Photos & Camera

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Explore technical aspects of capturing high-quality photos and videos, including exposure control, focus modes, and RAW capture options.

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Launch The Main App from LockedCameraCapture
If the app is launched from LockedCameraCapture and if the settings button is tapped, I need to launch the main app. CameraViewController: func settingsButtonTapped() { #if isLockedCameraCaptureExtension //App is launched from Lock Screen //Launch main app here... #else //App is launched from Home Screen self.showSettings(animated: true) #endif } In this document: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/lockedcameracapture/creating-a-camera-experience-for-the-lock-screen Apple asks you to use: func launchApp(with session: LockedCameraCaptureSession, info: String) { Task { do { let activity = NSUserActivityTypeLockedCameraCapture activity.userInfo = [UserInfoKey: info] try await session.openApplication(for: activity) } catch { StatusManager.displayError("Unable to open app - \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } However, the documentation states that this should be placed within the extension code - LockedCameraCapture. If I do that, how can I call that all the way down from the main app's CameraViewController?
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572
Nov ’25
Photos are captured with incorrect exposure bias in specific scenarios on iPhone 17 Pro
Hey, There seems to be an inconsistency when capturing a photo using QualityPrioritization.Quality on the iPhone 17 Pro Main wide Lens. If you zoom above "2x" the output image always has "-2.0ev" bias in the meta data and looks underexposued. This does not happen at zoom levels above 2, or if you set the QualityPrioritization to .Balanced. See below: with .Quality with .Balanced This does not happen on the other lenses. I'm using a simple set up and it is consistent across JPEG and ProRAW capture. I have a demo project if that is useful. Thanks, Alex
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538
Dec ’25
CIRAWFilter.outputImage first-time cost is huge (~3s), subsequent calls are ~3ms. Any official way to pre-initialize RAW pipeline (without taking a real photo)?
Hi Apple Developer Forums, I’m developing an iOS camera app that processes RAW captures using Core Image. I’m seeing a large “first use” performance penalty specifically when creating the CIImage from CIRAWFilter.outputImage. What’s slow (important detail) I’m measuring the time for: let rawFilter = CIRAWFilter(imageData: rawData, identifierHint: hint) let ciImage = rawFilter.outputImage This is not CIContext.render(...) / createCGImage(...). It’s just the time to access outputImage (i.e., building the Core Image graph / RAW pipeline setup). Observed behavior First time accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage: ~3 seconds Second time (same app session, similar RAW): ~3 milliseconds So something heavy is happening only on first use (decoder initialization, pipeline setup, shader/library compilation, caching, etc.). Using Metal System Trace, I also noticed that during the slow first call there are many “Create MTLLibrary” events, while the second call doesn’t show this pattern. Warm-up attempts using bundled DNG I tried to “warm up” early (e.g., on camera screen entry) by loading a bundled DNG and then accessing CIRAWFilter.outputImage by taking a photo: Warm-up with a ~247 KB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~1.42s Warm-up with a ~25 MB DNG → first real RAW outputImage cost drops to ~843ms This helps, but it’s still far from the steady-state ~3ms. Warm-up by capturing a real RAW (works, but concerns) The only method that fully eliminates the delay is to trigger a real RAW capture programmatically before the user’s first photo, then use that captured rawData to warm up the CIRAWFilter.outputImage path. This brings the first user-facing capture close to the steady-state timing. However: In some regions, the camera shutter sound cannot be suppressed, so “hidden warm-up capture” is unacceptable UX. I’m also unsure whether triggering a real capture without an explicit user action could raise compliance/privacy concerns, even if the image is immediately discarded and never saved/uploaded. Questions Is the large first-time cost of CIRAWFilter.outputImage expected (RAW pipeline initialization / shader compilation)? Is there an Apple-recommended way to pre-initialize the Core Image RAW pipeline / Metal resources so the first outputImage is fast, without taking a real photo? Are there any best practices (e.g. CIContext creation timing, prepareRender(...), specific options) that reliably reduce this first-use overhead for CIRAWFilter? Attachments Figure 1: First RAW capture with no warm-up (~3s outputImage time) Figure 2: First RAW capture after warm-up with bundled DNG (improved but still hundreds of ms) Thanks for any guidance or experience sharing!
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635
Jan ’26
DockKit gimbal reported yaw drifts by upwards of 45 degrees after running for a while
This is an issue with the Insta360 Flow Pro 2. My iOS app uses DockKit to control the gimbal; in particular, my app disables tracking and sends angular velocity commands to control the gimbal's orientation. I only try to modify the yaw (rotation around the vertical axis); never the pitch or yaw. Note that I don't send the gimbal to a particular orientation directly; I modify the velocity. Everything works great for a long period of time: typically for a continuous run of 4-6 hours; in the most recent case, I managed about 36 hours of continous operation before the following problem occurred. I came back to check on the system, and because no visual activity had occurred in the camera's field of view for a while, the phone had commanded the gimbal to rotate back to a yaw angle of 0 degrees. So the phone in the gimbal should have been looking straight ahead (i.e. the 0 degree yaw position), but it was definitely looking off at an angle. I've seen this twice now. The first time, when it should have been looking straight ahead, it was in fact looking 60 degrees off center. This time (caught on video, see below), it was off by 22 degrees from center. Here's the weird part: the gimbal reports this way off center positioning as zero degrees (well close enough to zero, like 0.2 or something that's fine). But, mechanically, the gimbal still knows where zero degrees is: if we double click on the trigger of the Flow Pro 2, which is supposed to reset the gimbal to 0 degrees yaw and pitch, the gimbal responds correctly and reorients to a 0 degree position. However, the yaw values it reports are not zero, but as shown in my video, 22 degrees off axis or so. Power cycling the gimbal and restarting immediately fixes the problem. Also, I switched from my app to the Insta360 app, which caused the phone to flip from landscape to portrait, then when I returned to my app and switched back to landscape, the gimbal now started reporting correct yaw angles. Is there a possibility this is a bug in the DockKit framework? Has anyone seen this? I have a case open with Insta360, but although it's clearly a software issue, it's not clear if it's in Insta360's code or the DockKit layer. Any ideas for how I can get out of this mode? My concern is that the phone is in a tripod about 10' off the floor, and not very accessible. Also, if all goes well, we may have about 50 of these systems running, and having to fix them one by one after a few hours is not good. For a demonstration of this bug, see the following video: https://octoparry.com/offset.MOV Any help greatly appreciated.
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541
Jun ’25
PhotosPicker obtains the result information of the selected video
In the AVP project, a selector pops up, only wanting to filter spatial videos. When selecting the material of one of the spatial videos, the selection result returns empty. How can we obtain the video selected by the user and get the path and the URL of the file The code is as follows: PhotosPicker(selection: $selectedItem, matching: .videos) { Text("Choose a spatial photo or video") } func loadTransferable(from imageSelection: PhotosPickerItem) -> Progress { return imageSelection.loadTransferable(type: URL.self) { result in DispatchQueue.main.async { // guard imageSelection == self.imageSelection else { return } print("加载成功的图片集合:(result)") switch result { case .success(let url?): self.selectSpatialVideoURL = url print("获取视频链接:(url)") case .success(nil): break // Handle the success case with an empty value. case .failure(let error): print("spatial错误:(error)") // Handle the failure case with the provided error. } } } }
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186
May ’25
Raycasting VNFaceLandmarkRegion2D
Hello, Does anyone have a recipe on how to raycast VNFaceLandmarkRegion2D points obtained from a frame's capturedImage? More specifically, how to construct the "from" parameter of the frame's raycastQuery from a VNFaceLandmarkRegion2D point? Do the points need to be flipped vertically? Is there any other transformation that needs to be performed on the points prior to passing them to raycastQuery?
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321
Sep ’25
PHImageManager.requestImageDataAndOrientation callback is never called
I occasionally receive reports from users that photo import from the Photos library gets stuck and the progress appears to stop indefinitely. I’m using the following APIs: func fetchAsset(_ asset: PHAsset) { let options = PHImageRequestOptions() options.deliveryMode = .highQualityFormat options.resizeMode = .exact options.isSynchronous = false options.isNetworkAccessAllowed = true options.progressHandler = { (progress, error, stop, info) in // 🚨 never called } let requestId = PHImageManager.default().requestImageDataAndOrientation( for: asset, options: options ) { data, _, _, info in // 🚨 never called } } Due to repeated reports, I added detailed logs inside the callback closures. Based on the logs, it looks like the request keeps waiting without any callbacks being invoked — neither the progressHandler nor the completion block of requestImageDataAndOrientation is called. This happens not only with the PHImageManager approach, but also when using PHAsset with PHContentEditingInputRequestOptions — the completion callback is not invoked as well. func fetchAssetByContentEditingInput(_ asset: PHAsset) { let options = PHContentEditingInputRequestOptions() options.isNetworkAccessAllowed = true asset.requestContentEditingInput(with: nil) { contentEditingInput, info in // 🚨 never called } } I suspect this is related to iCloud Photos. Here is what I confirmed from affected users: Using the native picker (My app also provides the native picker as an alternative option for attaching photos), iCloud download proceeds normally and the photo can be attached. However, using the PHImageManager-based approach in my app, the same photo cannot be attached. Even after verifying that the photo has been fully downloaded from iCloud (e.g., by trying “Export Unmodified Originals” in the Photos app as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111762, and confirming the iCloud download progress completed), the callback is still not invoked for that asset. Detailed flow for (1): I asked the user to attach the problematic photo (the one where callbacks never fire) using the native photo picker (UIImagePickerController). The UI showed “Downloading from iCloud” progress. The progress advanced and the photo was attached successfully. Then I asked the user to attach the same photo again using my custom photo picker (which uses the PHImageManager APIs mentioned above). The progress did not advance (No callbacks were invoked). The operation waited indefinitely and never completed. Workaround / current behavior: If I ask users to reboot the device and try again, about 6 out of 10 users can attach successfully afterward. The remaining ~4 out of 10 users still cannot attach even after rebooting. For users who are not fixed immediately after reboot, it seems to resolve naturally after some time. I’ve seen similar reports elsewhere, so I’m wondering if Apple is already aware of an internal issue related to this. If there is any known information, guidance, or recommended workaround, I would appreciate it. I also logged the properties of affected PHAssets (metadata) when the issue occurs, and I can share them below if that helps troubleshooting: [size=3.91MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 528)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (4284x5712) | adjusted=true] [size=3.91MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 528)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (4284x5712) | adjusted=true] [size=2.72MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 16)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (3024x4032) | adjusted=true] [size=2.72MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 16)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (3024x4032) | adjusted=true] [size=2.49MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 16)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (3024x4032) | adjusted=true] [size=2.49MB] [PHAssetMediaSubtype(rawValue: 16)+DepthEffect | userLibrary | (3024x4032) | adjusted=true]
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1
313
Jan ’26
Above Xcode16 operation project, in the project use AVPictureInPictureController opportunities (PIP) function open system blackout
I found that when the development tool above Xcode16 ran my app, I opened the suspended inscription function, and then opened the system camera, the content in the suspended window would not be displayed, and the suspended window would have a black screen. However, this phenomenon does not appear on Xcode15.4 development tools, it is the same code, I do not know why
6
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707
Apr ’25
Moving photos to a shared library programmatically
Hello everyone, I am looking for a solution to programmatically, e.g. using AppleScript to import photos into the Photos library on MacOS and also push them to the shared library, like it can be done using the standard GUI of the Photos application. Maybe it is not possible using AppleScript, but using a short Swift script and PhotoKit, I do not not know. Any help is appreciated! Thomas
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213
Apr ’25
[iOS 18.0] PHImageManager request image crash
I am seeing a crash on iOS 18.0 in my app due to PHImageManager.default().requestImage. Same crash is seen even while using requestImageDataAndOrientation. Not sure why this is happening only on iOS 18.0. Any help on this would be appreciated. Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Subtype: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000010 Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000010 VM Region Info: 0x10 is not in any region. Bytes before following region: 4310777840 REGION TYPE START - END [ VSIZE] PRT/MAX SHRMOD REGION DETAIL UNUSED SPACE AT START ---> Termination Reason: SIGNAL 11 Segmentation fault: 11 Terminating Process: exc handler [695] Triggered by Thread: 14 Thread 14 name: Dispatch queue: */file=33) .Generic Thread 14 Crashed: 0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x1944d7020 objc_msgSend + 32 1 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1b080262c +[PLUniformTypeIdentifier utiWithCompactRepresentation:conformanceHint:] + 40 2 Photos 0x1b0081354 _resourceInfoFromResultDict + 1048 3 Photos 0x1b0080a7c fetchResourcesForChoosing + 584 4 Photos 0x1b0080714 ___fetchNonHintResources_block_invoke.227 + 152 5 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1b026b3c4 __53-[PLManagedObjectContext _directPerformBlockAndWait:]_block_invoke + 48 6 CoreData 0x19f171b00 developerSubmittedBlockToNSManagedObjectContextPerform + 228 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eeff584 _dispatch_client_callout + 16 8 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eef5728 _dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete + 56 9 CoreData 0x19f1c2a0c -[NSManagedObjectContext performBlockAndWait:] + 308 10 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1b026cea4 -[PLManagedObjectContext _directPerformBlockAndWait:] + 144 11 PhotoLibraryServices 0x1b026cdf8 -[PLManagedObjectContext performBlockAndWait:] + 196 12 Photos 0x1b00804a4 _fetchNonHintResources + 292 13 Photos 0x1afeedb38 PHChooserListContinueEnumerating + 144 14 Photos 0x1afeed9f8 -[PHImageResourceChooser presentNextQualifyingResource] + 412 15 Photos 0x1afeed1d0 -[PHImageRequest startRequest] + 2424 16 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eee5aac _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 32 17 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eeff584 _dispatch_client_callout + 16 18 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eeee2d0 _dispatch_lane_serial_drain + 740 19 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eeeede0 _dispatch_lane_invoke + 440 20 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eef91dc _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 292 21 libdispatch.dylib 0x19eef8a60 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 540 22 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x2214d5660 _pthread_wqthread + 292 23 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x2214d29f8 start_wqthread + 8
6
0
191
May ’25
Understanding CMIO Extension
Hello, I am getting the following errors when building a Mac Camera Extension with web sockets. I am using URLSessionWebsocketTask as my web socket library. I built a test program for my code and in there I can see my web sockets are working properly, but when I run it from the System Extension I get the following errors. The socket opens for two - three messages then crashes. I couldnt find any documentation online for the following errors CMIOExtensionProvider.m:1975:-[CMIOExtensionProvider removeProviderContext:]_block_invoke Unregistered provider context <CMIOExtensionProviderContext: ->, don't be surprised if things go badly CMIOExtensionProviderContext.m:64:-[CMIOExtensionProviderContext initWithConnection:]_block_invoke [391] received Connection invalid``
7
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2.3k
1w
PHPicker fails to load RAW images
We observed that the PHPicker is unable to load RAW images captured on an iPhone in some scenarios. And it is also somehow related to iCloud. Here is the setup: The PHPickerViewController is configured with preferredAssetRepresentationMode = .current to avoid transcoding. The image is loaded from the item provider like this: if itemProvider.hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier(kUTTypeImage) { itemProvider.loadFileRepresentation(forTypeIdentifier: kUTTypeImage) { url, error in // work } } This usually works, also for RAW images. However, when trying to load a RAW image that has just been captured with the iPhone, the loading fails with the following errors on the console: [claims] 43A5D3B2-84CD-488D-B9E4-19F9ED5F39EB grantAccessClaim reply is an error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x2804a8e70 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "connection from pid 19420 on anonymousListener or serviceListener" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=connection from pid 19420 on anonymousListener or serviceListener}}} Error copying file type public.image. Error: Error Domain=NSItemProviderErrorDomain Code=-1000 "Cannot load representation of type public.image" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot load representation of type public.image, NSUnderlyingError=0x280480540 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x2804a8e70 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "connection from pid 19420 on anonymousListener or serviceListener" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=connection from pid 19420 on anonymousListener or serviceListener}}}}} We observed that on some devices, loading the image will actually work after a short time (~30 sec), but on others it will always fail. We think it is related to iCloud Photos: On the device that has iCloud Photos sync enabled, the picker is able to load the image right after it was synced to the cloud. On devices that don't sync the image, loading always fails. It seems that the sync process is doing some processing (?) of the image that will later enable the picker to load it successfully, but that's just guessing. Additional observations: This seems to only occur for images that were taken with the stock Camera app. When using Halide to capture RAW (either ProRAW or RAW), the Picker is able to load the image. When trying to load the image as kUTTypeRawImage instead of kUTTypeImage, it also fails. The picker also can't load RAW images that were AirDroped from another device, unless it synced to iCloud first. This is reproducable using the Selecting Photos and Videos in iOS sample code project. We observed this happening in other apps that use the PHPicker, not just ours. Is this a bug, or is there something that we are missing?
7
1
2.9k
Sep ’25
When getting the PHPickerResult from user selecting media in the Photos app, how to check file extension?
when I get results from picker: PHPickerViewController, didFinishPicking results: [PHPickerResult]) and I load the image using itemProvider .loadFileRepresentation (the itemProvider is the NSItemProvider provided by the PHPickerResult) will the url that's returned by this method be guaranteed to have the file extension ie, "file://image.jpeg" not "file://image" I want to know if i need to just check the extension to know its file type. (FYI in case this makes a difference, im only interested in user screenshots and screenrecordings)
7
0
237
Apr ’25
Customized IOKit extension not work
Hi guys, How to achieve the following feature on macOS when a USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker) is connected: When a third-party video conferencing app is not in a meeting, ensure the app defaults to using the USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker). When a third-party conferencing app is in a meeting, ensure the app automatically switches to the USB device (Camera/Mic/Speaker). I want to make use of IOKit extension to hidden or ignore build-in camera to realize the requirement. however the extension can't be loaded for Invalid permissions in MacOS 15.4.1, buildVersion:24E263. I also tried to run in in MacOS 14.4.1, which can be loaded but can't auto load when restart laptop as KDK version not match. Could you please give me some suggestion? Is it possible hidden build-in camera in MacOS M-series chip? Is there any other method to realize the feature. Thanks a lot.
7
0
374
Jun ’25
Unabe to use writeHEIFRepresentation - failed to add image to the PhotoCompressionSession.
I'm getting an error writing a ciImage as a heif image: // Create CIImage directly from pixel buffer let ciImage = CIImage(cvPixelBuffer: pixelBuffer, options: [CIImageOption.properties: combinedMetadata]) // Write HEIC synchronously do { try ciContext.writeHEIFRepresentation(of: ciImage, to: url, format: .RGBA8, colorSpace: colorSpace) The error I'm getting is: Error Domain=CINonLocalizedDescriptionKey Code=3 "(null)" UserInfo={CINonLocalizedDescriptionKey=failed to write HEIC data to file., NSUnderlyingError=0x11b1a1ec0 {Error Domain=CINonLocalizedDescriptionKey Code=10 "(null)" UserInfo={CINonLocalizedDescriptionKey=failed to add image to the PhotoCompressionSession.}}} Both try ciContext.writeJPEGRepresentation(of: copiedCIImage, to: url, colorSpace: colorSpace, options: options) and try ciContext.writePNGRepresentation(of: copiedCIImage, to: url, format: .RGBA8, colorSpace: colorSpace) work. I also verified that the code works with iOS 18. Is there something new we need to do for Heif images? Thanks in advance
7
0
879
Oct ’25
iOS 14, App crash when call presentLimitedLibraryPickerFromViewControlle
iPhone7 : iOS 14.0 Beta 5 Xcode-beta Mac OS : 10.15.5 (19F101) crash info : ** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[PHPhotoLibrary presentLimitedLibraryPickerFromViewController:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance xxxxxx' terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException my code: (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {   [super viewDidAppear:animated];   if (@available(iOS 14, *)) {     [[PHPhotoLibrary sharedPhotoLibrary] presentLimitedLibraryPickerFromViewController:self];   } }
9
0
4.3k
Nov ’25
I need a way to permantently disable Reactions from my app, ideally the universe too
So I've spent the last five years optimizing my video AI system so that it runs with less than 5% CPU while processing a 30fps video feed on a Macbook Pro M2, and everything is great, until Sonoma comes out, and I find myself consuming 40% CPU for the exact same workload. So I fire up Instruments, and the "heaviest stack trace" (see screenshot) turns out to be Espresso doing some completely unasked-for and absolutely useless processing on my video frames. I turn off Reactions, but nothing helps - the CPU consumptions stays at 40%. "Reactions" is nothing but a useless toy to please some WWDC keynote fanboys, I don't want it anywhere near my app or my users, and I especially do not want to take the blame for it pissing away the user's CPU cycles and battery. Now, how do I make it go away, for ever? Best regards Jacob
10
6
1.5k
Jul ’25