iOS 16 Beta: Access "Hidden smart album" from PhotoKit

The smart albums PHAssetCollectionSubtypeSmartAlbumAllHidden now requires authorisation in iOS 16. How can we access PHAssetCollectionSubtypeSmartAlbumAllHidden from PhotoKit now and provide the necessary authorisation inside a 3rd party app?

Cheers,

Hendrik

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of hhtouch Down vote post of hhtouch
1.1k views

Replies

If the user has the setting turned on to require authorization for the hidden album then hidden assets will not be returned via PhotoKit to your app. There is not API that would allow your app to receive these assets through PhotoKit. You can present a PHPickerViewController if you'd like your users to be able to browse and select hidden assets for use in your app.

Please see https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit/phassetcollectionsubtype/phassetcollectionsubtypesmartalbumallhidden?language=objc for more details

Thanks for the feedback. I just noticed that the same issue applies to the includehiddenassets of PHFetchOptions.: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit/phfetchoptions/1624780-includehiddenassets?language=objc In this case the documentation was not updated for iOS 16, yet the includehiddenassets property seems to be ignored, if the user has turned on to require authorisation for hidden assets. Also it changes the behaviour of existing apps without a way to work around it. Makes it sense to fill a feedback on this? If it's not feasible to provide authorisation within apps for access, at least a property to check if the user has enabled authorisation would be useful.

Filled FB10577529 for this issue.