Our current iOS application utilizes WKWebView to display a web application. We've observed intermittent deletion of non-expired 1st-party persistent cookies within this web application, leading to session drops. Here are our environment details and specific questions: Environment: App Build: Built with Xcode 16.2. WebView Class: WKWebView. Cookie Type: 1st-Party Persistent Cookie (Explicit expiration set, not a session cookie). Domain Configuration: The content server and the cookie-issuing server are the same (same IP address, same eTLD+1). The Cookie is set via the Set-Cookie HTTP Header on the server side. Questions: Automatic Deletion Policy: Are there any scenarios (e.g., related to iOS system behavior, Safari policies, or Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)) where iOS or Safari might automatically delete non-expired 1st-party persistent cookies used by WKWebView? Deletion Conditions: If the answer to Q1 is Yes, under what specific conditions (e.g., memory pressure, inactivity, storage limits, specific ITP criteria) does this cookie deletion occur, and does the behavior differ significantly across various iOS versions? OS Update Impact: Are there any known specifications or documented cases where an iOS version update itself triggers the mass deletion of existing cookies stored in the WKWebsiteDataStore? Mitigation Strategy: If this automatic deletion is a known behavior, what mitigation strategies are officially recommended to ensure the persistence of essential 1st-party authentication cookies (e.g., manual synchronization with WKHTTPCookieStore or Keychain/UserDefaults)? Official Documentation: If the answer to Q1 is Yes, please provide URLs to any official Apple documentation or technical notes that detail the specifications or behavior of 1st-party persistent cookie deletion within WKWebView.

We have a SAML-based SSO App Extension that uses WKWebView to load the SAML login request. This implementation has been working correctly on iOS versions prior to 26. However, starting with iOS 26, the extension consistently crashes when calling WKWebView.load(_:). The crash occurs inside WebKit, specifically in: /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/WebKit/Source/WebKit/UIProcess/WebsiteData/WebsiteDataStore.cpp at WebKit::WebPageProxy::loadRequest(...) No app-level exception is thrown, and the extension terminates with: Thread 10: EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=1, subcode=0x1a31dbe00) It appears that WKWebView initialization or WebsiteDataStore creation is now restricted in extension contexts on iOS 26, but this change is not documented in the SDK release notes. Could you please confirm if this is an intentional sandbox restriction in iOS 26 or a regression in WebKit? Steps to reproduce: Implement an App Extension using ASAuthorizationProviderExtensionAuthorizationRequest. Create a WKWebView instance in the extension. Attempt to load a SAML login request (POST request with headers). Observe immediate crash on iOS 26 (works fine on earlier versions). Expected behavior: WKWebView should load the request or fail gracefully as in prior releases, without crashing the extension process. Request: Please clarify if WKWebView usage inside extensions is officially unsupported as of iOS 26, and if so, recommend an alternative approach for handling SSO flows.

When using passkeys stored in iCloud Keychain (Passwords app) via Passkey Autofill in browsers other than Safari, the userVerification parameter is ignored and user verification (UV) is not performed. As a result, relying party servers that require userVerification = required fail validation because the UV flag is not set, causing passkey authentication to fail. This issue occurs when the following setting is disabled: Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Use Face ID For → Password AutoFill The issue is reproducible only with the following combination: Non-Safari browsers (e.g. Chrome) Passkeys stored in iCloud Keychain (Passwords app) Passkey Autofill The issue does not occur in the following cases: Safari with passkeys stored in any credential manager Non-Safari browsers using credential managers other than iCloud Keychain Steps to Reproduce: Go to Settings → General → Autofill & Passwords, and enable the Passwords app under “Autofill From”. Go to Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Use Face ID For, and disable “Password AutoFill”. Open Chrome and navigate to https://webauthn.io Enter a username and tap “Register” to create a passkey using the Passwords app (iCloud Keychain). On webauthn.io, go to Advanced Settings → Authentication Settings, and set “User Verification” to “Required”. Reload the page, tap the input field, and perform Passkey Autofill. User Verification is not triggered, and “Authentication failed” is displayed on webauthn.io. === This issue has already been reported via Feedback Assistant as FB21756948. I am posting here to confirm whether this behavior is working as intended or represents a bug, and to make other developers aware of the current behavior.

I'm not loving the huge Favorites icons in Safari on MacOS 26, is there a way to reduce the size of them so that we can see more favorites on the list without scrolling down?

When I open com. apple. developer. web browser, I am unable to inject JavaScript into the webview through methods such as addUserScript. The console will prompt 'ignoring user script injection for non app bound domain'

iPadOS 26, dark mode Open Safari Search for anything or open a website that has white background Kill Safari Open Safari again I still can reproduce it with Safari on iPadOS 26.0.1 This issue also happens to my app when opening a HTML/JS on WKWebView with white background while using dark mode. I did send a feedback ticket when using iPadOS 26 beta but havent seen any reply. This is my first time sending a feedback so I dont know if Apple would reply or not.

Please kindly improve the Safari browser side bar implementation further along with what The Browser Company has done with their Arc browser. Arc is about to retire soon too and they're willing to sell their SwiftUI code perhaps too for a decent pile of dollars, not the Jony Ive piles at least it should not. The toggle for side bar is nice and works perfect though!

PLATFORM AND VERSION iOS Development environment: Xcode 16.2, macOS 15.3.2 Run-time configuration: iOS 15-18 This happens in iOS, and leads to to the hybrid home page showing users as wrongly unauthenticated, since the at cookie is missing. For context, we have a JWT token that is stored in the Keychain, and on app launch, before any WKWebViews are created, we synchronize this to the WKWebsiteDataStore as an at cookie. We have analytics instrumentation on our websitef to show that WKWebView randomly refuses to send out any cookies. – The following is a snippet from an explanation to the WebKit Slack: We are having an issue on iOS, in which WKWebView loads pages (and even subsequent reloads) without any cookies, even though we have stored cookies in WKWebsiteDataStore.default() before hand right after application launch and becoming a key window. We reference this object, store it as a singleton, (as well as a process pool), and then all webview configurations are initialized with the same data store, the same process pool, every call on the main thread. From reading the source code, it seems that if the internal IPC logic fails, the APIs for deleting and setting data records and cookies fail without any feedback in completion handlers. This bug often happens when returning from the background on iOS after a few hours. Sometimes it happens on cold launches of the app. We have mitigated a similar issue (no cookies being sent) by implementing webViewWebContentProcessDidTerminate and reloading the webview ourselves, we found that whatever webview does to reload if that method is not implemented leads to cookies not being used. There have been multiple reports of WKWebView losing cookies in recent iOS versions, and we have tried to implement all of the workarounds listed. Setting a maximumAge to the cookies we store, and doing a _ = await websiteDataStore.dataRecords(ofTypes: Set([WKWebsiteDataTypeCookies])) before accessing or modifying websiteDataStore.httpCookieStore Question: is it safe to work with WKWebsiteDataStore before a WKWebView is added as a view, if so are there any timing considerations? Are there any logs that we can take a look at, this issue is very hard to reproduce, about 2% of our users face it at scale? Is there anything that could be happening within our process (runloop issues, timing) that could be causing this issue? See multiple reports from other companies that have faced the issue: "Now the Thermonuclear Problem with WKWebViewDataStorage" https://medium.com/axel-springer-tech/synchronization-of-native-and-webview-sessions-with-ios-9fe2199b44c9 STEPS TO REPRODUCE They don't exist, because the issue only happens at scale. We just know that no cookies are sent for a small percentage of requests. We believe this to be an issue in which Webkit fails to communicate internally with whatever IPC mechanisms it has. We have not been able to reproduce this issue consistently. The best we can give is that it happens after a few hours that the app is in the background. This happens regardless of whether the WKWebsiteDataStore is persistent or not, but seems to be much worse when it is persistent. Thus we have disabled persistnet data stores and relied on nonPersistent. The issue is bad enough that we are trying to move away from relying on cookies for iOS and just use request headers which we can only set on the top level request of WKWebView. DTS Case-ID: 13154329

I'd like to know the install state of my iOS safari extension in the associated swift app. Is there any way to get this? As we have seen it is available for macOS here, is there anyway to know iOS Safari extension is enabled or not? Thanks

I am reporting what appears to be a serious integrity flaw in Safari under iPadOS 26.3 (and lower) that materially undermines the reliability of Screen Time parental controls. This is not merely a UX inconsistency but a functional contradiction within a system explicitly marketed and positioned as secure parental control infrastructure. Device / Environment Device: iPad Air M3 13" (2025) OS: iPadOS 26.3 Safari (system version) Screen Time enabled with active restrictions Child account (10 years old) Background We deliberately chose an Apple device for school use based on the expectation that Apple’s system-level parental control mechanisms — especially Screen Time — are robust, tamper-resistant, and technically consistent. Screen Time is configured with: App limits Downtime Parental controls enabled with limited web content restrictions (school requirements prevent strict blocking) Safari enabled (mandatory for educational use) further parental control restrictions Because aggressive website blocking would interfere with legitimate school activities, monitoring Safari browsing history is a central supervisory mechanism. When Screen Time is active: Clearing the entire browsing history via Safari is correctly blocked. Clearing history via system settings is correctly blocked. The system explicitly communicates that deletion is not permitted due to Screen Time restrictions. This behavior establishes a clear user expectation: Browsing history is protected against manipulation. The Issue Despite the above safeguards, individual browsing history entries can be deleted easily and silently through the address bar suggestion interface. This creates a structural contradiction: Full deletion is blocked. Selective deletion — which is arguably more problematic — remains possible. Steps to Reproduce Enable Screen Time with restrictions that prevent deletion of browsing history (for example on a student device with a child account). Open Safari and visit any website. Confirm it appears in Safari history. Tap the Safari address bar. Type part of the URL or page title. Safari suggests the previously visited page below the address bar. Swipe left on that suggestion. A red “Delete from History” button appears. Tap it. Actual Result The entry disappears immediately: No Screen Time PIN required No authentication request No warning No restriction triggered No parental notification No audit trace visible Deletion occurs silently and irreversibly. Expected Result When Screen Time is configured to prevent browsing history deletion: Individual entries must not be deletable Deletion must require Screen Time authentication Anything else defeats the protective purpose of the restriction. Real-World Impact In practical use, this allows minors to selectively sanitize browsing history while preserving a seemingly intact record. In our case, this method is widely known among classmates and routinely used to conceal visits to gaming or social media platforms during school hours. The technical barrier to exploitation is negligible. This results in: A false sense of security for parents A discrepancy between advertised functionality and actual system behavior A material weakening of parental control integrity When a system explicitly blocks full history deletion but permits silent selective deletion, the protection mechanism becomes functionally inconsistent and unreliable. Given that Screen Time is publicly positioned as a dependable parental control framework, this issue raises concerns not only about implementation quality but also about user trust and reasonable reliance on advertised safeguards. Request Please classify this as a parental control integrity and trust issue. Specifically: Disable individual history deletion while Screen Time restrictions are active OR Require Screen Time passcode authentication for deleting single entries Screen Time is presented as a secure supervisory environment for minors. In its current implementation under iPadOS 26.3 and before, that expectation is technically not met. This issue warrants prioritization.

In WKWebView, there is the WKUIDelegate method: func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, createWebViewWith configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration, for navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures) -> WKWebView? {} This delegate method provides a callback when a new window (for example, target="_blank") is requested in the web view. However, in native SwiftUI (iOS 26), WebView / WebPage APIs do not provide an equivalent delegate method to handle new window requests. As a workaround, I am using the following method: public func decidePolicy(for action: WebPage.NavigationAction, preferences: inout WebPage.NavigationPreferences) async -> WKNavigationActionPolicy {} In this method, when action.target == nil, I treat it as a new window request. My question: Is relying on action.target == nil in decidePolicy a reliable and future-safe way to detect new window requests in SwiftUI’s WebView, or is there a better or more recommended approach for handling target="_blank" / new window navigation in the SwiftUI WebView APIs? Code: public func decidePolicy(for action: WebPage.NavigationAction, preferences: inout WebPage.NavigationPreferences) async -> WKNavigationActionPolicy { guard let webPage = webPage else { return .cancel } // Handle case where target frame is nil (e.g., target="_blank" or window.open) // This indicates a new window request if action.target == nil { print("Target frame is nil - new window requested") // WORKAROUND: Until iOS 26 WebPage UI protocol is available, we handle new windows here // Try to create a new WebPage through UI plugins if handleCreateWebPage(for: webPage, navigationAction: action) != nil { // Note: The new WebPage has been created and published to the view return .allow } } return .allow }

We are encountering an issue where the Safari extension we are developing stops working while in use on relatively new iOS versions (confirmed on 17.5.1, 17.6.1, and 18). Upon checking the Safari console, the content script is displayed in the extension script, so the background script or Service Worker must be stopping. The time until it stops is about 1 minute on 17.5.1 and about one day on 17.6.1 or 18. When it stops, we would like to find a way to restart the Service Worker from the extension side, but we have not found a method to do so yet. To restart the extension, the user needs to turn off the corresponding extension in the iPhone settings and then turn it back on. As mentioned in the following thread, it is written that the above bug was fixed in 17.6, but we recognize that it has not been fixed. https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/758346 On 17.5.1, adding the following process to the background script prevents it from stopping for about the same time as on 17.6 and above. // Will be passed into runtime.onConnect for processes that are listening for the connection event const INTERNAL_STAYALIVE_PORT = "port.connect"; // Try wake up every 9S const INTERVAL_WAKE_UP = 9000; // Alive port var alivePort = null; // Call the function at SW(service worker) start StayAlive(); async function StayAlive() { var wakeup = setInterval(() => { if (alivePort == null) { alivePort = browser.runtime.connect({ name: INTERNAL_STAYALIVE_PORT }); alivePort.onDisconnect.addListener((p) => { alivePort = null; }); } if (alivePort) { alivePort.postMessage({ content: "ping" }); } }, INTERVAL_WAKE_UP); } Additionally, we considered methods to revive the Service Worker when it stops, which are listed below. None of the methods listed below resolved the issue. ① Implemented a process to create a connection again if the return value of sendMessage is null. The determination of whether the Service Worker has stopped is made by sending a message from the content script to the background script and checking whether the message return value is null as follows. sendMessageToBackground.js let infoFromBackground = await browser.runtime.sendMessage(sendParam); if (!infoFromBackground) { // If infoFromBackground is null, Service Worker should have stopped. browser.runtime.connect({name: 'reconnect'}); // ← reconnection process // Sending message again infoFromBackground = await browser.runtime.sendMessage(sendParam); } return infoFromBackground.message; Background script browser.runtime.onConnect.addListener((port) => { if (port.name !== 'reconnect') return; port.onMessage.addListener(async (request, sender, sendResponse) => { sendResponse({ response: "response form background", message: "reconnect.", }); }); ② Verified whether the service worker could be restarted by regenerating Background.js and content.js. sendMessageToBackground.js export async function sendMessageToBackground(sendParam) { let infoFromBackground = await browser.runtime.sendMessage(sendParam); if (!infoFromBackground) { executeContentScript(); // ← executeScript infoFromBackground = await browser.runtime.sendMessage(sendParam); } return infoFromBackground.message; } async function executeContentScript() { browser.webNavigation.onDOMContentLoaded.addListener((details) => { browser.scripting.executeScript({ target: { tabId: details.tabId }, files: ["./content.js"] }); }); } However, browser.webNavigation.onDOMContentLoaded.addListener was not executed due to the following error. @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58295 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58539 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58539 ③ Verify that ServiceWorker restarts by updating ContentScripts async function updateContentScripts() { try { const scripts = await browser.scripting.getRegisteredContentScripts(); const scriptIds = scripts.map(script => script.id); await browser.scripting.updateContentScripts(scriptIds);//update content } catch (e) { await errorLogger(e.stack); } } However, scripting.getRegisteredContentScripts was not executed due to the same error as in 2. @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58359 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58456 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58456 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58549 @webkit-masked-url://hidden/:2:58549 These are the methods we have considered. If anyone knows a solution, please let us know.

We are experiencing a compatibility issue with our hybrid app related to the recent update in iPadOS 18.4, specifically concerning HTTPS connections. What are the key changes introduced in iPadOS 18.4 regarding HTTPS connections? Our app previously managed to bypass the DigitalSignature key usage missing error in the self-signed server certificate within the didReceiveAuthenticationChallenge method, as documented here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wknavigationdelegate/webview(_:didreceive:completionhandler:) . However, since the update to iPadOS 18.4, this method is no longer being called, resulting in direct failure of HTTPS connections. We are using cordova-ios 7.1. Thanks in advance for your help.

I'm in the process of supporting Apple Pay through a 2nd payment gateway for some users, so I need to support two separate Apple Pay relationships. Both require their own apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association. I don't see how I can have both files for the one domain. Is this possible? Is there a workaround other than just replacing the old file with the new one and hoping that doesn't disrupt anything. That seems to be the approach taken by others (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/695538) but it is too high risk for me without any confirmation from Apple that this is ok. I'd also like to avoid having to setup a 2nd domain for these customers, since the current domain is already quite embedded in their operations.

Hello! While working with the new Apple Pay SDK for iOS 18, I encountered a bug. When using the Ukrainian language, in the modal displaying the QR code, I noticed that there is a missing bracket for the year variable. This causes incorrect data to be displayed in the QR code. This seems to be a localization issue specifically with the Ukrainian language in the new SDK, as the bug does not occur with other languages like English. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice or information on this bug would be appreciated. Thanks!

My iOS app uses a WKWebView with a WKUIDelegate method (webView:createWebViewWithConfiguration:forNavigationAction:windowFeatures:) to handle popup windows. This works for most cases, but during OAuth flows on certain sites (e.g., canva.com), the popup WKWebView attempts to send results back to the main WKWebView using JavaScript like window.opener.postMessage(...). However, window.opener is always null in the popup, preventing the message from being posted and blocking login completion.I've researched this and found suggestions that it's by design, as WKWebView instances are isolated for security reasons. Has anyone encountered this and found a reliable workaround (e.g., bridging communication between the main and popup WKWebViews without relying on window.opener)?

在 iOS 平台使用 WKWebView 通过file://协议加载本地 HTML 文件时，存储在localStorage中的数据会在 App 后台切换、进程重启后偶尔丢失；但相同代码在安卓 / 鸿蒙平台无此问题。 现在的文档 仅明确了「默认数据存储（defaultDataStore）可将网站数据持久化到磁盘，非持久化存储（nonPersistent）仅存内存」的基础规则； 未提及「file://协议内容即使使用默认持久化存储，也会被归为临时内存存储」这一关键场景限制； 仅在WKURLSchemeHandler关联说明中隐含「自定义 URL 协议可处理 WebKit 原生不支持的 URL 方案」，但未直接关联file://的存储问题。 我找不到如何处理这个问题的官方文档，仅仅有其他的博客说需要增加http/https加载就没有这个问题。 请提供给我官方文档或者官方回复 关于出现这种file:/加载html出现问题的处理办法

I'm building a macOS extension that needs to track multi-step navigation chains (A → B → C) to adjust behavior based on where users came from. Current approach: Using webNavigation.onBeforeNavigate to detect intermediate steps, but experiencing issues in Safari that don't occur on Chrome/Firefox/Edge. Questions: Is webNavigation the right API for tracking redirect chains in Safari? Does ITP/Private Browsing affect event delivery? Any alternative approaches recommended? (Safari version 26.0.1) Any guidance appreciated!

myCode is here // titleScript = "document.querySelector('#\(rawValue) span')?.textContent" guard let titleResult = try? await webView.evaluateJavaScript(type.titleScript), let title = titleResult as? String else { return } this code has error Thread 1: Swift runtime failure: Unexpectedly found nil while implicitly unwrapping an Optional value but edit Code like this It is works Successful do { ... let titleResult = try await webView.evaluateJavaScript(type.titleScript) let title = titleResult as? String ... } catch { LogManager.log(level: .error, self, #function, error, "title is Invalid : \(type.titleScript)") continue } I don't know why guard let _ = try? is Fail

Hello WebKit Team, I’m writing to ask if iOS provides a native way to intercept AJAX (XMLHttpRequest or fetch) calls inside WKWebView. On Android, this is handled via: shouldInterceptRequest(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) but iOS currently seems to have no equivalent. We’ve tried: WKURLSchemeHandler → works only for custom schemes URLProtocol with WKProcessPool → unreliable for AJAX in WebView JavaScript injection → partial and unofficial Could you please clarify: Is there a recommended native approach to intercept AJAX requests? If not supported, is it planned for future releases? Any official workaround or guidance? This is critical for debugging, analytics, and compliance in hybrid apps.