Explore the integration of media technologies within your app. Discuss working with audio, video, camera, and other media functionalities.

All subtopics
Posts under Media Technologies topic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Support for encrypted Mp4 on Apple devices.
Hello, hope everybody is doing well. I have some reels (of aspect ratio 9X16) content, which I want to playback on iOS phones. My question is does AV player support out of box playback of encrypted Mp4. Please note, this is not HLS fMp4, rather unfragmented Mp4 content. If it is supported, what algorithm of encryption shall be used? Please let me know.
1
0
118
Mar ’25
Failed to launch Photo Editing Extension from Mac Catalyst app
I have an iOS app that includes a Photo Editing Extension and is optimized for Mac Catalyst so you can edit photos in the Photos app on your Mac. This has worked really well but now I am encountering an error alert trying to open the photo editing extension: RBSLaunchRequest error trying to launch plugin com.company.TestEditor. TestPhotoEditor (B7A616A7-2 5A8-4E02-8B32-5CAB37C8B4B2): ErrorDomain=RBSRequestErrorDomain Code=5 "Launch failed." UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Launch failed., NSUnderlyingError=0x7f08fafd0 {ErrorDomain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=153 "Unknown error: 153" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Launchd job spawn failed}}} Create a new iOS app project in Xcode Create a new target and choose iOS > Photo Editing Extension For both targets in the project, add Mac Catalyst as a supported destination Run the app on My Mac (Mac Catalyst) Open the Photos app, double click a photo, click Edit, click the more plugins button, and click TestPhotoEditor in the list macOS 15.4.1 + Xcode 16.3
1
0
320
May ’25
FairPlay-Protected HLS Files Not Transferred via Quick Start
I have an iOS app that downloads HLS files, which are protected by FairPlay. These files are stored locally, and their locations are managed using Core Data. When playing these tracks, I use AVURLAsset to access the stored file paths. Recently, a client upgraded to a new iPhone and used Quick Start to transfer data from his old device. While all other app data was successfully transferred, including Core Data records and UserDefaults, the actual HLS files were missing. As a result, the app retained metadata about the downloaded content, but the files themselves were gone, causing playback failures. Does Quick Start exclude certain types of locally stored files, especially DRM-protected HLS downloads, or is the issue related to how FairPlay-protected content is handled during the transfer of locally stored files?
1
0
239
Mar ’25
Case-ID: 12759603: Memory Leak in UIViewControllerRepresentable and VideoPlayer
Dear Developers and DTS team, This is writing to seek your expert guidance on a persistent memory leak issue I've discovered while implementing video playback in a SwiftUI application. Environment Details: iOS 17+, Swift (SwiftUI, AVKit), Xcode 16.2 Target Devices: iPhone 15 Pro (iOS 18.3.2) iPhone 16 Plus (iOS 18.3.2) Detailed Issue Description: I am experiencing consistent memory leaks when using UIViewControllerRepresentable with AVPlayerViewController for FullscreenVideoPlayer and native VideoPlayer during video playback termination. Code Context: I have implemented the following approaches: Added static func dismantleUIViewController(: coordinator:) Included deinit in Coordinator Utilized both UIViewControllerRepresentable and native VideoPlayer /// A custom AVPlayer integrated with AVPlayerViewController for fullscreen video playback. /// /// - Parameters: /// - videoURL: The URL of the video to be played. struct FullscreenVideoPlayer: UIViewControllerRepresentable { // @Binding something for controlling fullscreen let videoURL: URL? func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> AVPlayerViewController { let controller = AVPlayerViewController() controller.delegate = context.coordinator print("AVPlayerViewController created: \(String(describing: controller))") return controller } /// Updates the `AVPlayerViewController` with the provided video URL and playback state. /// /// - Parameters: /// - uiViewController: The `AVPlayerViewController` instance to update. /// - context: The SwiftUI context for updates. func updateUIViewController(_ uiViewController: AVPlayerViewController, context: Context) { guard let videoURL else { print("Invalid videoURL") return } // Initialize AVPlayer if it's not already set if uiViewController.player == nil || uiViewController.player?.currentItem == nil { uiViewController.player = AVPlayer(url: videoURL) print("AVPlayer updated: \(String(describing: uiViewController.player))") } // Handle playback state } func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator { Coordinator(parent: self) } static func dismantleUIViewController(_ uiViewController: AVPlayerViewController, coordinator: Coordinator) { uiViewController.player?.pause() uiViewController.player?.replaceCurrentItem(with: nil) uiViewController.player = nil print("dismantleUIViewController called for \(String(describing: uiViewController))") } } extension FullscreenVideoPlayer { class Coordinator: NSObject, AVPlayerViewControllerDelegate { var parent: FullscreenVideoPlayer init(parent: FullscreenVideoPlayer) { self.parent = parent } deinit { print("Coordinator deinitialized") } } } struct ContentView: View { private let videoURL: URL? = URL(string: "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.mp4") var body: some View { NavigationStack { Text("My Userful View") List { Section("VideoPlayer") { NavigationLink("FullscreenVideoPlayer") { FullscreenVideoPlayer(videoURL: videoURL) .frame(height: 500) } NavigationLink("Native VideoPlayer") { VideoPlayer(player: .init(url: videoURL!)) .frame(height: 500) } } } } } } Reproducibility Steps: Run application on target devices Scenario A - FullscreenVideoPlayer: Tap FullscreenVideoPlayer Play video to completion Repeat process 5 times Scenario B - VideoPlayer: Navigate back to main screen Tap Video Player Play video to completion Repeat process 5 times Observed Memory Leak Characteristics: Per Iteration (Debug Memory Graph): 4 instances of NSMutableDictionary (Storage) leaked 4 instances of __NSDictionaryM leaked 4 × 112-byte malloc blocks leaked Cumulative Effects: Debug console prints: "dismantleUIViewController called for <AVPlayerViewController: 0x{String}> Coordinator deinitialized" when navigate back to main screen After multiple iterations, leak instances double Specific Questions: What underlying mechanisms are causing these memory leaks in UIViewControllerRepresentable and VideoPlayer? What are the recommended strategies to comprehensively prevent and resolve these memory management issues?
1
0
214
Mar ’25
Application tones start when I get incoming call or message
I've got a problem with my app where I'm testing it on my own phone. I'm using audio kit to generate tones as part of the app. Everything seems to work fine. Sounds start, Stop, etc. They play when the app is closed and when the phone is locked, so background is working. However, I'm seeing an issue where, even when STOP is pressed and the application exited, if I get a notification such as a text message, the base tone for the app starts to play. If I then open the app, check the Start/Stop button - it says start so that. hasnt' been activated. If I click Start, then a 2nd tone starts. This one stops with the Stop button. However the original tone that was set off by an incoming message carries on playing. Until I go to the Open Apps View on the phone and slide the application upwards. For the life of me, I can't figure out whats happening here.
1
0
106
May ’25
Background GPU access in iOS 26 for iPhones
We build mobile apps for creators to edit their videos. Post editing the video, the creator has to export the video so that it can be uploaded to Youtube. The export is a time consuming and GPU intensive process. The creator can exit the app due to various reasons like receiving the call, putting the app in background etc. This causes the export to fail :( Keeping this limitation in mind there was an announcement from Apple that with the IOS 26 launch would start to support background GPU access. Here is the official documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/BundleResources/Entitlements/com.apple.developer.background-tasks.continued-processing.gpu When we tried using this feature, we were not able to get it to work on IOS 26. We stumbled upon this ticket(https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/797538?answerId=854825022#854825022) in the Apple Developer forum, in which possibly an Apple engineer claims it is supported ONLY for iPadOS 26. This is a very big bummer for us. 96% of the users are on iPhone(compared to iPad), and if we refer to the official documentation above, it claims that this feature should work on IOS 26. This feature is extremely important for having the best user experience and reducing user frustration and will be useful for other video editing apps. Looking forward to a resolution.
1
0
252
Oct ’25
iPhone 15 Pro Has USB-C, but AVCaptureDevice Doesn't Support External Devices?
I'm using an iPhone 15 Pro, which has switched from Lightning to USB Type-C. My iOS version is 18.3. According to Apple's documentation, AVCaptureDevice.DeviceType should support external device types. 🔗 Apple's Official Documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturedevice/devicetype-swift.struct/external The documentation clearly states that iPadOS 17.0+ and iOS 17.0+ support external devices. However, in my actual tests: On iPhone, discoverySession does not detect any external devices. On iPad, discoverySession can detect external devices without any issues. My Question: Does iPhone USB-C actually support external devices (e.g., UVC cameras)? If not, why does Apple's documentation claim that iOS 17 supports external devices instead of specifying iPadOS 17 only?
1
0
566
Mar ’25
Take correctly sized screenshots with ScreenCaptureKit
I've been using CGWindowListCreateImage which automatically creates an image with the size of the captured window. But SCScreenshotManager.captureImage(contentFilter:configuration:) always creates images with the width and height specified in the provided SCStreamConfiguration. I could be setting the size explicitly by reading SCWindow.frame or SCContentFilter.contentRect and multiplying the width and height by SCContentFilter.pointPixelScale , but it won't work if I want to keep the window shadow with SCStreamConfiguration.ignoreShadowsSingleWindow = false. Is there a way and what's the best way to take full-resolution screenshots of the correct size? import Cocoa import ScreenCaptureKit class ViewController: NSViewController { @IBOutlet weak var imageView: NSImageView! override func viewDidAppear() { imageView.imageScaling = .scaleProportionallyUpOrDown view.wantsLayer = true view.layer!.backgroundColor = .init(red: 1, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 1) Task { let windows = try await SCShareableContent.excludingDesktopWindows(false, onScreenWindowsOnly: true).windows let window = windows[0] let filter = SCContentFilter(desktopIndependentWindow: window) let configuration = SCStreamConfiguration() configuration.ignoreShadowsSingleWindow = false configuration.showsCursor = false configuration.width = Int(Float(filter.contentRect.width) * filter.pointPixelScale) configuration.height = Int(Float(filter.contentRect.height) * filter.pointPixelScale) print(filter.contentRect) let windowImage = try await SCScreenshotManager.captureImage(contentFilter: filter, configuration: configuration) imageView.image = NSImage(cgImage: windowImage, size: CGSize(width: windowImage.width, height: windowImage.height)) } } }
5
0
964
Oct ’25
AVPlayer freezes after ReplaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem + immediate seek on iOS 18.4 (streaming only)
Starting in iOS 18.4, (and still in the iOS 18.5 beta), the AVPlayer seems to freeze when we: Replace the current AVPlayerItem, ReplaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem and then: Call Seek very shortly afterwards (seekToTime:toleranceBefore:toleranceAfter: / seek(to:)) And then subsequent calls to play after have no effect. However, it feels scrubbing to see after works and also changing the playback rate (i.e. fast forward) tends to clear up the frozen state. Our primary workflow involves video playback, replacing video to show new clips and in some cases seeking to specific frames. This appears to only be occurring while streaming video, reports are all that local downloaded video playback remains fine. This same code path has worked without issue on 17.x and 18.3.2 and for years before that. What is particularly strange is that time observers log that video is still playing or feeding frames. The reported status is ReadyToPlay, IsLikelyToKeepUp is true, and there are no indications of stalling or buffering. A similar issue is true for our web application in Safari. While on Sonoma and Safari 17.x, there is no issue. When you update to macOS Sequoia 15.4.1 and Safari 18.4, you begin observing a similar freezing. The same does not occur on Chrome or other tested browsers. There appears to be in the release notes for Safari 18.4, an interesting "fix" note that seems similar to what we are now experiencing: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-18_4-release-notes "Fixed an issue where playback doesn’t always resume after a seek. (140097993)" "Fixed playing video generating non-monotonic ‘timeupdate’ events. (142275184) (FB16222910)" "Fixed websites calling play() during a seek() is allowed by the specification so that the play event is fired even if the seek hasn’t completed. (142517488)" "Fixed seek not completing for WebM under some circumstances. (143372794)" "Fixed MediaRecorderPrivateEncoder writing frames out of order. (143956063)"
2
0
190
May ’25
Importing pictures with non-QT metadata
Movies taken with Android phones store their location metadata (and probably others) in ways that are ignored by Apple's ecosystem (QuickTime Player, Photos.app). I am considering creating a Spotlight importer so that this metadata is available to the sytem. But I have a couple of questions: Can a Spotlight importer add new data (like location) to the data that the standard importer already captured? Or would the new importer need to take over the whole data gathering? If so, would macOS allow that? Would that Spotlight importer be somehow used by e.g. Photos.app and QT Player to capture the location? Or would this end up in Spotlight "knowing" the location but Photos.app ignoring it? If so, maybe there is something more broadly useful than a Spotlight importer?
2
0
192
May ’25
Is AVAudioPCMFormatFloat32 required for playing a buffer with AVAudioEngine / AVAudioPlayerNode
I have a PCM audio buffer (AVAudioPCMFormatInt16). When I try to play it using AVPlayerNode / AVAudioEngine an exception is thrown: "[[busArray objectAtIndexedSubscript:(NSUInteger)element] setFormat:format error:&nsErr]: returned false, error Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10868 (related thread https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/700497?answerId=780530022#780530022) If I convert the buffer to AVAudioPCMFormatFloat32 playback works. My questions are: Does AVAudioEngine / AVPlayerNode require AVAudioPCMBuffer to be in the Float32 format? Is there a way I can configure it to accept another format instead for my application? If 1 is YES is this documented anywhere? If 1 is YES is this required format subject to change at any point? Thanks! I was looking to watch the "AVAudioEngine in Practice" session video from WWDC 2014 but I can't find it anywhere (https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/747008).
1
0
1k
Oct ’25
Metal CIKernel instances with arbitrarily structured data arguments
Hi, In the iOS13 and macOS Catalina release notes it says: Metal CIKernel instances now support arguments with arbitrarily structured data. I've been trying to use this functionality in a CIKernel with mixed results. I'm particularly interested in passing data in the form of a dynamically sized array. It seems to work up to a certain size. Beyond the threshold excessive data is discarded and the kernel becomes unstable. I assume there is some kind of memory alignment issue going on, but I've tried various types in my array and always get a similar result. I have not found any documentation or sample code regarding this. It would be great to know how this is intended to work and what the limitations are. In the forums there are two similar unanswered questions about data arguments, so I'm sure there are a few out there with similar issues. Thanks! Michael
5
0
514
Oct ’25
Unable to Fetch Videos from Recently Deleted Album Using Photos Framework in iOS 18.3.1
Hello everyone, I’m working on an iOS app that fetches videos from the "Recently Deleted" album using the Photos framework in Swift. However, I’m unable to fetch any videos, even though the "Recently Deleted" album contains 233 items (including videos), as seen in the Photos app. Environment: iOS Version: 18.3.1 Xcode Version: 16.2 Swift Version: Swift 5 Device: iPhone (simulator and physical device both tested) Photo Library Permission: "All Photos" access granted Recently Deleted Lock: Face ID/Passcode is disabled for "Recently Deleted"
2
0
154
Mar ’25
Capturing 48mp photos with .builtInTripleCamera
I am able to capture 48mp photos using .builtInWideAngleCamera, but it seems like .builtInTripleCamera is capped at 12mp? Is there a way to capture 48mp photos using .builtInTripleCamera? Because .builtInTripleCamera provides smooth transition between cameras during zooming, and I'd like to keep this behavior. New iPhone 17 Pro have all their cameras at 48mp. Is there a chance that their .builtInTripleCamera is capable of capturing 48mp? Or is this an API limitation?
3
0
440
Sep ’25
ShazamKit android sdk – 16 KB Page Size Support?
Hey, just wonderng if anyone knows whether the sdk for Android will be updated soon to support the new 16 KB memory page size requirement coming with Android 15? Google’s going to require all apps targeting Android 15+ to support it starting November 2025 Has anyone heard anything from Apple or the SDK team about this? Thanks!
1
0
196
May ’25
Is there a resource available that lists all the AVCaptureDevices for each iPhone model?
I want to fully support the new iPhone models in my app, and ideally need to know the available lenses. However, I can't find information about this on the web and they're not reported in the simulators. The closest thing I found was this, but it's very out of date. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/DeviceInformation/Reference/iOSDeviceCompatibility/Cameras/Cameras.html My only other option is to buy each device, which isn't really feasible, or to log the data from real users via an analytics tool which isn't ideal either. Thanks, Alex
1
0
442
Sep ’25
Video freezing with FairPlay streaming on iOS 18
Since iOS/iPadOs/tvOS 18 then we have run into a new problem with streaming of FairPlay encrypted video. On the affected streams then the audio plays perfectly but the video freezes for periods of a few seconds, so it will freeze for 5s or so, then be OK for a few seconds then freeze again. It is entirely reproducible when all the following are true the video streams were produced by a particular encoder (or particular settings, not sure on that) the video must be encrypted device is running some variety of iOS 18 (or iPadOS or tvOS) the device is an affected device Known devices are AppleTV 4K 2nd Gen iPad Pro 11" 1st and 2nd gen Devices known not to show the problem are all other AppleTV models iPhone 13 Pro and 16 Pro If we stream the same content, but unencrypted, then it plays perfectly, or if you play the encrypted stream on, say, tvOS 17. When the freezing occurs then we can see in the console logs repeating blocks of lines like the following default 18:08:46.578582+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameResponse(): Frame# 5771 DecodeFrame failed with error 0x0000013c default 18:08:46.578756+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameInternal(): failed - error: 316 default 18:08:46.579018+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameInternal(): avdDec - Frame# 5771, DecodeFrame failed with error: 0x13c default 18:08:46.579169+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDisplayCallback(): Asking fig to drop frame # 5771 with err -12909 - internalStatus: 315 also more relevant looking lines: default 18:17:39.122019+0000 kernel AppleAVD: avdOutbox0ISR(): FRM DONE (cid: 2.0, fno: 10970, codecT: 1) FAILED!! default 18:17:39.122155+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDisplayCallback(): Asking fig to drop frame # 10970 with err -12909 - internalStatus: 315 default 18:17:39.122221+0000 kernel AppleAVD: ## client[ 2.0] @ frm 10970, errStatus: 0x10 default 18:17:39.122338+0000 kernel AppleAVD: decodeFailIdentify(): VP error bit 4 has EP3B0 error default 18:17:39.122401+0000 kernel AppleAVD: processHWResponse(): clientID 2.0 frameNumber 10970 error 315, offsetIndex 10, isHwErr 1 So it would seem to me that one of the following must be happening: When these particular HLS files are encrypted then the data is being corrupted in some way that played back on iOS 17 and earlier but now won't on 18+, or There's a regression in iOS 18 that means that this particular format of video data is corrupted on decryption If anyone has seen similar behaviour, or has any ideas how to identify which of the two scenarios it is, please say. Unfortunately we don't have control of the servers so can't make changes there unless we can identify they are definitely the cause of the problem. Thanks, Simon.
2
0
770
Sep ’25
Convert CoreAudio AudioObjectID to IOUSB LocationID
Is there a recommended way on macOS 26 Tahoe to take a CoreAudio AudioObjectID and use it to lookup the underlying USB LocationID? I previously used AudioObjectID to query the corresponding DeviceUID with kAudioDevicePropertyDeviceUID. Then I queried for the IOService matching kIOAudioEngineClassName with property kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey matching DeviceUID, and I loaded kUSBDevicePropertyLocationID from the result. This fails on macOS 26, because the IO Registry for the device has an entry for usbaudiod rather than AppleUSBAudioEngine, and usbaudiod does not include a kIOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueIDKey property (or any other property to map it to a CoreAudio DeviceUID). My use-case here is a piece of audio recording software that allows configuring a set of supported audio devices via USB HID prior to recording. I present the user with a list of CoreAudio devices to use, but without a way to lookup the underlying USB LocationID, I cannot guarantee that the configured device matches the selected device (e.g. if the user plugged in two identical microphones).
2
0
595
Sep ’25
Editing a Library Playlist (MusicKit: iOS 16 beta)
I've just begun to dip my toes into the iOS16 waters. One of the first things that I've attempted is to edit a library playlist using: try await MusicLibrary.shared.edit(targetPlaylist, items: tracksToAdd) Where targetPlaylist is of type MusicItemCollection<MusicKit.Playlist>.Element and tracksToAdd is of type [Track] The targetPlaylist was created, using new iOS16 way, here: let newPlaylist = try await MusicLibrary.shared.createPlaylist(name: name, description: description) tracksToAdd is derived by performing a MusicLibraryRequest on a specific playlist ID, and then doing something like this: if let tracksToAdd = try await playlist.with(.tracks).tracks {    // add tracks to target playlist } My problem is that when I perform attempt the edit, I am faced with a rather sad looking crash. libdispatch.dylib`dispatch_group_leave.cold.1:     0x10b43d62c <+0>:  mov    x8, #0x0     0x10b43d630 <+4>:  stp    x20, x21, [sp, #-0x10]!     0x10b43d634 <+8>:  adrp   x20, 6     0x10b43d638 <+12>: add    x20, x20, #0xfbf          ; "BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: Unbalanced call to dispatch_group_leave()"     0x10b43d63c <+16>: adrp   x21, 40     0x10b43d640 <+20>: add    x21, x21, #0x260          ; gCRAnnotations     0x10b43d644 <+24>: str    x20, [x21, #0x8]     0x10b43d648 <+28>: str    x8, [x21, #0x38]     0x10b43d64c <+32>: ldp    x20, x21, [sp], #0x10 ->  0x10b43d650 <+36>: brk    #0x1 I assume that I must be doing something wrong, but I frankly have no idea how to troubleshoot this. Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks. @david-apple?
11
0
3.4k
May ’25