUAssertionPolicyUnique notifyAssertion:] + 176 6 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdcdb524 -[NUAssertionHandler handleFailureInFunction:file:lineNumber:currentlyExecutingJobName:description:arguments:] + 156 7 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdcdc4bc _NUAssertFailHandler + 176 8 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdc8ea98 -[NUIdentifier initWithNamespace:name:version:] + 2352 9 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdc8eba8 -[NUIdentifier initWithName:version:] + 84 10 NeutrinoCore 0x1bdc8ec10 -[NUIdentifier initWithName:] + 68 11 PhotoImaging 0x1bda54ce4 +[PISchema identifier] + 36 12 PhotoImaging 0x1bda550fc +[PISchema registeredPhotosSchemaIdentifier] + 32 13 PhotoImaging 0x1bd9d7128 +[PIPhotoEditHelper newComposition] + 28 14 PhotoImaging 0x1bd940798 +[PICompositionSerializer deserializeCompositionFromAdjustments:metadata:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 160 15 PhotoImaging 0x1bd9412ec +[PICompositionSerializer deserializeCompositionFromData:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 224 16 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1afabf75c -[PLPhotoEditPersistenceManager loadCompositionFrom:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:sidecarData:error:] + 1856 17 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1afabffe4 +[PLPhotoEditPersistenceManager validateAdjustmentData:formatIdentifier:formatVersion:error:] + 108 18 Photos 0x1af4ac360 __167+[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext contentEditingInputRequestContextForAsset:requestID:managerID:networkAccessAllowed:downloadIntent:progressHandler:resultHandler:]_block_invoke + 260 19 Photos 0x1af4ac67c -[PHAdjustmentData(ContentEditingInput) _contentEditing_readableByClientWithVerificationBlock:] + 136 20 Photos 0x1af4ac4b0 -[PHAdjustmentData(ContentEditingInput) _contentEditing_requiredBaseVersionReadableByClient:verificationBlock:] + 88 21 Photos 0x1af4abb8c -[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext _adjustmentBaseVersionFromResult:request:canHandleAdjustmentData:] + 404 22 Photos 0x1af4a911c -[PHContentEditingInputRequestContext produceChildRequestsForRequest:reportingIsLocallyAvailable:isDegraded:result:] + 624 23 Photos 0x1af2c1d10 -[PHMediaRequestContext _produceChildRequestsForRequest:withResult:] + 88 24 Photos 0x1af2c11e8 -[PHMediaRequestContext mediaRequest:didFinishWithResult:] + 88 25 Photos 0x1af505184 -[PHAdjustmentDataRequest _finishFromAsynchronousCallback] + 124 26 Photos 0x1af5050a0 __39-[PHAdjustmentDataRequest startRequest]_block_invoke + 584 27 PhotoLibraryServicesCore 0x1b001be8c __106-[PLAssetsdResourceClient adjustmentDataForAsset:networkAccessAllowed:trackCPLDownload:completionHandler:]_block_invoke.86 + 864 28 CoreFoundation 0x196dd8e34 __invoking___ + 148 29 CoreFoundation 0x196dd7e7c -[NSInvocation invoke] + 428 30 Foundation 0x195a64ae0 __NSXPCCONNECTION_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_EXPORTED_OBJECT__ + 16 31 Foundation 0x195a63514 -[NSXPCConnection _decodeAndInvokeReplyBlockWithEvent:sequence:replyInfo:] + 532 32 Foundation 0x195a6653c __88-[NSXPCConnection _sendInvocation:orArguments:count:methodSignature:selector:withProxy:]_block_invoke_5 + 188 33 libxpc.dylib 0x221babb80 _xpc_connection_reply_callout + 116 34 libxpc.dylib 0x221b9e2d0 _xpc_connection_call_reply_async + 80 35 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb6b028 _dispatch_client_callout3 + 20 36 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb88b64 _dispatch_mach_msg_async_reply_invoke + 340 37 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb7242c _dispatch_lane_serial_drain + 352 38 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb73158 _dispatch_lane_invoke + 432 39 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb7e38c _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 288 40 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eb7dbd8 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 540 41 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x221b44680 _pthread_wqthread + 288 42 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x221b42474 start_wqthread + 8

I am writing an iOS app to present a slide show of assets in a Photo album, in a random order, including videos and live photos. I have got it all working quite nicely but for a Live Photo, I need to know what effect is selected (Live, Loop, Bounce, Long Exposure, Live Off) to display the image correctly. I can't find any mention of getting this information in the documentation. Anyone know how to do this? Thanks in advance. Adrian. (Xcode 16.1 iOS 18.0)

Hey, I have a camera app that captures a ProRaw photo and then runs a few Core Image filters before saving it to the device as a HEIC. However I'm finding that capturing at 48MP is rather slow. Testing a minimal pipeline on an iPhone 16 Pro: Shutter press => file received in output: 1.2 ~ 1.6s CIRawFilter created using photo file representation then rendered to context, without any filters: 0.8s ~ 1s Saving to device ~0.15s Is this the expected time for capturing processing? The native camera app seems to save the images within half a second. I'm using QualityPrioritization.balanced and the highest resolution available which is 48MP. Would using the CIRawFilter with the pixelBuffer from the photo output be faster? I tried it but couldn't get it to output an image. Are there any other things I could try to speed this up? Is it possible to capture at 24MP instead? Thanks, Alex

I want to create a Live Photo. The project includes a .jpg image and a .mov video (2 seconds). I am sure they are correct. Two permissions in xcode have been added: Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description Privacy - Photo Library Additions Usage Description Simulate: iphone 16, ios 18.3 The codes in ContentView.swift : private func saveLivePhoto(imageURL: URL, videoURL: URL, completion: @escaping (Bool, Error?) -> Void) { PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges { let creationRequest = PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset() let options = PHAssetResourceCreationOptions() options.shouldMoveFile = false creationRequest.addResource(with: .photo, fileURL: imageURL, options: options) creationRequest.addResource(with: .pairedVideo, fileURL: videoURL, options: options) } completionHandler: { success, error in DispatchQueue.main.async { print(error) completion(success, error) } } } guard let imageURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "livephoto", withExtension: "jpeg"), let videoURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "livephoto", withExtension: "mov") else { showAlertMessage(title: "error", message: "cant find Live Photo ") return } print("imageURL: \(imageURL)") print("videoURL: \(videoURL)") saveLivePhoto(imageURL: imageURL, videoURL: videoURL) { success, error in if success { xxxxx } else { xxxxx } } Really need help, thanks

Hi everyone, We're encountering an unexpected issue with our iPhone-only camera app: 👉 TimeMark - Photo Proof https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timemark-photo-proof/id6446071834 Problem Description: Our app uses a full-screen camera view via AVCaptureSession. In some cases reported by users, the camera fails immediately upon app launch, and we receive this interruption reason: AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReasonVideoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps According to the Apple documentation https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturesession/interruptionreason/videodevicenotavailablewithmultipleforegroundapps?language=objc , this interruption typically occurs when the app is running in a multi-app layout such as Slide Over, Split View, or Picture in Picture — all of which are iPad-only features. However, this issue is being reported on iPhones, and our app does not support iPad at all. Also noted in the documentation: "Given your present AVCaptureSession configuration, the session may only be run if your app occupies the full screen." Additional Context: The issue occurs immediately on app launch, before the user can interact with the camera. We don’t enable multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled. We are 100% sure this is happening on iPhone, not iPad. It’s hard to reproduce; users report it happening sporadically. Locally, we tried playing Picture-in-Picture videos (e.g., Safari/YouTube) before launching our app, but we could not reproduce the issue. Questions: Why is this interruption reason occurring on iPhone, which doesn’t officially support Slide Over or Split View? Could this be caused by some system-level multitasking or resource contention (e.g., Picture in Picture from FaceTime or Safari)? Would enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled help prevent this issue on iPhone, even though it's designed for iPad? Enabling multitaskingCameraAccessEnabled seems to require enabling UIBackgroundModes → voip. Would adding this background mode cause any App Store review risk or rejection if our app doesn't actually use VoIP functionality? Any help, insight, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Before you post —Camera doesn't work on the Simulator— that's no longer true. I've made a solution that makes the Simulator believe there's an actual hardware device connected, allowing users to stream the macOS camera to the iOS Simulator (see for more info RocketSim's documentation: https://docs.rocketsim.app/features/hzQMSrSga7BGWvxdNVdwYs/simulator-camera-support/58tQ5jvevLNSnyUEA7VgAv) Now, it works for VNDocumentCameraViewController, but when I try opening DataScannerViewController, I directly run into: Failed to start scanning: The operation couldn’t be completed. (VisionKit.DataScannerViewController.ScanningUnavailable error 0.) My question: How does this view controller determine whether scanning is available? Is there a certain capability the available AVCaptureDevice's need to support maybe? Any direction would be helpful for me to make this work for developers, making them build apps faster!

Issue: After iOS 18.5 release, our app is experiencing a significant increase in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps errors. Details: Our camera-related code has not been updated recently.However, we've observed that the error rate has significantly increased starting from May 2025. The error rate has risen from approximately 0.02% (2 in 10,000 users) to 0.1% (1 in 1,000 users). This represents a 5x increase in error occurrence. The frequency has increased noticeably since iOS 18.5 This is affecting our app's camera functionality and user experience Questions: Are there any known changes in iOS 18.5 regarding camera access management? What are the recommended best practices to handle this interruption reason? Are there any API changes we should be aware of? Best, Shay

Hello, I'm developing an app that displays a photo library using UICollectionView and PHCachingImageManager. I'd like to achieve a user experience similar to the native iOS Photos app, where low-quality images are shown quickly while scrolling, and higher-quality images are loaded for visible cells once scrolling stops. I'm currently using the following approach: While Scrolling: I'm using the UICollectionViewDataSourcePrefetching protocol. In the prefetchItemsAt method, I call startCachingImages with low-quality options to cache images in advance. After Scrolling Stops: In the scrollViewDidEndDecelerating method, I intend to load high-quality images for the currently visible cells. I have a few questions regarding this approach: What is the best practice for managing both low-quality and high-quality images efficiently with PHCachingImageManager? Is it correct to call startCachingImages with fastFormat options and then call it again with highQualityFormat in scrollViewDidEndDecelerating? How can I minimize the delay when a low-quality image is replaced by a high-quality one? Are there any additional strategies to help pre-load high-quality images more effectively?

In iOS 26 (Developer Beta), the AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate no longer receives callbacks when metadataOutput.metadataObjectTypes = [.face] is set. On earlier iOS versions the issue does not occur. Interestingly, face detection works if I set the sessionPreset to .medium, but not with .high — except on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, where it works regardless.

I'm creating Live Photos programmatically in my app using the Photos and AVFoundation frameworks. While the Live Photos work perfectly in the Photos app (long press shows motion), users cannot set them as motion wallpapers. The system shows "Motion not available" message. Here's my approach for creating Live Photos: // 1. Create video with required metadata let writer = try AVAssetWriter(outputURL: videoURL, fileType: .mov) let contentIdentifier = AVMutableMetadataItem() contentIdentifier.identifier = .quickTimeMetadataContentIdentifier contentIdentifier.value = assetIdentifier as NSString writer.metadata = [contentIdentifier] // Video settings: 882x1920, H.264, 30fps, 2 seconds // Added still-image-time metadata at middle frame // 2. Create HEIC image with asset identifier var makerAppleDict: [String: Any] = [:] makerAppleDict["17"] = assetIdentifier // Required key for Live Photo metadata[kCGImagePropertyMakerAppleDictionary as String] = makerAppleDict // 3. Generate Live Photo PHLivePhoto.request( withResourceFileURLs: [photoURL, videoURL], placeholderImage: nil, targetSize: .zero, contentMode: .aspectFit ) { livePhoto, info in // Success - Live Photo created } // 4. Save to Photos library PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset().addResource(with: .photo, fileURL: photoURL, options: nil) PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset().addResource(with: .pairedVideo, fileURL: videoURL, options: nil) What I've Tried Matching exact video specifications from Camera app (882x1920, H.264, 30fps) Adding all documented metadata (content identifier, still-image-time) Testing various video durations (1.5s, 2s, 3s) Different image formats (HEIC, JPEG) Comparing with exiftool against working Live Photos Expected Behavior Live Photos created programmatically should be eligible for motion wallpapers, just like those from the Camera app. Actual Behavior System shows "Motion not available" and only allows setting as static wallpaper. Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. This is affecting our users who want to use their created content as wallpapers. Questions Are there additional undocumented requirements for Live Photos to be wallpaper-eligible? Is this a deliberate restriction for third-party apps, or a bug? Has anyone successfully created Live Photos that work as motion wallpapers? Environment iOS 17.0 - 18.1 Xcode 16.0 Tested on iPhone 16 Pro

I'm working on a photo app and I want to allow the user to display, edit and delete photos. I can fetch all photos using PHAsset.fetchAssets(with: options). This works as intended. However, I can't seem to find a way to prevent the user from seeing photos from a Shared Library. The PHAssetSourceType only contains typeCloudShared to only show items from a specific album; not library. How can I filter by iCloud Shared Library?

Hi, I'm a fan of the gallery in vision pro which has video as well as still photography but I'm wondering if Apple has considered adding the projected media tags to heic so that we can go that next step from Spatial photos to Immersive photos. I have a device that can give me 12k x 6k fisheye images in HDR, but it can't do it at a framerate or resolution that's good enough for video, so I want to cut my losses and show off immersive photos instead. Is there something Apple is already working on for APMP stills or should I create my own app that reads metadata inside a HEIC that I infer in a similar way to the demo "ProjectedMediaConversion" is doing for Video. It would be great to have 180VR photos, which could show as Spatial in a gallery view, but going immersive would half-surround you instead of floating in the blurred view. I think that would be a pretty amazing effect.

I have the main app that saves preferences to UserDefaults.standard. So I have this one preference that the user is able to toggle - isRawOn UserDefaults.standard.set(self.isRawOn, forKey: "isRawOn") Now, I have LockedCameraCaptureExtension which is required know if that above setting on or off during launch. Also if it's toggled within the extension, the main app should know about it on the next launch. The main app and the extension runs on separate containers and the preferences are not shared due to privacy reasons. Apple mentions of using appContext of CameraCaptureIntent, but not sure how above scenario is possible through that....unless I am missing something. Apple Reference What I have for CameraCaptureIntent: @available(iOS 18, *) struct LaunchMyAppControlIntent: CameraCaptureIntent { typealias AppContext = MyAppContext static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "LaunchMyAppControlIntent" static let description = IntentDescription("Capture photos with MyApp.") @MainActor func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { .result() } }

The introduction of PHBackgroundResourceUploadExtension is a welcome addition in iOS 26.1. I wonder however, how to attach a debugger and actually get the system to call the process() method of the extension. I tried to run the extension both inside photos app (and also the main app for testing), but when I take a photo or add photos to the library (saving), the process() method does never get called. Any hints would be appreciated to debug the PHBackgroundResourceUploadExtension during development.

Hi, I’m trying to implement the new PhotoKit PHBackgroundResourceUploadExtension. I created the extension, enabled full photo library access in the host app, and registered the extension point using the string: com.apple.photos.background-upload. However, when I attempted to enable the extension with: try library.setUploadJobExtensionEnabled(true) I received the following error: Error Domain=PHPhotosErrorDomain Code=-1 "(null)" This happens when running the app on Xcode 26.1 and 26.2 Beta, using the iPhone 17 Pro Max simulator (iOS 26.1 and 26.2). My question is: Is this extension supported on the simulator? I’m asking because at the moment it’s difficult for me to test this on a physical device. Also, What's the meaning of the error? Thanks.

Hello, I am getting the following error while attempting to run my LockedCameraCapture compatible app on an iOS 15 device: dyld[434]: Library not loaded: '/System/Library/Frameworks/LockedCameraCapture.framework/LockedCameraCapture' Referenced from: '/private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/.../MyApp.app/MyApp.debug.dylib' Reason: tried: '/System/Library/Frameworks/LockedCameraCapture.framework/LockedCameraCapture' (no such file) Of course iOS 15 doesn't have the library for LockedCameraCapture, but I have had no issue including Lock Screen Widgets (which require iOS 16), so I am not sure why the error is popping up. Thank you!

I have a photo editing app which uses a simple Metal Render to display CIFilter output images. It works just fine in Swift 5 but in Swift 6 it crashes on starting the Metal command buffer with an error in the Queue : com.Metal.CompletionQueueDispatch (serial). The crash is occurring before I can debug.. I changed the command buffer to report MTLCommandBufferDescriptorStatus errorOptions = .encoderExecutionStatus. No luck with getting insight into the source of the crash.. Likewise the error is happening before any of the usual Metal debug tools are enabled. The Metal render works just fine in Swift 5 and also works fine with almost all of the Swift Compiler Upcoming feature flags set to Yes. [The "Default Internal Imports" flag is still No. (the number of compile errors with this setting is absolutely scary! but that's another topic) Do you have any suggestions on debugging or ideas on why the Metal library is crashing in Swift 6??? Everything is current release versions and hardware.