App unable to import files in iOS13

Apples response We understand that you are having issues with your type definition for .gpx files. At this time, there is no commonly-accepted Uniform Type Identifier for .gpx files and different developers have defined their .gpx declaration differently. This means that if two apps are installed on the same device that claim to open these files with different definitions, they won't interact correctly: from the user's point of view, only one of those apps, chosen seemingly at random, will be able to open these files. Our understanding is that this format was designed by Topografix, so our current recommendation is that you redeclare support for .gpx files in your app by adding a type declaration for com.topografix.gpx that conforms to public.data and has the filename extension tag gpx. An example declaration is shown here: UTImportedTypeDeclarationsUTTypeIdentifiercom.topografix.gpxUTTypeReferenceURLhttps://www.topografix.com/gpx.aspUTTypeConformsTopublic.dataUTTypeTagSpecificationpublic.filename-extensiongpx Apple does not generally declare Uniform Type Identifiers for file types the operating system does not natively support, so this is a change that you will need to make. If you and other developers standardize on this Uniform Type Identifier, users on iOS 13 should see these apps appear in UIActivityViewController and other relevant UI locations. Such a change will also benefit users still running iOS 12 and earlier if they have multiple apps installed that can handle this file format. For more information about declaring Uniform Type Identifiers, see our documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/understanding_utis/understand_utis_declare/understand_utis_declare.html While making this change in your app will not immediately fix the problem, it is a step in the right direction as other developers adopt this UTI.

Thanks for that. I can't tell if it works for me yet because I wasn't having the problem - many of the users of my app were seeing it, but not me. I will use that UTI in my next beta and see what the beta testers say.

For zip files: com.pkware.zip-archive

For gpx file: com.apple.dt.document.gpx

- still doesn't work. (no file icon either)

Apparently there isn't a UTI for a file of type text - .txt

Plain text files works in my app with UTI "public.plain-text"

I finally solved this problem for custom UTIs. First a little background. Our apps have two or three custom file types. They have been in the apps for at least five years and have always worked fine. After upgrading to iOS 13, users could no longer import their files from any source.

After trying many suggestions in this thread, I finally decided to delete the entire "Exported Type UTIs" and "Imported Type UTIs" keys from the info.plist for each app. Note that I used the property list view for all changes, not the source view. Next, I went to the target info tab and created new Exported UTIs and Imported UTIs. The identifier for each UTI was the same as before, which was the reverse company domain and the custom file extention (com.company.ext). The "conforms to" field was set to "public.data" for all. In the "additional properties" area, I added the UTTypeTagSpecification key as a dictionary and added the "public.filename-extension" key as an array. In the array I added one item which was the file extention.

UTTypeTagSpecification Dictionary

public.filename-extension Array

Item 0 String ext

Prior to these changes, I was working with the plist source to try to solve this problem. But apparently using the property gui editor changed the plist source in a way that resolved the problem. I only did a quick compare of the old file and the new and didn't see anything obvious.

Also, note that I did not make any changes to the Document Types.

Worked for me too. I worry if this is just a temporary fix, though?

DUDE!!!! You just saved me! Finally a fix!

Sadly that didn't work for me, still redirected to the home page of IOs, ans Safare crash, also tried added public.file-extension to the additional array but to no avail.

I created an entry on StackOverflow for the crash on import file thread of this topic.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58670089/unable-to-import-files-with-custom-uti-extension-on-ios-13

I tried you solution for GPX, but it only works directly after installing. when installing another app able to open GPX files, my app disappears from the list again - just as it did before.

This was reproducable on all iOS 13 test devices.

I filed a bug report, too, but no repsonse so far.

Is there a way to reproduce the issue reliably.

I mean make a working device have the bug.

Because a lot of solutions seem to come down to the reinstalling step updating the system list until another app update make it fails again.

"While making this change in your app will not immediately fix the problem, it is a step in the right direction as other developers adopt this UTI."

Realistically this is never going to work - there's always going to be apps that don't do this. This change in iOS13 has broken a core feature in many apps in a way that developers are unable to fix.

As per @baraupp, is everyone filing FB's on this?

Unfortunately, this does not work for me either. Did you do anything else beyond the deletion and reentry of the Exported Type UTI's? For me, I have a .csv file. So I have 2 UTTypeTagSpecification:

public.mime-type string application/myAppName

public.filename-extension Array

Item 0 String csv

Did you include a public.mime-type?

After adding this, I just restarted my app in XCode. But my app does not show up in the share menu as one of the apps to share to.

Hi, I have had this problem exporting GPX files from Gaia to Outdooractive up to 13.2. OA would not show up in the list of suggested apps. So I deleted a lot of apps that had shown up instead: Threema, Telegram, LinkedIn, DropBox, Google Drive, Komoot, Motion Control X GPS, ... Now I have only three GPS apps (which create GPX filed and can import them). Gaia, Outdooractive, Alpenvereinaktiv. Cheers

Many users report, importing GPX-files works again with iOS 13.2 - exactly like it was with iOS 12! To me, it feels like it's the majority.

BUT there are other users with 13.2 still having the same issues. Can anybody confirm this?