Allowing background audio with Swift not working

Question

I want to allow background audio while the app is not in focus. I currently have this code, which should allow that:

do {
    try AKSettings.setSession(category: .playback, with: .mixWithOthers)
} catch {
    print("error")
}
AKSettings.playbackWhileMuted = true

I also have the setting 'Audio, Airplay and Picture in Picture' enabled in capabilities settings. However, when I press the home button on my device the audio doesn't keep playing. What am I doing wrong? I am using AudioKit to produce sounds if that matters.

I am using a singleton to house all of the AudioKit components which I named AudioPlayer.swift. Here is what I have in my AudioPlayer.swift singleton file:

class AudioPlayer: NSObject {
    var currentFrequency = String()
    var soundIsPlaying = false

    var leftOscillator = AKOscillator()
    var rightOscillator = AKOscillator()

    var rain = try! AKAudioFile()
    var rainPlayer: AKAudioPlayer!

    var envelope = AKAmplitudeEnvelope()

    override init() {
        super.init()

        do {
            try AKSettings.setSession(category: .playback, with: .mixWithOthers)
        } catch {
            print("error")
        }
        AKSettings.playbackWhileMuted = true

        AudioKit.output = envelope
        AudioKit.start()
    }

    func setupFrequency(left: AKOscillator, right: AKOscillator, frequency: String) {
        currentFrequency = frequency

        leftOscillator = left
        rightOscillator = right

        let leftPanner = AKPanner(leftOscillator)
        leftPanner.pan = -1

        let rightPanner = AKPanner(rightOscillator)
        rightPanner.pan = 1

        //Set up rain and rainPlayer
        do { 
            rain = try AKAudioFile(readFileName: "rain.wav")
            rainPlayer = try AKAudioPlayer(file: rain, looping: true, deferBuffering: false, completionHandler: nil)
        } catch { print(error) }

        let mixer = AKMixer(leftPanner, rightPanner, rainPlayer)

        //Put mixer in sound envelope
        envelope = AKAmplitudeEnvelope(mixer)
        envelope.attackDuration = 2.0
        envelope.decayDuration = 0
        envelope.sustainLevel = 1
        envelope.releaseDuration = 0.2

        //Start AudioKit stuff
        AudioKit.output = envelope
        AudioKit.start()
        leftOscillator.start()
        rightOscillator.start()
        rainPlayer.start()
        envelope.start()
        soundIsPlaying = true
    }
}

And here is an example of one of my sound effect view controllers, which reference the AudioKit singleton to send it a certain frequency (I have about a dozen of these view controllers, each with its own frequency settings):

class CalmView: UIViewController {
    let leftOscillator = AKOscillator()
    let rightOscillator = AKOscillator()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        leftOscillator.amplitude = 0.3
        leftOscillator.frequency = 220

        rightOscillator.amplitude = 0.3
        rightOscillator.frequency = 230
    }

    @IBAction func playSound(_ sender: Any) {
        if shared.soundIsPlaying == false {
            AudioKit.stop()
            shared.setupFrequency(left: leftOscillator, right: rightOscillator, frequency: "Calm")
        } else if shared.soundIsPlaying == true && shared.currentFrequency != "Calm" {
            AudioKit.stop()
            shared.leftOscillator.stop()
            shared.rightOscillator.stop()
            shared.rainPlayer.stop()
            shared.envelope.stop()
            shared.setupFrequency(left: leftOscillator, right: rightOscillator, frequency: "Calm")
        } else {
            shared.soundIsPlaying = false
            shared.envelope.stop()
        }
    }
}

I instantiated the AudioPlayer singleton in my ViewController.swift file.

Answer 1

It depends on when you are doing your configuration in relation to when AudioKit is started. If you're using AudioKit you should be using its AKSettings to manage your session category. Basically not only the playback category but also mixWithOthers. By default, does this:

/// Set the audio session type
@objc open static func setSession(category: SessionCategory,
                            with options: AVAudioSessionCategoryOptions = [.mixWithOthers]) throws {

So you'd do something like this in your ViewController:

    do {
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            try AKSettings.setSession(category: .playAndRecord, with: [.defaultToSpeaker, .allowBluetooth, .allowBluetoothA2DP])
        } else {
            // Fallback on earlier versions
        }
    } catch {
        print("Errored setting category.")
    }

So I think its a matter of getting that straight. It might also help to have inter-app audio set up. If you still have trouble and provide more information, I can help more, but this is as good an answer as I can muster based on the info you've given so far.