My app has the App Sandbox enabled and the File Access to Downloads folder is set to Read / Write in XCode. Upon clicking on a button the app should open the Finder displaying the Downloads folder. The following code snippet is used to launch the Finder if let inspirationsDirectory = FileManager.default.urls(for: .downloadsDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first{ NSWorkspace.shared.open(inspirationsDirectory) } On my MacOS it works well. After releasing the app to the AppStore and installing it on another Mac the following message is received upon clicking the button: The application does not have permission to open "Downloads" Which would be the solution to launch the Finder successfully ? Is it possible to launch the Finder showing the Downloads folder sorted by the Date Added column descending ?

My goal is to implement a moving background in a virtual camera, implemented as a Camera Extension, on macOS 13 and later. The moving background is available to the extension as a H.264 file in its bundle. I thought i could create an AVAsset from the movie's URL, make an AVPlayerItem from the asset, attach an AVQueuePlayer to the item, then attach an AVPlayerLooper to the queue player. I make an AVPlayerVideoOutput and add it to each of the looper's items, and set a delegate on the video output. This works in a normal app, which I use as a convenient environment to debug my extension code. In my camera video rendering loop, I check self.videoOutput.hasNewPixelBuffer , it returns true at regular intervals, I can fetch video frames with the video output's copyPixelBuffer and composite those frames with the camera frames. However, it doesn't work in an extension - hasNewPixelBuffer is never true. The looping player returns 'failed', with an error which simply says "the operation could not be completed". I've tried simplifying things by removing the AVPlayerLooper and using an AVPlayer instead of an AVQueuePlayer, so the movie would only play once through. But still, I never get any frames in the extension. Could this be a sandbox thing, because an AVPlayer usually renders to a user interface, and camera extensions don't have UIs? My fallback solution is to use an AVAssetImageGenerator which I attempt to drive by firing off a Task for each frame each time I want to render one, I ask for another frame to keep the pipeline full. Unfortunately the Tasks don't finish in the same order they are started so I have to build frame-reordering logic into the frame buffer (something which a player would fix for me). I'm also not sure whether the AVAssetImageGenerator is taking advantage of any hardware acceleration, and it seems inefficient because each Task is for one frame only, and cannot maintain any state from previous frames. Perhaps there's a much simpler way to do this and I'm just missing it? Anyone?

Is there any way to read/write preferences for a Mac app group using the defaults command? I'm talking about the stuff you would programmatically manipulate using [NSUserDefaults initWithSuiteName:], and that is stored on disk in ~/Library/Group Containers. If I just say defaults read <suite name>, it tells me the the domain does not exist.

Hi there, The Setup/My Goal I have a very standard Finder Sync Extension, which extends the context menu of the finder. I also have a main application which uses the KeyboardShortcuts Package (Keyboard Shortcuts - Github) to record and save a user defined shortcut. This shortcut should execute the menu item of the Finder Sync Extension (therefore getting the selected files and processing them in some way) when used. Currently I am using inter-process communication to send an event to the extension when the shortcut is executed by the user. You can find the Swift Class responsible for the communication between Finder Sync Extension and the Main App as an Attachment here: ProcessCommunicator.swift (although the communication works and this is more an issue of the finder sync extension behaviour than one of inter-process communication). When the Finder Sync Extension receives the event, it executes the same function which is called when the user clicks the menu item like so (this event is registered in the initialisation function of the Finder Sync Extension): processCommunicator = ProcessCommunicatorReceiver(appGroupIdentifier: "group.some.bundle.id.port") processCommunicator?.on(id: 1, event: { _ in self.executeSomeAction(nil) return nil }) The same action is called when the user clicks the menu item: override func menu(for menuKind: FIMenuKind) -> NSMenu { let menu = NSMenu() if menuKind == FIMenuKind.contextualMenuForItems || menuKind == FIMenuKind.toolbarItemMenu { menu.addItem(withTitle: text, action: #selector(executeSomeAction), keyEquivalent: "T") } return menu } The function executeSomeAction would look something like this @IBAction func transfer(_ sender: AnyObject?) { guard let target = finderSyncController.selectedItemURLs() else { NSLog("Failed to obtain targeted URLs: %@") return } // Process the selected items (target) The Problem When the function executeSomeAction is called from the process-communicator-event (sent by the main app), the selectedItemURLs is nil and therefore the function returns without doing anything. If the function executeSomeAction is called by the menu item click event, the selectedItemURLs is an array of paths as expected. Is there some restriction which prevents access to the user selected, when it’s not strictly clicked by the user or am I missing something here? Other possible Solutions to my Issue This whole inter-process communication is only needed because I need the shortcut event to be sent to the extension. I have noticed that in the initialisier of the menu item there is a keyEquivalent (-> shortcut) menu.addItem(withTitle: text, action: #selector(executeSomeAction), /* HERE -->*/ keyEquivalent: "T") This shortcut seems to be ignored by the system, as it neither appears next to the menu item, nor is functional. I am assuming that this is intended but if there is any way to make this work with the inbuilt system shortcut, instead of the communication-hack I am using currently, I would prefer to use this solution. Summary As said before, the selectedItemURLs is only defined if it is called from the menu item event, which eliminates the ability to do some custom processing with the selected files (in my case called by an event sent by another process)

Hi there, Introduction I have been working on a Finder Sync extension and I would now like to use it to access a file the user has selected. This has been causing me significant issues (and I believe that a lot of other developers have also experienced similar issues with the extension). Because I plan to release my app on the App Store, I need both the main app and the finder sync app to be sandboxed Some example code describing the issue When the user executes the custom finder action in the context menu, I use the following code to extract and access the selected files: guard let target = FIFinderSyncController.default().selectedItemURLs() else { NSLog("Failed to obtain targeted URLs: %@") return }       do { //Read content of the first selected file (example) let text = try String(contentsOf: target[0], encoding: .utf8) }catch {     print("Some error occurred: \(error)") } The problem Though these files should have a sandbox exception (because they are selected by the user), they do not and I get the following error because I seemingly do not have the permission (even though I should have): Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file “myfile.txt” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." I know from my thorough research (refer to links) that a lot of other people working with Finder Sync extensions have had this problem in the past and that Apple has not provided an official way to fix this. So essentially I am asking if Apple is planning to fix this bug in the near future or, if not, whether there is a workaround for this problem (while still passing the App Store review) and while keeping the main functionality of a context-menu like Finder Sync Extension. Useful links My previous question concerning the transfer of URLs given in the Finder Sync Extension I already asked a similar question on how to share some file URLs between my Finder Sync Extension and the Main App, to which I received a presumably working answer, which would work if this problem didn't exist. The solution to passing this access between extension and main app is to create a security scoped bookmark. This is not possible as long as I can't even access the files in the context of the extension itself. Here is the link to this aforementioned question I posted last month: Accessing a file in a sandboxed main app, which was selected in a Finder Sync Extension Some people with the same issue (dating back as far as 2016 Someone on the Apple Developer Forum had a similar issue and the respondent suggested a multitude of hacky fixes: Swift file reading permission error on macOS sandbox Here is someone on StackOverflow from someone who had the exact same issue. Multiple people mentioned there that this was a bug in the operating system and have filed multiple bug reports, which were all unanswered by Apple: Read and Write access for FinderSync extension in a sandboxed environment FinderSync Extension runtime error: The file couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it

Im working on a small text snippet / lorem ipsum app as a side project and the idea is, for instance, whenever and wherever user types "lorem10" I'd like to print/paste 10 random lorem ipsum words. Eg. "lorem10 " -> ("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do") For that to be possible I need to, Programmatically press "delete" key to remove the trigger string ("lorem10"). Programmatically press "cmd + v" for pasting the result string. This is possible, even in sandbox! But it requires accessibility permission. For instance I can simulate "delete" key press like this: func delete() {     let eventSource = CGEventSource(stateID: .combinedSessionState)     let keyDownEvent = CGEvent(       keyboardEventSource: eventSource,       virtualKey: CGKeyCode(51),       keyDown: true)     let keyUpEvent = CGEvent(       keyboardEventSource: eventSource,       virtualKey: CGKeyCode(51),       keyDown: false)     let loc = CGEventTapLocation.cghidEventTap     //Triggers system default accessibility access pop-up     keyDownEvent?.post(tap: loc)     keyUpEvent?.post(tap: loc)   } My question is essentially if this is allowed in Mac App Store? Because requesting accessibillity permission like this is not allowed in sandbox: func getPermission() { AXIsProcessTrustedWithOptions([kAXTrustedCheckOptionPrompt.takeUnretainedValue():true] as CFDictionary). } But I can simulate one short "shift" or "cmd" key press for instance, and trigger the pop-up inside a sandboxed app and get around this it seems. Is this a bug? I really hope I can release my app in the Mac App Store, but doing so I just want to be sure Im not using any bug that might get removed in the near future.

General: DevForums tag: App Sandbox App Sandbox documentation App Sandbox Design Guide documentation — This is no longer available from Apple. There’s still some info in there that isn’t covered by the current docs but, with the latest updates, it’s pretty minimal (r. 110052019). Still, if you’re curious, you can consult an old copy [1]. App Sandbox Temporary Exception Entitlements archived documentation — To better understand the role of temporary exception entitlements, see this post. Embedding a Command-Line Tool in a Sandboxed App documentation Discovering and diagnosing App Sandbox violations (replaces the Viewing Sandbox Violation Reports DevForums post) Resolving App Sandbox Inheritance Problems DevForums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] For example, this one archived by the Wayback Machine.

I've got an app that is sandboxed, and it requires a privileged helper. I've worked through the EBAS sample app with various updates to conform with current systems. After a lot of work, I've got to a point where I'm stumped. The Python script SMJobBlessUtil.py returns this error, and I don't know what to do to correct it: <path to helper tool>: tool __TEXT / __info_plist section dump malformed (2) I've gone over the various settings numerous times. It doesn't fail for the EBAS sample, but does for my app. Looking at the binary, the __info_plist sections look identical apart from identifiers. This is what mine looks like (identifiers deleted): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>***</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundleName</key> <string>***</string> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>1.0</string> <key>SMAuthorizedClients</key> <array> <string>anchor apple generic and identifier "***" and (certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.9] /* exists */ or certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = "***")</string> </array> </dict> </plist> I must be missing something, but I've run out of ideas on where to find it. Anybody got a pointer?