Iva Horn

Nextcloud File Provider and Remote Changes

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0100

This article is about how and why the Nextcloud file provider extension for macOS learns about changes on servers without Apple’s centralized push notification service.

Xcode Breakpoints in the Nextcloud Desktop Client

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:27:26 +0100

When attaching Xcode to the file provider extension process of the Nextcloud desktop client, the debugger connected just fine — but every single breakpoint was displayed hollow and in dashes which means Xcode cannot associate the position with a line of code on disk. Tracking down the root cause turned into quite the adventure.

Nextcloud Desktop Client Size Analysis

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:30:00 +0100

A question I encounter regularly from users is why the Nextcloud Desktop Client is so large. After all, it’s “just” a file synchronization app, right? Let me explain what’s actually inside that 945 MB application bundle by inspecting the 4.0.6 release with file provider extension for macOS.

Nextcloud Docker Container Commandline

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:00:06 +0100

A snippet to quickly open a bash session as www-data in a Nextcloud Docker container.

Model Conversion Implementations

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:09:57 +0100

Having one semantic data model but two different types for implementation to separate domains and architecture layers brings up the question: where to put the conversion code?

Signing Arbitrary macOS Bundle Identifiers

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 15:07:26 +0200

If you’re shipping apps for both iOS and macOS, you’ve probably noticed that registering bundle identifiers with your developer team is necessary for iOS only.

iOS Shortcut to App Store Releases

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:11:01 +0200

I frequently have to install different builds of the same app, including the latest App Store release. With an iOS shortcut workflow it is reduced to two taps.

Virtual Ubuntu on Apple Silicon

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:17:32 +0100

I figured out how I can run Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat (LTS) on an Apple Silicon Mac for free with UTM Virtual Machines while also having hardware accelerated graphics.

German Nextcloud Localizations

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:49:41 +0100

While opening a pull request to fix a minor issue in the localization process of the Nextcloud Notes app for iOS I learned why de localizations must be overwritten with de_DE.

Docker Compose Testcloud

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:22:36 +0100

Frequently I need a clean throwaway deployment of Nextcloud to quickly reproduce bugs or have an isolated back end for client development and automated testing. This is the next level.

Easy Nextcloud Test Container

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 15:13:40 +0100

How to quickly and easily spin up a Docker container with Nextcloud for testing core features quickly.

Federated Nextcloud Development Environment

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:33:56 +0100

Verifying one feature I had to implement requires two Nextcloud development instances talking to each other. This is how I figured it out.

Back From Parental Leave

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 22:00:00 +0100

I was on parental leave for the last three months and in regard to the main topic of this blog they went differently than I expected.

iPad Pro 11-inch M4 (2024)

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:00:00 +0000

I bought an iPad Pro with a 11-inch display and the latest M4 chip and was surprised and pleased.

What's new in Xcode 16

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:49:44 +0200

No big thing worth mentioning for me - except one.

What's new in AppKit (2024)

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:18:25 +0200

Small but useful improvements in the name of convergence. Nothing amazing, though.

Swift Testing

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:30:00 +0200

During WWDC24, Apple finally introduced a “swifty” test framework to replace XCTest.

WWDC24

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 09:00:00 +0200

This is my personal and subjective summary of Apple’s keynote and state of the union during its worldwide developer conference 2024.

Workers Instead of Managers

Sat, 18 May 2024 15:08:53 +0200

Breaking down individual features of domain-oriented managers into dedicated implementations improves developer experience.

SwiftUI Platform-Dependent Padding Modifier

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 22:57:56 +0100

Some SwiftUI views I have require padding one platform and none on the other. To avoid preprocessor switches everywhere I created a custom view modifier for it.

File Provider Domain Connection to File Provider Domain

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 10:10:53 +0100

We need file provider extension processes to talk to each other. What first appeared to be prevented by sandbox on iOS works with a different API.

Logging and Signposting Taxonomy in Concurrency

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 07:28:09 +0100

Having a file provider extension with multiple domains and processes and even more enumerators logging in parallel can become a mess. Leveraging the subsystem and category fields to the rescue.

fileproviderctl Changes in macOS 14.4

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:01:53 +0100

Apparently, the feature set of fileproviderctl has been narrowed down to the dismay of developers, testers and even administrators and it appears to be intentional.

MD5 Performance Test App

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:05:08 +0100

Out of necessity I created a minimalistic SwiftUI app which performs MD5 hashing to get a rough feeling how efficient it is on Apple devices.

Result Builders To Mock File System

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:43:06 +0100

I need to maintain a virtual file system in a CoreData database. Setting up test scenarios is tiresome, so I made use of result builders and its nice.

Convenient NSPredicate Initializers

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:04:20 +0100

There is a better way than to repeat the same or similar NSPredicate all the time and it is very nice to read.

Execution Order of Multiple Defer Blocks

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 09:51:55 +0100

I rarely need to use defer blocks and mostly it is for ending signpost intervals. I checked the possible situation of having multiple and in which order they are executed.

Signposting Macro

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0100

I was very excited about macros because they allow the reduction of boilerplate code like handling signposts. This macro reduces signposting in a method to a single word expression.

FileManager Throws Error on Getting File Provider Services

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:00:00 +0100

I found out how to successfully get replicated file provider services by URL on iOS which previously was impossible due to FileManager throwing a cryptic error.

@preconcurrency Imports

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0100

This is one of the things I do not find when I am looking for them but only later by accident. When Xcode is reports warning with strict concurrency checks enabled and they are about Apple’s own frameworks, they might be what you are looking for.

Asynchronous Throwing XPC Protocols

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 09:30:00 +0100

I always thought that @objc protocols put constraints on protocol definitions that make the use of async and throws impossible. Don’t ask me why. It actually is not necessary to use completion handlers. async throws methods can be used instead.

fileproviderctl Is Broken on macOS 13.6 Ventura

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0100

macOS 13.6 Ventura shipped a fileproviderctl binary with broken signing which rendered it useless and us unable to properly clean up the environment.

macOS fileproviderctl Is Your Friend

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 18:00:00 +0100

Developing a file provider for macOS is more pleasant developer experience than for iOS. At least in my opinion. One of the reasons is the availabilty of helpful command-line tools like fileproviderctl.

macOS Color Palettes

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:00:00 +0100

A quick note how to create, find and backup custom color palettes on macOS.

Reveal Logs on macOS Sonoma

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0100

While I am still convinced the unified logging system is great, the masking of value interpolations gets into my way often enough, too. The way to unmask those values has changed drastically from macOS release to macOS release.

Why I Chose CoreData Instead of SwiftData

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0100

SwiftData is very neat. Concise, simple and fast. I quickly hit show stoppers, though.

Documentation Comments on Test Methods

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

I just want to share a minor inspiration which might help in daily business with unit tests.

@Attribute(.unique) Causes Model Replacement

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

While making my first experiences with SwiftData, I also used @Attribute(.unique) on a model property. I expected model insertion to throw an error or crash in case this constraint is violated. The actual behaviour was rather surprising.

Logging Macro

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:14:57 +0100

With the introduction of Swift macros in 2023, I have came across a few situations in which they have become useful. One is the reduction of boilerplate code. In example the automatic declaration of a Logger property on a type.

Nonisolated Extension Functions

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

With strict concurrency checking enabled in an Xcode project, I encountered a warning while using URLSession.