NDEF stopped working on IOS 14.6

[Gustavo.Laureano]

Hi,

We have a product on the field using an ST25DV tag with NDEF records, and we also developed an IOS app to interact with it, now, after updating to IOS 14.6, our app stopped working, this is what we discovered so far:

• Both our App and the IOS ST App (V3.1, latest) stopped detecting our product (on the ST app only on the "Read NDEF" button, the "Read Tag" button still finds it)
• This is not a problem with an invalid NDEF, I also tested with other ST25DV tags formatted and created with different NFC apps, including the ST app
• This problem seems to affect only ISO 15693 tags, I tested with an M24SR tag (ISO 14443), and both our app and the ST app were able to detect it

Is ST already aware of this problem? Does anyone knows if is there any workaround for the app to work again? we started receiving complains from customers and the situation will escalate quickly if we don't find a solution.

Any help from ST will be appreciated!

Thanks

Gustavo

[victor laraison · Accepted solution]

I confirm that using NFCTagReaderSession  works fine, both for reading and writing NDEF. This is what we used in our iOS NFC Tap application when you hit button "Read Tag" , then select menu "Area Content Editor" for editing NDEF.

Otherwise, I have logged a ticket to apple for raising issue. Don't know if you have access to feedback assistant :

ref to https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/9120751

 "

Hi ,

The Latest iOS14.6 official release has introduced a major regression in the reading of NDEF message with Type5 tags only !!!

This is not a problem with an invalid NDEF or with our Tag : It was tested with other many Type5 Tags (STMicro, NXp) and tags formatted and created with different iOS NFC apps

·      This problem seems to affect only ISO 15693 tags : tested with ISO 14443A, we were able to detect it

So, Type5 tags are only impacted. Not Type4A.

How to reproduce it :

- Install the iOS14.6 or iOS14.7 beta

- Download your coreNFC reference App from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc/building_an_nfc_tag-reader_app

- Use a Type5 Tag with a NDEF Formatted message

- Run NFC Tag reader , and see that when scanning tag, NDEF is not detected.

When debugging sample code, the NFCNDEFReaderSessionDelegate is never called.

Thanks a lot for your support

"

[Gustavo.Laureano]

Thanks Victor!

I can't follow the ticket, but thanks a lot for reporting it at Apple!

We just rolled out an update to our app using the NFCTagReaderSession instead of NFCNDEFReaderSession, everything works again, as expected 🙂

Thanks for your help!

Have a nice weekend

Gustavo

[Gustavo.Laureano]

Hi @victor laraison_O​ , one more quick question!

Could you please specify what model/brand of the "NFC Spy" you use to sniff and analyze NFC traces !?

I searched for it but could not determine an exact match!

Thanks again

[victor laraison]

Hi Gustavo,

For your information, NDEF issue has been fixed in the iOS15 beta2 version.

From now, we have to wait for the next iOS14.x official release....

Thx and br,