Dive into the technical aspects of audio on your device, including codecs, format support, and customization options.

Audio Documentation

Posts under Audio subtopic

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Failure on attempt to import track as spatial audio
I'm working on a project to support spatial audio editing, using this sample project as a reference: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cinematic/editing-spatial-audio-with-an-audio-mix This sample works well on an unedited capture, but does not work for a capture that has already been edited. The failure is occurring at "let audioInfo = try await CNAssetSpatialAudioInfo(asset: myAsset)", which is throwing "no eligible audio tracks in asset". I also find that for already edited captures, if i use CNAssetSpatialAudioInfo.assetContainsSpatialAudio, it returns false. What i mean by "already edited" is that if I take a spatial capture with my iPhone 16, and then edit that capture in the Photos app using the Cinematic effect, and then save the edited output (e.g. edited_capture.mov), I can't import that edited_capture.mov into my project as a spatial audio asset. Is this intentional behavior or a bug? If it's intentional, can you describe why?
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156
Sep ’25
AudioComponentInstanceNew takes up to five seconds to complete
We are using a VoiceProcessingIO audio unit in our VoIP application on Mac. In certain scenarios, the AudioComponentInstanceNew call blocks for up to five seconds (at least two). We are using the following code to initialize the audio unit: OSStatus status; AudioComponentDescription desc; AudioComponent inputComponent; desc.componentType = kAudioUnitType_Output; desc.componentSubType = kAudioUnitSubType_VoiceProcessingIO; desc.componentFlags = 0; desc.componentFlagsMask = 0; desc.componentManufacturer = kAudioUnitManufacturer_Apple; inputComponent = AudioComponentFindNext(NULL, &desc); status = AudioComponentInstanceNew(inputComponent, &unit); We are having the issue with current MacOS versions on a host of different Macs (x86 and x64 alike). It takes two to three seconds until AudioComponentInstanceNew returns. We also see the following errors in the log multiple times: AUVPAggregate.cpp:2560 AggInpStreamsChanged wait failed and those right after (which I don't know if they matter to this issue): KeystrokeSuppressorCore.cpp:44 ERROR: KeystrokeSuppressor initialization was unsuccessful. Invalid or no plist was provided. AU will be bypassed. vpStrategyManager.mm:486 Error code 2003332927 reported at GetPropertyInfo
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1.2k
Dec ’24
On iOS 18, Mandarin is read aloud as Cantonese
Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request. Case-ID: 11089799 When using AVSpeechUtterance and setting it to play in Mandarin, if Siri is set to Cantonese on iOS 18, it will be played in Cantonese. There is no such issue on iOS 17 and 16. 1.let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: textView.text) let voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(language: "zh-CN") utterance.voice = voice 2.In the phone settings, Siri is set to Cantonese
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535
Feb ’25
Implementing Enhanced Dialogue on tvOS 18
How does a third party developer go about supporting the new Enhanced Dialogue option for video apps in tvOS 18? If an app is using the standard AVPlayerViewController, I had assumed it would be a simple-ish matter of building against the tvOS 18 SDK but apparently not, the options don't appear, not even greyed out.
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591
Mar ’25
iOS 17 camera capture assertions and issues
Hello, Starting in iOS 17, our application started having some issue publishing to our video session. More specifically the video capture seems to be broken in some, but not all sessions. What's troubling is that we're seeing that it fails consistently every 4 sessions. It also fails silently, without reporting any problems to the app. We only notice that there are no frames being rendered or sent to the remote devices. Here's what shows-up in the console: <<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "! storage->connectionDied" at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:235) - (err=0) <<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "err == 0 " at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:253) - (err=-16453) Anyone seeing this? Any idea what could be the cause? Our sessions work perfectly on iOS16 and below. Thanks
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1.3k
Oct ’25
No audio in screen recordings when using AVAudioEngine Voice Processing
Hello, We are developing a real-time speech recognition application and are utilizing AVAudioEngine with voice processing enabled on the input node. However, we have observed that enabling this mode interferes with the built-in iOS screen recording feature - specifically, the recorded video does not capture any audio when this mode is active. Since we want users to be able to record their experience within our app, this issue significantly impacts our functionality. Is there a known workaround or recommended approach to ensure that both voice processing and screen recording can function simultaneously? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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343
Oct ’25
Always audio from latest connected external USB mic
Hello! I've two mics connected to a USB-hub. The USB-hub is then connected to my iPad. Both mics are part of the audio session's list of available inputs. The problem is that regardless of which mic I select in my app (using setPreferredInput() on the audio session), the audio keeps coming from the mic that was last connected to the USB-hub. Anyone that knows if this is a limitation in iPadOS/iOS?
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202
Jul ’25
Best Approach for Reliable Background Audio Playback with Audio Ducking on Command from Server
I am developing an iOS app that needs to play spoken audio on demand from a server, while ducking the audio of background music from another app (e.g., SoundtrackYourBrand or Apple Music). This must work even when the app is in the background, and the server dictates when and what audio is played. Ideally, the message should be played within a minute of the server requesting it. Current Attempt & Observations I initially tried using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) silent notifications to send a URL to an audio file, which the app would then play using AVPlayer. This works consistently when the app is active, but in the background, it only works about 60% of the time. In cases where it fails, iOS ducks the background music (e.g., from SoundtrackYourBrand) but never plays the spoken audio. Interestingly, when I play the audio without enabling audio ducking, it seems to work 100% of the time from my limited testing, even in the background. The app has background modes enabled for Audio, Background Fetch, and Remote Notifications. Best Approach to Achieve This? I’d like guidance on the best Apple-compliant approach to reliably play audio on command from the server, even when the app is in the background. Some possible paths: Ensuring the app remains active in the background – Are there recommended ways to prevent the app from getting suspended, such as background tasks, a special background mode, or a persistent connection to the server? Alternative triggering mechanisms – Would something like VoIP, Push-to-Talk, or another background service be better suited for this use case? Built-in iOS speech synthesis (AVSpeechSynthesizer) – If playing external audio is unreliable, would generating speech dynamically from text be a more robust approach? Streaming audio instead of sending a URL – Could continuous streaming from the server keep the app active and allow playback at the right moment? I want to ensure the solution is reliable and works 100% of the time when needed. Any recommendations on the best approach for this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and guidance.
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362
Feb ’25
iOS 26.0 (23A5276f) - Bluetooth Call Audio Broken (AirPods + Car)
iOS 26.0 (23A5276f) – Bluetooth Call Audio Issue I’m experiencing a Bluetooth audio issue on iOS 26.0 (build 23A5276f). I cannot make or receive phone calls properly using Bluetooth devices — this affects both my car’s Bluetooth system and my AirPods Pro (2nd generation). Notably: Regular phone calls have no audio (either I can’t hear the other person, or they can’t hear me). WhatsApp and other VoIP apps work fine with the same Bluetooth devices. Media playback (music, video, etc.) works without issues over Bluetooth. It seems this bug is limited to the native Phone app or the system audio routing for regular cellular calls. Please advise if this is a known issue or if a fix is expected in upcoming beta releases.
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283
Jun ’25
CoreAudio HAL plugin vs dext
The presentation "create audio drivers with DriverKit" from WWDC 2021 demonstrates how to use a dext to implement a virtual audio driver. It also says " If a virtual audio driver or device is all that is needed, the audio server plug-in driver model should continue to be used". Indeed, in AudioDriverKit/AudioDriverKitTypes.h, there is no IOUserAudioTransportType Virtual, although CoreAudio/AudioHardwareBase.h includes kAudioDeviceTransportTypeVirtual. For one of our products, we require virtual devices to implement a software loopback "cable". We've implemented this using the "traditional" HAL plugin, and as a proof-of-concept, also using a dext. In the dext, I tried setting the transport type to 'virt', which seems to only have the effect of changing the icon shown in Audio Midi Setup. HAL plugins require an installer, and the installer has to kill coreaudiod in a post-install script. You have to turn off SIP to debug them. Just like AudioDriverKit drivers, they are out-of-process and run in a process not owned by the hosting app. Our HAL plugin's interface is property based; we had to write a lot of boiler-plate code to implement required properties. Writing an AudioDriverKit driver is in most respects easier - a lot of the scaffolding is implemented in the base driver, which we only alter where required. Debugging and installation is much easier. The dext works just fine, as far as we can ascertain, just as well as a HAL plugin. So, my question is - is the advice to use a HAL plugin for a virtual device still correct in 2025? And if so, what's the objection? We'd really prefer to ship the AudioDriverKit virtual audio device.
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491
Mar ’25
Failure of AudioUnitSetProperty when using MacCatalyst (works on macOS)
I was trying to set custom audio output device for a generated audio on macCatalyst. While using let status = AudioUnitSetProperty(outputUnit, kAudioOutputUnitProperty_CurrentDevice, kAudioUnitScope_Global, 0, &outputDeviceID, UInt32(MemoryLayout.size)) kAudioOutputUnitProperty_CurrentDevice is invalid, and status = -10879, indicating an error. STEPS TO REPRODUCE Set Run Destination to MacOS and run the program. "AudioUnitSetProperty: 0" should be printed, indicating it works fine. Set Run Destination to Mac Catalyst and run the program. "Error setting output device: -10879" should be printed, indicating an error.
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661
Mar ’25
Indicate Packet Loss With AVAudioConverter for OPUS Decoding
I'm using an AVAudioConverter object to decode an OPUS stream for VoIP. The decoding itself works well, however, whenever the stream stalls (no more audio packet is available to decode because of network instability) this can be heard in crackling / abrupt stop in decoded audio. OPUS can mitigate this by indicating packet loss by passing a null pointer in the C-library to int opus_decode_float (OpusDecoder * st, const unsigned char * data, opus_int32 len, float * pcm, int frame_size, int decode_fec), see https://opus-codec.org/docs/opus_api-1.2/group__opus__decoder.html#ga9c554b8c0214e24733a299fe53bb3bd2. However, with AVAudioConverter using Swift I'm constructing an AVAudioCompressedBuffer like so:         let compressedBuffer = AVAudioCompressedBuffer(             format: VoiceEncoder.Constants.networkFormat,             packetCapacity: 1,             maximumPacketSize: data.count         )         compressedBuffer.byteLength = UInt32(data.count)         compressedBuffer.packetCount = 1   compressedBuffer.packetDescriptions! .pointee.mDataByteSize = UInt32(data.count)         data.copyBytes(             to: compressedBuffer.data .assumingMemoryBound(to: UInt8.self),             count: data.count         ) where data: Data contains the raw OPUS frame to be decoded. How can I specify data loss in this context and cause the AVAudioConverter to output PCM data whenever no more input data is available? More context: I'm specifying the audio format like this:         static let frameSize: UInt32 = 960         static let sampleRate: Float64 = 48000.0         static var networkFormatStreamDescription = AudioStreamBasicDescription(             mSampleRate: sampleRate,             mFormatID: kAudioFormatOpus,             mFormatFlags: 0,             mBytesPerPacket: 0,             mFramesPerPacket: frameSize,             mBytesPerFrame: 0,             mChannelsPerFrame: 1,             mBitsPerChannel: 0,             mReserved: 0         )         static let networkFormat = AVAudioFormat( streamDescription: &networkFormatStreamDescription )! I've tried 1) setting byteLength and packetCount to zero and 2) returning nil but setting .haveData in the AVAudioConverterInputBlock I'm using with no success.
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872
May ’25
[MusicKit] Check for availability of songs
Songs can be unavailable (greyed out) in Apple Music. How can I check if a song is unavailable via the MusicKit framework? Obviously the playback will fail with MPMusicPlayerControllerErrorDomain Code=6 "Failed to prepare to play" but how can I know that in advance? I need to check the availability of hundreds of albums and therefore initiating a playback for each of them is not an option. Things I have tried: Checking if the release date property is set to a future date. This filters out all future releases but doesn't solve the problem for already released songs. Checking if the duration is 0. This does not work since the duration of unavailable songs does not have to be 0. Initiating a playback and checking for the "Failed to prepare to play" error. This is not suitable for a huge amount of Albums. I couldn't find a solution yet but somehow other third-party-apps are able ignore/don't shows these albums. I believe the Apple Music app is only displaying albums where at least one song is available. I am using this function to fetch all albums of an artist. private func fetchAlbumsFor(_ artist: Artist) async throws -> [Album] { let artistWithAlbums = try await artist.with(.albums) var allAlbums = [Album]() guard var currentBadge = artistWithAlbums.albums else { return [] } allAlbums.append(contentsOf: currentBadge) while currentBadge.hasNextBatch { if let nextBatch = try await currentBadge.nextBatch() { currentBadge = nextBatch allAlbums.append(contentsOf: nextBatch) } else { break } } return allAlbums } Here is an example album where I am unable to detect its unavailability (at least in Germany): https://music.apple.com/de/album/die-haferhorde-immer-den-n%C3%BCstern-nach-h%C3%B6rspiel-zu-band-3/1755774804 Furthermore I was unable to navigate to this album via the Apple Music app directly. Thanks for any help Edit: Apparently this album is not included in an apple music subscription but can be bought seperately. The question remains: How can I check that?
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569
Feb ’25
How not to block during recording
The problem I have at the moment is that if a phone call comes in during my recording, even if I don't answer, my recording will be interrupted The phenomenon of recording interruption is that the picture is stuck, and the recording can be resumed automatically after the call is over. But it will cause the recorded video sound and painting out of sync Through the AVCaptureSessionWasInterrupted listening, I can get to record the types of alerts and interrupt As far as I can tell, a ringing or vibrating phone can block the audio channel. I found the same scenario in other apps, you can turn off the ring tone or vibration, but I don't know how to do it, I tried a lot of ways, but it doesn't work BlackmagicCam or ProMovie App, when a call comes in during recording, there will only be a notification menu, and there will be no ringtone or vibration, which solves the problem of recording interruption I don't know if this requires some configuration or application, please let me know if it does
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540
Dec ’24
Detecting if a phone call is being recorded by another app on iOS
Hello, I’m new here. I'm developing an iOS app and I’d like to know whether it is possible to detect if a phone call is being recorded by another app running in the background. I’ve already reviewed the documentation for CallKit and AVAudioSession, but I couldn’t find anything related. My expectation was that iOS might provide some callback or API to indicate if a call is being recorded (third-party apps), but so far I haven’t found a way. My questions are: Does iOS expose any API to detect if a call is being recorded? If not, is there any indirect, Apple's policy compliant method (e.g., microphone usage events) that can be relied upon? Or is this something that iOS explicitly prevents for privacyreasons? Expecting solutions that align with Apple’s policies and would be accepted under the App Store Review Guidelines. Thanks in advance for any guidance.
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236
Aug ’25
AVAudioSession.outputVolume not reporting correctly in iOS 18+ devices
I’m using the shared instance of AVAudioSession. After activating it with .setActive(true), I observe the outputVolume, and it correctly reports the device’s volume. However, after deactivating the session using .setActive(false), changing the volume, and then reactivating it again, the outputVolume returns the previous volume (before deactivation), not the current device volume. The correct volume is only reported after the user manually changes it again using physical buttons or Control Center, which triggers the observer. What I need is a way to retrieve the actual current device volume immediately after reactivating the audio session, even on the second and subsequent activations. Disabling and re-enabling the audio session is essential to how my application functions. I’ve tested this behavior with my colleagues, and the issue is consistently reproducible on iOS 18.0.1, iOS 18.1, iOS 18.3, iOS 18.5 and iOS 18.6.2. On devices running iOS 17.6.1 and iOS 16.0.3, outputVolume correctly reflects the current volume immediately after calling .setActive(true) multiple times.
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183
Sep ’25
iOS AUv3 extension: no Icon shown in host
Hi, I'm working on an AUv3 project. The app itself displays my icon. However the Auv3 extension does not display any icon in any host app (AUM, Drambo, etc.0). I thought that the extension would inherit the host app icon but that it does not appear to be the case. I tried to add the icon as a 1024x1024 file to the extension target and the update my extension plist file withe a CFBundleIconFile key but no luck either. It must surely be really easy. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your help!
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129
May ’25