Hello - we have a Mac application that uses a browser extension and the web extension JS APIs to communicate with Safari. As of macOS 15.4 / Safari 18.4 the tab OnAttached and tab onDetached events are no longer received.
After some testing we verified that the events were working properly as of macOS 15.3 / Safari 18.3 but appear to have been broken in macOS 15.4. Note a similar issue was reported previously for Safari 17.6 and was fixed in macOS 15.0 (FB14324177).
We have made a TestFlight version of our app (Tabby) available to simplify debugging via https://testflight.apple.com/join/Va8Zdv9d.
To reproduce the issue:
Install the Tabby TestFlight build on macOS 15.4 or 15.4.1
Open Safari, go to Safari settings and select the Extensions tab
Enable the Tabby extension and grant permissions to all windows all the time
Open a Safari window with at least 3 tabs
Note the open window and tabs displayed in Tabby
In Safari, perform a tab detach by dragging a tab out of the window
Expected behavior
Within Safari the detached tab should now be in it’s own window, and via the onDetached event Tabby should update to show the tab in it’s own window AND removed from the original window.
Observed
Safari fails to send the onDetached event and Tabby will continue to display the detached tab in its original window in addition to the new window.
You can also use the repro steps above to observe the onDetached event being received or not by Tabby in the Safari developer console. The same steps but re-attaching the tab to the original window can be used to observe the onAttached event being received or not.
We’ve attached two screen recordings to the Feedback ID below, one showing the events working on macOS 15.3, and one showing the events failing to be received on macOS 15.4.1. Note it also fails on macOS 15.4.
FEEDBACK ID: FB17367977
General
RSS for tagExplore the integration of web technologies within your app. Discuss building web-based apps, leveraging Safari functionalities, and integrating with web services.
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I use WKWebView to display a webpage that requires authentication through an authentication provider. This works as expected, but when I close and reopen the app, I have to reauthenticate. However, if I open the same page in Safari, I only have to authenticate once. If I close Safari and reopen it, the page displays without prompting me to authenticate again. I see some cookies stored in httpCookieStore, so I assume that storing cookies works. Does anyone have an idea why authentication is not persistent between app launches? Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Marc
Is it possible to open the native app from a web extension?
I have tried creating a new tab that uses the app's URL scheme but the UI asking the user to open the app is not shown until the new page UI is dismissed.
Creating a tab with an HTTPS URL that the app is setup to handle does not work and always the link in a new tab.
I tried sending a message to the app extension and using NSExtensionContext.open(_:completionHandler:) but the URL is not opened and the closure received false, indicating it was not handled.
Having the option to link back to the native app would be very useful.
Hi,
I have an app that uses WKWebView and it's crashing on iOS 26 Simulator in places I've never had problems before. In this case it's crashing when calling WKWebView.callAsyncJavaScript, but in my other project WKWebView is crashing with some sort of EXC_BAD_ACCESS other than callAsyncJavaScript.
Am I missing something?
Thanks,
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
browser.runtime.onMessage in content script intermittently fails on iOS 18.5 (Safari Web Extensions)
Hi everyone,
I’m encountering a critical reliability issue with message passing in my Safari Web Extension on iOS 18.4.1 and iOS 18.5.
In my extension, I’m using the standard messaging API. The background script sends a message to the content script using browser.tabs.sendMessage(...), and the content script registers a listener via:
browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener(handler);
This setup has been working reliably in all prior versions of iOS. However, after updating to iOS 18.4.1 and 18.5, I’ve noticed the following behavior:
✅ The content script is successfully injected, and onMessage.addListener is registered (I see logging confirming this).
✅ The background script sends the message using the correct tabId (also confirmed via logs).
❌ The content script’s onMessage listener is not consistently triggered.
⚠️ This issue is intermittent, sometimes the message is received, sometimes it is silently dropped.
❌ No exceptions or errors are thrown in either script, the message appears to be sent, but not picked up from the content script message listener.
I'm working on a web browser App that's distributed via the App Store. This app renders web pages using WKWebView.
Our users are requesting a way for us to allow them to play videos in Picture in Picture. After some investigation, we noticed that in order to allow PiP videos in our browser in the sandboxed environment, we need to add the com.apple.PIPAgent entitlement under the com.apple.security.temporary-exception.mach-lookup.global-name option.
We tried to submit our app with this entitlement, but unfortunately, we were rejected:
Guideline 2.4.50) - Performance
We've determined that one or more temporary entitlement exceptions requested for this app are not appropriate and will not be granted:
com.apple.security.temporary-exception.mach-lookup.global-name
com.apple.P|PAgent
We would like to have access to this entitlement so we can offer PiP to our users.
We already created a radar about this as well: FB13814428
Additionally, we have another radar (FB13557716) regarding allowing the usage of a private flag _allowsPictureInPictureMediaPlayback, which would also be required to enable us to use PiP.
Is there any way in which we can currently enable PiP? Would opening a TSI help here?
I'm building a share extension for my app when I noticed something weird.
When I open a mobile URL (URLs with "m." like m.randomsite.org) on iOS using a browser (I'm using Safari & Chrome) and then try to share it, what will be share is the URL without the "m." (i.e. randomsite.org)
This messes up with my app since I'm not getting the real URL that I'm viewing using the browser.
I don't think it has something to do with my app since even selecting "Copy" when sharing will result in the altered URL too.
So far this is happening on both iOS 17 and 18. Does someone know whether this is a bug from iOS or not? I don't think this is a Safari bug since I noticed the same thing on Chrome as well
As with the adoption of MV3 standards among all major browser vendors that allow browser extensions at the client-side, I understand that this is the same with Safari as well, as mentioned here (https://www.wwdcnotes.com/notes/wwdc22/10099/). However, as with Firefox, browsers may choose to adopt them incompletely and with few changes. I had a few questions regarding how Safari views this transition and what would be the next steps from here.
Thus, it would be really great if the browser team could provide your insights on any or all of the following points:
Would Safari adopt the exact standards proposed by the Chromium ecosystem such as with functionalities like header-based modifications in the coming days.
What would be the general timeline be for this in general?
Does this also translate to the fact that existing standards with MV2 standards would not be allowed to operate any further, as with the timeline with Chromium?
Regards
Subject: Apple Pay JS - "Payment Was Cancelled by the User" Issue (Braintree + Server-Side Validation)
Issue
I am implementing Apple Pay using Braintree with server-side validation. However, when initiating the payment process, I receive the following error:
[Log] Payment was cancelled by the user: (apple-pay-test-ucxp.onrender.com, line 286)
Additionally, the console logs an ApplePayCancelEvent with:
sessionError: {code: "unknown", info: {}}
Despite successfully fetching merchant session validation data from the backend and completing merchant validation, the payment process does not proceed.
Setup Details
Payment Processor: Braintree (Apple Pay integration)
Backend API: Fetching merchant session validation via createPaymentSessionGet
Payment Processing: Using Braintree nonce tokenization
Client-Side Code (Key Sections)
session.onvalidatemerchant = async (event) => {
try {
const merchantSession = await fetch(
"https://api.paybito.com:9443/ApplePay/api/apple-pay/createPaymentSessionGet",
{
method: "GET",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
}
).then((res) => res.json());
session.completeMerchantValidation(merchantSession);
} catch (err) {
console.error("Merchant validation failed:", err);
session.abort();
}
};
session.onpaymentauthorized = async (event) => {
try {
const payload = await applePayInstance.tokenize({
token: event.payment.token,
});
const response = await fetch(
"https://api.paybito.com:9443/ApplePay/api/braintree/process-payment",
{
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ nonce: payload.nonce }),
}
).then((res) => res.json());
if (response.success) {
session.completePayment(ApplePaySession.STATUS_SUCCESS);
} else {
session.completePayment(ApplePaySession.STATUS_FAILURE);
}
} catch (err) {
console.error("Payment authorization failed:", err);
session.completePayment(ApplePaySession.STATUS_FAILURE);
}
};
Observations
Merchant validation completes successfully.
The error occurs before onpaymentauthorized executes.
Session error code is unknown, making debugging difficult.
Questions
Has anyone encountered this issue before?
Could this be related to how the validation session is fetched from the backend?
Is there a way to obtain more meaningful debug information from Apple Pay?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
After upgrading to Safari version 18, we encountered an issue with my extension’s background script not being able to access cookies. Previously, in Safari versions 17 and below, the extension worked as expected. Now, when the extension tries to retrieve cookies using browser.cookies.getAll(), it returns an empty list. However, if we open the extension’s developer tools, the cookies are visible and accessible.
It seems that Safari only provides cookie data after the developer tools have been opened. However, after relaunching Safari and launching the extension without opening the developer tools, browser.cookies.getAll() still returns an empty list.
Has anyone else experienced this?
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Download this minimal app : https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0bajlhnuQaG6T5NsFKXEB0U9Q#test%5Fcookies
Compile test_mv2 extension (in test_cookies.getAll.zip).
Launch test_mv2.app and activate extension.
Click on the extension's button (browserAction).
Open the developer tools.
Observe an empty list of cookies.
Click on the extension's button (browserAction).
Cookies are retrieved as expected.
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
Reproducibility
100% on iOS 15.4 and iOS 16.6
Zero crash on iOS 18.6
Xcode
26.1
Steps to Reproduce
Xcode 26.1 → New iOS App
Replace ViewController.swift with the 20-line code below
Run on real device
• iPhone XR iOS 15.4
• iPhone 13 iOS 16.6
Tap the link → breakpoint in decidePolicyFor
lldb → po navigationAction.sourceFrame
Actual Result
(lldb) po navigationAction.sourceFrame
nil
Swift declaration lies:
public var sourceFrame: WKFrameInfo { get } // non-optional
→ Instant EXC_BREAKPOINT
libswiftFoundation.dylib`URLRequest._unconditionallyBridgeFromObjectiveC
Objective-C tells the truth:
po [(WKNavigationAction *)navigationAction fixedSourceFrame]
nil
iOS 18.6 → same code prints a valid WKFrameInfo, no crash.
Expected
sourceFrame must be declared WKFrameInfo? in Swift
or at least documented “can be nil on iOS 15–16”.
Impact
Every WKWebView app that touches sourceFrame on iOS 15.4 & 16.6 ships with a latent crash.
Production Workaround
@implementation WKNavigationAction (Safe)
(WKFrameInfo *)fixedSourceFrame {
return self.sourceFrame ? self.sourceFrame : nil;
}
@end
Minimal Test (copy-paste)
import UIKit
import WebKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate {
lazy var web = WKWebView(frame: view.bounds)
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
web.navigationDelegate = self
view.addSubview(web)
web.load(URLRequest(url: URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!))
}
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
preferences: WKWebpagePreferences,
decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy, WKWebpagePreferences)->Void) {
print(navigationAction.sourceFrame) // ← crashes on 15.4 & 16.6
decisionHandler(.allow, preferences)
}
}
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!
Starting in iOS 26 (tested on 26.1), when I use any of the “policy” methods of WKNavigationDelegate to return an action policy of cancel I get a trace like this printed to console:
1 0x18de71bbc WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy::ignore(WebKit::WasNavigationIntercepted)
2 0x18db3dd50 WebKit::NavigationState::NavigationClient::decidePolicyForNavigationAction(WebKit::WebPageProxy&, WTF::Ref<API::NavigationAction, WTF::RawPtrTraits<API::NavigationAction>, WTF::DefaultRefDerefTraits<API::NavigationAction>>&&, WTF::Ref<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy, WTF::RawPtrTraits<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy>, WTF::DefaultRefDerefTraits<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy>>&&)::$_0::operator()(WKNavigationActionPolicy, WKWebpagePreferences*)
3 0x100189e5c $sSo24WKNavigationActionPolicyVIeyBhy_ABIeghy_TR
4 0x100189d38 $s16WebkitPolicyTrap14ViewControllerC03webD0_06decideB3For15decisionHandlerySo05WKWebD0C_So18WKNavigationActionCySo0lmB0VctF
5 0x100189df4 $s16WebkitPolicyTrap14ViewControllerC03webD0_06decideB3For15decisionHandlerySo05WKWebD0C_So18WKNavigationActionCySo0lmB0VctFTo
6 0x18db255c0 WebKit::NavigationState::NavigationClient::decidePolicyForNavigationAction(WebKit::WebPageProxy&, WTF::Ref<API::NavigationAction, WTF::RawPtrTraits<API::NavigationAction>, WTF::DefaultRefDerefTraits<API::NavigationAction>>&&, WTF::Ref<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy, WTF::RawPtrTraits<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy>, WTF::DefaultRefDerefTraits<WebKit::WebFramePolicyListenerProxy>>&&)
7 0x18dea9848 WebKit::WebPageProxy::decidePolicyForNavigationAction(WTF::Ref<WebKit::WebProcessProxy, WTF::RawPtrTraits<WebKit::WebProcessProxy>, WTF::DefaultRefDerefTraits<WebKit::WebProcessProxy>>&&, WebKit::WebFrameProxy&, WebKit::NavigationActionData&&, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (WebKit::PolicyDecision&&)>&&)
8 0x18dea7a34 WebKit::WebPageProxy::decidePolicyForNavigationActionAsync(IPC::Connection&, WebKit::NavigationActionData&&, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (WebKit::PolicyDecision&&)>&&)
9 0x18d9cbbf4 void IPC::handleMessageAsync<Messages::WebPageProxy::DecidePolicyForNavigationActionAsync, IPC::Connection, WebKit::WebPageProxy, WebKit::WebPageProxy, void (IPC::Connection&, WebKit::NavigationActionData&&, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (WebKit::PolicyDecision&&)>&&)>(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&, WebKit::WebPageProxy*, void (WebKit::WebPageProxy::*)(IPC::Connection&, WebKit::NavigationActionData&&, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (WebKit::PolicyDecision&&)>&&))
10 0x18d9c7728 WebKit::WebPageProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&)
11 0x18e49a0d8 IPC::MessageReceiverMap::dispatchMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&)
12 0x18df1908c WebKit::WebProcessProxy::dispatchMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&)
13 0x18d9dfc28 WebKit::WebProcessProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&)
14 0x18e47f72c IPC::Connection::dispatchMessage(WTF::UniqueRef<IPC::Decoder>)
15 0x18e47fac4 IPC::Connection::dispatchIncomingMessages()
16 0x199ad3758 WTF::RunLoop::performWork()
17 0x199ad4eb0 WTF::RunLoop::performWork(void*)
18 0x1804563a4 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__
19 0x1804562ec __CFRunLoopDoSource0
20 0x180455a78 __CFRunLoopDoSources0
21 0x180454c4c __CFRunLoopRun
22 0x18044fcec _CFRunLoopRunSpecificWithOptions
23 0x1926be9bc GSEventRunModal
24 0x18630f0d8 -[UIApplication _run]
25 0x186313300 UIApplicationMain
26 0x18554ac38 block_destroy_helper.15
27 0x10018a70c $sSo21UIApplicationDelegateP5UIKitE4mainyyFZ
28 0x10018a67c $s16WebkitPolicyTrap11AppDelegateC5$mainyyFZ
29 0x10018a818 __debug_main_executable_dylib_entry_point
30 0x1000cd3d0 29 dyld 0x00000001000cd3d0 start_sim + 20
31 0x1002bab98 30 ??? 0x00000001002bab98 0x0 + 4297829272
This doesn’t happen in 18.6. Also, it doesn’t seem to have any negative consequences other than the console spam? But then, the navigation is being cancelled anyway, so maybe it’s trapping and just happens to have the effect of not loading the request?
Anyway, I guess I can’t upload zips. But it’s pretty easy to reproduce. Just assign a WKWebView a navigationDelegate with an implementation like:
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: @escaping @MainActor (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
decisionHandler(.cancel)
}
and then have it .load() anything. Have I been doing this wrong and 26 exposes it? Or is this a bug in 26? If the latter, any downstream consequences I should be looking out for?
macOS 15.7.1 (24G231)
Xcode 26.1.1 (17B100)
iOS 26.1 (23B86)
I'm working on a regular website, in which I'm trying to debug using the (MacOS) Safari Development tools. Since updating my Simulator to iOS 16.4, console.log is no longer displayed in the Console. Even when executing it directly in the console (console.log('test');), it's not printed.
Now, I've read that this is a feature for debugging in-app browser content (https://webkit.org/blog/13936/enabling-the-inspection-of-web-content-in-apps/) but can't find the regular web workaround here.
TL;DR: No longer see console.log in iOS 16.4 Safari when debugging from my Mac.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Is this code invalid on a phone running xcode16 iOS18?
Class cls = NSClassFromString(@"WKBrowsingContextController");
SEL sel = NSSelectorFromString(@"registerSchemeForCustomProtocol:");
if ([(id)cls respondsToSelector:sel]) {
[(id)cls performSelector:sel withObject:@"http"];
[(id)cls performSelector:sel withObject:@"https"];
}
}
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
Hello,
I'm not able to get the webauthn attestation statement using the option (attestation.direct) on Safari. The answer I get is a fmt of none and a aaguid of zeros.
The same code works on Chrome and I was able to get a none zero aaguid and a packed fmt attestation.
Can you explain why this does not work on Safari ?
Thank you.
iOS Safari 18.4/18.5 with IIS Windows Authentication with negotiate hangs after entering credentials
I don't think the issue is specific iOS 18.
We have a web application that runs with IIS Authentication of Windows and Anonymous. Initially the app opens and the user clicks a button and triggers the "401 Challenge" via ASP.NET. The browser presents the Active Directory login, user enters credentials, clicks Sign In, and the browser hangs (may actually be negotiating something). After a few minutes the user is logged into the application.
We have done a number of google searches/AI to try to determine what to change and there is no clear solution. Is there anything else to try?
This problem is not seen in Chrome on iOS or on a Windows machine. Strangely it is also not seen using BrowserStack with one of their "real" devices.
We have other apps that run with just Windows Authorization and this problem is not observed.
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
I am a newby to JavaScript, suggested to me to use to automate the task of opening of a Web page, selecting three internal buttons in sequence to download the underlying chart data.
I have created the App via Automator on macOS, to run the Script, successfully open the Web Page, but cannot find a way to select and click() on the buttons.
Can someone please help me.
Robert.
This is the code suggested by Grok 3 Beta, but I see this error:
Error: First parameter passed to Document Constructor must be an object.
function run(input, parameters) {
var Safari = Application('Safari');
Safari.activate();
// Open the AEMO data dashboard (Grok 3 Beta recomendation opens the web page correctly)
Safari.Document().make();
Safari.windows[0].currentTab.url = 'https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem';
delay(10); // Wait for page to load
// Click the Fuel Mix tab (target the active in the tabs)
Safari.Document(0).doJavaScript("document.querySelector('.tabs .active').click()");
delay(5); // Wait for tab content to load
// Select 48 hrs from the dropdown Safari.Document(0).doJavaScript("document.querySelector('#interval').value = '48H'; document.querySelector('#interval').dispatchEvent(new Event('change'))");
delay(5); // Wait for selection to take effect
// Click the download button Safari.Document(0).doJavaScript("document.querySelector('.visualisation-icon-button').click()");
return input;
}
I have an extension which was working fine on older Safari version, but it is getting killed after I upgraded the browser to Safari 18 and higher.
From the system logs I could see, Safari is sending the KILL signal to my browser
2024-11-12 13:51:01.536167-0600 0x95b672 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [pid/45238/SafariExt [45463]:] signal service: caller = Safari[45238], value = 0x9
2024-11-12 13:51:01.536453-0600 0xfab Default 0x0 382 7 WindowServer: (SkyLight) [com.apple.SkyLight:default] [ ConnectionDebug ] Closing conn 0xf955b, PID 45463 in session 257 on console2024-11-12 13:51:01.536474-0600 0x95b674 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [gui/503 [100018]:] service inactive: com.apple.xpc.launchd.unmanaged.SafariExtension.45463
2024-11-12 13:51:01.536479-0600 0x95b674 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [gui/503 [100018]:] removing inactive unmanaged service: com.apple.xpc.launchd.unmanaged.SafariExtension.454632024-11-12 13:51:01.537354-0600 0x95b907 Default 0x0 354 0 launchservicesd: [com.apple.processmanager:front-35286506] QUITTING: pid=45463 asn=0x-0x176176 foreground=0 wasFront=0
2024-11-12 13:51:01.537375-0600 0x95b672 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [pid/45238/SafariExt [45463]:] exited due to SIGKILL | sent by launchd[1], ran for 342ms
2024-11-12 13:51:01.537380-0600 0x95b672 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [pid/45238/SafariExt [45463]:] service state: exited
2024-11-12 13:51:01.537384-0600 0x95b672 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [pid/45238/SafariExt [45463]:] internal event: EXITED, code = 0
2024-11-12 13:51:01.537385-0600 0x95b672 Default 0x0 1 0 launchd: [pid/45238/SafariExt [45463]:] job state = exited
Just before this, I see a macOS error
2024-11-12 13:51:06.789342-0600 0x95b74f Default 0x0 45238 0 Safari: (Security) [com.apple.securityd:security_exception] MacOS error: -67054
This occurs only in my customer machines but not in my test machines. I have verified the code signing, certificate validity & entitlements are fine.