Product Xcode Version 26.3 (26C5131e) Platform macOS / iOS Simulator / iOS Device Classification Bug / Incorrect UI Behaviour Reproducibility Always (persists across restarts, scheme recreation, DerivedData clearing) Date Encountered February 20, 2026 Hardware Mac mini (M2) running macOS Test Device iPhone SE (2nd generation), iOS 26.3 Summary In Xcode 26.3, attempting to run an iOS app on any simulator destination using Cmd+R fails with the error: "A build only device cannot be used to run this target. Please select an available device or choose a simulated device as the destination." This occurs despite the selected destination being a valid iOS Simulator (not a "build only" device). The same project builds successfully using Cmd+B within Xcode and builds, installs, and runs correctly via the command line using xcodebuild, xcrun simctl, and xcrun devicectl. Steps to Reproduce Open a valid iOS project in Xcode 26.3. The project in question has target name "h", product name "DiabetesHbA1cPrediction", bundle identifier "com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction", with IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET set to 26.0. In the scheme/destination picker toolbar, select any iOS Simulator destination (e.g. iPhone 16, iPhone 17 Pro, or any other available simulator). The destination name appears correctly in the toolbar without any "build only" annotation. Press Cmd+R (Product > Run). Xcode immediately displays the error: "A build only device cannot be used to run this target." Press Cmd+B (Product > Build) instead. The build succeeds with no errors. Expected Behaviour Cmd+R should build and launch the application on the selected simulator, just as it does in previous Xcode versions. The user had been running simulators successfully for the prior week before this issue appeared. Actual Behaviour Xcode refuses to run the app, treating every simulator destination as a "build only device." The error appears instantly upon pressing Cmd+R, before any build activity begins. Cmd+B succeeds normally, confirming the project and scheme configuration are valid. Workarounds Attempted (All Failed) The following troubleshooting steps were performed, none of which resolved the Xcode UI issue: Changed IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET across multiple values (26.2, 18.0, 26.0) in all build settings within project.pbxproj. Deleted and recreated the Xcode scheme (removed .xcscheme files from xcshareddata and xcuserdata, let Xcode auto-create a new scheme). Deleted the entire DerivedData folder (rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData). Selected multiple different simulator destinations (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro) — all produced the same error. Verified the scheme’s Executable setting (confirmed it was set to the correct .app target). Changed "Show Run Destination" setting between Automatic and Always. Quit and restarted Xcode completely. Confirmed that simulator device names in the destination dropdown appeared normally, without any "build only" suffix. Working Workaround: Command-Line Build and Deploy The project builds, installs, and runs correctly when using command-line tools, confirming the project configuration is valid: Simulator deployment: xcodebuild -scheme h -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' build xcrun simctl boot 7F0DF8DA-E4A3-41B2-A2E4-B1F528753189 xcrun simctl install booted xcrun simctl launch booted com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction Result: App launched and ran correctly in the simulator. Physical device deployment (iPhone SE 2020, iOS 26.3): xcodebuild -scheme h -destination 'id=00008030-001128DC2E51402E' build xcrun devicectl device install app --device xcrun devicectl device process launch --device com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction Result: BUILD SUCCEEDED, app installed and launched on the physical device without issue. Key Observations The disconnect between Xcode’s UI-based Run (Cmd+R) failing and the command-line build/deploy succeeding with identical configuration strongly suggests this is an Xcode IDE bug in the run destination resolution logic, not a project configuration issue. Cmd+B succeeds in Xcode itself, meaning the build system correctly recognises the project, scheme, and destination. The failure occurs specifically in the “run” pathway where Xcode evaluates whether the destination supports execution. The simulator dropdown shows destination names without any "build only" label, yet Xcode internally treats them as build-only when the Run action is invoked. This behaviour started occurring in Xcode 26.3. The same project and simulators worked correctly in the preceding week under the same Xcode installation. Environment Xcode version: 26.3 (26C5131e) macOS: Running on Mac mini (M2) iOS SDK: 26.3 Available simulator runtimes: iOS 18.6, iOS 26.2 Physical test device: iPhone SE (2nd generation), iOS 26.3 Project type: SwiftUI iOS app with HealthKit integration Signing: Automatic, with valid provisioning for both simulator and device

I just bought a monitor S2725QC from Dell Technologies and isn't fully-integrated with MacOS even though it says on the website it is compatible with MacOS. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/all-monitors/sac/monitors/all-monitors/macos-compatible?appliedRefinements=51765 The screen brightness and volume control buttons don't work with the monitors (I have two). What can I do in terms of writing code with Dell Monitor SDK and MacOS Frameworks/Technologies?

Hi, Has anyone been able to protect the audio part of FairPlay protected content from being captured as part of screen recording on Safari/iOS (PWA and/or online web app)? We have tried many things but could not prevent the audio from being recorded. Same app and content on Safari/Mac does not allow audio to be recorded. Any tips?

Hello, I am reviewing the sample codes of FairPlay Streaming SDK 26 and there was a place where I think is a mistake. The codes are for the server, for both Swift and Rust codes. There is an if statement which compares "ProtocolVersionUsed"(spcData.versionUsed) and SPCVersion1 constant, though "ProtocolVersionUsed" and SPC Version is a different thing, so shouldn't it be using a different constant value? [createContentKeyPayload.swift] // Fallback to version 1 if content can have encrypted slice headers, which need to be decrypted separately. Slice headers are not encrypted when using CBCS. if serverCtx.spcContainer.spcData.versionUsed == base_constants.SPCVersion.v1.rawValue && [createContentKeyPayload.rs] // Fallback to version 1 if content can have encrypted slice headers, which need to be decrypted separately. Slice headers are not encrypted when using CBCS. if (serverCtx.spcContainer.spcData.versionUsed == SPCVersion::v1 as u32) && Thank you.

Hello everyone, I’m looking for more detailed information regarding UVC (USB Video Class) over MFi within the Apple ecosystem and would appreciate some clarification. I’m interested in developing (or interfacing with) an accessory that transmits video over USB using the UVC standard, and I’d like to better understand how this works within the MFi (Made for iPhone) program. Here are my main questions: 1. Do iOS devices provide native support for UVC over USB-C or Lightning within the MFi framework? 2. Are there any specific firmware or authentication requirements when the accessory is MFi-certified? 3. Does UVC support depend solely on the hardware interface (USB-C vs Lightning), or are there additional software-level requirements? 4. Is there any official documentation outlining the recommended flow for implementing UVC-based video capture accessories on iOS? From what I understand, USB-C iPads appear to offer more direct support for standard UVC devices, but it’s not entirely clear how this integrates with the MFi ecosystem with iOS, especially for commercial product development. If anyone has gone through this process or can point me to relevant technical documentation, I would greatly appreciate the guidance. Thank you!

With the help of Claude and Codex, I've tried upgrading a screen magnification, capture, and pixel peeping app (SnoopX, from Stanford's software repository) to be HDR-aware. For images that are truly HDR (displayed in Apple Photos, Google Photos in Chrome, or Mac Preview), and on an HDR monitor with plenty of EDR headroom (Apple XDR display), I should see pixel values well above 1.0. Apple's Digital Color Meter does. However, my app does not. I think the code is doing all the right things with ScreenCaptureKit, but it never returns values above 1.0. Has anybody gotten this to work? Here is what Codex says about the code it helped me build in my app: • Set captureDynamicRange: We set config​.capture​Dynamic​Range = ​SCCapture​Dynamic​Range​HDRLocal​Display (when available). Note: Gemini’s SCCapture​Mode​HDRLocal​Display isn’t a real symbol — the actual API is SCCapture​Dynamic​Range. • Use preset: We try init​With​Preset: ​SCStream​Configuration​Preset​Capture​HDRStream​Local​Display, but your runtime crashes on init​With​Preset: (unrecognized selector), so we fall back to manual config. That means your system SDK headers mention the preset, but the runtime doesn’t implement it. • Pixel format: We explicitly set k​CVPixel​Format​Type​_64​RGBAHalf. Your logs show the stream buffer is 64RGBAHalf. • Enable HDR on display: EDR headroom logs show current=6.40, so HDR is active. • Color space: We set Extended Linear Display P3 for stream, and we forced the screenshot sampler to convert into extended‑linear P3 before reading. The screenshot itself reports Extended sRGB, but conversion doesn’t yield >1.0 either. Despite all of that, the OS is still delivering tone‑mapped values (max 1.0000) for both the stream and the screenshot path. So I don’t think there’s a missing knob here; it looks like a system‑level limitation on Tahoe for desktop capture.

Hello, I’m using a valid certificate bundle generated with SDK 26 (combined RSA‑1024 + RSA‑2048). However, all my devices currently still generate SPC v2 during playback, including my iPhone 16 under iOS 26.2. Apple staff mentioned that future iOS versions will send SPC v3 when using an SDK 26 certificate bundle. Could you please clarify: Which iOS/macOS versions will first support SPC v3? Are there any additional client‑side requirements (Safari version, playback APIs, headers, etc.) to trigger SPC v3? Is there any way to test SPC v3 today, e.g., using beta builds? Thank you!

I'm relatively new to Swift development (and native iOS development for that matter) I've got an iOS app that uses the iPhone / iPad built in cameras, and am looking to make this more compatible with macOS. Using the normal AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession I seem to get the iPhone Continuity Camera and the in-built MacBook Pro camera but I don't see other input devices that I see in QuickTime Player (for example) such as connected external cameras or Virtual Inputs provided by NDI Virtual Input and OBS. Is there a way to see access these without a specific Mac build (as the rest of the functionality works great, and I'd rather not diverge the codebase too much as it's easier to update one app than two!

I am building an app where I am using AudioRecordingIntent to start audio recording from shortcuts / Action button etc. Whenever I set that up, I notice that I get an error - Unknown NSError Live Activity start failed: The operation couldn’t be completed. Target is not foreground I explicitly try to start the live activity and then start the audio recording and that's when I see this error. How can I make this work? I am unable to find any examples.

I’m a normie: not a developer at all. My idea might be super dumb. Would it be possible to please let us have a button in iphone photos that when toggled allows us to save certain chosen raw images to an iphone block chain, AND have Apple authenticate they are native photos, marked the milisecond they were taken, that they are native and no AI was used on those images? That might go a long way toward restoring trust in truth in photos again. We could also have the same thing for AI. Marked notification in the data on AI photos that can't be erased. Sorry if this is already underway and I'm just a normal person and therefore don't know it. I just want to be able to trust things again. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Hello. To determine wether "AVB/EAV Mode" of a AV-capable network interfaces is turned on or off I query the IO registry and evaluate the property "AVBControllerState". I was wondering if this is the "correct" approach and if there is anything known about the values for this property? Network interfaces without AV capability may also carry this property (e.g.: for my WiFi adapter the value of 1) whereas the value for interfaces with AV capability can be 0 and 3. At least as far as I could observe with my limited amount of test devices at hand. Is it safe to assume that a value of 3 means this feature is turned on, 0 that it is turned off and ignore values of 1? Is there another approach to get to know the status of the "AVB/EAV Mode"? Thanks for any insight. Best regards, Ingo

I’m building a teleprompter-style app that relies on Picture in Picture. PiP starts correctly on device. Everything works — until another app (e.g. TikTok / Instagram) starts active video recording. When camera capture begins in the foreground app, iOS terminates my PiP session. Some teleprompter apps appear to keep PiP active while recording in other apps, so I’m trying to understand the recommended architectural pattern for this scenario. Is there a documented approach or best practice to keep PiP stable during third-party camera capture? Looking specifically for guidance on the correct AVKit / AVAudioSession configuration for this use case.

Hello, I am developing a custom player SDK based on AVPlayer. While testing LL-HLS streams, I intermittently encounter the following error: Error Domain=CoreMediaErrorDomain Code=-12880 Since I cannot find documentation for this specific code, could you please clarify its meaning? Specifically, I would like to know if this is a critical error that disrupts playback, or if it is just a warning that can be safely ignored. Any insights would be appreciated. Thank you.

I received my approval for FairPlay Streaming (FPS) and was getting things organized and then my computer crashed. So... Yes, I lost the 32 digit Account Security Key (ASk) that I was warned not to lose repeatedly... I understand that I can't query apple for the existing ASk. I don't see where I can delete the existing cert to request another one. So I assume I'll need to start from scratch either with another FPS approval process. Can someone please direct me on next steps for this boneheaded situation. Thank you

While implementing the new background backup feature introduced in iOS 26.1, I create a PHAssetResourceUploadJob in an Extension. On iOS 26.1, the system successfully triggers the upload. However, on iOS 26.2, although the job is created successfully and all related configurations are correctly set, the system does not trigger the upload. Could you please help confirm the cause of this issue? Thank you.

According to the documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcontentkeyrequest/originatingrecipient?changes=_3&language=objc), starting with ios 18.4, I can get AVContentKeyRecipient from AVContentKeyRequest. But when I try to get it, I get a crash. What could be the issue? I want to note that I add the asset to the AVContentKeySession using the addContentKeyRecipient method (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcontentkeysession/addcontentkeyrecipient(_:)?changes=_3&language=objc).

I need to apply headphone-specific scenario only when headphones are the sole active playback device in my iOS audio app. Problem that there is no absolute way to definitively understand that headphones are the sole active playback device AVAudioSession.currentRoute.outputs portTypes don't guarantee headphones: let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() let outputs = session.currentRoute.outputs let headphonesOnly = outputs.count == 1 && (outputs.first?.portType == .headphones || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothA2DP || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothHFP || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothLE) The issue in code above that listed bluetooth profiles (A2DP, HFP, LE) can be used by any audio device, not only headphones Is there any public API on iOS that can: Distinguish Bluetooth headphones vs Bluetooth speakers when both use A2DP/LE? Expose the user’s “Device Type” classification (headphones / speaker / car stereo, etc.) that is shown in Settings → Bluetooth → Device Type? Provide a more reliable way to know “this route is definitely headphones” for A2DP devices, beyond portType and portName string heuristics?

When inputting data within a sheet, I'm allowing the user to take a photo, so the camera is called and presents itself within a 2nd sheet, however the controls are centered within the iPhone's entire screen, cropping the top controls and not extending down to the bottom of the phone's screen. Any help on how to fix this?

I'm working on adding Spatial Audio support to a game on the Mac. I'm looking at the SpatialAudioRenderer sample but having some issues. It's unclear to me when a device is compatible with Spatial Audio and when I should attempt to render Spatial Audio. There is no property that I can find on the Mac that advertises Spatial Audio compatibility on a device. The sample crashes when the output device is a USB device. This includes the Apple Studio Display. The Apple Studio Display is supposed to be capable of rendering Spatial Audio. The device doesn't work with the sample - do I still need to render down the 7.1.4 source on this device? The sample always renders down to Stereo, but the Apple Studio Display is not a Stereo device. I'm a bit confused by the sample and when/how I should configure the mixing unit.

Hello, I'm working on a MusicKit based SwiftUI app. I've integrated AirPlay using the AVRoutePickerView like so: struct UIKitAirPlayPickerView: UIViewRepresentable { func makeUIView(context: Context) -> AVRoutePickerView { let routePickerView = AVRoutePickerView() routePickerView.prioritizesVideoDevices = false return routePickerView } func updateUIView(_ uiView: AVRoutePickerView, context: Context) {} } The AirPlay menu appears as expected, and selecting an AirPlay device functions as expected. I'm currently sending audio from my app to a HomePod. However, the state of the AVRoutePickerView does not reflect the playback state. There is no cover art and it says "Not Playing". When my device is locked, my lock screen shows the album art, metadata and AirPlay routing as expected. My app uses the ApplicationMusicPlayer however I encounter the same behavior using the SystemMusicPlayer. Any guidance on how to troubleshoot this? Is there any other way to integrate the system AirPlay picker into my app, or is this my only option? Thank you for reading.