iOS 17 Breaks USB Camera Tethering

Update 12/6/2023: Although Apple informed us that: “There is no workaround Developer Technical Support can provide”, we found a solution that’s immune to the card contents enumeration bug described below. It is released in ShutterCount Mobile 6.5.1 and ShutterCount Pro Mobile 6.5.1.

It seems Apple will also fix it in iOS/iPadOS 17.2. Please update your software accordingly. The next update to Kuuvik Capture will also contain our solution – as well as many other exciting things.

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While most professional users know that you should NEVER EVER install a dot zero version of any operating system on production devices, and that you have to evaluate all your apps on a new operating system before moving to it, I’m going to save you save some time by discussing why you should avoid updating to iOS/iPadOS 17 in case you rely on Kuuvik Capture or ShutterCount – or any other USB tethering/remote control app.

There are two separate issues. There are also workarounds for them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a pain in the ass.

Card contents enumeration is stuck at 0% when there are no images on the card, or no card in the camera

Due to peculiarities of iOS USB tethering that Apple mandates, we must enumerate card contents before connecting to a Canon EOS camera. Otherwise the camera would almost certainly crash with an ERROR 70. But in iOS 17 that enumeration never completes when you have no card in the camera or have an empty card.

And you will be greeted with the stuck progress indicator that you see on the screen shot on the right, followed by an error message that the connection cannot be established.

The workaround is to have at least one image on the card, in which case iOS will be happy to go ahead with the connection.

Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter works only if you connect the USB cable to the adapter last

If you do not obey this rule, iOS 17 will not detect the camera at all. Not even in Photos, or in any other app.

That is, you must remember to do the follwing: 1) connect the adapter to your iPhone/iPad, 2) connect the USB cable to the camera, and lastly 3) connect the other end of the USB cable to the adapter.

ShutterCount 6.2 Released with Canon EOS R7 and iPad Stage Manager Support

The latest update to my ShutterCount app is now available on the App Store. It adds the long-awaited Canon EOS R7 support as the headline feature.

This release also improves multitasking (split view and slide over) compatibility on iPad, and works with Stage Manager on iPadOS 16.

There are other small changes for Apple’s new operating systems, like following the system-wide rename of Preferences to Settings on macOS 13 and re-enabling the retrieval of the actual device name during network pairing on iOS/iPadOS 16.

So it is highly recommended to update the app if you are using these new operating systems.

The update is free for existing users, and is available on the respective App Store.

Improved Wi-Fi Pairing in ShutterCount and Kuuvik Capture

The recently released Kuuvik Capture 6 and ShutterCount 6 brings a very convenient feature for those who use both apps on the same Mac or iOS device with Wi-Fi connection to a Canon camera.

Previously only the Mac’s/iPhone’s/iPad’s name was programmed into the camera’s menu by default, and in case you used multiple wireless tethering apps with the same camera, you had to manually edit the names to be able to distinguish between the apps.

Now we prefix the device’s name with an app identifier. Kuuvik Capture is referred to as “KC”, ShutterCount as “SC” and ShutterCount Pro as “SCP”.

App and device names as programmed into the camera’s menu by our apps.

These names are generated and programmed into the camera’s menu during the pairing process, but as always, you can change them in the camera afterwards.

Kuuvik Capture 6 and ShutterCount 6 are available for your Mac and mobile device in the respective App Store. These updates are free for existing ShutterCount (all versions) and Kuuvik Capture (5.0 or later) customers.

Canon EOS R3 is Supported in ShutterCount and Kuuvik Capture

I’ve been silent on this site for the last ten months. Suing Apple, developing exciting new features (that were released but I haven’t posted about), stealing a few hours for my knife hobby, and actually making some great images were what I spent most of my time on. Now I’m back, with some cool news to share.

Canon CPS was finally able to deliver our rental R3 (pretty much first in the country), so we did add support for the camera both in ShutterCount and Kuuvik Capture.

I haven’t purchased one for myself as I didn’t see any compelling reason to do so. This feeling was reinforced during the rental as I tried the camera for actual bird photography. I’m not going to replace my trusty 1D-X Mark III (or any DSLR for that matter) with the R3. But that is another story…

The camera’s firmware has a lot in common with the R5, R6 and 1D-X Mark III – including bugs and dumb solutions. So in Kuuvik Capture we had to apply the usual set of workarounds to shield you from the crap. For example our depth-of-field preview handling technique (disabling it when you move around in magnified live view, but restoring it automatically when you move to a marker) also applies here.

Note that you will have to upgrade your R3’s firmware to 1.1.1 or later to be able to use it with the app.

ShutterCount‘s support for the camera had also been elevated from basic to complete. The mechanical-only counter is now the default to be in sync with what you see in the camera’s menu, but the app also shows the electronic counter on the Distribution Chart. All extra features – like shutter life prediction, outdated firmware warning and the Network Connection Cheat Sheet in the Wizard – are available for the R3 as well.

Kuuvik Capture 5.9 and ShutterCount 5.1 are available for your Mac and mobile device in the respective App Store. These updates are free for existing customers.