Hi there, I recently launched a dj app to the mac app store, and was wondering how I could access raw data to songs from apple music just like how serato, rekordbox, djay, etc. do? Thanks, Gunek

My code that streams buffers into AVAudioPlayerNode is stuttering when the buffer is finished and before the next one is played. while engine.isRunning { let framesToCopy = min(buffer.frameLength - framePosition, Self.BufferSize) let srcRaw = UnsafeRawPointer(srcPtr) let playbackBuffer = AVAudioPCMBuffer(pcmFormat: buffer.format, frameCapacity: Self.BufferSize)! let playbackPtr = playbackBuffer.floatChannelData![0] let destRaw = UnsafeMutableRawPointer(mutating: playbackPtr) memcpy(destRaw, srcRaw, Int(framesToCopy) * MemoryLayout<Float>.stride) srcPtr = srcPtr.advanced(by: Int(framesToCopy)) playbackBuffer.frameLength = framesToCopy await player.scheduleBuffer(playbackBuffer, at: nil, options: [], completionCallbackType: .dataRendered) } I've tried to schedule multiple buffers at once using a combination of both the synchronous and async versions of scheduleBuffer because I thought the delay might be but it still stutters and the data copied into the playbackBuffer matches the source buffer. I've tried all combinations of options and completionCallbackType but no luck. I've tried increasing the buffer size but that just spaces out the stutters because the buffer is larger. What am I missing about this API?

Hello Apple Engineers, I am developing a feature related to SpeechRecognizer (import Speech), and I have two questions: After adding the NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription key in my Info.plist, when I initialize an SFSpeechRecognizer instance, the system shows an authorization alert. The alert contains a pre-defined message from Apple: “Speech data from this app will be sent to Apple to process your requests. This will also help Apple improve its speech recognition technology.” Is it possible to remove or customize this message? My app runs in a network environment with a whitelist. I need to know which URL the SFSpeechRecognizer instance connects to, and which port it uses, so that I can add it to the whitelist. Thank you very much for your support! Best regards, Yu Cheng

Hello, I need to know what is a unique identifier of a MIDI device (source/destination). Important note: I want to get the same ID when a device is reconnected (unplugged and then plugged again). The main candidate is kMIDIPropertyUniqueID property. But I don't know if it meets the requirement above or not. Additional question: is it always available for any endpoint? Also there is kMIDIPropertyDeviceID property. What about it? And one more option is just MIDIEndpointRef returned by MIDIGetSource or MIDIGetDestination. So what is the proper way to get ID which persists between device reconnections?

I am working to update a live blog in Apple News. As far as I know there is an update endpoint to update a content in Apple News. Is there any feature in Apple News to trigger an event when the original content updated and pull the updated content?

Hello! I have been following the UsingAVFoundationToPlayAndPersistHTTPLiveStreams sample code in order to test persisting streams to disk. In addition to support for m3u8, I have noticed in testing that this also seems to work for MP3 Audio, simply by changing the plist entries to point to remote URLs with audio/mpeg content. Is this expected, or are there caveats that I should be aware of? Thanks you!

Since iOS 18, the system setting “Allow Audio Playback” (enabled by default) allows third-party app audio to continue playing while the user is recording video with the Camera app. This has created a problem for the app I’m developing. ➡️ The problem: My app plays continuous audio in both foreground and background states. If the user starts recording video using the iOS Camera app, the app’s audio — still playing in the background — gets captured in the video — obviously an unintended behavior. Yes, the user could stop the app manually before starting the video recording, but that can’t be guaranteed. As a developer, I need a way to stop the app’s audio before the video recording begins. So far, I haven’t found a reliable way to detect when video recording starts if ‘Allow Audio Playback’ is ON. ➡️ What I’ve tried: — AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification → doesn’t fire — devicesChangedEventStream → not triggered I don’t want to request mic permission (app doesn’t use mic). also, disabling the app from playing audio in the background isn’t an option as it is a crucial part of the user experience ➡️ What I need: A reliable, supported way to detect when the Camera app begins video recording, without requiring mic access — so I can stop audio and avoid unintentional overlap with the user’s recordings. Any official guidance, workarounds, or AVFoundation techniques would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'm working on adding Spatial Audio support to a game on the Mac. I'm looking at the SpatialAudioRenderer sample but having some issues. It's unclear to me when a device is compatible with Spatial Audio and when I should attempt to render Spatial Audio. There is no property that I can find on the Mac that advertises Spatial Audio compatibility on a device. The sample crashes when the output device is a USB device. This includes the Apple Studio Display. The Apple Studio Display is supposed to be capable of rendering Spatial Audio. The device doesn't work with the sample - do I still need to render down the 7.1.4 source on this device? The sample always renders down to Stereo, but the Apple Studio Display is not a Stereo device. I'm a bit confused by the sample and when/how I should configure the mixing unit.

Session player regions populate blank, with no sound media when tracks or regions are created.

Hello Apple Developer Support, I’m developing a virtual camera using the CMIOExtensionDevice / CMIOExtensionStreamSource APIs on macOS. While the virtual camera appears in system settings and apps like Zoom and Google Meet, the video output exhibits the following issues: Jittering frames: The first frame sometimes appears correctly, but subsequent frames flicker or jitter. Solid color fill: Eventually, the camera feed fills entirely with a solid accent color (e.g., blue), rather than the intended video content. Console logs: Repeated messages appear in Console.app: Invalid display 0x00000000 Setup details: The virtual camera is created using CMIOExtensionDevice and CMIOExtensionStream. Video frames are rendered from NSImage/CGImage using CGContext and copied into CVPixelBuffers. Frame delivery is controlled by a DispatchSourceTimer at 60 FPS. macOS version: [Your macOS version here] Xcode version: [Your Xcode version here] Observations: The Invalid display 0x00000000 logs suggest that CGContext drawing or NSImage operations are failing in headless mode (i.e., there is no real display attached to the virtual camera). Using CIContext with .useSoftwareRenderer = true appears to mitigate some flicker, but not entirely. Questions / Requests: Is it expected that CoreMediaIO virtual cameras cannot reliably render CGImage / NSImage frames offscreen? Are there recommended APIs or approaches to render virtual camera frames fully headless to avoid display-dependent jitter? Is there any documentation or sample code from Apple showing stable video output from a virtual camera extension that does not rely on a physical display? Any guidance or examples would be greatly appreciated. This issue prevents the virtual camera from being used reliably in standard video apps. Thank you, Savvy

I use the Apple Music API to poll my listening history at regular intervals. Every morning between 5:30AM and 7:30AM, I observe a strange pattern in the API responses. During this window, one or more of the regular polling intervals returns a response that differs significantly from the prior history response, even though I had no listening activity at that time. I'm using this endpoint: https://api.music.apple.com/v1/me/recent/played/tracks?types=songs,library-songs&include[library-songs]=catalog&include[songs]=albums,artists Here’s a concrete example from this morning: Time: 5:45AM Fetch 1 Tracks (subset): 1799261990, 1739657416, 1786317143, 1784288789, 1743250261, 1738681804, 1789325498, 1743036755, ... Time: 5:50AM Fetch 2 Tracks (subset): 1799261990, 1739657416, 1786317143, 1623924746, 1635185172, 1574004238, 1198763630, 1621299055, ... Time: 5:55AM Fetch 3 Tracks (subset): 1799261990, 1739657416, 1786317143, 1784288789, 1743250261, 1738681804, 1789325498, 1743036755, ... At 5:50, a materially different history is returned, then it returns back to the prior history at the next poll. I've listened to all of the tracks in each set, but the 5:50 history drops some tracks and returns some from further back in history. I've connected other accounts and the behavior is consistent and repeatable every day across them. It appears the API is temporarily returning a different (possibly outdated or cached?) view of the user's history during that early morning window. Has anyone seen this behavior before? Is this a known issue with the Apple Music API or MusicKit backend? I'd love any insights into what might cause this, or recommendations on how to work around it.

Dear Apple Developer Community, I'm encountering a critical issue with the MusicLibrary.shared.createPlaylist() method in MusicKit that's affecting our app's core functionality. Despite implementing all recommended authorization checks, the app consistently freezes for some users when this method is called. What we've already verified before calling createPlaylist(): Network connectivity is properly checked and confirmed Apple Music authorization is explicitly requested via MusicAuthorization.request() User subscription status is verified using MusicSubscription.current.canPlayCatalogContent Despite these precautions, many users report that their app completely freezes when attempting to create a playlist. This is particularly concerning as playlist creation is a core feature of our application. User-reported workarounds (with mixed success): Some users have resolved the issue by restarting their devices or reinstalling our app Others report success after enabling "Sync Library" in Settings → Music Unfortunately, a significant number of users are still experiencing the issue even after trying both solutions above We've reviewed the MusicKit documentation thoroughly and ensured our implementation follows all best practices. Our app correctly handles permissions and uses the async/await pattern as required by the API. Is there a known issue with the createPlaylist() method that might cause it to block indefinitely? Are there additional authorization steps or settings we should be checking before calling this method? Could this be related to how MusicKit communicates with Apple Music servers? Any insights from the developer community or official guidance would be greatly appreciated as this issue is severely impacting our user experience. Thank you for your assistance

Environment Windows 11 [edition/build]: [e.g., 23H2, 22631.x] Apple Music for Windows version: [e.g., 1.x.x from Microsoft Store] Library folder: C:\Users<user>\Music\Apple Music\Apple Music Library.musiclibrary Summary I need a supported way to programmatically enumerate the local Apple Music library on Windows (track file paths, playlists, etc.) for reconciliation with the on-disk Media folder. On macOS this used to be straightforward via scripting/export; on Windows I can’t find an equivalent. What I’m seeing in the library bundle Library.musicdb → not SQLite. First 4 bytes: 68 66 6D 61 ("hfma"). Library Preferences.musicdb → also starts with "hfma". artwork.sqlite → SQLite but appears to be artwork cache only (no track file paths). Extras.itdb → has SQLite format 3 header but (from a quick scan) not seeing track locations. Genius.itdb → not a SQLite database on this machine. What I’ve tried Attempted to open Library.musicdb with SQLite providers → error: “file is not a database.” Binary/string scans (ASCII, UTF-16LE/BE, null-stripped) of Library.musicdb → did not reveal file paths or obvious plist/XML/JSON blobs. The Windows Apple Music UI doesn’t appear to expose “Export Library / Export Playlist” like legacy iTunes did, and I can’t find a public API for local library enumeration on Windows. What I’m trying to accomplish Read local track entries (absolute or relative paths), detect broken links, and reconcile against the Media folder. A read-only solution is fine; I do not need to modify the library. Questions for Apple Is the Library.musicdb file format documented anywhere, or is there a supported SDK/API to enumerate the local library on Windows? Is there a supported export mechanism (CLI, UI, or API) on Windows Apple Music to dump the local library and/or playlists (XML/CSV/JSON)? Is there a Windows-specific equivalent to the old iTunes COM automation or any MusicKit surface that can return local library items (not streaming catalog) and their file locations? If none of the above exist today, is there a recommended workaround from Apple for library reconciliation on Windows (e.g., documented support for importing M3U/M3U8 to rebuild the local library from disk)? Are there any plans/timeline for adding Windows feature parity with iTunes/Music on macOS for exporting or scripting the local library? Why this matters For large personal libraries, users occasionally end up with orphaned files on disk or broken links in the app. Without an export or API, it’s difficult to audit and fix at scale on Windows. Reference details (in case it helps triage) Library.musicdb header bytes: 68-66-6D-61-A0-00-00-00-10-26-34-00-15-00-01-00 (ASCII shows hfma…). artwork.sqlite is readable but doesn’t contain track file paths (appears limited to artwork). I can supply a minimal repro tool and logs if that’s helpful. Feature request (if no current API) Add an official Export Library/Playlists action on Windows Apple Music, or Provide a read-only Windows API (or schema doc) that surfaces track file locations and playlist membership from the local library. Thanks in advance for any guidance or pointers to docs I might have missed.

I am developing an iOS camera app that can record video directly to external storage connected to an iPhone. To detect whether an external USB storage device is connected and to obtain its URL, I am considering using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession. However, when checking support using AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession.isSupported, I observe that it returns true only on Pro model iPhones, and false on non-Pro models in my environment. I have reviewed Apple’s official documentation, but I could not find any clear description of the supported devices or requirements (for example, whether this API is limited to Pro models or requires specific hardware capabilities). I would appreciate any information regarding the following points: ●The actual requirements for AVExternalStorageDeviceDiscoverySession to be supported Device limitations (Pro vs non-Pro models) Hardware requirements (USB controller, external recording capability, etc.) iOS version dependencies ●Whether support for non-Pro models is planned in the future Tested environments iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.7.1) → isSupported == true iPhone 16e (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone 17 (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false iPhone Air (iOS 26.2) → isSupported == false If anyone has observed similar behavior or has official information from Apple regarding this API, I would greatly appreciate your insights.

Hi, I'm trying to setup a AVAudioEngine for USB Audio recording and monitoring playthrough. As soon as I try to setup playthough I get an error in the console: AVAEInternal.h:83 required condition is false: [AVAudioEngineGraph.mm:1361:Initialize: (IsFormatSampleRateAndChannelCountValid(outputHWFormat))] Any ideas how to fix it? // Input-Device setzen try? setupInputDevice(deviceID: inputDevice) let input = audioEngine.inputNode // Stereo-Format erzwingen let inputHWFormat = input.inputFormat(forBus: 0) let stereoFormat = AVAudioFormat(commonFormat: inputHWFormat.commonFormat, sampleRate: inputHWFormat.sampleRate, channels: 2, interleaved: inputHWFormat.isInterleaved) guard let format = stereoFormat else { throw AudioError.deviceSetupFailed(-1) } print("Input format: \(inputHWFormat)") print("Forced stereo format: \(format)") audioEngine.attach(monitorMixer) audioEngine.connect(input, to: monitorMixer, format: format) // MonitorMixer -> MainMixer (Output) // Problem here, format: format also breaks. audioEngine.connect(monitorMixer, to: audioEngine.mainMixerNode, format: nil)

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?

Hey folks, I'm running into an odd issue suddenly with an app that had a working MusicKit integration before. I'm using ApplicationMusicPlayer to play Apple Music albums and songs. I'm testing on a physical device, signed in to Apple ID, and with a valid subscription. Apple Music via the first-party app works entirely fine on this device. Attempting to play back any content at all gives the log: <ICUserIdentityStoreACAccountBackend: 0x1070bf3e0> Failed to initialize primary apple account, error=Error Domain=ICError Code=-7013 "Client is not entitled to access account store" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Client is not entitled to access account store} [ICUserIdentityStore] - initializing account histories with activeAccountDSID = nil, activeLockerAccountDSID = nil, timestamp = 14605951908 [ICUserIdentityStore] Failed to fetch local store account with error: Error Domain=ICError Code=-7013 "Client is not entitled to access account store" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Client is not entitled to access account store}. The album artwork, track names, etc, all appear in the control center playback controls, but the music doesn't play. Trying to trigger playback with control center just results in it skipping to the next track, which doesn't play either. This exact code used to work. I have the MusicKit service selected in Apple Connect. Since this isn't entitlement-based, I'm not sure how else to check that I'm set up correctly. I've tried deleting/reinstalling the app, restarting the device, cleaning/rebuilding, and deleting DerivedData, to no avail. Any help? Running Xcode 16.4 (16F6), testing on iOS 18.5 (22F76)

(Note: this is part 1 of a 3 part posting. See Part 2 or Part 3) 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 Camera & Photos. WWDC25 Camera & Photos group lab ran for one hour at 6 PM PST on Tuesday June 10th, 2025 Introductory kick-off questions Question 1 Tell us a little about the new AVFoundation Capture APIs we've made available in the new iOS 26 developer preview? Cinematic Capture API (strong/weak focus, tracking focus)(scene monitoring)(simulated aperture)(dog/cat heads/groupIDs) Camera Controls and AirPod Stem Clicks Spatial Audio and Studio Quality AirPod Mics in Camera Lens Smudge Detection Exposure and Focus Rect of Interest Question 2 I built QR code scanning into my app, but on newer iPhones I have to hold the phone very far away from the QR code, otherwise the image is blurry and it doesn't scan. Why is this happening and how can I fix it? Every year, the cameras get better and better as we push the state of the art on iPhone photography and videography. This sometimes results in changes to the characteristics of the lenses. min focus distance newer phones have multiple lenses automatic switching behavior Use virtual device like the builtInDualWide or built in Triple, rather than just the builtInWide Set the videoZoomFactor to 2. You're done. Question 3 Last year, we saw some exciting new APIs introduced in AVFoundation in the health space. With Constant Color photography, developers can take pictures that have constant color regardless of ambient lighting. There are some further advancements this year. Davide, could you tell us about them? constant color photography is mean to remove the "tone mapping" applied to photograph captured with camera app, usually incldsuing artistic intent, and instead try to be a close as possible to the real color of the scene, regardless of the illumination constant color images could be captured in HEIF anf JPEG laste year. this year we are adding Support for the DICOM medical imaging photo format. It is a fomrat used by the health industry to store images related to medical subjects like MRI, skin problems, xray and so on. It's writable and also readable format on all OS26, supported through AVCapturePhotoOutput APIs and through the coregraphics api. for coregrapphics there is a new DICOM entry in the property dictionary which includes all the dicom availbale and defined propertie in a file. finder will also display all those in the info panel (Address why a developer would want to use it) - not for regualr picture taking apps. for those HEIF and JPEG are the preferred delivery format. use dicom if your app produces output that are health related, that you can also share with health providers or your doctors Main session developer questions Question 1 LiDAR vs. Dual Camera depth generation: Which resolution does the LiDAR sensor natively have (iPhone 16 Pro) and when to prefer LiDAR over Dual Camera? Both report formats with output resolutions (we don't advertise sensor resolution) Lidar vs Dual, etc: Lidar: Best for absolute depth, real world scale and computer vision Dual, etc: relative, disparity-based, less power, photo effects Also see: 2022 WWDC session "Discovery advancements in iOS camera capture: Depth, focus and multitasking" Question 2 Can true depth and lidar camera run at 60fps? Lidar can do 30fps (edited) Front true depth can do 60fps. Question 3 What’s the first class way to use PhotoKit to reimplement a high performance photo grid? We’ve been using a LazyVGrid and the photos caching manager, but are never able to hit the holy trinity (60hz, efficient memory footprint, minimal flashes of placeholder/empty cells) use the PHCachingImageManager to get media content delivered before you need to display it specify the size you need for grid sized display set the options PHVideoRequestOptionsDeliveryModeFastFormat, PHImageRequestOptionsDeliveryModeFastFormat and PHImageRequestOptionsResizeModeFast Question 4 For rending live preview of video stream, Is there performance overhead from using async and Swift UI for image updates vs UIViewRepresentable + AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.self? AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer is the most efficient display path Use VDO + AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer if you need to modify the image data Swift UI image is optimized for static image content Question 5 Is there a way to configure the AVFoundation BuiltInLiDarDepthCamera mode to provide a depth map as accurate as ARKit at close range? The AVCaptureDepthDataOutput supports filtering that reduces noise and fills in invalid values. Consider using this for smoother depth maps Question 6 Pyramid-based photo editing in core image (such as adobe camera raw highlights and shadows)? First off you may want to look a the builtin filter called CIHighlightShadowAdjust Also the noise reduction in the CIRawFilter uses a pyramid-based algorithm. You can also write your own pyramid-based algorithms by taking an input image: down sample it by two multiply times using imageByApplyingAffineTransform apply additional CIKernels to each downsampled image as needed. use a custom CIKernel to combine the results. Question 7 Is the best way to integrate an in-app camera for a “non-camera” app UIImagePickerController? Yes, UIImagePickerController provides system-provided UI for capturing photos and movies. Question 8 Hello, my question is on Deferred Photo Processing? Say I have a photo capture app that adds a CIFilter to the capture. How can I take advantage of Deferred Photo Processing? Since I don’t know how to detect when the deferred captured photo is ready CIFilter can be called on the final at that point Photo will have to be re-inserted into the Photo library as adjustment Question 9 For shipping photo style assets in the app that need transparency what is the best format to use? JPEG2000? will moving to this save a lot of space comapred to PNG or other options? If you want lossless compression PNG is good and supports unpremutiplied alpha If you want lossy compression HEIF supports premutiplied or unpremutiplied alpha (Note: this is part 1 of a 3 part posting. See Part 2 or Part 3)

Hi, when a CoreMIDI driver controls physical HW it is probably quite commune to have to control the amount of MIDI data received from the system. What comes to mind is to just delay returning control of the MIDIDriverInterface::Send() callback to the calling process. While the application trying to send MIDI really stalls until the callback returns it seems only to be a side effect of a generally stalled CoreMIDI server. Between the callbacks the application can send as much MIDI data as it wants to CoreMIDI, it's buffering seems to be endless... However the HW might not be able to play out all the data. It seems there is no way to indicate an overflow/full buffer situation back the application/CoreMIDI. How is this supposed to work? Thanks, any hints or pointers are highly appreciated! Hagen.

I have an application that includes custom artwork for the album cover and text details setup with the MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared() reference. I need the user to have a full featured "now playing" display to see all of this. My experience is that cannot find a set of parameters for AVAudioSession.setCategory() that route audio successfully, and display the full featured now playing deck. If I use .playAndRecord, the audio I send out plays out on the radio. But, the now-playing deck is empty and nothing I do with the command center seems to change that. If I instead use .playback, I cannot use .defaultToSpeaker option which is the only way I've found to cause the "now-playing" navigation button to appear so that the full featured deck will display. But, of course setCategory() fails with an error about .defaultToSpeaker only available with .playAndRecord, so some default or intermediate state is entered and I see the full featured deck, but no audio goes out to the radio. What combination is supposed to be used here and is this more likely a problem with thread use (@MainActor) and/or some ordering of operations that I've overlooked?