I spend a lot of time here on DevForums. Over the years I’ve read many posts, both good and bad. This page is my attempt at writing down what makes a good one. Hopefully some of you will find it useful. Before you read this, read the official Apple Developer > Support > Developer Forums page. If you have questions or feedback about any of the points raised here, start a new thread in the Developer Tools & Services > Developer Forums subtopic. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Quinn’s Top Ten DevForums Tips Here are my top ten DevForums tips: Is DevForums right for you? Search before you ask Keep your expectations realistic Topic, subtopic, and tags Craft a quality post Prefer text over images Include details with your questions Crash reports Cross posting courtesy Resize screenshots Include a Spinal Tap reference Close your threads Think about your title Post URLs in the clear Many of these boil down to one word: Empathy. Think about the person who’s reading your post. Can they read it? Will they understand it? Will it help them? 1. Is DevForums right for you? To quote Apple Developer > Support > Developer Forums, Apple Developer Forums (aka DevForums) is: a great place to post questions, exchange knowledge, and connect with fellow developers and Apple engineers on a variety of development topics. DevForums is focused on developer issues. That includes the APIs in Apple’s platform SDKs, Apple tools, developer-oriented Apple services like App Store Connect, and accessory development. If you have a user-level question, you’ll have more luck over in Apple Support Communities, run by Apple Support. DevForums is focused on Apple technologies. If you’re using a third-party tool or library, feel free to ask questions about it here, but you’re more likely to find folks with relevant expertise in that technology’s dedicated support channel. If you want to file a bug report, do that using Feedback Assistant. If you want to discuss a bug you’ve already filed, DevForums is a great place for that. Make sure to include your bug number in your post. For more hints and tips on the bug reporting process, see Bug Reporting: How and Why?. 2. Search before you ask DevForums has a history stretching back to 2015. Many questions have been asked and answered here. Before you start a thread, search the forums for similar threads. For details about the search syntax, see Apple Developer > Support > Developer Forums. For a quick summary, hover over the help (?) button next to the search field. Remember that DevForums is world readable and thus indexed by Internet search engines. 3. Keep your expectations realistic DevForums is an informal support channel; no one is being paid to answer DevForums questions full time. Keep that in mind when you post. Apple provides a number of formal support channels. To request formal support, go to the Apple Developer > Contact Us page. One of those support channels is the code-level support provided by Apple Developer Technical Support (DTS). For more information about DTS, see Apple Developer > Support > Requesting Technical Support. Asking about Apple’s unannounced plans is unlikely to yield useful results. Apple folks can’t discuss The Future™, and non-Apple folks can only speculate. Apple folks can’t discuss Apple’s internal business practices. For example, we can’t answer why question — “Why did Apple do this?” or “Why hasn’t Apple done that?” — unless there’s existing documentation that offers an explanation. If you think Apple should do something differently, file a bug that explains what you’d like to see change and the rationale for that. Not everyone works the same hours as you do. DevForums is a worldwide community, so there are time zones to consider, but there’s also just individual preferences. This is especially relevant around weekends, where your reply on Friday may not be seen by other folks until Monday. Different folks use DevForums in different ways. Some folks lean in to the notification system, whereas others allocate certain times of the day, or the week, to help out. 4. Topic, subtopic, and tags DevForums organises threads by two attributes: A high-level topic and subtopic A fine-grained set of tags Folks willing to offer help often monitor a specific set of subtopics or tags, and only see threads with those attributes. To increase the odds of getting a response, choose your subtopic and tags carefully. The list of subtopics is immediately visible on the top-level page. For a list of tags and their descriptions, go to Developer > Support > Forums Tags. That’s a lot of tags! When choosing a subtopic, choose the most specific one. For example, if you have a question about SwiftUI, choose UI Frameworks > SwiftUI rather than Programming Languages > Swift. The latter is primarily focused on the Swift language itself. When choosing a tag, read the description of that tag. With so many tags there are inevitably cases where a tag doesn’t mean what you think it means. For example, the Exception Handling tag is about the rarely used Exception Handling framework, not about exception handling in general, and the description makes that clear. 5. Craft a quality post When replying, use a reply rather than a comment. Comments are best reserved for short messages, like “Thanks!” or “See this other thread.” IMPORTANT If you reply in the comments, other folks on the thread may not be notified of your reply. DevForums supports Markdown formatting, similar to that used on GitHub and by DocC. The editor UI has buttons for the most common things, like Bold and Italic, but don’t feel the need to limit yourself to that. Correct formatting is particularly important for preformatted text: Use the Inline Code button, which inserts single backquote delimiters, for inline text in code style: identifiers and so on. Use the Code Block button, which inserts triple backquote delimiters, for blocks of text in code style: code snippets, logs, and so on. After submitting your post, look it over to make sure that it reads well. If not, you have a short window where you can edit the post to fix things. 6. Prefer text over images Don’t use screenshots for data that’s essentially textual, like code snippets and logs. For example, if you want to post a log message, include that as text rather than adding a screenshot. That makes it much easier for your readers to work with the text. Use the Code Block button, which inserts triple backquote delimiters, to format blocks of text in code style. Reserve screenshots for situations where the issue is visual, for example: When discussing view layout problems When posting instructions to achieve some task in a GUI app, like Xcode 7. Include details with your questions When starting a thread, try to include all the relevant details in your post. If you skimp on these details, folks will have to reply asking for them, and that slows things down. Specifically, anticipate the following questions: What platform are you targeting? And what version of that platform? What version of Xcode are you using? What version of the OS are you testing on? What specific API are you using? What are the exact steps you took? If something failed, what are the symptoms of that failure? If an API returned an error, what was that error? If nothing failed, what results did you see? And what were you expecting? If you filed a bug, what was the bug number? Have you tried reproducing the issue in a small test project? What else have you tried? For more thoughts on this, see Tips on writing forums posts. Oh, and if you’re having a build problem, consider attaching a full build log. 8. Crash reports If you post a crash report, follow the instructions in Posting a Crash Report. 9. Cross posting courtesy Don’t start multiple threads for the same issue. That just wastes everyones time. Sometimes this happens by accident. If that’s the case, add a comment to one of the threads redirecting folks to the other one. If you find a bunch of old threads that might be related to your issue, don’t post full replies to all of them. Pick a lead thread and post your full reply there, then reply on the other threads with a link to the lead thread. Alternatively, start a new thread and reply on all the old threads with a link to that. That’ll help focus the discussion on your specific issue. If you post your question to another support channel, provide a link to that in your DevForums question, and vice versa. That avoids folks working on a question that’s already been answered. 10. Resize screenshots If your post includes an image, make sure it renders well. Screenshots from Retina displays are often ridiculously large. Use Preview to crop the screenshot and, if necessary, downsample it by 50% (using Tools > Adjust Size). 11. Include a Spinal Tap reference To be clear, this is a joke. While the occasional Spinal Tap reference is allowed, please don’t add one to all your posts (-: 12. Close your threads If someone replies with the answer you need, mark that as correct. That gives them some credit and helps other folks with similar questions find that answer. If you find the answer by yourself, please post a short summary of what you did. Feel free to mark that correct. If you accidentally post two copies of the same question, choose one as the primary and, in the other one, add a comment that links to it. 13. Think about your title When creating a thread, think carefully about your title. Your title is your thread’s ‘marketing statement’, a way to entice folks to read your post. Try to summarise your issue in 15 words or less. Adding tags to your title makes it harder to read. Instead, add your tags with the tagging UI. See tip 4 for more on tags. 14. Post URLs in the clear DevForums has a list of websites you can link to at will. For example, it places no restrictions on links to Swift Forums. To link to a site that’s not on the allowlist, skip the Markdown link syntax and post your link in the clear. So, this won’t work: Apple is based in [Cupertino](https://www.cupertino.org). but this will: Apple is based in Cupertino. https://www.cupertino.org Revision History 2024-08-29 Added a link to Creating a test project. 2024-08-07 Add more hints to tip 7. 2024-05-27 Reworked tip 4 to account for the new topic and subtopic model. Made other minor editorial changes. 2023-11-16 Added a link to [Public and Private Tags][refPaPT]. 2023-02-22 Expanded tip 3. 2023-02-10 Added a note about why questions to tip 3 (another great suggestion from Scott). Added a link to Bug Reporting: How and Why?. 2023-01-09 Added a note about tags to tip 13. 2022-12-09 Expanded tip 12. 2022-08-22 Expanded tip 5 to explain why you shouldn’t reply in the comments. 2022-08-11 Expanded tip 9. 2022-06-17 Added tip 14. Updated the preamble to include a link to the main DevForums page. 2022-06-04 Added a discussion of unannounced plans to tip 3 (thanks to Scott). 2022-06-03 Added tip 13. 2022-05-24 Added tips suggested by Claude31 and Scott. 2022-05-23 First posted.

DevForums has the concept of public and private tags: Public tags are available to everyone, per the rules outlined in Developer > Support > Developer Forums. Private tags are limited to a specific set of developers. The canonical example of a private tag is Universal App Quick Start, which is only available to folks who had an Apple silicon DTK. If you have access to any private tags, the New Post form has an extra field, Post Visibility. Its default value is Private but you can switch it to Public. The Tags field adjusts accordingly. So, if you select Private you only see a limited set of private tags. Use these if your post is about one of those private topics. OTOH, if your post is about a public topic, change Post Visibility to Public and apply the appropriate public tags. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

How to remove answered mark

How can I delete a question I've asked here in the forum?

Hi all, if anyone from apple Dev team is seeing this, please do consider supporting device mirroring without the need to login to icloud and with cable connection in addition to wi-fi. I am working in a corporate setting which does not allow us to login to icloud, thus I am unable to use device mirroring when my work really needs is, I am stuck with Quick time preview. I am quite sure, that this does not only apply to me.

We've been having some troubles to create a new account for apple developer for the company i'm currently working for. The first feedback we got was that I could create my personal account and then transfer the Duns Number for the company account when the problem would be solved. We have the Duns Number, but I can't create the Apple Developer Program because of the following warning: Tell us about your organization. Legal Entity Name The information you entered did not match your D&B profile. Before submitting your information, check your D&B profile. If you've recently changed your legal entity name, update your D&B profile. We are from Brazil and the support for the apple developer is only USA or Canada. Could you help us? We have a lot of questions. We need to create the account so that we could publish our APP But so far we couldn't create the account

Every time I visit these forums, a banner is displayed at the top asking me to opt-in to notifications. I click "opt-in," the banner disappears, and no notifications are sent. If I visit my forum profile, it says my browser isn't allowing notifications: If I look in Settings->Websites, in the list of "These websites have asked for permission to show alerts in Notification Center," there are no apple.com websites whatsoever, including developer.apple.com. "Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications" is checked, and I have many other websites in that list. I consider this to be a bug in Safari, but maybe it’s an issue with the forum itself (although I doubt it). I've submitted a Radar for it, but haven't heard anything back (I never do). EDIT: I realize I should've put this in another category, but it won't let me change that now.

Multiple times a day, every time I open a new window for forums.developer.apple.com, if I'm signed in, it asks me if I want to opt in to notifications. Even if I click on the opt in button. I've just reproduced it five times in a row here. What is going on?

There are at the moment a lot of spams for a bank phone number. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/769506 What is really surprising is to read App Store Connect Engineer answer, each time the same: We appreciate your interest in participating in the forums! These forums are for questions about developing software and accessories for Apple platforms. Your question seems related to a consumer feature and is better suited for the Apple Support Communities Is it an automatic answer (I cannot believe anyone who read the post did not notice it was a spam) ? If so, couldn't it simply detect it is a spam (Apple Intelligence could come to help) and delete the message (or the account) ? PS: it would also be a spam in Apple Support Communities PS2: I note the message has been deleted very rapidly.

Last Update blocked me from being able to runoff My iPad. I became untrusted!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonjour , j ai un problème de son avec les boutons du volume. Je ne peux que baisser le son. La touche du haut ne marche plus. Je ne peux plus augmenter le son avec. Je suis obligée d aller dans le centre de contrôle pour augmenter le son. pour la musique et les vidéos. Pour les sonneries c est pareil je ne peux pas augmenter le son.

After the upgrade from 15.0.1 to 15.1 yesterday, the video from the built-in camera on my M1 pro MacBook Pro 14“ has become extremely grainy. It’s definitely related to the macOS upgrade. I had several video calls just before the upgrade, and everything looked fine. However, immediately after the upgrade, the video is almost unusable.

Dear Everyone, We are experiencing a crucial issue with our app CERRET where it consistently pauses after being in the background for more than 9 hours. To manage this issue we have implemented background tasks Silent Push Notifications and location updates but the problem persist We have tried enabling Background App Refresh, disabling Low Power Mode, updating the apps and iOS, and even restarting my phone, but the problem persists. Could you please provide guidance on how to resolve this? It is crucial for my use-case to have continuous background operation of CERRET. Thank you for your assistance.

Device name: iPhone 15 Pro Max Purchase date: January this year Usage: The following problems never occurred before upgrading to iOS18.1 beta4 and 5 Current system version: iOS 18.1 beta 5 (22B5054e) Current status: System stuck, unable to operate, abnormal heating, battery capacity reduced by 1% after upgrading to beta5 Detailed description: My phone has been in normal use since purchase, and I have never downloaded or installed cracking tools or files from unknown sources. I concluded that the problem was caused by upgrading the beta version of the ios system. During a period of time when using ios18 beta 4, the phone suddenly became inoperable, the screen failed intermittently, and the failure time became longer and longer. Specifically, the app cannot be operated, and there is no response to sliding up and down, left and right, clicking, touching, and long pressing (almost all APPs, not an exception). In recent days, I found that this phenomenon of the phone seems to be related to charging. Every time it is fully charged, it will not be able to operate when the device is turned on. The iPad and iPhone have the same reaction. During the period when the device is unresponsive, iCloud cannot be synchronized normally, the phone heats up, the software crashes, white dots appear on the edge of the screen (just like a bad pixel on the screen), the video cannot be loaded, and a series of problems. Supplement: Which version can solve these problems? How to return to the official version without flashing? Can I receive version push normally by turning off the beta test switch? Feeling: Since I did not make a full backup of the lower version, I hope that iOS18.1beta5 will solve the problem. Unfortunately, it is still not solved in beta5, and the problem is getting worse. My phone is now a brick and cannot be used normally. This accident is the first time I have encountered such a serious problem since I used Apple devices. I am very disappointed. I hope Apple engineers can fix it as soon as possible.

App icon tints is a great addition to the look and feel of the UI but can it be made dynamic if opted for. So it will change according to the hue of the photo shuffle current photo and decide the best colour and change with each photo shuffle photo change.

Hi, I noticed that the "View the thread" button recently stopped working in emails of replies from my watched threads. The link's path seems fine but the subdomain is odd / inexistent, since Safari tells me it cannot find the server. Did anybody else notice this issue?

Hello, I have many problems to manage the new structure of the volumes introduced with High Sierra and Big Sur around the use and configuration of the APFS. Where could I find a technical documentation about this APFS organisation? By technical documentation I don't mean a theoretical nice PowerPoint for the boss. I mean a real technical documentation which will permit me for example: • to understand how is built and organized the complete set of different APFS volumes to install a new macOS, • to build an installer on an USB key which will be usabel for a highly secured environment where an Internet connection is not allowed and not possible, • to build a script to check that an actual APFS set of volumes doesn't present any major discrepency, a kind of meta-fsck, not the Disk Utility way, but the engineer way, essentially running through command line, and fully compatible with the traditionnal system, network and security administration. Sorry, I am a very special case of developper. I only develop tools from shell scripts to make system, network and security administration. And to build more scripts withm them. My answer to Select a Subtopic could have been: system administration, technical documentation

Posted in the wrong subtopic, and I can't figure out how to delete this post.

Is it only me ? I received recently a notification that an answer was "recommended by Apple", with a link to the post. But when going to the post, this recommendation (with small Apple icon) do not show. And the forum scores are not updated. This is not the first time I get problems with forum notifications. I filed a bug report: FB14172207

As the title suggests, Please someone at Apple add this feature on priority. This website is too bright for the eyes to read causing straining issues. Need complete dark mode asap. Thank you!

我在更新到iOS 18 Beta 2时遇到了以下问题。我遇到了严重的系统错误，所以我选择通过iCloud备份我的iPhone，然后擦除并重置iPhone，最后从iCloud恢复数据。然而，我现在面临一个严重的问题：我在开发人员应用程序中登录了我的帐户，但我在设置中看不到测试版的更新部分。我怎样才能解决这个问题？

Please delete this one!

API interface will return these error, does anyone know what the code means. 2 24 50 61 310 567

I've recently seen answers to posts that are apparently automatically generated but signed as App Store Connect Engineer. In several cases the answer is misinterpreting the OP. Here is an example: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/758391 The OP was really a developer question. Not related to a consumer feature. Is it really an automatic answer (which would be a bad trend for the forums IMHO)?