Cannot read the NFC chip of the ePassport using iOS13

Question

import UIKit
import CoreNFC

class ViewController: UIViewController, NFCTagReaderSessionDelegate {

    var nfcTagReaderSession: NFCTagReaderSession?

    func tagReaderSessionDidBecomeActive(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession) {
        print("Tag reader did become active")
        print("isReady: \(nfcTagReaderSession?.isReady)")
    }

    func tagReaderSession(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession, didInvalidateWithError error: Error) {
        print("\(error)")
    }

    func tagReaderSession(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession, didDetect tags: [NFCTag]) {
        // this part is never called!
        print("got a Tag!")
        print("\(tags)")
    }

    @IBAction func clickedNFC(_ sender: Any) {
        nfcTagReaderSession = NFCTagReaderSession(pollingOption: [.iso14443], delegate: self)

        nfcTagReaderSession?.alertMessage = "Place the device on the innercover of the passport"
        nfcTagReaderSession?.begin()
        print("isReady: \(nfcTagReaderSession?.isReady)")

    }

}

I also have in my entitlements file

<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.formats</key>
<array>
    <string>NDEF</string>
    <string>TAG</string>
</array>

and in my Info.plist

<key>NFCReaderUsageDescription</key>
<string>Read the NFC chip of ePassports</string>
<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.iso7816.select-identifiers</key>
<array>
    <string>A0000002471001</string>
</array>

My problem is that tagReaderSession(_ session: NFCTagReaderSession, didDetect tags: [NFCTag]) is never being called. What am I missing?

Kinsey

Answer 1

I found the solution I added 00000000000000 to the com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.iso7816.select-identifiers entry in the Info.plist Now it looks like this:

<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.iso7816.select-identifiers</key>
<array>
    <string>A0000002471001</string>
    <string>00000000000000</string>
</array>

Kinsey

Hi, anyone know where to find the information about this select-identifiers ? – Walkthrough

I read that the German / EU passport is working with iso14443 but I can not get it working. Does anybody know if it should work with the new German passport? – Rixdollar

It should work with the new one, what error do you get? – Kinsey

From where to get data to pass in " NFCISO7816APDU(instructionClass:0, instructionCode:, p1Parameter:, p2Parameter:, data: HERE, expectedResponseLength:)" – Mcgruder

ok, but WHY in plist? it should be in entitlements... reading apple docs.. – Gallego