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rubikwizard

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 9, 2023
26
9
I have created 5 web apps, 4 of which play sounds. All worked perfectly on iOS 18, but since iOS 26 I am having issues.

Basically they all work fine when used directly in Safari browser. The issue is when they are installed as a progressive web app (PWA) by adding to the home screen. Once installed they work correctly only once. After first use the audio breaks, and it breaks for the others too even if they have never been opened, suggesting an OS bug. Force closing doesn't help. It seems that the only way I can get them to play sound again is by deleting all data in Safari settings. Power cycling sometimes fixes temporarily too. Uninstalling and re-installing does not work unless all safari data is deleted in settings.

Strangely, even when the audio fails, it still works fine opening directly in Safari, rather than from the PWA.

Even when the sound plays on first use if I close the app during sound playing it sometimes makes a strange sound, like something is broken / crashing. That also never happened on iOS 18. Occasionally the sound works for two launches, but as soon as the strange sound is heard it breaks.

The apps in question are here https://www.korovatron.co.uk/

I was wondering if anyone else had experienced similar issues? It also started on iPad immediately after updating.
 
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Other people have now reported similar behavior to me. I have logged an issue with Apple through their feedback pages, but don't know if that is actively monitored. There is definitely a bug here though.
 
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I have been trying other PWA games from other developers and they all seem to have similar issues with audio.
 
This has been an issue since the first beta in June. I filed feedback back in June, but Apple has yet to fix this bug. 😡
 
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Just downloading iOS 26.0.1. No mention of this issue in the notes, so not holding my breath
 
I'm dealing with the same issue with several of my PWAs. One is a chess clock that emits a sound when a player's time is up, and another is an MP3 player. Both work great on Android, but on iOS 26, neither reliably emits audio.
Restarting my iPhone does seem to make them work... once. After you close and reopen them, audio won't play (until you restart the phone again).

The mp3 player PWA also has an issue where it won't proceed to the next song if the screen is locked. It just finishes the current song, then, once the screen is unlocked, begins playing the next song, which kinda defeats the purpose for me...

The crazy thing is that both of these work flawlessly when opened through the browser. Frustrating to say the least.

@rubikwizard, I gave your retrogames a try, they were lots of fun! Do you have a link to the bug report you submitted to Apple? I'd be happy to chime in with my experiences.
 
@hunterirving Thanks for the feedback! I had a lot of fun making them!

I only submitted the bug report via Apple Feedback https://www.apple.com/feedback/

I'm starting to think they are never going to fix it. I agree it is so annoying when there is nothing wrong with our code - it works on Safari fine and every other platform, but iOS 26 broke it when in PWA mode. :mad: All older iOS versions had no issues at all.
 
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