Hi there, I got two models here:
Two Models, with Many-To-Many Relationship
@Model
final class PresetParams: Identifiable {
@Attribute(.unique) var id: UUID = UUID()
var positionX: Float = 0.0
var positionY: Float = 0.0
var positionZ: Float = 0.0
var volume: Float = 1.0
@Relationship(deleteRule: .nullify, inverse: \Preset.presetAudioParams)
var preset = [Preset]()
init(position: SIMD3<Float>, volume: Float) {
self.positionX = position.x
self.positionY = position.y
self.positionZ = position.z
self.volume = volume
self.preset = []
}
var position: SIMD3<Float> {
get {
return SIMD3<Float>(x: positionX, y: positionY, z: positionZ)
}
set {
positionX = newValue.x
positionY = newValue.y
positionZ = newValue.z
}
}
}
@Model
final class Preset: Identifiable {
@Attribute(.unique) var id: UUID = UUID()
var presetName: String
var presetDesc: String?
var presetAudioParams = [PresetParams]() // Many-To-Many Relationship.
init(presetName: String, presetDesc: String? = nil) {
self.presetName = presetName
self.presetDesc = presetDesc
self.presetAudioParams = []
}
}
To be honest, I don't fully understand how the @Relationship thing works properly in a Many-To-Many relationship situation. Some tutorials suggest that it's required on the "One" side of an One-To-Many Relationship, while the "Many" side doesn't need it.
And then there is an ObservableObject called "ModelActors" to manage all ModelActors, ModelContainer, etc.
ModelActors, ModelContainer...
class ModelActors: ObservableObject {
static let shared: ModelActors = ModelActors()
let sharedModelContainer: ModelContainer
private init() {
var schema = Schema([
// ...
Preset.self,
PresetParams.self,
// ...
])
do {
sharedModelContainer = try ModelContainer(for: schema, migrationPlan: MigrationPlan.self)
} catch {
fatalError("Could not create ModelContainer: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
}
And there is a migrationPlan:
MigrationPlan
// MARK: V102
// typealias ...
// MARK: V101
typealias Preset = AppSchemaV101.Preset
typealias PresetParams = AppSchemaV101.PresetParams
// MARK: V100
// typealias ...
enum MigrationPlan: SchemaMigrationPlan {
static var schemas: [VersionedSchema.Type] {
[
AppSchemaV100.self,
AppSchemaV101.self,
AppSchemaV102.self,
]
}
static var stages: [MigrationStage] {
[AppMigrateV100toV101, AppMigrateV101toV102]
}
static let AppMigrateV100toV101 = MigrationStage.lightweight(fromVersion: AppSchemaV100.self, toVersion: AppSchemaV101.self)
static let AppMigrateV101toV102 = MigrationStage.lightweight(fromVersion: AppSchemaV101.self, toVersion: AppSchemaV102.self)
}
// MARK: Here is the AppSchemaV101
enum AppSchemaV101: VersionedSchema {
static var versionIdentifier: Schema.Version = Schema.Version(1, 0, 1)
static var models: [any PersistentModel.Type] {
return [ // ...
Preset.self,
PresetParams.self
]
}
}
Fails on iOS 18.3.x: "Failed to fulfill link PendingRelationshipLink"
So I expected the SwiftData subsystem to work correctly with version control. A good news is that on iOS 18.1 it does work. But it fails on iOS 18.3.x with a fatal Error:
"SwiftData/SchemaCoreData.swift:581: Fatal error: Failed to fulfill link PendingRelationshipLink(relationshipDescription: (<NSRelationshipDescription: 0x30377fe80>), name preset, isOptional 0, isTransient 0, entity PresetParams, renamingIdentifier preset, validation predicates (), warnings (), versionHashModifier (null)userInfo {}, destination entity Preset, inverseRelationship (null), minCount 0, maxCount 0, isOrdered 0, deleteRule 1, destinationEntityName: "Preset", inverseRelationshipName: Optional("presetAudioParams")), couldn't find inverse relationship 'Preset.presetAudioParams' in model"
Fails on iOS 17.5: Another Error
I tested it on iOS 17.5 and found another issue: Accessing or mutating the "PresetAudioParams" property causes the SwiftData Macro Codes to crash, affecting both Getter and Setter. It fails with an error:
"EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=1, subcode=0x1cc1698ec)"
Tweaking the @Relationship marker and ModelContainer settings didn't fix the problem.
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Hello,
SwiftData is not working correctly with Swift Concurrency. And it’s sad after all this time.
I personally found a regression. The attached code works perfectly fine on iOS 17.5 but doesn’t work correctly on iOS 18 or iOS 18.1.
A model can be updated from the background (Task, Task.detached or ModelActor) and refreshes the UI, but as soon as the same item is updated from the View (fetched via a Query), the next background updates are not reflected anymore in the UI, the UI is not refreshed, the updates are not merged into the main.
How to reproduce:
Launch the app
Tap the plus button in the navigation bar to create a new item
Tap on the “Update from Task”, “Update from Detached Task”, “Update from ModelActor” many times
Notice the time is updated
Tap on the “Update from View” (once or many times)
Notice the time is updated
Tap again on “Update from Task”, “Update from Detached Task”, “Update from ModelActor” many times
Notice that the time is not update anymore
Am I doing something wrong? Or is this a bug in iOS 18/18.1?
Many other posts talk about issues where updates from background thread are not merged into the main thread. I don’t know if they all are related but it would be nice to have
1/ bug fixed, meaning that if I update an item from a background, it’s reflected in the UI, and
2/ proper documentation on how to use SwiftData with Swift Concurrency (ModelActor). I don’t know if what I’m doing in my buttons is correct or not.
Thanks,
Axel
import SwiftData
import SwiftUI
@main
struct FB_SwiftData_BackgroundApp: App {
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
.modelContainer(for: Item.self)
}
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
@Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext
@State private var simpleModelActor: SimpleModelActor!
@Query private var items: [Item]
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
VStack {
if let firstItem: Item = items.first {
Text(firstItem.timestamp, format: Date.FormatStyle(date: .omitted, time: .standard))
.font(.largeTitle)
.fontWeight(.heavy)
Button("Update from Task") {
let modelContainer: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let itemID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task {
let context: ModelContext = ModelContext(modelContainer)
guard let itemInContext: Item = context.model(for: itemID) as? Item else { return }
itemInContext.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try context.save()
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from Detached Task") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let itemID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let context: ModelContext = ModelContext(container)
guard let itemInContext: Item = context.model(for: itemID) as? Item else { return }
itemInContext.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try context.save()
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from ModelActor") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let persistentModelID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let actor: SimpleModelActor = SimpleModelActor(modelContainer: container)
await actor.updateItem(identifier: persistentModelID)
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Button("Update from ModelActor in State") {
let container: ModelContainer = modelContext.container
let persistentModelID: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let actor: SimpleModelActor = SimpleModelActor(modelContainer: container)
await MainActor.run {
simpleModelActor = actor
}
await actor.updateItem(identifier: persistentModelID)
}
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
Divider()
.padding(.vertical)
Button("Update from View") {
firstItem.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
}
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
} else {
ContentUnavailableView(
"No Data",
systemImage: "slash.circle", //
description: Text("Tap the plus button in the toolbar")
)
}
}
.toolbar {
ToolbarItem(placement: .primaryAction) {
Button(action: addItem) {
Label("Add Item", systemImage: "plus")
}
}
}
}
}
private func addItem() {
modelContext.insert(Item(timestamp: Date.now))
try? modelContext.save()
}
}
@ModelActor
final actor SimpleModelActor {
var context: String = ""
func updateItem(identifier: Item.ID) {
guard let item = self[identifier, as: Item.self] else {
return
}
item.timestamp = Date.now.addingTimeInterval(.random(in: 0...2000))
try! modelContext.save()
}
}
@Model
final class Item: Identifiable {
var timestamp: Date
init(timestamp: Date) {
self.timestamp = timestamp
}
}
I'm calling a method with the context as parameter, within the context's perform block – is this really not legal in Swift 6?
actor MyActor {
func bar(context: NSManagedObjectContext) { /* some code */ }
func foo(context: NSManagedObjectContext) {
context.performAndWait {
self.bar(context: context)
// WARN: Sending 'context' risks causing data races; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode
// 'self'-isolated 'context' is captured by a actor-isolated closure. actor-isolated uses in closure may race against later nonisolated uses
// Access can happen concurrently
}
}
}
The warning appears when I call a method with a context parameter, within the performAndWait-block.
Background: In my app I have methods that takes in API data, and I need to call the same methods from multiple places with the same context to store it, and I do not want to copy paste the code and have hundreds of lines of duplicate code.
Is there a well-known "this is how you should do it" for situations like this?
This is related to a previous post I made, but it's a bit flimsy and got no response: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/770605
I am working with SwiftData and get the below error. I can't find any documentation on it to see what to fix. Any help would be appreciated.
Fatal error: This relationship already has a value but it's not the target:
When I try to use an entity created in a CoreData, it gives me: 'PlayerData' is ambiguous for type lookup in this context
I have a widely-used app that lets users keep track of personal data. This data is persisted with SwiftData, and synced with CloudKit.
I understand that if the user's iCloud account changes on a device (for example, user logs out or toggles off an app's access to iCloud), then NSPersistentCloudKitContainer will erase the local data records on app launch. This is intentional behavior, intended as a privacy feature.
However, we are receiving regular reports from users for whom the system has incorrectly indicated that the app's access to iCloud is unavailable, even when the user hasn't logged out or toggled off permission to access iCloud. This triggers the behavior to clear the local records, and even though the data is still available in iCloud, to the user, it looks like their data has disappeared for no reason. Helping the user find and troubleshoot their iCloud app data settings can be very difficult, since in many cases the user has no idea what iCloud is, and we can't link them directly to the correct settings screen.
We seem to get these reports most frequently from users whose iCloud storage is full (which feels like punishment for not paying for additional storage), but we've also received reports from users who have enough storage space available (and are logged in and have the app's iCloud data permissions toggled on). It appears to happen randomly, as far as we can tell.
I found a blog post from two years ago from another app developer who encountered the same issue: https://crunchybagel.com/nspersistentcloudkitcontainer/#:~:text=The%20problem%20we%20were%20experiencing
To work around this and improve the user experience, we want to use CKContainer.accountStatus to check if the user has an available iCloud account, and if not, disable the CloudKit sync before it erases the local data.
I've found steps to accomplish this workaround using CoreData, but I'm not sure how to best modify the ModelContainer's configuration after receiving the CKAccountStatus when using SwiftData. I've put together this approach so far; is this the right way to handle disabling/enabling sync based on account status?
import SwiftUI
import SwiftData
import CloudKit
@main
struct AccountStatusTestApp: App {
@State private var modelContainer: ModelContainer?
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
if let modelContainer {
ContentView()
.modelContainer(modelContainer)
} else {
ProgressView("Loading...")
.task {
await initializeModelContainer()
}
}
}
}
func initializeModelContainer() async {
let schema = Schema([
Item.self,
])
do {
let accountStatus = try await CKContainer.default().accountStatus()
let modelConfiguration = ModelConfiguration(
schema: schema,
cloudKitDatabase: accountStatus == .available ? .private("iCloud.com.AccountStatusTestApp") : .none
)
do {
let container = try ModelContainer(for: schema, configurations: [modelConfiguration])
modelContainer = container
} catch {
print("Could not create ModelContainer: \(error)")
}
} catch {
print("Could not determine iCloud account status: \(error)")
}
}
}
I understand that bypassing the clearing of local data when the iCloud account is "unavailable" introduces possible issues with data being mingled on shared devices, but I plan to mitigate that with warning messages when users are in this state. This would be a far more preferable user experience than what's happening now.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to this online. Is NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore end-to-end encrypted with Advanced Data Protection turned on? It’s not specifically called out here https://support.apple.com/en-us/102651.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Is it ok to have latency about 4 sec? The amount of downloaded data is less than 1 MB. Maybe I need to setup an index for every field requested?
Hi all,
I’m encountering a consistent issue with SwiftData on watchOS when using CloudKit sync. After enabling:
let config = ModelConfiguration(schema: schema, cloudKitDatabase: .automatic)
…the app terminates ~30–60 seconds into a WKExtendedRuntimeSession. This happens specifically when:
Always-On Display is OFF
The iPhone is disconnected or in Airplane Mode
The app is running in a WKExtendedRuntimeSession (e.g., used for meditation tracking)
The Xcode logs show a warning:
Background Task ("CoreData: CloudKit Setup"), was created over 30 seconds ago. In applications running in the background, this creates a risk of termination.
It appears CloudKit sync setup is being triggered automatically and flagged by the system as an unmanaged long-running task, leading to termination.
Workaround:
Switching to:
let config = ModelConfiguration(schema: schema, cloudKitDatabase: .none)
…prevents the issue entirely — no background task warning, no crash.
Feedback ID submitted: FB17685611
Just wanted to check if others have seen this behavior or found alternative solutions. It seems like something Apple may need to address in SwiftData’s CloudKit handling on watchOS.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Tags:
CloudKit
watchOS
Background Tasks
SwiftData
I have an iOS app using SwiftData with VersionedSchema. The schema is synchronized with an CloudKit container.
I previously introduced some model properties that I have now removed, as they are no longer needed. This results in the current schema version being identical to one of the previous ones (except for its version number).
This results in the following exception:
'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'Duplicate version checksums across stages detected.'
So it looks like we cannot have a newer schema version with an identical content to an older schema version.
The intuitive way would be to re-add the old (identical) schema version to the end of the "schemas" list property in the SchemaMigrationPlan, in order to signal that it is the newest one, and to add a migration stage back to it, thus:
public enum MySchemaMigrationPlan: SchemaMigrationPlan {
public static var schemas: [any VersionedSchema.Type] {
[
SchemaV100.self,
SchemaV101.self,
SchemaV100.self
]
}
public static var stages: [MigrationStage] {
[
migrateV100toV101,
migrateV101toV100
]
}
However, I am not sure if this is the right way to go, as previously, as I wanted to write unit tests for schema migration and rollback, I tried defining an inverse for each migration stage, so that I could trigger a migration and a rollback from a unit test, which resulted in an exception saying that it is not supported to downgrade a VersionedSchema.
I must admit that I solved the original problem by introducing a dummy model property that I will later remove. What would have been the correct approach?
Description:
I'm experiencing a critical issue with SwiftData custom migrations where objects created during migration appear to be inserted successfully but aren't persisted or found by queries after migration completes. The migration logs show objects being created, but subsequent queries return zero results.
Problem Details:
I'm migrating from schema version V2 to V3, which involves:
Renaming Person class to GroupData
Keeping the same data structure but changing the class name
Using a custom migration stage to copy data from old to new schema
Migration Code:
swift
static let migrationV2toV3 = MigrationStage.custom(
fromVersion: LinkMapV2.self,
toVersion: LinkMapV3.self,
willMigrate: { context in
do {
let persons = try context.fetch(FetchDescriptor<LinkMapV2.Person>())
print("Found (persons.count) Person objects to migrate") // ✅ Shows 11 objects
for person in persons {
let newGroup = LinkMapV3.GroupData(
id: person.id, // Same UUID
name: person.name,
// ... other properties
)
context.insert(newGroup)
print("Inserted GroupData: '\(newGroup.name)'") // ✅ Confirms insertion
}
try context.save() // ✅ No error thrown
print("Successfully migrated \(persons.count) objects") // ✅ Confirms save
} catch {
print("Migration error: \(error)")
}
},
didMigrate: { context in
do {
let groups = try context.fetch(FetchDescriptor<LinkMapV3.GroupData>())
print("Final GroupData count: \(groups.count)") // ❌ Shows 0 objects!
} catch {
print("Verification error: \(error)")
}
}
)
Console Output:
text
=== MIGRATION STARTED ===
Found 11 Person objects to migrate
Migrating Person: 'Riverside of pipewall' with ID: 7A08C633-4467-4F52-AF0B-579545BA88D0
Inserted new GroupData: 'Riverside of pipewall'
... (all 11 objects processed) ...
=== MIGRATION COMPLETED ===
Successfully migrated 11 Person objects to GroupData
=== MIGRATION VERIFICATION ===
New GroupData count: 0 // ❌ PROBLEM: No objects found!
What I've Tried:
Multiple context approaches:
Using the provided migration context
Creating a new background context with ModelContext(context.container)
Using context.performAndWait for thread safety
Different save strategies:
Calling try context.save() after insertions
Letting SwiftData handle saving automatically
Multiple save calls at different points
Verification methods:
Checking in didMigrate closure
Checking in app's ContentView after migration completes
Using both @Query and manual FetchDescriptor
Schema variations:
Direct V2→V3 migration
Intermediate V2.5 schema with both classes
Lightweight migration with @Attribute(originalName:)
Current Behavior:
Migration runs without errors
Objects appear to be inserted successfully
context.save() completes without throwing errors
But queries in didMigrate and post-migration return empty results
The objects seem to exist in a temporary state that doesn't persist
Expected Behavior:
Objects created during migration should be persisted and queryable
Post-migration queries should return the migrated objects
Data should be available in the main app after migration completes
Environment:
Xcode 16.0+
iOS 18.0+
SwiftData
Swift 6.0+
Key Questions:
Is there a specific way migration contexts should be handled for data to persist?
Are there known issues with object persistence in custom migrations?
Should we be using a different approach for class renaming migrations?
Is there a way to verify that objects are actually being written to the persistent store?
The migration appears to work perfectly until the verification step, where all created objects seem to vanish. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Additional Context from my investigation:
I've noticed these warning messages during migration that might be relevant:
text
SwiftData.ModelContext: Unbinding from the main queue. This context was instantiated on the main queue but is being used off it.
error: Persistent History (76) has to be truncated due to the following entities being removed: (Person)
This suggests there might be threading or context lifecycle issues affecting persistence.
Let me know if you need any additional information about my setup or migration configuration!
I’m seeing persistent issues with iCloud Drive hydration and Finder sync on a new M4 MacBook Pro running Sequoia 15.5 (24F74). The same folders hydrate correctly on other Macs (Intel and M1), but not on the M4.
✅ Tried:
– killall bird
– Safe Mode boot
– Toggling iCloud Drive and System Settings > Apple ID
– Isolating network, user profile, and running First Aid
🔍 Findings:
– EtreCheck report shows consistent high CPU usage from bird with no resolution.
– Console logs suggest bird is waiting on local metadata index.
– No VPNs installed. No third-party sync tools active.
I’ve sanitized and attached the EtreCheck report as text for reference (or can paste if needed).
❓ Questions:
1. Is this a known issue on M4 systems or Sequoia 15.5?
2. Could file system ownership have been impacted by command-line tools?
3. Is there a safe method to reset bird metadata or iCloud sync state locally?
Any guidance from Apple or other developers would be appreciated. Thanks!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
After a recent iOS update, my app is not synching between devices. I'm not seeing or getting any errors. CLoudKit Logs show activity, but it's not happening realtime. Even if I close and reopen the app, it won't sync between devices. It almost looks like it only has local storage now and CloudKit is not working on it anymore.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Use app on two devices with the same Apple ID. Create a user and one device and it won't show up on the other device. Vice Versa.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Does anyone have this error and my app can't be searched in the Apple Store
Hi all, I've contacted Apple about this privately but I wanted to post this publicly too just to see if anyone else is experiencing the same issue. We use CloudKit to store "documents" (we'll call them) for our users. We use it directly, not via CoreData etc but through the lower level APIs.
This has been working great for the last 9 months or so. Since a few days ago we've started receiving reports from users that their data has disappeared without a trace from their app. Obviously this is very serious and severe for us. We keep a local copy of the users data but if CloudKit tells us this data has been deleted we remove that local copy to keep in sync.
Nothing has changed client side in terms of our code, and the only way we can see that could cause this, is a fetch that we perform asking for a list of the users "documents" is returning no rows/results, or possibly returning rows with invalid or missing fields.
We have about 30,000 active users per day (1.5m requests/day) using CloudKit and we have only a handful of reports of this. Again this only started happening this week after 9 months of good service.
Has anyone else noticed anything "strange" lately, fetches returning empty? fields missing? Is anyone at Apple aware of any recent changes to CloudKit? or outages? We're really unsure how or who should handle this and who we can escalate to? Any help appreciated.
We have a workaround/mitigation on the way through review at the moment but this is a really big problem for us if we can't rely on CloudKit to remember users data reliably.
As of 2025-05-03, when a macOS user enables iCloud Drive synchronization for Desktop & Documents in US region, does iCloud filter xattrs upon upload or later when downloading back to another macOS host? Or is it the case that iCloud has no filtering of third-party xattrs? Where can I find the technical document outlining exactly what iCloud does with xattrs set on macOS host files and folders synchronized with iCloud Drive?
I'm using SwiftData with CloutKit with a very simple app. Data syncs between iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, but not macOS. From what I can tell, macOS is never getting CK messages unless I'm running the app from Xcode.
I can listen for the CK messages and show a line in a debug overlay. This works perfectly when I run from Xcode. I can see the notifications and see updates in my app. However, if I just launch the app outside of Xcode I will never see any changes or notifications. It is as if the Mac app never even tries to contact CloudKit.
Schema has been deployed in the CloudKit console. The app is based on the multi-platform Xcode template. Again, only the macOS version has this issue. Is there some extra permission or setting I need to set up in order to use CloudKit on macOS?
@State private var publisher = NotificationCenter.default.publisher(for: NSPersistentCloudKitContainer.eventChangedNotification).receive(on: DispatchQueue.main)
.onReceive(publisher) { notification in
// Listen for changes in CK events
if let userInfo = notification.userInfo,
let event = userInfo[NSPersistentCloudKitContainer.eventNotificationUserInfoKey] as? NSPersistentCloudKitContainer.Event {
let message = "CloudKit Sync: \(event.type.rawValue) - \(event.succeeded ? "Success" : "Failed") - \(event.description)"
// Store for UI display
syncNotifications.append(message)
if syncNotifications.count > 10 {
syncNotifications.removeFirst()
}
}
}
.overlay(alignment: .topTrailing) {
if !syncNotifications.isEmpty {
VStack(alignment: .leading) {
ForEach(syncNotifications, id: \.self) { notification in
Text(notification)
.padding(8)
}
}
.frame(width: 800, height: 500)
.cornerRadius(8)
.background(Color.secondary.opacity(0.2))
.padding()
.transition(.move(edge: .top))
}
}
Hi, thank you for your reply. I have checked and confirmed that all AppleUser entity fields (id, name, email, password, createdAt) are optional, relationships (posts, comments) are optional, and I assign values when creating a new object, but Core Data still throws a nilError during registration; I have uploaded my project to GitHub for your reference here: https://github.com/Kawiichao/job. If reviewing it requires any payment, please let me know in advance. Thank you very much for your kind offer—I really appreciate it!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Problem Description:
When a device (Device 2) stays offline for an extended period after a record is deleted from another synced device (Device 1) via CloudKit, is it possible for Device 2 to miss the deletion notification when it reconnects, even when using CKSyncEngine?
This scenario raises questions about whether CKSyncEngine can reliably sync changes if CloudKit archives or purges metadata related to deletions during the offline period.
Steps to Reproduce:
At time t0:
· Device 1 and Device 2 sync successfully via CKSyncEngine (shared record RecordA).
Device 2 goes offline.
On Device 1:
· Delete RecordA; sync completes via CKSyncEngine.
Wait for a duration potentially exceeding CloudKit’s change retention window (if such a window exists).
Bring Device 2 back online.
Observe synchronization:
· Expected Behavior: CKSyncEngine removes RecordA from Device 2.
· Observed Behavior: RecordA remains on Device 2.
Key Questions:
Under these conditions, can Device 2 permanently miss the deletion event due to CloudKit’s internal metadata management?
Is there a documented retention policy for CloudKit’s change history, and how does CKSyncEngine handle scenarios where this history is truncated?
What is the recommended pattern to ensure no events are missed, regardless of offline duration?
Clarifications Needed:
· If CloudKit does discard deletion metadata after a period, is this considered a framework limitation, or should developers implement additional safeguards?
· Does CKSyncEngine log warnings or errors when it detects incomplete sync histories?
Environment:
· CKSyncEngine with SQLite
· CloudKit Private Database
· iOS/macOS latest versions
Thank you for clarifying how CKSyncEngine is designed to handle this edge case!
In Apple Numbers and similar apps, a user can save a document to iCloud Drive, and collaborate with other users. From what I can gather, it seems to use two mechanisms: the document as a whole is synced via iCloud Drive, but when a collaboration is started, it seems to use CloudKit records to do live updates.
I am working on a similar app, that saves documents to iCloud Drive (on Mac, iPad, and iPhone). Currently it only syncs via iCloud Drive, re-reading the entire (often large) document when a remote change occurs. This can lead to a delay of several seconds (up to a minute) for the document to be saved, synced to the server, synced from the server, and re-read.
I'm working on adding a "live sync", i.e. the ability to see changes in as near to real-time as feasible, like in Apple's apps.
The document as a whole will remain syncing via iCloud Drive. My thought is to add a CloudKit CKRecord-based sync when two or more users are collaborating on a document, recording only the diffs for quick updates. The app would no longer re-read the entire document when iCloud Drive updates it while in use, and would instead read the CloudKit records and apply those changes. This should be much faster.
Is my understanding of how Apple does it correct? Does my proposed approach seem sensible? Has anyone else implemented something like this, with iCloud Drive-based documents and a CloudKit live sync?
In terms of technologies, I see that Apple now has a Shared with You framework, with the ability to use a NSItemProvider to start the collaboration. Which raises the question, should I use the iCloud Drive document for the collaboration (as I do now), or the CloudKit CKShare diff? I think I'd have to use the document as a whole, both so it works with the Send Copy option, and so a user that doesn't have the document gets it when using Collaborate. Once the collaboration is underway, I'd want to start the CloudKit channel. So I guess I'd save the CKShare to the server, get its URL, and save that in the document, so another user can read that URL as part of their initial load of the document from iCloud Drive?
Once two (or more) users have the document via iCloud Drive, and the CKShare via the embedded URL, I should be able to do further live-sync updates via CloudKit. If a user closes the document and re-opens it, they'd get the updates via iCloud Drive, so no need to apply any updates from before the document was opened.
Does all this sound reasonable, or am I overlooking some gotcha? I'd appreciate any advice from people who have experience with this kind of syncing.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
iCloud & Data
Tags:
CloudKit
Cloud and Local Storage
iCloud Drive