Passkey authentication problem in some areas in mainland China

Question

HungOKX OP

Created Apr ’25

Replies 2

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Hi team,

We are experiencing an issue where some users in China are unable to create passkeys due to authentication errors.

This is the UI flows

The method we use to prompt users is passkey creation. Technically, this is implemented using Apple’s AuthenticationServices framework. We create an instance of ASAuthorizationController and conform to ASAuthorizationControllerDelegate to handle the results of the authentication attempt.

In failure cases, we receive ASAuthorizationError.failed (code 1004), along with some additional details describing the nature of the failure.

However, we are currently unable to determine the exact root cause of this issue or how to resolve it. At this point, we can only make assumptions based on the limited error information provided. Our current hypothesis is that due to network restrictions, Apple may be unable to reach the .well-known endpoint where we host the associated domain file. Alternatively, even if the file is successfully loaded and cached to Apple’s CDN, the system in China may not be able to reach the CDN itself.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could help us understand what might be causing this problem and guide us on how we can resolve it effectively.

Thanks,

Hung

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Answer 1

Systems Engineer OP

Apple

May ’25

Usually a 1004 is indeed related to not being able to access to the Associated Domains file. However for that particular "0 login choices" error message, that's unlikely to be the cause.

Unfortunately this is going to be very difficult to debug without logs from a device hitting the issue. One thing that does stand out is that the provided screenshots are from an OS at least a couple years old at this point. It would be worth checking if this happens on recent versions of iOS 18, or if it's limited to older versions of iOS.

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Answer 2

HungOKX OP

May ’25

Hi, thank you for your response.

The screenshot we shared was from a mockup and not an actual device screenshot. That said, we can confirm that a significant number of users are experiencing this issue, particularly those running iOS 18.

Recently, we reproduced the issue on one device and discovered that it did not have any passkey management apps installed. After installing the system Passwords app, the issue was resolved. The error message we received was: "0 login choices". However, we believe this is just one of several scenarios that could lead to this error, and we’re hoping to better understand the full set of possible root causes in order to implement a reliable fix.

Regarding logs—could you please advise on what specific logs or information would be helpful for further investigation?

Thank you!

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