Hi everyone,

We are currently experiencing a strange issue with our PWA on iOS and I wanted to ask if anyone has seen something similar before.

Setup

• Around 1,200 active users
• ASP.NET backend/server
• PWA hosted on a subdomain: user.PLACEHOLDER.de
• The app has two main areas:
  • User area: /User
  • Admin area: /Customers

Most users install the PWA normally through Safari using “Add to Home Screen”.

The Problem

The issue only happens on iOS when the app is installed as a real PWA.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Admin opens the installed PWA
2. Admin navigates to the admin section (/Customers)
3. Admin closes the PWA while still being inside /Customers
4. When the admin reopens the app, the entire app is broken and nothing works anymore

However:

• If the admin navigates back to the normal user area (/User) BEFORE closing the app, everything works fine
• The issue only happens if the app is closed while inside /Customers

At this point, the only fix is:

• uninstall the PWA
• reinstall it
• login again

The Weird Part

If the user only adds the website icon to the home screen WITHOUT installing it as a standalone PWA, everything works perfectly.

So the issue seems to happen specifically in iOS standalone PWA mode.

Additional Notes

• Only happens on Apple/iOS devices
  • After latest IOS-Update
• Android works perfectly

Has anyone experienced something similar or knows what could cause this behavior?

The cookie settings in ASP.NET:

options.Cookie.Domain = ".PLACEHOLDER.de";

options.Cookie.IsEssential = true;

options.Cookie.HttpOnly = true;

options.Cookie.SameSite = SameSiteMode.None;

options.Cookie.Path = "/";

options.Cookie.Name = ".AspNet.SharedCookie";

options.Cookie.SecurePolicy = CookieSecurePolicy.Always;

EDIT:

• I currently suspect that the issue is related to cookies/session handling, but I’m not sure. Unfortunately we cannot properly debug iOS because we only have Windows devices available.

The mainfest.json:

{
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "name": "Name",
  "short_name": "Name",
  "description": "Buchen von Kursen",
  "icons": [
    {
      "src": "/images/192x192.png",
      "sizes": "192x192"
    },
    {
      "src": "/images/512x512.png",
      "sizes": "512x512"
    }
  ],
  "display": "standalone",
  "start_url": "https://user.PLACEHOLDER.de/User",
  "content_scripts": [
    {
      "js": [ "service-worker.js" ]
    }
  ]

}