Construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for your macOS app using AppKit.

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User crash report contains ??? instead of my app's symbols and no binary image base address
A user of my app sent me a crash report. I have never seen one like this before. All of my app's symbols are replaced with three question marks (???) Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 ??? 0x10844eb40 ??? 1 CoreFoundation 0x7ff80f155518 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ + 137 and the binary image as 0x0 - 0xffffffffffffffff ??? (*) <00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000> ??? so I cannot find out where exactly the crash happened. What can cause this kind of crash report and can I do anything with it? crash.ips
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macOS Tahoe 26.3 - System Is Playing NSBeep At Inappropriate Times When Text Editing Ends Via -cancelOperation: (field editor)
When I end editing pressing the escape key, the system sometimes plays NSBeep(). I noticed this with NSBrowser. Every time I press escape to end editing the system beeps. At first I thought it was somewhere in my app but I set a symbolic breakpoint and discovered it was not coming from my code. I filed FB22127038. Since then I discovered that NSBeep playing at inappropriate times is not exclusive to NSBrowser. It appears if there is a NSTableView in the window and you just press the escape key (even if you aren't editing anything) AppKit beeps. It can be traced to: #0 0x0000000199e3184c in NSBeep () #1 0x000000019aa03fac in -[NSWindow doCommandBySelector:] () #2 0x000000019ac1d01c in -[NSTableView(NSTableViewViewBased) cancelOperation:] ()
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DynamicViewContent and drop validation (macOS)
If I see it correctly, it is currently not possible to validate a drop operation on a DynamicViewContent when using dropDestination? Just a simple example: Let's say I build a folder view on macOS where I can arrange folders freely. In this case I need to use DynamicViewContent.dropDestination to get an insertion index on drop. However, it seems that methods like dropConfiguration do not have any effect. Als dropDestionation(…, isTargeted:) seems not to be available. Here is my sample code: struct FolderRow: View { let folder: Folder var body: some View { DisclosureGroup(isExpanded: .constant(true)) { ForEach(folder.children) { child in FolderRow(folder: child) } .dropDestination(for: Folder.self) { item, idx in print("Dropped at \(idx)") } } label: { Label(folder.name, systemImage: "folder") .draggable(folder) .dropDestination(for: Folder.self) { items, _ in print("Dropped on Item") } } .dropConfiguration { session in DropConfiguration(operation: .move) } } } struct ContentView: View { @State private var folder: Folder = Folder.sampleData @State private var selection: Set<UUID> = [] var body: some View { NavigationSplitView { List(selection: $selection) { FolderRow(folder: folder) } } detail: { EmptyView() } } } The dropConfiguration is applied on the Label (in this case the "Move" cursor is used instead of the "Copy" cursor). Is there any way to do that or is it just an omission in Swift UI?
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TextKit 2 + SwiftUI (NSViewRepresentable): NSTextLayoutManager rendering attributes don’t reliably draw/update
I’m embedding an NSTextView (TextKit 2) inside a SwiftUI app using NSViewRepresentable. I’m trying to highlight dynamic subranges (changing as the user types) by providing per-range rendering attributes via NSTextLayoutManager’s rendering-attributes mechanism. The issue: the highlight is unreliable. Often, the highlight doesn’t appear at all even though the delegate/data source is returning attributes for the expected range. Sometimes it appears once, but then it stops updating even when the underlying “highlight range” changes. This feels related to SwiftUI - AppKit layout issue when using NSViewRepresentable (as said in https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/nsviewrepresentable). What I’ve tried Updating the state that drives the highlight range and invalidating layout fragments / asking for relayout Ensuring all updates happen on the main thread. Calling setNeedsDisplay(_:) on the NSViewRepresentable’s underlying view. Toggling the SwiftUI view identity (e.g. .id(...)) to force reconstruction (works, but too expensive / loses state). Question In a SwiftUI + NSViewRepresentable setup with TextKit 2, what is the correct way to make NSTextLayoutManager re-query and redraw rendering attributes when my highlight ranges change? Is there a recommended invalidation call for TextKit 2 to trigger re-rendering of rendering attributes? Or is this a known limitation when hosting NSTextView inside SwiftUI, where rendering attributes aren’t reliably invalidated? If this approach is fragile, is there a better pattern for dynamic highlights that avoids mutating the attributed string (to prevent layout/scroll jitter)?
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Obscure assertion crash in com.apple.NSScrollingConcurrentVBLMonitor thread
I have received a few crash reports for my app "Find Any File" with an assertion failure as follows: assertion failure: "displayTiming != ((void *)0)" -&gt; %lld Googling this turns up nothing, though. I wonder if someone has some insight into why this might happen, and how to prevent it. One reporting user suggests that it happens when my app shows a very long list of items in an NSTableView (&gt;10000 elements). I have 4 reports from 3 users, and the main thread is doing something related to the table view each time, though not the same (the few other threads are all idle): Crash 1, in macOS 14.0 (23A344: Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x182c69400 objc_msgSend + 0 1 AppKit 0x186f15400 -[CALayer(NSViewVisibleRect) NS_viewVisibleRectDidChange] + 40 2 AppKit 0x186900e10 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 276 3 AppKit 0x186900db0 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 180 4 AppKit 0x186900db0 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 180 5 AppKit 0x186900db0 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 180 6 AppKit 0x186900db0 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 180 7 AppKit 0x186900db0 NSViewHierarchyInvalidateVisibleRect + 180 8 AppKit 0x1869990e0 -[NSView translateOriginToPoint:] + 164 9 AppKit 0x186984108 -[NSClipView _immediateScrollToPoint:] + 420 10 AppKit 0x186983eb8 -[NSClipView scrollToPoint:] + 184 11 AppKit 0x186998d80 -[NSScrollView scrollClipView:toPoint:] + 84 12 AppKit 0x1869448dc -[NSClipView _scrollTo:animateScroll:flashScrollerKnobs:] + 480 13 AppKit 0x186b65b24 __62-[NSScrollingBehaviorConcurrentVBL _stopGestureScrollTracking]_block_invoke + 192 14 AppKit 0x186e6a6e8 ___NSMainRunLoopPerformBlockInModes_block_invoke + 44 15 CoreFoundation 0x18310b8c0 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 28 Crash 2, in macOS 14.1.1 (23B81): Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 CoreFoundation 0x18ba401f4 DYLD-STUB$$_Block_object_assign + 0 1 libsystem_blocks.dylib 0x18b506118 _call_copy_helpers_excp + 80 2 libsystem_blocks.dylib 0x18b505c68 _Block_copy + 376 3 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b641c7c _dispatch_Block_copy + 32 4 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b658df0 _dispatch_source_set_handler + 92 5 CoreFoundation 0x18b99e1e4 __CFRunLoopCopyMode + 540 6 CoreFoundation 0x18b8b7458 CFRunLoopAddObserver + 220 7 AppKit 0x18f0a687c _PerfAddRunLoopObserver + 192 8 AppKit 0x18f87cd60 -[NSApplication(NSEventRouting) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 368 9 AppKit 0x18f323318 -[_NSScrollingConcurrentEventMonitor startMonitoring] + 380 10 AppKit 0x18f321df8 -[NSScrollingBehaviorConcurrentVBL _scrollView:trackGestureScrollWithEvent:] + 884 11 AppKit 0x18f2e67f8 -[NSScrollingBehaviorConcurrentVBL scrollView:scrollWheelWithEvent:] + 512 12 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 13 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 14 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 15 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 16 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 17 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 18 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 19 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 20 AppKit 0x18fc45880 -[NSCollectionView scrollWheel:] + 180 21 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 22 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 23 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 24 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 25 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 26 AppKit 0x18f241770 forwardMethod + 252 27 AppKit 0x18f2e62a0 -[NSView scrollWheel:] + 408 28 AppKit 0x18f1d27b0 -[NSWindow(NSEventRouting) _reallySendEvent:isDelayedEvent:] + 652 As you can see, there's no code of mine involved at the time of crash. The other (and older) reports are similar, in macOS 13.6.1 and macOS 13.1. All four happened on ARM architecture (which may not be significant due to small number of samples). Memory use of app was not critical (in one case it was about 9 GB total, in others below 4 GB). The "Binary Images" section only lists Apple libs, apart from my app's. So, there seems to be no 3rd party ext involved. I've attached a full report as well. Full report of Crash 1
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Quick Look Plugin for Mac and Internet Access
I'd like to create a Quick Look extension for a file type for which a location or region on a Map should be shown as preview. However the MapView would only show a grid without any map. From within the MapKit delegate I can see from the "Error" parameter (a server with this domain can not be found) that this seems to be a network issue. The Quick Look extension seems to have no access to the internet and therefore the MapView can not load any map data. I've then also done some other tests via URLSession, which also only fails with connection errors. I haven't seen any limitations or restrictions mentioned in the API documentation. Is this the expected behavior? Is this a bug? Or am I missing something?
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modifierFlags Monterey
Hello Using a MacBook Pro Intel with macOS 12.7.6 Monterey, I test in Objective-C an event for the option key but it is not working - (void)keyDown:(NSEvent *)event { printf("%s %p\n", __FUNCTION__, self); BOOL altFlag = [event modifierFlags] & NSEventModifierFlagOption; if (altFlag) { // UpdateClass printf("option pressed\n"); } else { printf("option not pressed\n"); } } The same in Swift works fine override func keyDown(with event: NSEvent) { if event.modifierFlags.contains(.option) { print("option pressed") } else { print("option NOT pressed") } } The Obj-C code works fine on a MacBook Air Tahoe 26.3 Any idea why it does not work on the macOS 12.7.6 Intel? Many Thanks Jean
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init?(coder: NSCoder) or init?(coder: (NSCoder?))
In this code, I use in some places required init?(coder: (NSCoder?)) { // Init some properties super.init(coder: coder!) } And in other places required init?(coder: NSCoder) { super.init(coder: coder) // Init some properties } Both seem to work. Is there a preferred one ? In which cases ? Or should I always use the second one ? And can super be called at anytime ?
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Referencing IBOutlet to its class or to file's owner
In this Mac App, I have an IBOutlet (which is defined as instance of a subclass of NSView). When I connect the IBOutlet to the code, referencing as file's owner, it works OK. But if I reference to the class, it crashes, when I access a specific IBOutlet (but other IBOutlets are accessed just before it without crashing).. The IBOutlet turnPageControl is defined as instance of subclass of NSView. Note: I have implemented several init methods: override init(window: NSWindow!) { } required init?(coder: (NSCoder?)) { } // Yes, (NSCoder?) convenience init(parameters) { // loading from nib } override func windowDidLoad() { super.windowDidLoad() // Access turnpageControl I get those calls before crash: init(window:) init(parameters:) init(window:) windowDidLoad() -> crash inside on accessing the IBOutlet for turnPageControl.isHidden = true Is there any reason to this ?
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Annoying popup window in Xcode Previews when the initial controller of the main storyboard is a macOS window
I started a project targeting macOS and used Storyboard app lifecycle. I also used Xcode Previews in this project. If I: Keep the entry point of the main storyboard to a window controller. (as default setup in macOS), Turn the Xcode window into full-screen, That window controller would pop up its window every time Xcode Previews refreshes. I tested in Xcode 26.3 RC and many versions before.
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In SwiftUI for macOS, is there an equivalent to NSControl.BorderShape?
In macOS 26, there is a new property on NSControl called .borderShape. The WWDC 2025-310 video says it can be used to "Override preferred shape of control to suit your design." and that it's available on NSButton, NSPopUpButton and NSSegmentedControl. Is there an equivalent to that property for SwiftUI? For example, given the following SwiftUI code: Button("Eject") { } .borderShape(...) <-- ? How can I apply a .borderShape that would match those on controls created in AppKit? I'm aware that SwiftUI offers a plethora of ways to custom design a button such that it can have rounded corners, but I'm interested in this particular property so that SwiftUI buttons and AppKit buttons in the same app have the same look-and-feel.
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Do SwiftUI Segmented Controls on macOS 26 support the icon and title label style?
On macOS 26.3, Xcode 26.3, why does a labelStyle of titleAndIcon not show both the title and the icon of a label? The label styles iconOnly and titleOnly behave as expected. Picker("Label Demo", selection: $selectedItem) { Label { Text("File") } icon: { Image(systemName: "doc") } Label { Text("Folder") } icon: { Image(systemName: "folder") } } .labelStyle(.titleAndIcon) .pickerStyle(.segmented) Note that there is no icon shown. Placing the .labelStyle modifier in different places has no effect. The icon is correctly shown when the labelStyle is set to .iconOnly. An NSSegmentedControl created with AppKit and presented in an NSViewRepresentable does correctly show titles and icons if configured appropriately. Tested on: macOS 26.3 (25D125) Xcode 26.3 (17C519) A brand new SwiftUI "macOS App" project.
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Timed-Wait for main thread
The scenario is, in a macOS app (primarly), main thread needs to wait for some time for a certain 'event'. When that event occurs, the main thread is signaled, it gets unblocked and moves on. An example is, during shutdown, a special thread known as shutdown thread waits for all other worker threads to return (thread join operation). When all threads have returned, the shutdown thread signals the main thread, which was waiting on a timer, to continue with the shutdown flow. If shutdown thread signals the main thread before the later's timer expires, it means all threads have returned. If main thread's timer expires first, it means some threads have failed to join (probably stuck in infinite loop due to bug, disk I/O etc.). This post is to understand how main thread can wait for some time for the shutdown thread. There are two ways: a) dispatch_semaphore_t b) pthread conditional variable (pthread_cond_t) and mutex (pthread_mutex_t). Expanding a bit on option (b) using conditional variable and mutex: // This method is invoked on the main thread bool ConditionSignal::TimedWait() noexcept { struct timespec ts; pthread_mutex_t * mutex = (pthread_mutex_t *) (&vPosix.vMutexStorage[0]); pthread_cond_t * cond = (pthread_cond_t *) (&vPosix.vCondVarStorage[0]); // Set the timer to 3 sec. clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts); ts.tv_sec += 3; pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); LOG("Main thread has acquired the mutex and is waiting!"); int wait_result = pthread_cond_timedwait(cond, mutex, &ts); switch (wait_result) { case 0: LOG("Main thread signaled!"); return true; case ETIMEDOUT: LOG("Main thread's timer expired!"); return false; default: LOG("Error: Unexpected return value from pthread_cond_timedwait: " + std::to_string(wait_result)); break; } return false; } // This method is invoked on shutdown thread after all worker threads have returned. void ConditionSignal::Raise() noexcept { pthread_mutex_t * mutex = (pthread_mutex_t *) (&vPosix.vMutexStorage); pthread_cond_t * cond = (pthread_cond_t *) (&vPosix.vCondVarStorage); pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); LOG("[Shutdown thread]: Signalling main thread..."); pthread_cond_signal(cond); pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex); } Both options allow the main thread to wait for some time (for shutdown thread) and continue execution. However, when using dispatch_semaphore_t, I get the following warning: Thread Performance Checker: Thread running at User-interactive quality-of-service class waiting on a lower QoS thread running at Default quality-of-service class. Investigate ways to avoid priority inversions Whereas, with conditional variables, there are no warnings. I understand the warning - holding the main thread can prevent it from responding to user events, thus causing the app to freeze. And in iOS, the process is killed if main thread takes more than 5 secs to return from applicationWillTerminate(_:) delegate method. But in this scenario, the main thread is on a timed-wait, for some milliseconds i.e., it is guaranteed to not get blocked indefinitely. While this is described for macOS, this functionality is required for all Apple OSes. What is the recommend way?
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What should be enabled for Enhanced Security?
I am not very well versed in this area, so I would appreciate some guidance on what should be enabled or disabled. My app is an AppKit app. I have read the documentation and watched the video, but I find it hard to understand. When I added the Enhanced Security capability in Xcode, the following options were enabled automatically: Memory Safety Enable Enhanced Security Typed Allocator Runtime Protections Enable Additional Runtime Platform Restrictions Authenticate Pointers Enable Read-only Platform Memory The following options were disabled by default: Memory Safety Enable Hardware Memory Tagging Memory Tag Pure Data Prevent Receiving Tagged Memory Enable Soft Mode for Memory Tagging Should I enable these options? Is there anything I should consider disabling?
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The Nightmare of Small Toolbar Icons
When building in Xcode on MacOS Tahoe, it seems it is no longer possible to dynamically specify a "small" size toolbar for NSToolbar/NSToolbarItem. It works in MacOS code compiled and linked on earlier systems. I don't want to use "SFSymbol", or "templates". I have over 60 custom-made .png toolbars, in individual Image Set files, at the previous requisite sizes of 24x24 / 48x48, and 32x32 / 64x64. Sure -- I can configure an NSToolbar with whatever size .png assets I want. I just can't dynamically switch between the two groups of sizes. According to the Apple Coding Assistant, the only solution is to change the image names of each of the NSToolbarItems at runtime. OK -- but even when attempting that, the NSToolbarItems refuse to take on their smaller size... ...unless: they are attached to a custom view NSToolbarItem with an NSButton of style "Bevel". I have about 10 of those, and YES -- I CAN change those to a "small" size. Is this REALLY what I'm forced to do?! The Apple Coding Assistant just runs me around in circles, making coding suggestions that include properties that don't exists. I've gone around and around on these issues for over a week -- it can't be this hard, right? Is there no way to make multiple NSToolbar objects, one for "large" and one for "small"?
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Custom NSWindow styleMask behavior changed/broken resulting in unresizable or non-responsive windows in macOS Tahoe 26.3 RC
NSWindow objects with custom styleMask configurations seem to behave erratically in macOS Tahoe 26.3 RC. For example an NSWindow is not resizable after issuing .styleMask.remove(.titled) or some NSWindow-s become totally unresponsive (the NSWindow becomes transparent to mouse events) with custom styleMask-s. This is a radical change compared to how all previous macOS versions or the 26.3 beta3 worked and seriously affects apps that might use custom NSWindows - this includes some system utilities, OSD/HUD apps etc, actually breaking some apps. Such fundamental compatibility altering changes should not be introduced in an RC stage (if this is intentional and not a bug) imho.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: AppKit Tags:
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Memory consumption of apps under macOS 26 "Tahoe"
macOS 26 "Tahoe" is allocating much more memory for apps than former macOS versions: A customer contacted me with my app's Thumbnail extension allocating so much memory that her 48 GB RAM Mac Mini ran into "out of application memory" state. I couldn't identify any memory leak in my extension's code nor reproduce the issue, but found the main app allocating as much as 5 times the memory compared to running on macOS 15 or lower. This productive app is explicitly using "Liquid Glass" views as well as implicitly e.g. for an inspector pane. So I created a sample app, just based on Xcode's template of a document-based app, and the issue is still showing (although less dramatically): This sample app allocates 22 MB according to Tahoe's Activity Monitor, while Sequoia only requires 16 MB: macOS 15.6.1 macOS 26.2 Is anyone experiencing similar issues? I suspect some massive leak in Tahoe's memory management, and just filed a corresponding feedback (FB21967167).
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Are there workarounds for these bugs in Xcode?
Are there workarounds for the following bugs in Xcode 16.3? I'm looking for workarounds instead of trying newer versions of Xcode because, from what I read, the Xcode release notes do not mention these issues being fixed. First bug: Resizing a NSSplitView in the UI Editor is buggy. When you try to use the divider, it just does not work as expected. In the case of a vertical split, the bottom view gets shrunk whatever you try to do. Second bug: When you type: (IBAction) in the source editor, you get the following buggy template (extra ')' on the right): - (IBAction)<#selector#>:(id)sender)
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NSTableView/NSScrollView jumping scroll position during NSSplitView resize
This is a very basic macOS Finder-style test app using AppKit. I am experiencing a "jump" in the vertical scroll position of my NSTableView (inside an NSScrollView) specifically when the window is resized horizontally. This happens when columns are visually added or removed. Framework: AppKit (Cocoa) Xcode/macOS: 26.2 Code: https://github.com/MorusPatre/Binder/blob/main/ContentView%20-%20Scroll%20Jump%20during%20Resize.swift
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Severe Frame Drops When Resizing macOS Window with Dynamic LazyVGrid
Context: I am building a macOS file (currently image only) browser using SwiftUI. The core view is a ScrollView containing a LazyVGrid. The layout is dynamic: as the window resizes, I calculate the optimal number of columns and spacing using a GeometryReader. The Issue: While scrolling is pretty smooth (thanks to custom image caching and prefetching), window resizing is significantly laggy. After having scrolled the UI stutters and drops frames heavily while dragging the window edge. The Code: https://github.com/MorusPatre/Binder
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