Unable to scan for iBeacons on macOS - macos

Question

I am attempting a very simple AppKit app on MacOS which displays nearby iBeacons.
I don't appear to ever have region scanning available on my system though. Am I doing something wrong?
FYI: My system is a MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) running Catalina (10.15.7)
The target has 'Bluetooth' and 'App Location' enabled in the 'App Sandbox' capabilities section and 'Location' enabled under 'Hardened Runtime'.
The code below always gives the following:
LM Auth Status is now: Authorised Always
Beacon monitoring is not available
starting scanning
region monitoring failed: Error Domain=kCLErrorDomain Code=5 "(null)"
// ViewController.swift
// Beacons
import Cocoa
import CoreLocation
class ViewController: NSViewController, CLLocationManagerDelegate {
var locationManager: CLLocationManager!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
locationManager = CLLocationManager()
locationManager.requestAlwaysAuthorization()
locationManager.delegate = self
}
#IBAction func buttonTapped(_ sender: NSButton) {
self.startScanning()
}
override var representedObject: Any? {
didSet {
// Update the view, if already loaded.
}
}
func startScanning() {
print("starting scanning")
//UUID Obscured for forum post...
guard let uuid = UUID(uuidString: "xxxxxxxx-E4A1-4720-9034-xxxxxxxxxxxx") else {
print("Couldn't make UUID")
return
}
let beaconID = "com.monkeyfood.myBeaconRegion"
let beaconRegion = CLBeaconRegion(uuid: uuid, identifier: beaconID)
// let beaconRegion = CLBeaconRegion(uuid: UUID(), identifier: beaconID)
self.locationManager.startMonitoring(for: beaconRegion)
}
//. CLLocationManagerDelegate Methods
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didChangeAuthorization status: CLAuthorizationStatus) {
var newStatus = ""
switch status {
case .notDetermined:
newStatus = "Not determined"
case .restricted:
newStatus = "Restricted"
case .denied:
newStatus = "Denied"
case .authorizedAlways:
newStatus = "Authorised Always"
case .authorized:
newStatus = "Authorised"
default:
newStatus = "What?"
}
print("LM Auth Status is now: \(newStatus)")
// Check for iBeacon monitoring status
let regionMonitoringIsAvailable = CLLocationManager.isMonitoringAvailable(for: CLBeaconRegion.self)
let not = regionMonitoringIsAvailable ? "" : "not "
print("Beacon monitoring is \(not)available")
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didRangeBeacons beacons: [CLBeacon], in region: CLBeaconRegion) {
if beacons.count > 0 {
// updateDistance(beacons[0].proximity)
print("\(beacons.count) beacons found.")
print("\(beacons[0].proximity) dist.")
} else {
// updateDistance(.unknown)
}
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didEnterRegion region: CLRegion) {
print("region entered... \(region)")
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didExitRegion region: CLRegion) {
print("region exited... \(region)")
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didDetermineState state: CLRegionState, for region: CLRegion) {
print("determined region state")
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, monitoringDidFailFor region: CLRegion?, withError error: Error) {
print("region monitoring failed: \(error)")
}
func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didFailWithError error: Error) {
print("LM failed \(error)")
}
}

Answer 1

I do not believe that Beacon monitoring with CoreLocation works on any MacOS version.
I looked at the class docs to confirm this and was surprised to see that the CLBeacon class docs do say it is supported on MacOS 10.15+. I don't know if this is a mistake, or simply an indication that the SDKs for MacOS 10.15+ support these classes even though you can't really use them.
The last time I worked with these APIs on MacOS was in 2018 when MacOS 2.14 was new. Back then, I had to use CoreBluetooth to do raw BLE advertisement scanning on MacOS and parse out beacons myself. I doubt anything has changed since then. I do not remember hearing anything about beacon support being added to MacOS, and just doing a quick search now, I can find no discussion of this starting with WWDC 2019. I doubt I missed such a change, but I would be thrilled to learn that I did!