FileImporter / UIDocumentPickerViewController not showing contents

Question

Both the .fileImporter function (in SwiftUI) and the UIDocumentPickerViewController are shown as intended, but the do not show any contents. Instead it says: "Content not available" on the Shared and Recent Icons and "My iPhone is empty" on the Browse Icon.

How did I implement them? .fileImporter:

var body: some View {
    VStack {
        // ...
    }.padding(.horizontal, 25)
        .fileImporter(isPresented: $selectingFile, allowedContentTypes: [.item], onCompletion: { _ in })
}

UIDocumentPickerViewController:

struct ImportDocumentView: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> some UIViewController {
        let controller = UIDocumentPickerViewController(forOpeningContentTypes: [.item])
        controller.allowsMultipleSelection = false
        return controller
    }

    func updateUIViewController(_ uiViewController: UIViewControllerType, context: Context) {}
}

What I thought could be the problems:

Wrong UTType -> tried a load of different options there; none helped.
Emulator Problem -> I don't have an iPhone to test this. I need to make it work in the emulator. Other people had problems with the emulator, but not showing any data was not one of them.
Access Permissions -> In my understanding I should at least have access to the app specific folder, but even that is not showing. I also tried to set "NSFileProviderDomainAccess" in Info.plist, but that didn't work either. (I might have done something wrong in the process though)

What is the UTType for the `.item` content type in your code example? Do you have any items to open in the Simulator that have the `.item` content type? Do you have an imported UTI for your document whose identifier matches the UTType for `.item`? — Swift Dev Journal, May 10 '23 at 21:45
I saw someone saying online that .item is meant for folders. I also tried .pdf (which is definitely there), .folder, .txt, .readme and so on. Nothing changed the outcome :( — Simon Lemcke, May 11 '23 at 06:41
Please do not add answers to the question body itself. Instead, you should add it as an answer. [Answering your own question is allowed and even encouraged](https://stackoverflow.com/help/self-answer). — Adriaan, May 11 '23 at 13:59

Simon Lemcke · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-12T09:10:13.400

I found the answer to my own question: I had to "import UniformTypeIdentifiers"

Xcode doesn't complain about not having it, it just doesn't show any files or folders. Only indicator was a different color for the element in the allowedContentTypes: [] collection.

Edit: For those still not seeing much: the Xcode iPhone Simulator doesn't have any example/inital files or folders in there. I'd recommend to create a folder with the files app on the phone to see some feedback. If you want files in there use Swift's fileExporter.

FileImporter / UIDocumentPickerViewController not showing contents

1 Answers1