"Reading from public effective user settings" in iOS 10

Question

I'm getting the following messages when launching my app:

2016-10-12 14:47:23.705002 Discovery[377:147958] [MC] System group container for systemgroup.com.apple.configurationprofiles path is /private/var/containers/Shared/SystemGroup/systemgroup.com.apple.configurationprofiles
2016-10-12 14:47:23.712212 Discovery[377:147958] [MC] Reading from public effective user settings.

Is "system group container" related to App Groups? I do share data between apps using an App Group and was wondering if this caused this message to be displayed?

I set the data in one app like this:

var userDefaults = NSUserDefaults(suiteName: "group.com.company.myApp")
userDefaults!.setObject("user12345", forKey: "userId")
userDefaults!.synchronize()

And I retrieve it in another app using something like this:

var userDefaults = NSUserDefaults(suiteName: "group.com.company.myApp")
if let testUserId = userDefaults?.objectForKey("userId") as? String {
  print("User Id: \(testUserId)")
}

Did something change in iOS 10 that would cause any problems or cause these messages to show up?

Gonidium

What errors? There are no errors in your question, just some annoying debug messages shown in iOS 10. – Voodooism

See #39983183 – Voodooism

True. I'll edit my question to reflect that. I guess the question is why are these messages showing up as I'm trying to figure out why my apps aren't sharing the data correctly. – Gonidium

As you can see from these search results, you are not the only one seeing this message. – Voodooism

Right, but I don't see any answers explaining what the messages are for? – Gonidium

Did you solve this? – Perugia

Not yet. Most of the ideas I've found says this error seems to be related to Privacy Descriptions in one of the plist files (like Privacy - Camera Usage Description). For kicks I went to that plist and tried setting all 20 of the Privacy descriptions with a test string and that did not fix the warning. I'm not sure these warnings are even related to App Groups at this point but would still like to get rid of this warning. – Gonidium

Answer 1

This is a bug (now we're finding out it might be a permanent message) and it seems that this message appears primarily when clicking on a Text Field or Text View or other similar NSObject.

This is only a log message and not a compile error message as signified by the date and time preceding the message. Therefore if your code is not working it is not a result of this console message.

If you run on a device the message will be [MC] Reading from public effective user settings. If you run on the sim the message will be [MC] Reading from private effective user settings.

Irregularity

Thanks tymac. I am seeing this message on a device when running Xcode 8.1. Also, as you described, this message is showing up when I tap a UISearchbar's UITextField. Also, as you described, I cannot see anything in my project that is affected by this message or the triggering of this event. – Snaky

Glad I could help. Enjoy your day. – Irregularity

Was banging my head with this thinking there was something wrong with my code. tymac is correct. This is only a bug/log message and cannot actually be fixed until we get out of beta. This is the correct answer with 10 votes yet it is not marked as the correct answer? Weird. – Exigible

It seems out of beta, the issue still remains. Xcode 8.3.2 – Disforest

same with me. the issue still present XCode 8.3.2 – Acephalous

Looks like we need a radar – Irregularity

In Xcode 8.3.2, I get this when I tap on a UITextField. The iPhone keyboard fails to appear, so I assume that the debug message is indicative of something not working and not just a spurious message. – Outdated

It’s possible it’s one of the newer included console messages but either way it’s just a log message and not a compile error. – Irregularity

I'm getting the same log message from the simulator on XCode 9.3. – Kovacs

Still appears in Xcode 10.2.1 when I tap on an InputField - it doesn't matter if the keyboard is shown afterwards or if it's disabled (with ⌘K). – Juvenile

Answer 2

• Go to Xcode -> Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme
• In the Environment Variables, add OS_ACTIVITY_MODE as name and disable as value.

I hope this helps you.

Dorladorlisa

This was helpful. Thanks. – Anthology

Happy coding.. @fmz – Dorladorlisa

This was not helpful, it just turned off all the logging in the console. – Speculation

Thanks, I don't understand why this is not the answer for this question? – Cyclopentane

not an ideal solution, mutes all system console warnings... constraint warnings can be very useful... – Pronominal

Answer 3

Xcode seems to full of these confusing and misleading warnings. this warning appears when ever I enter text in a UITextField, at first I thought there is something wrong with my codes.

Customhouse

Xcode is absolutely full of weird quirks and bugs. There's always a new one you haven't seen, but they're few and far between that you end up forgetting the solutions which makes you waste even more time... Unfortunate. – Doubloon

Answer 4

Is your next output in console like this: [access] <private>. I've had your warnings, I was missing permission for camera usage in my plist file Privacy - Camera Usage Description. You need privacy description in plist for which privacy you are using: Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth Sharing, Microphone, Camera, Location, Health, HomeKit, Media Library, Motion, CallKit, Speech Recognition, SiriKit, TV Provider

Perutz

Yeah, I tried to set all of those and it did not get rid of the warning. I also did not have [access] <private> after my warning message so maybe I just have a different problem? – Gonidium

Answer 5

I had this same problem when touching a Bar button that showed an alert, which in turn has a TextField. Any way I solved this matter using the proposal commented in this link. It works at least for me! regards!

Jello

Answer 6

I was struggling with this issue in an iPhone5 emulator (on the device everything was ok) that stucked my Ionic app after touch a TextInput, and then I changed the emulator to another one, like iPhone6, or iPhone8, and everything worked again.

Sherris