App Transfer - iCloud and legacy apps

Juust before I initiate an App Transfer...

We have sandboxed 'mobile' versions of our app (iOS and mac App) to transfer to the surviving company.

However, we also have a 'full' non-sandboxed legacy desktop dmg version of the app, available for Mac (and Win). This has access to the same iCloud folder

So the question is, what happens to the iCloud app folder on the Mac if they are only using this desktop version, once the transfer takes place? Will it remain visible on the Mac, and will it remain accessible by the desktop version if so?

I expect that although the iCloud entitlement is transferred, as it is another Team ID, the legacy app will not be able to read/write without user prompted permission. What I hope at the least, is that the folder doesn't become invisible on that machine...

Answered by DTS Engineer in 806709022

The "Apps using iCloud" section App transfer overview has a brief discussion on that topic. To quote:

"If multiple apps on your account share a CloudKit container, the transfer of one app will disable the other apps’ ability to read or store data using the transferred CloudKit container. Additionally, the transferor will no longer have access to user data for the transferred app via the iCloud dashboard. Any app updates will disable the app’s ability to read or store data using the transferred CloudKit container."

So for a user who had already installed your desktop version app on their Mac before the transfer, the app still has the access to the iCloud container. If the user then installs any update of your desktop version app, the app will lose the access to the container. That being said, if the app accesses the container using url(forUbiquityContainerIdentifier:), the API will return nil.

Regarding the "iCloud folder" you mentioned, assuming that it is the folder representing the iCloud container you published to iCloud Drive using NSUbiquitousContainers, as described in Publish an iCloud Container to iCloud Drive, my understanding is that it should be still on the iCloud Drive, unless the user removes the folder and all the apps that use the container.

Best,
——
Ziqiao Chen
 Worldwide Developer Relations.

Accepted Answer

The "Apps using iCloud" section App transfer overview has a brief discussion on that topic. To quote:

"If multiple apps on your account share a CloudKit container, the transfer of one app will disable the other apps’ ability to read or store data using the transferred CloudKit container. Additionally, the transferor will no longer have access to user data for the transferred app via the iCloud dashboard. Any app updates will disable the app’s ability to read or store data using the transferred CloudKit container."

So for a user who had already installed your desktop version app on their Mac before the transfer, the app still has the access to the iCloud container. If the user then installs any update of your desktop version app, the app will lose the access to the container. That being said, if the app accesses the container using url(forUbiquityContainerIdentifier:), the API will return nil.

Regarding the "iCloud folder" you mentioned, assuming that it is the folder representing the iCloud container you published to iCloud Drive using NSUbiquitousContainers, as described in Publish an iCloud Container to iCloud Drive, my understanding is that it should be still on the iCloud Drive, unless the user removes the folder and all the apps that use the container.

Best,
——
Ziqiao Chen
 Worldwide Developer Relations.

Thanks for the reply and the information, very much appreciated!

App Transfer - iCloud and legacy apps
 
 
Q