ITMS-90809: UIWebView API Deprecation (followed all instructions, however I'm getting the deprecation message)

keber · March 26, 2020, 1:01pm

When I’m uploading a build to AppStoreConnect (to test it via TestFlight for example), I’m getting the well known deprecation message:

ITMS-90809: Deprecated API Usage - Apple will stop accepting submissions of new apps that use UIWebView APIs starting from April 2020. See UIWebView | Apple Developer Documentation for more information.

However I have followed all the instructions (e.g. from the official Ionic Blog) and don’t know what I could have missed.

What I did:

Updated all cordova plugins to the latest version (e.g. cordova-plugin-ionic-webview is now on v4.1.3; cordova-plugin-inappbrowser is on v3.2.0)
Checked Cordova Platform (it is ios 5.1.1 )
Made sure that I have <preference name="WKWebViewOnly" value="true"/> in my config.xml
Ran ionic cordova prepare ios and ionic cordova build ios

I still get the deprecation message, I already tried removing the whole ios platform and adding it again afterwards, that didn’t help.

List of cordova plugins I’m using:

card.io.cordova.mobilesdk 2.1.0 "CardIO"
com-badrit-base64 0.2.0 "Base64"
com.paypal.cordova.mobilesdk 3.5.0 "PayPalMobile"
cordova-plugin-add-swift-support 2.0.2 "AddSwiftSupport"
cordova-plugin-app-version 0.1.9 "AppVersion"
cordova-plugin-camera-with-exif 1.3.1 "cordova-plugin-camera-with-exif"
cordova-plugin-device 2.0.2 "Device"
cordova-plugin-file 6.0.2 "File"
cordova-plugin-file-opener2 2.2.1 "File Opener2"
cordova-plugin-file-transfer 1.7.1 "File Transfer"
cordova-plugin-filepath 1.5.6 "cordova-plugin-filepath"
cordova-plugin-ftp 1.1.1 "Ftp"
cordova-plugin-google-analytics 1.8.6 "Google Universal Analytics Plugin"
cordova-plugin-inappbrowser 3.2.0 "InAppBrowser"
cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.2.0 "cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard"
cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.1.3 "cordova-plugin-ionic-webview"
cordova-plugin-nativegeocoder 3.2.2 "NativeGeocoder"
cordova-plugin-splashscreen 5.0.2 "Splashscreen"
cordova-plugin-statusbar 2.4.2 "StatusBar"
cordova-plugin-taptic-engine 2.1.0 "Taptic Engine"
cordova-plugin-vibration 3.1.1 "Vibration"
cordova-plugin-whitelist 1.3.3 "Whitelist"
cordova-sqlite-storage 3.4.0 "Cordova sqlite storage plugin - cordova-sqlite-storage plugin version"
cordova.plugins.diagnostic 5.0.1 "Diagnostic"

Ionic Info:

Ionic:

   Ionic CLI                     : 5.4.16 (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ionic)
   Ionic Framework               : @ionic/angular 4.11.10
   @angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.803.21
   @angular-devkit/schematics    : 8.1.3
   @angular/cli                  : 8.1.3
   @ionic/angular-toolkit        : 2.0.0

Cordova:

   Cordova CLI       : 9.0.0 (cordova-lib@9.0.1)
   Cordova Platforms : ios 5.1.1
   Cordova Plugins   : cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.2.0, cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.1.3, (and 17 other plugins)

Utility:

   cordova-res (update available: 0.11.0) : 0.8.1
   native-run                             : 0.3.0

System:

   ios-deploy : 1.9.4
   ios-sim    : 8.0.2
   NodeJS     : v10.16.3 (/usr/local/bin/node)
   npm        : 6.14.4
   OS         : macOS Mojave
   Xcode      : Xcode 11.2.1 Build version 11B500

Does anybody have an idea what could cause the issue?
I’m about to release an app in the next couple of days/weeks.

Thank you so much in advance!

keber · March 30, 2020, 6:35am

Solved.

The deprecataion message comes from the Cordova PayPal plugin: com.paypal.cordova.mobilesdk

Alexandar · March 31, 2020, 5:23am

Hi,

As mentioned here https://ionicframework.com/blog/understanding-itms-90809-uiwebview-api-deprecation, I have updated cordova-ios to 5.1.1 latest version and updated all my Cordova plugins. Still, I got the same warning message from the Apple side. Do you have any idea, which plugin throws the deprecation message?

updated plugins list

call-number 0.0.2 “Cordova Call Number Plugin”
cordova-android-play-services-gradle-release 4.0.0 “cordova-android-play-services-gradle-release”
cordova-plugin-app-version 0.1.9 “AppVersion”
cordova-plugin-background-mode 0.7.3 “BackgroundMode”
cordova-plugin-badge 0.8.8 “Badge”
cordova-plugin-camera 4.1.0 “Camera”
cordova-plugin-device 2.0.3 “Device”
cordova-plugin-email-composer 0.9.2 “EmailComposer”
cordova-plugin-file 6.0.2 “File”
cordova-plugin-file-opener2 2.2.1 “File Opener2”
cordova-plugin-file-transfer 1.7.1 “File Transfer”
cordova-plugin-firebase 2.0.5 “Google Firebase Plugin”
cordova-plugin-globalization 1.11.0 “Globalization”
cordova-plugin-inappbrowser 3.2.0 “InAppBrowser”
cordova-plugin-ionic 5.4.6 “cordova-plugin-ionic”
cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.1.3 “cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard”
cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.1.3 “cordova-plugin-ionic-webview”
cordova-plugin-local-notification 0.9.0-beta.2 “LocalNotification”
cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation 3.0.3 “CDVBackgroundGeolocation”
cordova-plugin-network-information 2.0.2 “Network Information”
cordova-plugin-safariviewcontroller 1.6.0 “SafariViewController”
cordova-plugin-splashscreen 5.0.3 “Splashscreen”
cordova-plugin-statusbar 2.4.3 “StatusBar”
cordova-plugin-touch-id 3.3.1 “Touch ID”
cordova-plugin-whitelist 1.3.4 “Whitelist”
cordova-sqlite-storage 3.4.1 “Cordova sqlite storage plugin - cordova-sqlite-storage plugin version”

config.xml

    <access origin="http://localhost:8080/*" />
    <allow-navigation href="http://localhost:8080/*" />
    <feature name="CDVWKWebViewEngine">
        <param name="ios-package" value="CDVWKWebViewEngine" />
    </feature>
    <preference name="CordovaWebViewEngine" value="CDVWKWebViewEngine" />
    <preference name="WKWebViewOnly" value="true" />

Ionic Info:

Ionic:

Ionic CLI : 6.3.0 (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/@ionic/cli)
Ionic Framework : @ionic/angular 4.11.4
@angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.803.21
@angular-devkit/schematics : 8.3.0
@angular/cli : 8.3.0
@ionic/angular-toolkit : 2.0.0

Cordova:

Cordova CLI : 9.0.0 (cordova-lib@9.0.1)
Cordova Platforms : android 8.1.0, ios 5.1.0
Cordova Plugins : cordova-plugin-ionic 5.4.6, cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.1.3, cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.1.3, (and 20 other plugins)

Utility:

cordova-res (update available: 0.11.0) : 0.6.0
native-run (update available: 0.3.0) : 0.2.8

System:

Android SDK Tools : 26.1.1 (/Users/sys-user/Library/Android/sdk)
ios-deploy : 1.9.4
ios-sim : 8.0.2
NodeJS : v10.16.1 (/usr/local/bin/node)
npm : 6.9.0
OS : macOS Catalina
Xcode : Xcode 11.2.1 Build version 11B500

keber · March 31, 2020, 6:21am

Unfortunately I can’t tell which of your plugins is responsible for the deprecation message.

My best bet would be one of the “non-Ionic” or even deprecated plugins you’re using.

What I did was:

Do a research if one of your plugins is referencing to UiWebView.
Check the plugin’s repositories and check the latest updates (plugins which haven’t been updated for three years probably won’t have a fix for the UiWebView.)
Create a new Ionic app and install the plugins you have used one by one (or maybe five at once), submit them and identify which is causing the issue.

I know it’s annoying and takes time, but I fear there’s no quicker way.

Good luck!

hupptech · May 11, 2020, 5:43am

@keber Can you please tell how it solved I used Cordova PayPal plugin: com.paypal.cordova.mobilesdk and I am getting this warning and can’t upload build as well to iTunes.

keber · May 11, 2020, 5:57am

Unfortunately the Cordova PayPal plugin is deprecated, therefore don’t expect a fix.
Currently there’s no solution other than switching to a different payment provider such as BrainTree (which supports PayPal) or Stripe.

hupptech · May 14, 2020, 5:07am

BrainTree cordova plugin also outdated and not active, I will never prefer ionic when there is payment integration in app.

keber · May 14, 2020, 6:28am

Oh, that doesn’t sound good. I didn’t try BrainTree yet but it’s praised as a working solution (at least in the Ionic docs). Let’s hope there are updates very soon!
As of December 2020, we can’t even update applications using the deprecated UiWebView.

AnjaliJ18 · June 8, 2020, 11:33am

Does Cordova razorpay plugin causes the same deprecation issue?

keber · June 10, 2020, 8:26am

I don’t know this plugin, sorry.
Try to remove it and see if the deprecation issue disappears or try to search the source code.

AnjaliJ18 · June 10, 2020, 8:46am

Thanks for the reply… I found out that… this plugin dose not cause UIWebView deprecation warning.

ladaniavadh · June 29, 2020, 3:38am

This is my cordova plugin list with its version. can you please help me to find the UIWebView using plugin. I am trying to solve from last 3 days but not getting success. Thanks in advance
“cordova-admob-sdk”: “^0.24.1”,
“cordova-android”: “^8.1.0”,
“cordova-ios”: “^5.1.1”,
“cordova-plugin-admob-free”: “^0.27.0”,
“cordova-plugin-appavailability”: “^0.4.2”,
“cordova-plugin-apprate”: “^1.5.0”,
“cordova-plugin-dialogs”: “^2.0.2”,
“cordova-plugin-geolocation”: “^4.0.2”,
“cordova-plugin-inappbrowser”: “^4.0.0”,
“cordova-plugin-ionic-webview”: “^5.0.0”,
“cordova-plugin-market”: “^1.2.0”,
“cordova-plugin-nativestorage”: “^2.3.2”,
“cordova-plugin-network-information”: “^2.0.2”,
“cordova-plugin-wkwebview-engine”: “^1.2.1”,
“cordova-plugin-x-socialsharing”: “^5.6.8”

weihangtang · August 26, 2020, 10:10pm

In case you still need help, cordova-plugin-firebase 2.0.5 is the issue in here, but it’s also the latest plugin.
I don’t know what to do.