Swift: Unknown error - Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value - ios

Question

I know this is a common error people post here but I can't find a post that matches to what I'm doing even if its the same fundamentally. I'm new to Swift and just trying to find my way, thank you.
The first time I open my app, a blog reader app that reads from a MYSQL database, it works as intended, I can follow the blogs that I chose and unfollow. When I follow a blog/cell it saves to User Defaults using KeyArchiver but when I double tap the home button to clear the app from memory and reopen the app, it crashes.
Something wrong is going on in my loadUserDefaults because I set up breakpoints and it crashes at this line self.followedIdentifiers = Set(UserDefaults.standard.stringArray(forKey: "followedID")!)
I know I have an optional but why is it crashing/ coming back nil if I saved it with saveUserDefaults. Is it not saving? or am I not loading it correctly?
The error is this
fatal error: unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value
Code: This is MainController.swift
var mainArray = [Blog]()
var followedArray = [Blog]()
var filteredArray = [Blog]()
var followedIdentifiers = Set<String>()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Receiving Data from Server
retrieveDataFromServer()
// NSCoding - Unarchiving Data (followedID)
loadUserDefaults()
}
// NSCoding: Archiving UserDefaults
func saveUserDefaults() {
// Saving to UserDefaults
let encodedData = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: self.followedIdentifiers)
UserDefaults.standard.setValue(encodedData, forKey: "followedID")
UserDefaults.standard.synchronize()
}
// NSCoding: Unarchiving UserDefaults
func loadUserDefaults() { // --- Crash is Here ---
// Unarchiving Data
if let data = UserDefaults.standard.data(forKey: "followedID"), let myFollowedList = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: data) as? Set<String> {
self.followedIdentifiers = myFollowedList
self.followedIdentifiers = Set(UserDefaults.standard.stringArray(forKey: "followedID")!) // CRASH
} else {
print("Error/ Empty: (Loading UserDefaults (followedID))")
}
}
// Retrieving Data from Server
func retrieveDataFromServer() {
let getDataURL = "http://example.com/receiving.php"
let url: NSURL = NSURL(string: getDataURL)!
do {
let data: Data = try Data(contentsOf: url as URL)
let jsonArray = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .mutableContainers) as! NSMutableArray
// Clear the arrays
self.followedArray = [Blog]()
self.mainArray = [Blog]()
// Looping through jsonArray
for jsonObject in jsonArray {
if let blog = Blog(jsonObject:jsonObject as! [String : Any]) {
// Check if identifiers match
if followedIdentifiers.contains(blog.blogID) {
self.followedArray.append(blog)
} else {
self.mainArray.append(blog)
}
}
}
} catch {
print("Error: (Retrieving Data)")
}
myTableView.reloadData()
}
This is Blog.swift which handles all the blogs objects and NSCoding
class Blog: NSObject, NSCoding {
var blogName: String
var blogStatus1: String
var blogStatus2: String
var blogURL: String
var blogID: String
var blogType: String
var blogDate: String
var blogPop: String
private init (name: String,status1: String,status2: String,url: String,id: String,type: String,date: String,pop: String) {
blogName = name
blogStatus1 = status1
blogStatus2 = status2
blogURL = url
blogID = id
blogType = type
blogDate = date
blogPop = pop
super.init()
}
convenience init?(jsonObject: [String:Any]) {
guard let bID = jsonObject["id"] as? String,
let bName = jsonObject["blogName"] as? String,
let bStatus1 = jsonObject["blogStatus1"] as? String,
let bStatus2 = jsonObject["blogStatus2"] as? String,
let bURL = jsonObject["blogURL"] as? String,
let bType = jsonObject["blogType"] as? String,
let bDate = jsonObject["blogDate"] as? String,
let bPop = jsonObject["blogPop"] as? String
else {
print("Error: (Creating Blog Object)")
return nil
}
self.init(name: bName, status1: bStatus1, status2: bStatus2, url: bURL, id: bID, type: bType, date: bDate, pop: bPop)
}
convenience required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
guard let blogName = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogName") as? String,
let blogStatus1 = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogStatus1") as? String,
let blogStatus2 = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogStatus2") as? String,
let blogURL = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogURL") as? String,
let blogID = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogID") as? String,
let blogType = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogType") as? String,
let blogDate = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogDate") as? String,
let blogPop = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "blogPop") as? String else {
print("Error: (Creating Blog Object)")
return nil
}
self.init(name: blogName, status1: blogStatus1, status2: blogStatus2, url: blogURL, id: blogID, type: blogType, date: blogDate, pop: blogPop)
}
func encode(with aCoder: NSCoder) {
aCoder.encode(blogName, forKey: "blogName")
aCoder.encode(blogStatus1, forKey: "blogStatus1")
aCoder.encode(blogStatus2, forKey: "blogStatus2")
aCoder.encode(blogURL, forKey: "blogURL")
aCoder.encode(blogID, forKey: "blogID")
aCoder.encode(blogType, forKey: "blogType")
aCoder.encode(blogDate, forKey: "blogDate")
aCoder.encode(blogPop, forKey: "blogPop")
}
}

Answer 1

I used File Manager to save my archived array and it was the best choice, so easy and simple. Using Swift 3. Credit to #GuyKogus, #Paulw11 & #MartinR
Used to save my object
NSKeyedArchiver.archiveRootObject(myObject, toFile: filePath)
Used to load my object
if let myFollowedList = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(withFile: filePath) as? Set<String> {
myObject = myFollowedList
}