Tag Archives: NSPersistentStoreCoordinator

How to migrate your persistent store from one location to another

iOS Development, ,

Sometimes you need to change your NSPersistentStore file from one location to another. Or you want to add other options that the old store didn’t have (for example, add iCloud or turn an XML store into an SQLite store). In those cases you can migrate the current store.

Typically this is done by leaving the existing store as is, creating a new store with new properties. Then we’ll tell the NSPersistentStoreCoordinator about our plan, and he’ll swap out the store for us.

Here’s an example: I’ve created a Master/Detail Test App with Core Data and added a few records. All looks good. My persistent store was created by default like this – as provided by the template in AppDelegate.m:

Now I’d like to change the location of the store to a new URL. While I’m at it I could add a new options dictionary – but I won’t show that here, because I’m pretty sure you know how that works 😉

Here’s a method I’m using for the migration:

You can check if the migration has worked by writing out the URL before and after the migration. At this point the old store is no longer in use. If you’d like to go back it it at any time, simply perform another migration.

Demo Project

I’ve added a demo project on GitHub which demonstrates this:

How to test why your iCloud Core Data store was changed

iOS Development, , ,

When you’re using iCloud with Core Data you need to subscribe and react to the NSPersistentStoreCoordinatorStoresDidChange notification. This will tell you when Core Data was able to transition off the “fake” store and is using the “real” store. It will coincide with the log entry “Using local storage: 0”.

Sometimes you need to know why this has happened so you can react accordingly. Here’s how:

When you react to the above, bring the notification object into your even handler method. This will let you query its userInfo dictionary which will hold the key to why the stores have been changed:

Here we grab the NSPersistentStoreTransitionKeyType entry from the userInfo dictionary. It’s an NSNumber, enumerated to four keys. To test those with a switch statement I’m converting the NSNumber into an int.

Use this to check if an iCloud account has been changed, or if this is the first time an iCloud store has been started on the current device.

I’m explaining this as part of my screencast about using iCloud and Core Data:

What is Cocoa error 134140

iOS Development,

This error can happen if you have several Core Data Model Versions and no Mapping Model. In a nutshell Core Data is telling you that it cannot infer your changes automatically when you add these options to the NSPersistentStoreCoordinator:

If you get this error you need to provide a Core Data Mapping Model. Note that in Xocde 4.x said file must for heavens sake not be in a group or subfolder, otherwise the universe as we know it will seize to exist.