I'm trying to reach the file which I was downloading earlier by NSURLSession. It seems I can't read the location of the file, even though I'm doing it before delegate method ends (as the file is temporary).
Still, I'm getting nil when trying to access the data under location returned from NSURLSession delegate and error 257.
The code goes as following:
- (void)URLSession:(NSURLSession *)session downloadTask:(NSURLSessionDownloadTask *)downloadTask didFinishDownloadingToURL:(NSURL *)location {
NSError *movingError = nil;
NSData *fileData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:location.path options:0 error:&movingError]; // is nil
NSLog(#"%#", movingError); // is error 257
}
What's wrong with this code..? I saw similar questions NSURLSessionDownloadTask - downloads but ends with error and iPhone - copying a file from resources to Documents gives an error but these completely doesn't apply to my case.
-- edit --
I've created a new project and pasted the very same code. It works... So:
1) In my project I'm receiving error 257, probably some configuration of the project is invalid or the fact I'm using backgroundTasks somewhere else in the app messes things up
2) Same as in 1 happens if I put the source files of this download to the external framework linked in by Carthage
3) On demo project I created (copy-pasted files used in 1 & 2) everything works corretly.
If someone has an idea what can cause the fact it isn't working - would be awesome.
Late to the discussion, but I've seen the same/similar issue and investigated.
With my investigation, what you are seeing is expected (should I say “it's observed”?).
But since I'm not 100% sure how you are using URL session, I put down below what I'm trying to do, followed by my observations (important ones only).
Also, I created a sample project and put it here as downLoader.zip. You can play and check how URL session background download works. But It's better to read thru below before trying to play, though this is fairly a long note.
A. what I'm trying to do
I'm developing kind a map app, where I need to download 1000+ of small size (0.5-150kB, mostly ~20kB) PNG files at a time. Total download size of them is ~50MB, and it takes a couple of minutes to download all of them. I think that keeping users to my app just waiting for download is bad design, so I made the app to use URL Session’s background download.
I have to admit, however, that Apple’s doc says that “Background sessions are optimized for transferring a small number of large resources that can be resumed as necessary.” So, the way I’m using background session is totally opposite. But, anyway...
B. what I've observed
Below, I’ve listed my observations and my guess of why. I should say guess since they are not documented.
(1) observation: sometimes, files that should come with didFinishDownlaodingTo don’t exist.
Temporary files are put at:
/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/randomHexString/Library/Caches/com.apple.nsurlsessiond/Downloads/yourName.yourApp. The randomHexString changes from app’s run to run. When the files don’t exist, the randomHexString that came with didFinishDownloadingTo is the one from the “previous” session. Now, “previous” here means the session at app’s previous run !, which clearly doesn't exist at the current session at current run.
There's another scenario for non-existent file, which is that the randomHexString is ok, but the files don't exist. This seems to happen after session cancel is requested (invalidateAndCancel) and before session becomes invalid (didBecomeInvalidWithError).
Guess: This happens especially on the development phase since we terminate the app while downloading, manually or by debugger or just by bug. It seems once the download requests are handed and accepted to the OS, the OS handles our requests even after the app quits. Note we can’t know if the OS has definitely accepted the requests or not. Even after the return from URLSessionDownloadTask:resume(), sometimes files don’t exit at the next launch and sometimes they do.
Workaround: If files don’t exist, just ignore them. In a while, “this time’s” files should come.
(2) observation: sometimes, the duplicated (same) files come with didFinishDownloadingTo.
My app converts downloaded PNG files to other format. W/in didFinishDownlaodingTo, I move temp files (== OS designated) to another my app’s directory, then spawn thread (GCD) to convert the format and delete downloaded temp files. So, the other thread (didFinishDownlaodingTo) to overwrite is an issue.
Workaround: I make list of URLSessionTask:taskIdentifier and w/in didFinishDownlaodingTo, check the duplication by retrieving the taskID list to ignore duplicated files.
(3) observation: even after the user terminated the app, OS relaunches the app again.
After the user terminated the app from task switcher, quite often, the OS relaunches the app w/ application:handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession:completionHandler.
Note the sequence of relaunch is that didFinishLaunchingWithOptions comes first as regular launch, then handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession comes next.
From user’s POV, when he/she terminated the app, that’s it, done! It looks strange even after they terminated the app, it relaunches in itself and notifies something to them. It's like a zombie.
Guess: The Apple’s document says “If the user terminates your app, the system cancels any pending tasks”. The definition of “pending tasks” is not clearly stated but I understand this is from iOS POV and not user’s or program developer’s. As guessed in (1), iOS seemed to have accepted the download requests, and they are not “pending tasks” anymore.
Workaround: I create a “flagFile” after all of download requests are handed to iOS w/ URLSessionDownloadTask:resume(), of which file means that “download is ongoing”. When users terminate the app, at UIApplicationDelegate:applicationWillTerminate, I delete the flag file. Or, if all of download requests not handed to iOS, there's no flag file. Then at app’s relaunch at UIApplicationDelegate:handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession, I check if we have the flag file. If missing, then I can assume that users terminated. Two choices here. Choice-1: I will not recreate URL session. What happens next is that iOS will terminate my app in about 20 seconds. I have no idea if this (== not creating the URL session) is a legal operation but it works. Users can launch w/in this 20 sec, so I put some more code to handle that scenario. Choice-2: I create URL session. What happens next is that iOS calls delegate methods didFinishDownlaodingTo/didCompleteWithError, followed by urlSessionDidFinishEvents. If I don't do anything here, the process (app) keeps alive indefinitely w/o any notification to users: nothing in task switcher. This is nothing more than waste of memory. The option here is to fire local notification and let users know of my app, so that they can go back to my app and can terminate (Again!), though my app clearly appears as a zombie. One issue for both choices: applicationWillTerminate may not be called in certain situation (though I've yet confirmed). At this case, flag file is left as regular ops and show zombie to users. So, the flag file method is just mitigation to the issue, but I think it works most of the time for my app.
Note the app is relaunched sometimes when it's killed by xcode debugger or killed by OS w/ bug (SEGFALUT).
(4) observation: after the app is terminated (by user, etc.) then relaunched by OS, the app is occasionally in active state (UIApplication.shared.applicationState is .active).
I want to notify the user on the download completion by local notification, but since it's active, local notification doesn't fire. So, I need to use UIAlertController instead. Therefore, I can't provide consistent user experience, and should look strange for users: most of the time local notification and very occasionally UIAlert. Note when app started in active state, it appears in task switcher.
Guess: totally no idea how this can happen. One good(?) thing is this happens only occasionally.
Workaround: seems none.
(5) observation: handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession/urlSessionDidFinishEvents is called just once.
I start the download after started background task (application.beginBackgroundTask). Then in expiration handler of beginBackgroundTask, I call endBackgroundTask. I don't know exactly why, but after endBackgroundTask, my process is still given lots of process time, so I can keep requesting download. This might be because download files keep coming w/ didFinishDownlaodingTo. To be a good citizen, I suspend to request further download, and fire local notification to user to put the app to foreground. Now, once I suspend the request, in 4-5 seconds, OS determines the URL session is over and handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession then urlSessionDidFinishEvents are called. This is one-off event. When the user put the app in foreground to resume download, then put it again in background, no handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession/urlSessionDidFinishEvents will come anymore. What's unclear to me is the definition of session's start and end. It seems the session starts at first URLSessionTask.resume(), then ends w/ timeout, which seems to be determined by URLSessionConfiguration.timeoutIntervalForRequest. However, setting large number here (1000 sec) doesn't affect anything, it's always 4-5 seconds.
Guess: no idea
Workaround: don't relay on urlSessionDidFinishEvents while the app is alive. Relay only when app relaunched by OS and at initial handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession/urlSessionDidFinishEvents.
===============
Below, I listed about the sample project (downLoader.zip). You can verify all of above with the sample.
The app has a list of download files. The number of files is 1921, and 56MB in total. They are 256x256 PNG map tile files that are located in a server managed by Geo Spatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI). After downloaded, they are moved to Library/Cache/download. If your device is jail-broken, you can view them w/ Filza.
crash itself to test relaunch
emulate background task expiration
logging to file since debugger doesn't work after relaunch by OS. The file is in Documents, can be moved to PC.
Do play with the real device. Simulator doesn't relaunch the app.
Project built w/ Xcode 8.3.3 and tested w/ iphone6+/9.3.3 and iphone7+/10.3.1
To see if app relaunched w/ xcode, go to Debug/Attach to Process menu and see if downLoader is listed.
===============
I think URL session background download behaves trickily, especially at relaunch. We need to consider at least the observations I listed above, or the app users will get confused.
I found same error code 257 from online users feedback.In the error scene, the location always refers to a strange bundle identifier:com.sdyd.SDMobileMixSmart. And I guess this's an apple system bug.
I want to create a PFObject and have it saved locally so that if the user quits the app (or heaven forbid, it crashes) the object is still intact on the device BUT not uploaded to the server until the user is ready to submit it. Is this possible?
I know there is the 'saveEventually' method, but my understanding of that is it will at some point save itself to the server automatically, which is not what I want. I want to save locally only and only upload to the server when the user is completed finished.
If you have enabled the local datastore, calling pinObjectInBackground() on an object should make the object persist between sessions. Every time you make changes to the object that you want to save, call pinObjectInBackground() again. The object will not be saved to the server until you call saveEventually() or some other save function. Any query using fromLocalDatastore() will be able to fetch your locally stored object as long as it is pinned.
I've implemented an iPhone application that has around 50k users. Switching from iOS7 to iOS8 a lot of these users have experienced a terrible feeling when they thought that they data get lost.
I've implemented the first-import behaviour that I thought was the one suggested by Apple
1) Users launch the App
2) iCloud, automatically, starts synching data previously stored on iCloud
3) At some point user get notified that data from iCloud is ready thanks to NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionTypeInitialImportCompleted
The problem is with 3) At some point:
Users that have to sync a lot of data need minutes to get the synch completed and in the meanwhile they think that their data is lost.
I really don't know how to let my users know that they have to wait to see their data synched, because I don't know when this operation starts.
I'm thinking about a possible solution:
During the first launch of the App, asking to the user if he wants to use iCloud. If he chooses to use it, building the database with iCloud options, so I know exactly that the synch is starting here (I suppose...)
I'm really not sure about how to implement this behaviour since I've always seen Core Data settings into the AppDelegate but to achieve this behaviour I suppose I need to move all the CoreData settings in a Controller.
What do you think about this solution? how are you working around this problem in you Apps?
Your idea is right, at least it is that what we do. But leave it in the appDelegate.
Differentiate between with iCloud and without iCloud when doing the "addPersistentStoreWithType". If you do it with iCloud options, it will directly start to build the local store which is a kind of a placeholder ( I'm sure you know that, but just to make my thoughts clear). As soon as this is done, the sync starts from iCloud. So this is the starting point I understood you were looking for.
You can watch that process using the notifications by NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresDidChangeNotification and inform you user accordingly triggered by that notification.
If you look at "Reacting to iCloud Events" in the docs https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DataManagement/Conceptual/UsingCoreDataWithiCloudPG/UsingSQLiteStoragewithiCloud/UsingSQLiteStoragewithiCloud.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013491-CH3-SW5 there is a detailed desc.
To summarize, the event you're describing is part of the account transitions process. An account transition occurs when one of the following four events is triggered:
Initial import
the iCloud account used did change
iCloud is disabled
your application's data is deleted
During this event, Core Data will post the NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresWillChangeNotification and NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresDidChangeNotification notifications to let you know that an account transition is happening. The transition type we're interested in is NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionTypeInitialImportCompleted.
For information, I've moved all Core Data related code to my own Manager for simplicity and use it with a singleton design pattern. While setting up the singleton, I register the Manager for all relevant notifications (NSPersistentStoreDidImportUbiquitousContentChangesNotification, NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresWillChangeNotification, NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresDidChangeNotification, NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorWillRemoveStoreNotification).
I store several informations in my settings (NSUserDefaults or anything) like the last iCloud state (enabled, disabled, unknown), if the initial import is done or not, etc.
What I end up doing was having a prompt (UIAlertController or anything) to get a confirmation if the user wants to use iCloud or not. I have a displayICloudDialogAndForce:completion: method to do that and only do that if my iCloud state setting is unknown or I use the force parameter.
Then, after the user input, I call a setupCoreDataWithICloud: method, the iCloud boolean parameter depending on the user choice. I would then setup my Core Data stack, on the cloud or not according to the iCloud parameter.
If I'm setting up using iCloud, I would check my settings for the value of an iCloud imported key (boolean). If the value is NO, then I'm presenting a new modal to warn the user about the incoming import that could take some time.
I've registered my manager for different notifications and specially NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresDidChangeNotification. In my storeDidChange: callback, I'm checking the transition type and if it's NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionTypeInitialImportCompleted, I'm changing the content of my modal to show the user that the import was successful and removing it a few seconds later, saving in my settings that the initial import is done.
- (void)storeDidChange:(NSNotification *)notification
{
NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionType transitionType = [notification.userInfo[NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionTypeKey] integerValue];
if (transitionType == NSPersistentStoreUbiquitousTransitionTypeInitialImportCompleted) {
[settings setDefaults:#(YES) forKey:kSettingsICloudImportedKey];
[ICloudModal dismissWithSuccess];
// ...
}
// Do other relevant things...
}
For a project I'm working on, I would like to save a few bytes of data to the users iPhone between launches of the application. I would like to do this so I can save some state and a few important numbers when the user terminates the app. I have thought about it, and the best place to do this seems like the AppDelegate.
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application
{
// Called when the application is about to terminate.
// Save data if appropriate. See also applicationDidEnterBackground:.
/* this is where I want to begin the process of saving application data */
}
I have heard of writing objects (only a select few allowed such as NSString, NSDictionary, NSArray) to file, but can this be kept around between launches of the app, or does the data go away when the user terminates the app?
Question:
Is there a definitive way to write data to the users iPhone that will stick around after the application quits?
The most common approach is to persist whatever data or state you need when your app enters the background. Then the data will be there if the app is killed while in the background and the app is restarted.
How you store the data really depends on what the data is. Writing the data to a file in the app's sandbox is quite common. Small bits of data can also be stored in NSUserDefaults.
I've got a problem while downloading images in my iOS app. My app has the ability to download images form my server, but when I close the app while the download is being done and then I reopen it, for the app the image was fully downloaded, but when I open it it's crashed (half of the image looks OK, but the other half is all grey) and I can't find the way to handle this case.
Is there a way to handle this case? I mean, is there a way to know if the image is crashed, or any other thing that let's me know that the image wasn't downloaded ok for me to redownload it?
Wrap the image download code in calls to UIApplication beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler: and UIApplication endBackgroundTask:. In the expiration handler, stop the download and delete the partial file.
This allows the download to keep going for a few minutes in the background giving it more of a chance to complete. If it doesn't complete you delete the partial file preventing the issue of having a bad image. Of course you need to try to download again when your app returns to the foreground.
I would suggest you download an image first to a temporary location and when operation is finished successfully you move the image to it's permanent location (and make changes to database).
First make sure image is fully downloaded and then save it on device. Do not stream directly on disk.