Widgets & Live Activities

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WidgetKit Documentation

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Widget Memory Limit - Per Widget Kind/Size or Per Target?
I am building a widget that supports 2 different widget kinds, each supporting systemSmall, systemMedium, and systemLarge size families. My widget does download and display images so I expect memory usage to be on the higher end, but in debugging some memory issues, I notice that when I build my widget scheme to a physical device, things start off reasonable at ~12MB of memory usage. But as I change the widgets intent, add the other widget kind, or add different widget size families, this memory usage grows until it ultimately hits the 30MB cap. My question is, is the 30MB memory limit spread across all my supported widget kinds/sizes? Or does each individual widget get its own 30MB cap? i.e., if I have systemMedium Widget A and systemLarge Widget B, are they sharing that 30MB memory limit?
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178
Aug ’25
Unable to Write to UserDefaults from Widget Extension Despite Correct App Group Configuration
Hi Apple team, I'm experiencing a persistent issue with writing to UserDefaults from a widget extension on iOS. Here's the situation: I've set up an App Group: group.test.blah The main app has the correct entitlement and can read/write from UserDefaults(suiteName:) using this group successfully. I can read the value written by the app from the widget (e.g., "testFromApp": "hiFromApp"). The widget extension has the same App Group enabled under Signing & Capabilities. The provisioning profile reflects the App Group and the build installs successfully on a real device. The suite name is correct and matches across both targets. I’ve confirmed via FileManager.default.containerURL(...) that the app group container resolves properly. When I try to write from the widget extension like this let sharedDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.test.blah") sharedDefaults?.set("hiFromWidget", forKey: "testFromWidget") ...I get this error in the console: Couldn't write values for keys ( testFromWidget ) in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x1140d2880> (Domain: group.test.blah, User: kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, ByHost: No, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: No): setting preferences outside an application's container requires user-preference-write or file-write-data sandbox access Questions: What could still cause the widget extension to lack write access to the app group container, even though it reads just fine? Are there any internal sandboxing nuances or timing-related issues specific to Live Activity widgets that could explain this? Is this a known limitation or platform issue?
7
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273
Aug ’25
Unable perform AppIntent in interactive Widget
I am currently developing an interactive widget, but an AppIntent issue blocked me for 2 days. I have an AppIntent named TimerActionIntent, which has two parameters: TimerType and TimerAction. Here is the code: import AppIntents enum TimerType: Int, CaseIterable, AppEnum, AppEntity { case sleep case feeding static let typeDisplayRepresentation: TypeDisplayRepresentation = "Timer Type" static let caseDisplayRepresentations: [TimerType : DisplayRepresentation] = [ .sleep: "Sleep", .feeding: "Feeding" ] } enum TimerAction: Int, CaseIterable, AppEnum, AppEntity { case start case pause case stop static let typeDisplayRepresentation: TypeDisplayRepresentation = "Timer Action" static let caseDisplayRepresentations: [TimerAction : DisplayRepresentation] = [ .start: "Start", .pause: "Pause", .stop: "Stop" ] } struct TimerActionIntent: AppIntent { static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Operate a Log Timer" @Parameter(title: "Timer", default: .sleep) var timerType: TimerType @Parameter(title: "Action", default: .start) var action: TimerAction static var isDiscoverable: Bool = false static var openAppWhenRun: Bool = false init() {} init(timerType: TimerType, action: TimerAction) { self.timerType = timerType self.action = action } func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult { // perform the action Self.openAppWhenRun = state == .stopped } return .result() } } I can't execute the AppIntent if using the following code: Button(intent: TimerActionIntent(timerType: .sleep, action: .start)) { // button view } // or let intent = TimerActionIntent() intent.timerType = timerType intent.action = .start Button(intent: intent) { // button view } and only execute when initialize TimerActionIntent without any parameters and @Parameter has the default value. e.g. Button(intent: TimerActionIntent()) { // button view } I have some logs in the Console app: default 17:51:27.626382+0800 linkd Accepting XPC connection from PID 39255 for service "com.apple.linkd.registry" default 17:51:27.637511+0800 WidgetsExtension Beginning PerformAction <<SB:788D850BBBC5>> default 17:51:27.637540+0800 WidgetsExtension Beginning InitializeAction <<SB:ACBC7A27CCBF>> default 17:51:27.637556+0800 WidgetsExtension [InitializeAction <<N:ACBC7A27CCBF>>] Found TimerActionIntent matching TimerActionIntent registered with AppManager default 17:51:27.637725+0800 WidgetsExtension Prepared timerType to TimerType(TimerType/0)) default 17:51:27.637744+0800 WidgetsExtension Prepared action to TimerAction(TimerAction/0)) default 17:51:27.637772+0800 WidgetsExtension Ending InitializeAction <<SE:ACBC7A27CCBF>> default 17:51:27.637795+0800 WidgetsExtension Beginning ResolveParameters <<SB:6C7CA02308AD>> default 17:51:27.639807+0800 WidgetsExtension Building resolver for parameter timerType<TimerType> = TimerType/0 default 17:51:27.640160+0800 WidgetsExtension Building resolver: EntityIdentifier → TimerType:TimerActionIntent:timerType default 17:51:27.640202+0800 WidgetsExtension Ending ResolveParameters <<SE:6C7CA02308AD>> default 17:51:27.640221+0800 WidgetsExtension Beginning NeedsDisambiguation <<SB:8E482F9CCCB0>> default 17:51:27.641328+0800 WidgetsExtension Ending NeedsDisambiguation <<SE:8E482F9CCCB0>> default 17:51:27.641344+0800 WidgetsExtension Ending PerformAction <<SE:788D850BBBC5>> error 17:51:27.642316+0800 chronod Perform action connection operation completed with error: Error Domain=LNActionExecutorErrorDomain Code=2010 "(null)" error 17:51:27.642774+0800 chronod Operation `<LNPerformActionConnectionOperation: 0x600002c4a180, identifier: F8FB77C5-7F8A-4670-BB8C-465DE4EAB6B8>` error Error Domain=LNActionExecutorErrorDomain Code=2010 "(null)" default 17:51:27.643358+0800 linkd Invalidated XPC connection from PID 39255 for service "com.apple.linkd.registry" I can't find any details about the error " Error Domain=LNActionExecutorErrorDomain Code=2010 "(null)"" The environment: Xcode: 16.4/26 beta 5 iOS: iOS Simulator 18.5, iOS Simulator 26, iPhone 16 Pro Max 18.6 macOS 15.6 Can anyone help me, please!
2
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86
Aug ’25
Live Activity doesn't update as frequently as it should
I'm developing an app which will show the driver ETA and rendering the progress bar of the current ETA. Intuitively the backend server sends the push notification every 3 seconds through firebase cloud message service to APNS so that the device can refresh the dynamic island smoothly. But the live activity doesn't refresh as frequently as the backend service does. It should refresh every 3 seconds but it turns out like refresh 30 ~ 60 seconds, sometimes it didn't refresh at all. any body facing the same?
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277
Aug ’25
What's the max duration for a live activity?
The docs are conflicting. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/activitykit/starting-and-updating-live-activities-with-activitykit-push-notifications#End-the-Live-Activity-with-a-custom-dismissal-date says: When you end a Live Activity, by default the Live Activity appears on the Lock Screen for up to four hours after it ends to allow people to glance at their phone to refer to the latest information. However here it says: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/activitykit/displaying-live-data-with-live-activities#Understand-constraints A Live Activity can be active for up to eight hours unless its app or a person ends it before this limit. After the eight-hour limit, the system automatically ends the Live Activity, and immediately removes it from the Dynamic Island. However, the Live Activity remains on the Lock Screen until a person removes it or for up to four additional hours before the system removes it — whichever comes first. As a result, a Live Activity remains on the Lock Screen for a maximum of 12 hours. So is it 4 hrs OR '8 for Dynamic Island vs 12 for Lock Screen'?
2
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238
Aug ’25
App group not working between iOS and watchOS
Hi everyone, I'm using an app group to share data between iOS and it's watch companion app. I ensured that is has the same identifier in Signing &amp; Capabilities and in the .entitlements files. Here is the UserDefaults part: class UserDefaultsManager { private let suitName = "group.com.sanjeevbalakrishnan.Test" public func saveItems(_ items: [ItemDTO]) { print("Save \(items.count) items to shared defaults") let defaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: suitName) let data = try? JSONEncoder().encode(items) defaults?.set(data, forKey: "items") } public func loadItems() -&gt; [ItemDTO] { let defaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: suitName) print(defaults) guard let data = defaults?.data(forKey: "items") else { print("watchOS received data is empty") return [] } let items = [ItemDTO].from(data: data) print("Load \(items.count) items from user defaults") return items } } For testing I called loadItems after saveItems on iOS app and it returned items. However, on watchOS app it always returns empty array. What do I need to consider? Thanks. Best regards Sanjeev
3
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207
Sep ’25
scenePhase not work consistently on watchOS
Hi there, I'm using WCSession to communicate watchOS companion with its iOS app. Every time watch app becomes "active", it needs to fetch data from iOS app, which works e.g. turning my hand back and forth. But only when the app is opened after it was minimised by pressing digital crown, it didn't fetch data. My assumption is that scenePhase doesn't emit a change on reopen. Here is the ContentView of watch app: import SwiftUI struct ContentView: View { @EnvironmentObject private var iOSAppConnector: IOSAppConnector @Environment(\.scenePhase) private var scenePhase @State private var showOpenCategories = true var body: some View { NavigationStack { VStack { if iOSAppConnector.items.isEmpty { WelcomeView() } else { ScrollView { VStack(spacing: 10) { ForEach(iOSAppConnector.items, id: \.self.name) { item in ItemView(item: item) } } } .task { DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.5) { loadItems() } } .onChange(of: scenePhase, initial: true) { newPhase, _ in if newPhase == .active { loadItems() } } } fileprivate func loadItems() -> Void { if iOSAppConnector.items.isEmpty { iOSAppConnector.loadItems() } } } What could be the issue? Thanks. Best regards Sanjeev
1
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307
Sep ’25
Live Activity: no value in pushTokenUpdates and pushToStartTokenUpdates not called after app restart
When running application after installation I get a value in pushTokenUpdates and also the call to pushToStartTokenUpdates returns with the token value. But, if I kill the app and restart it again, there is no value in pushTokenUpdates and the call to pushToStartTokenUpdates does not return. Am I suppose to use the push to start token from the previous application run? is there a different solution?
1
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207
Sep ’25
Interactive Widget with SwiftData Not Triggering iCloud Sync
Hello everyone, I'm developing an app for iOS 18 using SwiftData, with iCloud synchronization enabled. My app also includes an interactive widget that allows users to mark tasks as complete, similar to Apple's Reminders widget. I'm facing a specific issue with how iCloud sync is triggered when changes are made from the widget. My Setup: Xcode 16 Swift 6 / iOS 18 SwiftData with iCloud Sync enabled. An interactive widget using App Intents to modify the SwiftData model. What's working correctly: App to Widget (Same Device): If I mark a task as complete in the main app, the widget on the same device updates instantly. Widget to App (Same Device): If I mark a task as complete using the interactive widget, the main app on the same device reflects this change immediately. App to App (Across Devices): If I make a change in the app on my iPhone, it syncs correctly via iCloud and appears in the app on my iPad. The Problem: The synchronization issue occurs specifically when an action is initiated from the widget and needs to be reflected on other devices, or when a change from another device needs to be reflected in the widget. Widget Change Not Syncing to Other Devices: If I mark a task as complete in the widget on my iPhone, the change does not sync to my iPad. The task on the iPad only updates after I manually open the main app on the iPhone. Remote Change Not Syncing to Widget: Similarly, if I mark a task as complete in the app on my iPad, the widget on my iPhone does not update to show this change. The widget only refreshes with the correct state after I open the main app on the iPhone. It seems that the widget's AppIntent correctly modifies the local SwiftData store, but this action isn't triggering the necessary background process to push the changes to iCloud. The sync only seems to happen when the main app, with its active ModelContainer, is brought to the foreground. My goal is for any change made in the widget to be reflected across all of the user's devices in near real-time, without requiring them to launch the main app to initiate the sync. Is there a specific API I need to call from my AppIntent to force a SwiftData sync, or a project capability I might be missing to allow the widget extension to trigger iCloud pushes? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
1
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149
Sep ’25
Contrast for texts in widgets with image backgrounds transparent mode
Hello, in my widget the user displays images filling the whole widget with overlayed texts (via ZStack). Via shadows or text background color the text gets better readable. However, when a user chooses transparent or tinted colors for the home screen, the text is barely or not readable anymore since e.g. white text on white image background. How to resolve this issue?
6
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299
Jan ’26
Widget - App may push the list view twice when launched from widget
Issue Description: Tapping the app widget sometimes triggers the Universal Link twice, causing duplicate navigation or actions within the app Steps to Reproduce: Add the app widget to the home screen Tap the widget to open the app via the Universal Link Observe that the Universal Link is sometimes fired twice Expected Behavior: Tapping the widget should trigger the Universal Link only once. Actual Behavior: Universal Link is triggered twice, causing duplicate navigation or actions.
1
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128
Jan ’26
Optional Parameter using WidgetConfigurationIntent
Hi there, I'm adding a new widget using the new WidgetConfigurationIntent which takes a number of parameters, including one which conforms to AppEntity. It is defined as an optional. When the user is configuring the widget, after one of the suggested entities is chosen, there is no way to return to a state where this value is nil. Is this possible? I'd like the user to be able to select "None" for this parameter. For now, I'm using a bool to determine whether the AppEntity parameter is used. Thanks!
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1.2k
Oct ’25
iOS did not update all widgets of an app when the user press a button on a widget
Hello, I have an app in AppStore "Counter Widget". https://apps.apple.com/app/id1522170621 It allows you to add a widget to your homescreen/lockscreen to count anything. Everything works fine except for one scenario. iOS 18+ I create 2 or more widgets for one counter. For example, medium and small widgets. I click on the widget button to increase or decrease the value. The button in the widget uses Button(intent: AppIntent) to update the value and calls WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() to update the second widget for the same counter. For iOS 18 in this particular scenario, you don't even have to call the WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines(). iOS already knows that there is a widget with the same INIntent settings and will update it itself. Both widgets are updated and show the new value. Everything is correct. Now on the homescreen I open the widget configuration for one of the widgets to change the INIntent for the widget. For example, i change the background to wallpaper. This is just a skin for the widget, and the widget is associated with the same counter value as before. As in (2), I click the widget button to increase or decrease the value. But now only one widget is updated. iOS ignores my call to WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() and does not update the second widget connected to the same counter. As I found, iOS, when I call WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() from the widget itself, updates other widgets only if INIntent is absolutely equal for them. Overriding isEqual for them did not help. That is, I cannot specify which fields from my INIntent can be ignored during such an update and consider that widgets are equal and need to be updated. Obviously iOS make this compare outside my code. The main problem is that when the user adds a widget to the lock screen and increases and decreases the value there. After that, he opens the home screen and the widget there is not synchronized with the value from the widget on the lock screen. How to solve this problem?
4
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883
Apr ’25
Push-to-Start Live Activity Background Task Issue After App Termination
Desired Behavior I want the app to be able to handle multiple Push-to-Start notifications even when it is completely terminated. Each Live Activity should: Be successfully displayed upon receiving a Push-to-Start notification. Trigger background tasks to send its update token to the server, regardless of the time interval between notifications. Problem I am facing an issue with iOS Live Activities when using Push-to-Start notifications to trigger Live Activities in an app that has been completely terminated. Here’s the detailed scenario: When the app is completely terminated and I send the first Push-to-Start notification: The Live Activity is successfully displayed. didFinishLaunchingWithOptions` is triggered, and background tasks execute correctly, including sending the update token to the server. When I send consecutive Push-to-Start notifications in quick succession (e.g., within a few seconds or minutes): Both notifications successfully display their respective Live Activities. Background tasks are executed correctly for both notifications. However, when there is a longer interval (e.g., 10 minutes) between two Push-to-Start notifications: The first notification works perfectly—it displays the Live Activity, triggers didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, and executes background tasks. The second notification successfully displays the Live Activity but fails to execute any background tasks, such as sending the update token to the server. My HypothesisI suspect that iOS might impose a restriction where background runtime for Push-to-Start notifications can only be granted once within a certain time frame after the app has been terminated. Any insights into why this issue might be occurring or how to ensure consistent background task execution for multiple Push-to-Start notifications would be greatly appreciated!
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537
4w
WidgetKit memory issues only in iOS 18.3
I've been working on a new application and beta testing with TestFlight. When iOS 18.3 came out, my widgets stopped working due to using too much memory. I've been trying to debug for a while now, but not making much progress. Now that iOS 18.4 is out, I noticed the widgets are working again. I'm wondering if there was some change made in iOS 18.3 that was rolled back in iOS 18.4 that I'm not seeing in the iOS Release Notes etc? I haven't seen much in the Developer Forums, either. My concern is that perhaps Apple decided to make the 30MB Widget memory limit a "hard" limit, but then rolled it back, perhaps temporarily, so I'd like some clarity on the situation if possible. Otherwise, I did notice that it seemed as if all of my widgets were loaded at once, even if only one widget was installed, this boosting the memory usage significantly. If so, that might indicate that a bug was fixed in the Widget Provider system? In any case, I'd appreciate any information or advice on this. Thanks!
3
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266
Apr ’25
Live Activity Start Token not generating after certain days of usage for non Production builds
Live Activity Start Token not generating after certain days of usage. We have implemented Live Activity feature where the initial activity is launched by our backend. But to start that first live activity I need push to start token which is generating for few days but all of sudden after certain days it stops generating. Currently we are in development phase so we test it on multiple devices and multiple time we are doing install and uninstall. STEPS TO REPRODUCE Install the app Start token gets generated which is sent to our server After certain duration server sends the first live activity using that token user opens the app then we receive the updated token and send that token to server server uses that updated token to further update the live activity. All this works fine. But after a week of usage we are observing that we stop getting start token from APNS. Not sure where exactly the thing is breaking. We have tried with different devices and different bundle identifiers but behaviour is same for all. func generateStartToken() { Task.detached { [weak self] in guard let self else { return } await self.observeActivityPushTokenAndState() for await data in ActivityKit.Activity<LiveActivityAttribute>.pushToStartTokenUpdates { let token = data.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() print("Activity Start token: ", token) } } } func observeActivityPushTokenAndState() { Task.detached { for await activity in ActivityKit.Activity<LiveActivityAttribute>.activityUpdates { Task { for await tokenData in activity.pushTokenUpdates { let updatedToken = tokenData.map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }.joined() print("Activity Update token: ", updatedToken) } } Task { for await content in activity.contentUpdates { let updatedContent = content.state print("Activity Updated: ", updatedContent) } } } } }
2
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182
Apr ’25
Home screen Widget with dynamic options for configuration via App Intent - Slow
I am building a widget with configurable options (dynamic option) where the options are pull from api (ultimately the options are return from a server, but during my development, the response is constructed on the fly from locally). Right now, I am able to display the widget and able to pull out the widget configuration screen where I can choose my config option . I am constantly having an issue where the loading the available options when selected a particular option (e.g. Category) and display them on the UI. Sometime, when I tap on the option "Category" and the loading indicator keeps spinning for while before it can populate the list of topics (return from methods in NewsCategoryQuery struct via fetchCategoriesFromAPI ). Notice that I already made my fetchCategoriesFromAPI call to return the result on the fly and however the widget configuration UI stills take a very long time to display the result. Even worst, the loading (loading indicator keep spinning) sometime will just kill itself after a while and my guess there are some time threshold where the widget extension or app intent is allow to run, not sure on this? My questions: How can I improve the loading time to populate the dynamic options in widget configuration via App Intent Here is my sample code for my current setup struct NewsFeedConfigurationIntent: AppIntent, WidgetConfigurationIntent { static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Configure News Topic Options" static let description = IntentDescription("Select a topic for your news.") @Parameter(title: "Category", default: nil) var category: NewsCategory? } struct NewsCategory: AppEntity, Identifiable { let id: String let code: String let name: String static let typeDisplayRepresentation: TypeDisplayRepresentation = "News Topic" static let defaultQuery = NewsCategoryQuery() var displayRepresentation: DisplayRepresentation { DisplayRepresentation(title: LocalizedStringResource(stringLiteral: name)) } } struct NewsCategoryQuery: EntityQuery { func entities(for identifiers: [NewsCategory.ID]) async throws -> [NewsCategory] { let categories = fetchCategoriesFromAPI() return categories.filter { identifiers.contains($0.id) } } func suggestedEntities() async throws -> [NewsCategory] { fetchCategoriesFromAPI() } } func fetchCategoriesFromAPI() -> [NewsCategory] { let list = [ "TopicA", "TopicB", "TopicC", ....... ] return list.map { item in NewsCategory(id: item, code: item, name: item.capitalized) } }
0
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176
Apr ’25
iOS Team Provisioning Profile oesn't include the com.apple.developer.activitykit entitlement.
I would like to add a Live Activity to my app, but unfortunately I always get an error message. When I go into the Identifiers via the Developer Portal and look at my app, there is no Activity Kit or Live Activity in the Capabilites that I could activate. In XCode I don't see the option for Signing & Capabilities either... Can anyone help me how to add this correctly? Thanks in advance!
1
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191
Apr ’25
WidgetKit And Picture rotation
I'm developing a widget with WidgetKit, and I'm having a problem: I need to click on an image, and when I click it triggers a network request, the image automatically rotates clockwise, and when the network ends, the image automatically stops rotating. How to do that? My current idea is to click on the image and await the call to the network request. Should Toggle be used for the control corresponding to the picture? Because Toggle has two states. Then there is how to do image rotation, did not find support API.
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115
Apr ’25
Calendar "Today's Events" Issue
Device: iPhone 16 Pro iOS version: 18.3.2 The calendar widget (on home screen) is displaying "No more events today" even though there is an appointment scheduled later in the evening on the same day. I have looked through all the settings and nothing seems to work. How do I get it to display events that are on the calendar for rest of the day today. It does correctly display events that are upcoming tomorrow and next week. Thanks, -Harry
1
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139
Apr ’25