[BUG] CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar causes app to fail on iOS Testflight

[needledrag]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [X] I have searched the existing issues

Did you read the "Reporting a bug" section on Contributing file?

• [X] I have read the "Reporting a bug" section on Contributing file: https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/Maui/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#reporting-a-bug

Current Behavior

I've tested my .net Maui app in Android and iOS, debug, release and on device, Android now in Closed Testing on Google Play. Just uploaded to App Connect and testing on a device using TestFlight.

On both devices I get the error in appcenter as the app loads the splash screen and goes blank:

  "exception": {
    "type": "System.InvalidOperationException",
    "message": "RootViewController cannot be null",
    "stackTrace": "   at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.UpdateStatusBarAppearance(UIWindow window)\n   at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.PlatformSetColor(Color color)\n   at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetColor(Color color)\n   at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Behaviors.StatusBarBehavior.OnPropertyChanged(String propertyName)\n   at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValueActual(BindableProperty property, BindablePropertyContext context, Object value, Boolean currentlyApplying, SetValueFlags attributes, Boolean silent)\n   at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValueCore(BindableProperty property, Object value, SetValueFlags attributes, SetValuePrivateFlags privateAttributes)\n   at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValue(BindableProperty property, Object value, Boolean fromStyle, Boolean checkAccess)\n   at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValue(BindableProperty property, Object value)\n   at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Behaviors.StatusBarBehavior.set_StatusBarColor(Color value)\n   at InkflowApp.Views.Base.PageBase.InitializeComponent()\n   at InkflowApp.Views.Base.PageBase..ctor()\n   at InkflowApp.Views.Base.ViewBase`1[[InkflowApp.ViewModels.Home.IntroViewModel, InkflowApp, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]]..ctor()\n   at InkflowApp.Views.Home.IntroView..ctor()\n   at InkflowApp.ViewModels.Home.InitViewModel.OnNavigatedTo(Object parameters)",
    "wrapperSdkName": "appcenter.xamarin"
  }

I have the following code in my PageBase which every page is based off <Page.Behaviors> <mct:StatusBarBehavior StatusBarColor="{StaticResource AppPrimaryBGColour}" StatusBarStyle="DarkContent"/> </Page.Behaviors>

I've read in the MS docs that this should be set in Behaviors as putting it in the class constructor or OnNavigatedTo (or OnAppearing) can cause problems if platform specific components haven't been initialised.

As I mentioned, this works in debug, on device and in release mode for both Android an iOS and published in Android, it just seems to be on publishing the iOS app this occurs every time.

Expected Behavior

Statusbar colour is set and app proceeds as expected to load the page.

Steps To Reproduce

As everything works in dev and release you'd need to depoly an app to the App Connect and test in Test Flight as this seems to be the only place I can reproduce it.

Link to public reproduction project repository

Unable to reproduce except in Test Flight

Environment

- .NET MAUI CommunityToolkit: 5.3
- OS: iOS 14.4.2
- .NET MAUI: 7

Anything else?

Any help or known workaround would be greatly appreciated.

[ghost]

Hi @needledrag. We have added the "needs reproduction" label to this issue, which indicates that we cannot take further action. This issue will be closed automatically in 5 days if we do not hear back from you by then - please feel free to re-open it if you come back to this issue after that time.

[pictos]

@needledrag can you reproduce this using release mode, with the same configurations that you use to build the test flight app?

[needledrag]

Unfortunately not, it all works in release mode and even on a connected device. It's only when I install a published build from App Connect that this occurs. I've even tried to install on the same device that it worked on when testing the release mode and it fails. If all else fails I guess I could change the info.plist and set the Status bar style there directly?

[pictos]

@needledrag is your app using TabPage or Shell?

[needledrag]

Shell

[pictos]

@needledrag for now, you can try to set the value on info.plist, probably it's caused by some issue around the initialization. This was working before?

[needledrag]

It works in all other environments and on an Android published app but this is the first time I've published the iOS app to App Connect.

[evgenyKozlov1996]

Verified the issue. Visual Studio 2022 v17.8.5 .NET MAUI 8 CommunityToolkit v7.0.1 iOS 17.3 IPhone 13 Pro Max

Steps to reproduce:

• Build iOS Debug version and deploy it to the real device.
• App will be opened successfully.
• Close the app and detach the debugger.
• Open the app from IPhone. App will show loading screen and crash when trying to open the first page.

P.S.: Maybe this issue is related to using ReactiveUI for MAUI

[needledrag]

I had to remove the toolkit StatusBarBehavior for iOS builds to get around this

[bijington]

Verified the issue.

Visual Studio 2022 v17.8.5

.NET MAUI 8

CommunityToolkit v7.0.1

iOS 17.3

IPhone 13 Pro Max

Steps to reproduce:

• Build iOS Debug version and deploy it to the real device.

• App will be opened successfully.

• Close the app and detach the debugger.

• Open the app from IPhone. App will show loading screen and crash when trying to open the first page.

P.S.: Maybe this issue is related to using ReactiveUI for MAUI

If you follow the same steps with the sample app do you see the same crash?

[canmjp1]

I am experiencing the same thing. Has there been a fix for this yet?

[AndrewMiller34]

Verified the issue. Visual Studio 2022 17.10.0 Preview 2.0 NET MAUI 8 CommunityToolkit v7.0.1 iOS 17.4.1 iPhone 12

Steps to reproduce:

• Connect physical phone with USB and setup local device for debugging
• Build iOS and start with debugger
• App works perfectly fine
• Close app and stop debugger
• Open app again and crashes as soon as it hits a page with StatusBarBehvior implemented

When I try to add the behavior in the xaml.cs instead, it actually gives me a warning saying it's unsupported for iOS and Windows; but the docs are not agreeing.

I've included the required info.plist key according to the docs: <key>UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance</key> <false/>

Works fine for Android and while debugging. But whether it's a Release or Debug build it will not run on the physical iPhone without the debugger attached.

[Blinchik91]

same here, still not fixed or working with .NET 8 and SimpleToolkit.SimpleShell in my case. If I remove the StatusbarBehavior it works like mentioned

I had to remove the toolkit StatusBarBehavior for iOS builds to get around this

[thedee]

I am also getting the error doing this on the constructor on a ContentPage:

this.Behaviors.Add(new StatusBarBehavior
{
    StatusBarColor = ColorResources.HeaderColor
});

Works fine when debugging but it errors when doing an Ad-Hoc build and installing it through iTunes on the device.

[canmjp1]

My workaround for this was adding this to the App OnStart()

CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetColor(Color.FromArgb("#1190ca")); CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetStyle(CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.StatusBarStyle.LightContent);

[eddieyanez]

I've had this issue when using the behaviour directly on AppShell.xaml rather than on the ContentPage. To fix that, I've applied the behaviour to the pages rather than shell.

[lhughey]

Experiencing this issue ONLY on the first startup page. Pages that are navigated to from that beginning page are working fine. Odd.

[AmaluThomas]

I've had this issue when using the behaviour directly on AppShell.xaml rather than on the ContentPage. To fix that, I've applied the behaviour to the pages rather than shell.

Even in contentpage on release mode it crashes that is in testflight.

Is there any other solution?

[AmaluThomas]

My workaround for this was adding this to the App OnStart()

CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetColor(Color.FromArgb("#1190ca")); CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetStyle(CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.StatusBarStyle.LightContent);

Are you able to upload to testflight without any crash?

[AmaluThomas]

Fixed the status bar issues and was successfully able to build app:

(https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1341985/net-maui-how-to-change-status-bar-and-navigation-b)

[mackayn]

Noticed this as well in Release mode in iOS, the first page navigation will crash with the attached status bar behavior. Cobbled together this workaround as I only wanted to set the set the color once, it sets the status bar more than once but need something quick that was reliable, This is a MAUI app that doesn't use shell.

    public partial class AppNavigationPage
    {
        private bool _isRendered;

        public AppNavigationPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        protected override void OnHandlerChanged()
        {
            base.OnHandlerChanged();
            RepaintStatusBar();
        }

        protected override void OnAppearing()
        {
            base.OnAppearing();
            RepaintStatusBar();
            _isRendered = true;
        }

        protected override void OnSizeAllocated(double width, double height)
        {
            base.OnSizeAllocated(width, height);
            if (_isRendered)
            {
                RepaintStatusBar();
            }
        }

#if IOS
        private static void UpdateStatusBarAppearance(UIWindow? window)
        {
            var vc = window?.RootViewController ?? WindowStateManager.Default.GetCurrentUIViewController();
            if (vc != null)
            {
                while (vc.PresentedViewController is not null)
                {
                    vc = vc.PresentedViewController;
                }

                vc.SetNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate();
            }
        }
#endif
        private void RepaintStatusBar()
        {
#if IOS
            var statusBarTag = new IntPtr(38482);
            if (GetParentWindow()?.Handler?.PlatformView is UIWindow window)
            {
                var topPadding = window?.SafeAreaInsets.Top ?? 0;

                var statusBar = new UIView(new CoreGraphics.CGRect(0, 0, UIScreen.MainScreen.Bounds.Size.Width, topPadding))
                {
                    BackgroundColor = ResourceHelper.GetNamedResourceColor("NavigationBarBackgroundColor").ToPlatform(),
                    Tag = statusBarTag,
                };

                var statusBarSubViews = window.Subviews.Where(x => x.Tag == statusBarTag).ToList();
                foreach (var statusBarSubView in statusBarSubViews)
                {
                    statusBarSubView.RemoveFromSuperview();
                }

                window.AddSubview(statusBar);

                UpdateStatusBarAppearance(window);
            }
#endif
        }
    }

[vhugogarcia]

Thanks @mackayn and @AmaluThomas for sharing your results and workarounds.

It is hard for us to reproduce this issue by using the MCT sample app. If we run the sample app on DEBUG or RELEASE mode everything works as expected. However, @needledrag mentioned it only fails when the app is published to TestFlight on iOS.

If it is possible from any participant on this issues to share here the Error Stack Trace, maybe from Sentry or Firebase Crashlytics or any other third party error handler service that give us more insights will be fantastic, please.

I'm closing this issue for now. We can re-open it if needed in the future.

[Confusedfish]

I too am hitting this problem in that using the StatusBarBehaviour works as expected in debug but all production builds crash on startup on both Android and iOS. Using a local release build does not have the same problem, it only happens after the build and packaging process.

I am using:

• CommunityToolkit.Maui 9.0.3
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm 8.2.2
• Microsoft.Maui.Controls 8.0.80
• Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility 8.0.80

The stack trace captured on iOS is as follows:

System.NotSupportedException: PlatformSetColor is only supported on iOS and Android 23 and later at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.Platform.StatusBar.SetColor(Color color) at CommunityToolkit.Maui.Behaviors.StatusBarBehavior.OnPropertyChanged(String propertyName) at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValueActual(BindableProperty property, BindablePropertyContext context, Object value, Boolean currentlyApplying, SetValueFlags attributes, SetterSpecificity specificity, Boolean silent) at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValueCore(BindableProperty property, Object value, SetValueFlags attributes, SetValuePrivateFlags privateAttributes, SetterSpecificity specificity) at Microsoft.Maui.Controls.BindableObject.SetValue(BindableProperty property, Object value)

I note that the exception text comes from StatusBar.net.cs not StatusBar.ios.cs. Could this be a packaging issue? I am not sure why StatusBar.net.cs would be being included on an Android / iOS build.

If I copy out the relevant code from StatusBar.Android.cs and StatusBar.ios.cs into my own solution and use that code to change the status bar color then I have no problems.

How can I help diagnose this problem?

[mackayn]

Not sure why this one was closed, all you have to do is compile the iOS client in release config and it'll explode the app, I don't know if it applies the styling too early, the handler events can be a little unreliable.

[Confusedfish]

Not sure why this one was closed, all you have to do is compile the iOS client in release config and it'll explode the app, I don't know if it applies the styling too early, the handler events can be a little unreliable.

That's strange. I could compile a release build and deploy to a local device and not get the exception. What version of the NuGet are you on when you get the problem?

[bijington]

A duplicate issue was recently closed because updates to VS solved the issue: https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/Maui/issues/2136 it might help?

[mackayn]

Not sure why this one was closed, all you have to do is compile the iOS client in release config and it'll explode the app, I don't know if it applies the styling too early, the handler events can be a little unreliable.

That's strange. I could compile a release build and deploy to a local device and not get the exception. What version of the NuGet are you on when you get the problem?

9.0.2.

[Confusedfish]

I do get slightly different behaviour on 9.0.3 relating to supporting the transparent status bar. Do you get the same problem even on the latest NuGet?

[mackayn]

I tested against artifacts built in release config on macOS13 via devops pipelines, I've worked around it in two slightly different ways on 2 different apps via a dependency service and the workaround above in the nav page.

[bijington]

@Confusedfish that is very interesting! I Out of interest are you building a single project app or do you have class libraries also within your solution? I am just trying to determine how the target of net8.0 might be used over net8.0-ios