WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() only works when app is in the foreground

Question

Created Jul ’20

Replies 5

Boosts 2

Views 2.9k

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Hi y'all, I'm trying to create an Intent Extension that updates a widget, but I can't get the widget to update unless the app is in the foreground. Right now I'm using .continueInApp, but that's not such a great UX...

Has anyone experienced this? I've submitted it as FB7845957

Boost

Answer 1

stalf OP

Aug ’20

Hi there, I can confirm this.
In my case, calling WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() from the intent extension updates the widget fine when running the main app target from Xcode. Once Xcode is stopped, the intent can update the widget once or twice, and then stops working.

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Answer 2

lehel.medves.lateral OP

Mar ’21

I have the same problem. I have tried using a silent push notification, that way the app does get woken up in the background and I tried calling the WidgetCenter.shared.reloadTimelines method right from there. The result was the same, the widget did not get updated if the application is not in the foreground.

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Answer 3

MoblieDev OP

Aug ’23

It's sad 3 years later I face the same issue in iOS 17 - WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines() works only on foreground (or when running the app from Xcode). Does anyone found a workaround?

2

Answer 4

RK123 OP

Oct ’24

Same problem on iOS 18.0.1 and Xcode 16... FB15508274

My timeline covers 10 days, but if I get new data in my background task which runs overnight, I'd like to reload the timeline.

I was able to verify that code before and after reloadAllTimelines() successfully executes in the background and all my data is updated, but widgets timelines are not ( I share a subset of my data with the Widgets using an App Group and UserDefaults).

Starting the background task in the debugger always works and updates both data and widgets.

Has anybody experimented with shorter timelines, and/or TimelineReloadPolicy.after(), or found any other workarounds yet?

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Answer 5

cpvbruno OP

1w

Same happening here when I try to update widgets from push notification, I execute 2 actions given a push notification.

1 - Log that the method was triggered

2 - WidgetCenter.shared.reloadAllTimelines()

All works well while Xcode debugger is attached, then it stops after the app is running without xcode, but I see that the block of code was executed because the log is created.

Any idea what I may be doing wrong? Or is this a known issue?

I work on a smart home platform app, while my widgets can't update in realtime, Apple Home widgets update as often as needed, so it's quite unfair to compete with that.

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