I have a SwiftData flashcard app which I am syncing with CloudKit using NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. While syncing itself is working perfectly, I have noticed a dramatic increase in the app size after enabling sync. Specifically, without CloudKit, 15k flashcards results in the default.store file being about 4.5 MB. With CloudKit, default.store is about 67 MB. I have inspected the store and found that most of this increase is due to the ANSCKRECORDMETADATA table. My question is, does implementing CloudKit normally cause this magnitude of increase in storage? If it doesn’t, is there something in my model, schema, implementation, etc. that could be causing it? Below are two other posts describing a similar issue, but neither with a solution. I replied to the first one about a month ago. I then submitted this to Developer Technical Support, but was asked to post my question in the forums, so here it is. Strange behavior with 100k+ records in NSPersistentCloudKitContainer Huge increase in sqlite file size after adopting CloudKit

Since running on iOS 14b1, I'm getting this in my log (I have Core Data logging enabled): error: Store opened without NSPersistentHistoryTrackingKey but previously had been opened with NSPersistentHistoryTrackingKey - Forcing into Read Only mode store at 'file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/415B75A6-92C3-45FE-BE13-7D48D35909AF/StoreFile.sqlite' As far as I can tell, it's impossible to open my store without that key set - it's in the init() of my NSPersistentContainer subclass, before anyone calls it to load stores. Any ideas?

Overview I'm developing a document-based app for macOS using SwiftData. When I undo/redo changes using Command-Z/ Command-Shift-Z, the app randomly crashes with the following error: SwiftData/BackingData.swift:425: Fatal error: Failed to retrieve the identifier for \ChildItem.parentItem from KnownKeysDictionary:KnownKeysMap: ["parentItem": 2, "isModified": 1, "index": 0] values: [Optional(0), Optional(false), Optional(DocumentTest.ParentItem)] SwiftData._KKMDBackingData<DocumentTest.ChildItem> And sometimes, instead of the app crashing, my created @Model objects simply disappear. They do not reappear in the @Query on undo/redo. Both of these issues go away when I set modelContext.autosaveEnabled = false The issues are occurring with Xcode 26.4 (17E192) and macOS Tahoe 26.4 (25E246). I have modified the macOS Document App project template to showcase the issue. The project, along with a screen recording of the crash, can be downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aDO34QleTm_rB9BuvVGjzzAP6jDXOc-o?usp=share_link Has anyone else experienced this? I'd like to know if this is a bug in the autosave feature of SwiftData and if I should file a bug report via Feedback Assistant. Steps to Reproduce To recreate the issue, follow these steps: Download and extract the "Xcode Project.zip" file linked above. Open the extracted "DocumentTest" project in Xcode. Build and run the "DocumentTest" app. In the document selection window, click "New Document" at the bottom-left. In the app, click the "+" button at the top-right to add a ParentItem with ChildItems. Click on the added ParentItem's button to modify one of its ChildItems. Repeat steps 5–6 until you have 5 ParentItems with a modified ChildItem. Press Command-Z 10 times to undo all the changes. Press Command-Shift-Z 10 times to redo all the changes. Repeat steps 8–9 until either the app crashes or some of the 5 ParentItems go missing in the list (you may have to repeat them 10–20 times before the issue occurs). If you change line 43 of ContentView.swift to modelContext.autosaveEnabled = false and repeat the same steps above, the app will not crash and no ParentItems will go missing. Code ParentItem Model @Model final class ParentItem { var timestamp: Date @Relationship( deleteRule: .cascade, inverse: \ChildItem.parentItem ) var childItems: [ChildItem] = [] init(timestamp: Date) { self.timestamp = timestamp } } ChildItem Model @Model final class ChildItem { var index: Int var isModified = false var parentItem: ParentItem? init(index: Int) { self.index = index } } Creating, Inserting, and Linking ParentItem and ChildItem // Create and insert ParentItem let newParentItem = ParentItem( timestamp: Date() ) modelContext.insert(newParentItem) // Create and insert ChildItems var newChildItems: [ChildItem] = [] for index in 0..<Int.random(in: 2...8) { let newChildItem = ChildItem(index: index) newChildItems.append(newChildItem) modelContext.insert(newChildItem) } /* Establish relationship between ParentItem and ChildItems */ newParentItem.childItems = newChildItems Modifying ChildItem let firstChildItem = parentItem.childItems .sorted(by: { $0.index < $1.index }).first if let firstChildItem, !firstChildItem.isModified { firstChildItem.isModified = true }

Hi everyone, I've recently implemented CKSyncEngine in my app, and I have two questions regarding its behavior: Duplicate FetchedRecordZoneChanges After Sending Changes: I’ve noticed that the engine sometimes receives a FetchedRecordZoneChanges event containing modifications and deletions that were just sent by the same device a few moments earlier. This event arrives after the SentRecordZoneChanges event, and both events share the same recordChangeTag, which results in double-handling the record. Is this expected behavior? I’d like to confirm if this is how CKSyncEngine works or if I might be overlooking something. Handling Initial Sync with a "Sync Screen": When a user opens the app for the first time and already has data stored in iCloud, I need to display a "Sync Screen" temporarily to prevent showing partial data or triggering abrupt, rapid UI changes. I’ve found that canceling current operations, then awaiting sendChanges() and fetchChanges() works well to ensure data is fully synced before dismissing the sync screen: displaySyncScreen = true await syncEngine.cancelOperations() try await syncEngine.sendChanges() try await syncEngine.fetchChanges() displaySyncScreen = false However, I’m unsure if canceling operations like this could lead to data loss or other issues. Is this a safe approach, or would you recommend a better strategy for handling this initial sync state?

The production macOS build is showing severe performance problems, while Mac_Dev performs normally. Observed behavior in production Mac build: Issue board scrolling becomes inconsistent or nearly unusable Changing an issue status in detail view is very slow Scrolling the status menu/options can be slow Typing in issue description/notes fields becomes sluggish Dragging issues between milestones/statuses on the board can lag badly Observed behavior in Mac_Dev: Board scrolling is smooth Status changes are immediate Typing in description fields is responsive Drag/drop between milestones works well Important comparison: Mac_Dev appears to run against an isolated local SwiftData store Production Mac app uses the normal CloudKit-backed store Because the same UI is fast in Mac_Dev, this does not look like a pure rendering problem Most likely cause is production store / CloudKit sync churn amplifying existing SwiftUI invalidation and save behavior Current hypothesis: The production app is saving or observing live Issue mutations too aggressively Detail view edits and some quick actions may be causing repeated saves / broad view invalidation Cloud-backed persistence likely makes the problem much worse than the isolated dev store The UI architecture may still need cleanup, but the production data lane is likely a major factor Any help in understanding how best to address this would be helpful.

I am trying out the new AttributedString binding with SwiftUI’s TextEditor in iOS26. I need to save this to a Core Data database. Core Data has no AttributedString type, so I set the type of the field to “Transformable”, give it a custom class of NSAttributedString, and set the transformer to NSSecureUnarchiveFromData When I try to save, I first convert the Swift AttributedString to NSAttributedString, and then save the context. Unfortunately I get this error when saving the context, and the save isn't persisted: CoreData: error: SQLCore dispatchRequest: exception handling request: <NSSQLSaveChangesRequestContext: 0x600003721140> , <shared NSSecureUnarchiveFromData transformer> threw while encoding a value. with userInfo of (null) Here's the code that tries to save the attributed string: struct AttributedDetailView: View { @ObservedObject var item: Item @State private var notesText = AttributedString() var body: some View { VStack { TextEditor(text: $notesText) .padding() .onChange(of: notesText) { item.attributedString = NSAttributedString(notesText) } } .onAppear { if let nsattributed = item.attributedString { notesText = AttributedString(nsattributed) } else { notesText = "" } } .task { item.attributedString = NSAttributedString(notesText) do { try item.managedObjectContext?.save() } catch { print("core data save error = \(error)") } } } } This is the attribute setup in the Core Data model editor: Is there a workaround for this? I filed FB17943846 if someone can take a look. Thanks.

Hi, I did cloudkit synchronization using swiftdata. However, synchronization does not occur automatically, and synchronization occurs intermittently only when the device is closed and opened. For confirmation, after changing the data in Device 1 (saving), when the data is fetched from Device 2, there is no change. I've heard that there's still an issue with swiftdata sync and Apple is currently troubleshooting it, is the phenomenon I'm experiencing in the current version normal?

Hi. I'm hoping someone might be able to help us with an issue that's been affecting our standalone watchOS app for some time now. We've encountered consistent crashes on Apple Watch devices when the app enters the background while the device is offline (i.e., no Bluetooth and no Wi-Fi connection). Through extensive testing, we've isolated the problem to the use of NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. When we switch to NSPersistentContainer, the crashes no longer occur. Interestingly, this issue only affects our watchOS app. The same CloudKit-based persistence setup works reliably on our iOS and macOS apps, even when offline. This leads us to believe the issue may be specific to how NSPersistentCloudKitContainer behaves on watchOS when the device is disconnected from the network. We're targeting watchOS 10 and above. We're unsure if this is a misconfiguration on our end or a potential system-level issue, and we would greatly appreciate any insight or guidance.

Hello Apple Team, We are looking at developing an iOS feature on our current development that stores user-generated images as CKAssets in the public CloudKit database, with access control enforced by our app’s own logic (not CloudKit Sharing as that has a limit of 100 shares per device). Each story or post is a public record, and users only see content based on buddy relationships handled within the app. We’d like to confirm that this pattern is consistent with Apple’s best practices for social features. Specifically: Is it acceptable to store user-uploaded CKAssets in the public CloudKit database, as long as access visibility is enforced by the app? Are there any performance or quota limitations (e.g., storage, bandwidth, or user sync limits) that apply to CKAssets in the public database when used at scale? Would CloudKit Sharing be recommended instead, even if we don’t require user-to-user sharing invitations? For App Review, is this model (public CKAssets + app-enforced access control) compliant with Apple’s data and security expectations? Are there any caching or bandwidth optimization guidelines for handling image-heavy public CKAsset data in CloudKit? Thanks again for your time

I'm running a project with these settings: Default Actor Isolation: MainActor Approachable Concurrency: Yes Strict Concurrency Checking: Complete (this issue does not appear on the other two modes) I receive a warning for this very simple use case. Can I actually fix anything about this or is this a case of Core Data not being entirely ready for this? In reference to this, there was a workaround listed in the release notes of iOS 26 beta 5 (https://forums.swift.org/t/defaultisolation-mainactor-and-core-data-background-tasks/80569/22). Does this still apply as the only fix for this? This is a simplified sample meant to run on a background context. The issue obviously goes away if this function would just run on the MainActor, then I can remove the perform block entirely. class DataHandler { func createItem() async { let context = ... await context.perform { let newGame = Item(context: context) /// Main actor-isolated property 'timestamp' can not be mutated from a Sendable closure newGame.timestamp = Date.now // ... } } } The complete use case would be more like this: nonisolated struct DataHandler { @concurrent func saveItem() async throws { let context = await PersistenceController.shared.container.newBackgroundContext() try await context.perform { let newGame = Item(context: context) newGame.timestamp = Date.now try context.save() } } }

Hello Apple Team, We’re building a CloudKit-enabled Core Data app and would like clarification on the behavior and performance characteristics of Binary Data attributes with “Allows External Storage” enabled when used with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. Initially, we tried storing image files manually on disk and only saving the metadata (file URLs, dimensions, etc.) in Core Data. While this approach reduced the size of the Core Data store, it introduced instability after app updates and broke sync between devices. We would prefer to use the official Apple-recommended method and have Core Data manage image storage and CloudKit syncing natively. Specifically, we’d appreciate guidance on the following: When a Binary Data attribute is marked as “Allows External Storage”, large image files are stored as separate files on device rather than inline in the SQLite store. How effective is this mechanism in keeping the Core Data store size small on device? Are there any recommended size thresholds or known limits for how many externally stored blobs can safely be managed this way? How are these externally stored files handled during CloudKit sync? Does each externally stored Binary Data attribute get mirrored to CloudKit as a CKAsset? Does external storage reduce the sync payload size or network usage, or is the full binary data still uploaded/downloaded as part of the CKAsset? Are there any bandwidth implications for users syncing via their private CloudKit database, versus developer costs in the public CloudKit database? Is there any difference in CloudKit or Core Data behavior when a Binary Data attribute is managed this way versus manually storing image URLs and handling the file separately on disk? Our goal is to store user-generated images efficiently and safely sync them via CloudKit, without incurring excessive local database bloat or CloudKit network overhead. Any detailed guidance or internal performance considerations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Paul Barry Founder & Lead Developer — Boat Buddy / Vessel Buddy iOS App Archipelago Environmental Solutions Inc.

I have a FetchDescriptor that uses starts(with:) which works fine in debug builds but crashes in TestFlight and archive. For background information I'm using iCloud and model inheritance where the property being used in fetch descriptor is defined on the superclass, the fetch descriptor is for the subclass. Implementation: static func fetchDescriptor(nameStartingWith prefix: String) -> FetchDescriptor<ColorAsset> { let predicate = #Predicate<ColorAsset> { asset in asset.name.starts(with: prefix) } return FetchDescriptor<ColorAsset>(predicate: predicate) } @Model public class Asset: Identifiable { // MARK: - Properties var name: String = "" .... } @available(macOS 26.0, *) @Model public class ColorAsset: Asset { ... }

I encountered an error when trying to rollback context after deleting some model with multiple one-to-many relationships when encountered a problem later in a deleting method and before saving the changes. Something like this: do { // Fetch model modelContext.delete(model) // Do some async work that potentially throws try modelContext.save() } catch { modelContext.rollback() } When relationship is empty - the parent has no children - I can safely delete and rollback with no issues. However, when there is even one child when I call even this code: modelContext.delete(someModel) modelContext.rollback() I'm getting a fatal error: SwiftData/ModelSnapshot.swift:46: Fatal error: Unexpected backing data for snapshot creation: SwiftData._FullFutureBackingData<ChildModel> I use ModelContext from within the ModelActor but using mainContext changes nothing. My ModelContainer is quite simple and problem occurs on both in-memory and persistent storage, with or without CloudKit database being enabled. I can isolate the issue in test environment, so the model that's being deleted (or any other) is not being accessed by any other part of the application. However, problem looks the same in the real app. I also changed the target version of iOS from 18.0 to 26.0, but to no avail. My models look kind of like this: @Model final class ParentModel { var name: String @Relationship(deleteRule: .cascade, inverse: \ChildModel.parent) var children: [ChildModel]? init(name: String) { self.name = name } } @Model final class ChildModel { var name: String @Relationship(deleteRule: .nullify) var parent: ParentModel? init(name: String) { self.name = name } } I tried many approaches that didn't help: Fetching all children (via fetch) just to "populate" the context Accessing all children on parent model (via let _ = parentModel.children?.count) Deleting all children reading models from parent: for child in parentModel.children ?? [] { modelContext.delete(child) } Deleting all children like this: let parentPersistentModelID = parentModel.persistentModelID modelContext.delete(model: ChildModel.self, where: #Predicate { $0.parent.persistentModelID == parentPersistentModelID }, includeSubclasses: true) Removing @Relationship(deleteRule: .nullify) from ChildModel relationship definition I found 2 solution for the problem: To manually fetch and delete all children prior to deleting parent: let parentPersistentModelID = parentModel.persistentModelID for child in try modelContext.fetch(FetchDescriptor<ChildModel>(predicate: #Predicate { $0.parent.persistentModelID == parentPersistentModelID })) { modelContext.delete(child) } modelContext.delete(parentModel) Trying to run my code in child context (let childContext = ModelContext(modelContext.container)) All that sounds to me like a problem deep inside Swift Data itself. The first solution I found, fetching potentially hundreds of child models just to delete them in case I might need to rollback changes on some error, sounds like awful waste of resources to me. The second one however seems to work fine has that drawback that I can't fully test my code. Right now I can wrap the context (literally creating class that holds ModelContext and calls its methods) and in tests for throwing methods force them to throw. By creating scratch ModelContext I loose that possibility. What might be the real issue here? Am I missing something?

Hi, I’m working on a macOS app that includes a file browser component. And I’m trying to match Finder’s behavior for color tags and folder icons. For local files/folders everything works fine: Tag color key returns the expected label number via NSColor * labelColor = nil; [fileURL getResourceValue:&labelColor forKey:NSURLLabelColorKey error:nil]; NSNumber * labelKey = nil; [fileURL getResourceValue:&labelKey forKey:NSURLLabelNumberKey error:nil]; QLThumbnailGenerator obtains the expected colored folder icon (including emoji/symbol overlay if set) via QLThumbnailGenerationRequest * request = [[QLThumbnailGenerationRequest alloc] initWithFileAtURL:fileURL size:iconSize scale:scaleFactor representationTypes:QLThumbnailGenerationRequestRepresentationTypeIcon]; request.iconMode = YES; [[QLThumbnailGenerator sharedGenerator] generateBestRepresentationForRequest:request completionHandler:^(QLThumbnailRepresentation * _Nullable thumbnail, NSError * _Nullable error) { if (thumbnail != nil && error == nil) { NSImage * thumbnailImage = [thumbnail NSImage]; // ... } }]; However, for items on iCloud Drive (whether currently downloaded locally or only stored in the cloud), the same code always produces gray colors, while Finder shows everything correctly: NSURLLabelNumberKey always returns 1 (gray) for items with color tags, and 0 for non-tagged. Folder icons returned via QLThumbnailGenerator are gray, no emoji/symbol overlays. Reading tag data from xattr gives values like “Green\1” (tag name matches, but numeric value is still "Gray"). Also, if I move a correctly-tagged local item into iCloud Drive, it immediately becomes gray in my app (Finder still shows the correct colors). Question: What is the supported way to retrieve Finder tag colors and the correct folder icon appearance (color + overlays) for items in iCloud Drive, so that the result matches Finder? I am on macOS Tahoe 26.2/26.3, Xcode 26.2 (17C52). If you need any additional details, please let me know. Thanks!

I'm trying to handle the serverRecordChanged return code you get in CKError when you have a conflict and your using the savePolicy of ifServerRecordUnchanged. According to the CKError.Code.serverRecordChanged documentation, I should be receiving all three records that I need to do a 3-way merge. The problem is that the ancestorRecord (CKRecordChangedErrorAncestorRecordKey can also be used to look it up in the userInfo) doesn't actually contain a record. It only contains the record metadata. Is there something I need to be doing to get the full ancestorRecord in the CKError? If not is it possible to query iCloud for the ancestorRecord? Given that iCloud has the change history (as I understand it), then it is theoretically possible. I just don't know how to do it if it is possible. Are 3-way merges even possible? The design of the serverRecordChanged looks like that is the intent, but I can't see how to do it with the data that CloudKit is providing.

I'm using Swift Data for an app that requires iOS 18. All of my models conform to a protocol that guarantees they have a 'serverID' String variable. I wrote a function that would allow me to pass in a serverID String and have it fetch the model object that matched. Because I am lazy and don't like writing the same functions over and over, I used a Self reference so that all of my conforming models get this static function. Imagine my model is called "WhatsNew". Here's some code defining the protocol and the fetching function. protocol RemotelyFetchable: PersistentModel { var serverID: String { get } } extension WhatsNew: RemotelyFetchable {} extension RemotelyFetchable { static func fetchOne(withServerID identifier: String, inContext modelContext: ModelContext) -> Self? { var fetchDescriptor = FetchDescriptor<Self>() fetchDescriptor.predicate = #Predicate<Self> { $0.serverID == identifier } do { let allModels = try modelContext.fetch(fetchDescriptor) return allModels.first } catch { return nil } } } Worked great! Or so I thought... I built this and happily ran a debug build in the Simulator and on devices for months while developing the initial version but when I went to go do a release build for TestFlight, that build reliably crashed on every device with a message like this: SwiftData/DataUtilities.swift:65: Fatal error: Couldn't find \WhatsNew. on WhatsNew with fields [SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "serverID", keypath: \WhatsNew., defaultValue: nil, metadata: Optional(Attribute - name: , options: [unique], valueType: Any, defaultValue: nil, hashModifier: nil)), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "title", keypath: \WhatsNew., defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "bulletPoints", keypath: \WhatsNew.)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "dateDescription", keypath: \WhatsNew., defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil), SwiftData.Schema.PropertyMetadata(name: "readAt", keypath: \WhatsNew.)>, defaultValue: nil, metadata: nil)] It seems (cannot confirm) that something in the release build optimization process is stripping out some metadata / something about these models that makes this predicate crash. Tested on iOS 18.0 and 18.1 beta. How can I resolve this? I have two dozen types that conform to this protocol. I could manually specialize this function for every type myself but... ugh.

Hi Writing an app in Swift on Xcode for my iPhone, all software is the latest version. If after making a minor change and re-building all the application data has disappeared, is there a way to see if it is still in the .modelContainer and just not showing up?

Hi all, I have setup my app to use SwiftData with CloudKit sync. I have a production environment and development environment. I can reset the development environment for myself and all users in CloudKit console, but I can't reset the production one as it's tried to users' iCloud accounts, so I've added a button in-app for that feature. In the onboarding of my app, I pre-seed the DB with some default objects, which should be persisted between app install. The issue I'm running into is that I'm unable to force-pull these models from iCloud during the onboarding of a clean re-install, which leads to the models later appearing as duplicates once the user has been on the app for a few minutes and it has pulled from their iCloud account. If anyone has any suggestions on how to handle this issue, I would greatly appreciate it.

I am using SwiftData with CloudKit to synchronize data across multiple devices, and I have encountered an issue: occasionally, abnormal sync behavior occurs between two devices (it does not happen 100% of the time—only some users have reported this problem). It seems as if synchronization between the two devices completely stops; no matter what operations are performed on one end, the other end shows no response. After investigating, I suspect the issue might be caused by both devices simultaneously modifying the same field, which could lead to CloudKit's logic being unable to handle such conflicts and causing the sync to stall. Are there any methods to avoid or resolve this situation? Of course, I’m not entirely sure if this is the root cause. Has anyone encountered a similar issue?

Hi, I work on a financial app in Brazil and since Beta 1 we're getting several crashes. We already opened a code level support and a few feedback issues, but haven't got any updates on that yet. We were able to resolve some crashes changing some of our implementation but we aren't able to understand what might be happening with this last one. This is the log we got on console: erro 11:55:41.805875-0300 MyApp CoreData: error: Failed to load NSManagedObjectModel with URL 'file:///private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/0B9F47D9-9B83-4CFF-8202-3718097C92AE/MyApp.app/ServerDrivenModel.momd/' We double checked and the momd is inside the bundle. The same app works on any other iOS version and if we build using Xcode directly (without archiving and installing on an iOS26 device) it works as expected. Have anyone else faced a similar error? Any tips or advice on how we can try to solve that?