Hello everyone,
I have already submitted my app playground for the Swift Student Challenge. After submission I noticed a few things I would like to improve and fix.
Is it possible to withdraw my current submission and then immediately resubmit an updated version?
Any clarification (especially from Apple staff or anyone who has done this before) would be very helpful.
Thank you!
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Hardware:
• Mac Studio (M1 Ultra)
• Apple Silicon
• Sufficient free disk space (~35GB+ available)
• SIP enabled
• 4 local Time Machine snapshots present
Current System:
• Already running macOS Tahoe beta
• Attempting upgrade to macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta (Build 25E5207k)
Primary Issue:
Software Update downloads successfully, then moves to “Preparing…”.
It stalls at “About 5 minutes remaining” for ~10–15 minutes and fails with:
“Failed to prepare the software update. Please try again. An error occurred while downloading the selected updates.”
The error appears network-related, but download always completes.
Observed Behaviour:
• “Checking for Updates” completes in <3 minutes.
• softwareupdated and mobileassetd CPU usage <1%.
• softwareupdate --history shows no record of the failed beta install.
• No excessive system load or obvious disk pressure.
Steps Already Attempted:
1. Standard Software Update retries
• Multiple download/retry cycles from System Settings.
• Same Preparing failure every time.
2. Permissions / Disk Access
• Granted Terminal Full Disk Access.
• SIP remains enabled.
• Some system-protected locations still return “Operation not permitted”.
3. Cache / State Cleanup Attempts
• Removed /Library/Updates/*.
• Cleared temporary softwareupdate folders under /private/var/tmp.
• Attempted MobileAsset cache cleanup where permitted.
• Killed softwareupdated and mobileassetd processes (auto-restarted by launchd).
4. Beta Channel Reset
• Turned Beta Updates OFF in System Settings.
• Rebooted.
• Re-enabled Beta Updates.
• Forced catalog refresh via softwareupdate -l.
5. Snapshot Check
• tmutil listlocalsnapshots / shows only 4 snapshots (normal range).
6. Full Installer Workaround
softwareupdate --list-full-installers shows:
• macOS Tahoe Beta 26.4 (25E5207k)
• Tahoe 26.3 / 26.2 / 26.1
• Sequoia / Sonoma / Ventura / Monterey installers
Downloaded installer via:
softwareupdate –fetch-full-installer –full-installer-version 26.4
Installer downloaded correctly:
/Applications/Install macOS Tahoe Beta.app
7. startosinstall Method (Apple Silicon optimized)
Attempted install with:
sudo “/Applications/Install macOS Tahoe Beta.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall”
–user
–agreetolicense
–nointeraction
–forcequitapps
–rebootdelay 30
–passprompt
Authorization succeeds, installer begins preparing, but installation still ultimately fails.
Additional Notes:
• CPU usage remains low during failure.
• No excessive snapshot count.
• Error messaging consistently references download/network even though download completes.
• Issue appears to occur during cryptex/asset preparation phase rather than initial download.
Question for Apple / other developers:
Has anyone else seen Tahoe 26.4 beta fail specifically during the Preparing phase on Apple Silicon (especially Ultra-class chips)? Looking for confirmation whether this is a known MobileAsset or cryptex staging issue, or if logs indicate a deeper APFS / volume-owner authorization problem.
Hello Apple Developer Community,
I am planning to participate in the Swift Student Challenge 2026. However, while reviewing the application form, I noticed that my country of residence is not listed in the address dropdown menu.
I would like to clarify the correct way to proceed in this situation to avoid disqualification:
Is it permissible to use the address of a relative who lives in a supported region as my contact address?
Is filling out the shipping address mandatory for the initial submission, or is there an option to proceed without it?
I want to ensure I fully comply with the Terms and Conditions. Any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
My swift student challenge submission is an iPad app built in Xcode and I'm planning on selecting the Xcode 26 option for testing in the dropdown provided in the application. Just have to confirm that the run destination for the playground in Xcode will be an iPad simulator right? Recently I have seen many participants post their submission screenshot for iPhone renders so just wanted to confirm the run destination.
Thank you👾
I’m building a Swift Playgrounds app (.swiftpm) in Xcode 26.2 and I consistently see this warning, even on brand-new Swift Playgrounds apps created from the default template:
“Skipping duplicate build file in Compile Sources build phase:
/Users/.../.swiftpm/Media.xcassets”
Everything builds and runs normally and all images/assets appear correctly, so it seems like it’s just an annoying warning.
I’ve checked for duplicates and don’t see the asset catalog listed twice, but the warning still appears whenever I add an asset catalog to any playground project in Xcode.
Is this warning safe to ignore for submission, and it won’t affect Swift Student Challenge eligibility?
I am looking through the rules and terms and it just says Xcode submissions will be run on a simulator. Does this mean Mac Catalyst or can it be run on a iPad VM? Or more so should we specify in the comments on where to run it.
Thank you!
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Community
SubTopic:
Swift Student Challenge
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For my US account, my device SSID and handheld ID documents were used, and Apple Support advised that I can only register using a US identity.
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Need Apple to solve this issue for multiple users like me which I have noticed on reddit with the same problem.
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Dear colleagues, when will you add the ability to manually adjust the display's color temperature? Everyone is familiar with the color rendering issue on the 17 series. Many complain about the display's yellowish tint. I'm one of those people, with a G9N panel, but I can't get whites right; there's a persistent yellow tint. TrueTone only solves this problem under cool, white lighting conditions. So, the display might work as intended, but how can I make it work consistently? If there were a way to manually adjust TrueTone, many users wouldn't be so upset when buying a new device, fearing the display would be yellow. I'd like users to be able to choose their preferred color, warm or cool, and have a scale to adjust it! This would solve the yellowish tint issue on 17 series displays! Thank you.
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We explained this on the form, but the case is not being progressed, jsut ignored. Is there a good way forward to resolve this that is good for Apple as well.
Here is our response in the Form:
Dear App Review,
Thank you for flagging this point and we fully understand and appreciate your concern for protection of our App from being put to unauthorised use.
This App and has been developed solely for us and on our instruction and under our direction. As you have noticed, our developer submitted our App to your App Store years ago and it was available for several years from this account.
Then some months ago we decided with the developer to move it to our own account. And as you also noticed, some small changes to simplify the flow were made intentionally before we submitted our app.
Would you prefer that we resubmitted the App through the previous account of Osiel Lima, our valued friend and developer. Alternatively, we look forward to your positive advice on how to move forward.
Thank you for your support and co-operation.
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Community
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