[stephenschloesser]

What and why

The iPhone launcher's Cloud saves section said the folder was set, and no save ever reached iCloud Drive, when the app runs from a live container (LiveContainer) or when the folder picked was the app's own Documents. Both are the same fault: the folder kept is inside the app's own storage.

A document picker in import mode copies what is picked into the app's Inbox instead of opening the folder where it is. A launcher's file-picker fix puts every picker of a guest app in that mode — LiveContainer's per-app Fix File Picker (doSymlinkInbox) makes TweakLoader/DocumentPicker.m pass asCopy:YES, and LCBootstrap.m links that Inbox under the guest's home and temp folder — so the "folder" the player picked is <container>/Inbox/<name>. dm_store_cloud_saves asked the system for a bookmark of whatever URL came back and stored it. A bookmark of a copy resolves and writes as well as a real one, so every save went to <container>/Inbox/<name>/<title ID>/save.dmsync, on the device, while the launcher showed the folder's name and the game logged boot: cloud saves through …. UIFileSharingEnabled puts the app's own Documents in the Files app, so the same mistake is one pick away by hand. The second way a save stops before iCloud Drive is a folder the app cannot write to: the host writes the save there after every save, and nothing checked that it could.

The change judges the folder before it is kept. dm_cloud_saves_problem (CloudSaves.m) refuses one inside the app's own storage — Documents, the Inbox, temp, compared as paths and with symlinks resolved, which is how a guest's linked Inbox is caught — and, at a pick, one the app cannot write a .nosync check file into. dm_store_cloud_saves returns that sentence for the launcher's footer instead of storing the folder, and dm_cloud_saves_path applies the same rule to a folder read back at boot, so a bookmark an older build stored for a copy is logged ([RED] boot: the picked cloud-save folder cannot be used: …) and not used. The player turns Fix File Picker off for the app in its launcher and picks the iCloud Drive folder again; Documents/env.txt with DM_SAVE_SYNC=<absolute path> sets the folder without a picker at all, which is what a build whose picker cannot deliver a real folder needs.

Reference entry added: Cloud saves shows a folder, and no save reaches iCloud Drive. The launcher section that shows the reason is the iPhone's only (dm/mac/Launcher.swift picks with an NSOpenPanel and copies nothing).

Checked

• Tests: dm/ios/tests/test_cloud_saves.py (new) compiles CloudSaves.m on macOS and runs the real function on a fixture container: a folder in Documents, in the Inbox, in temp and behind an Inbox symlink are refused at a pick and at boot; a read-only folder is refused at a pick (cannot be written to) and kept at boot, where a write failure is a moment's problem; a file and a missing path are refused; a writable folder outside is accepted and the .nosync check file is gone again. dm/ios/tools/compile_check.py (iPhone SDK, 185 files, 0 failed) and the Swift typecheck of Launcher.swift with the bridging header pass. python3 -m unittest dm.tools.tests.test_docs passes after dm/tools/docs_symptoms.py, and dm/tools/lint_python.py reports 0 new findings. The other dm/ios/tests pass, except test_xcode_workflow.py, which fails the same six cases on a clean origin/main worktree here (local tooling, not this diff).
• Games run, with title ID and version: none. The diff is the launcher's folder check, before the host starts, and no host, gfx or chain file is in it, so how a game runs is unchanged. What does change is a game whose cloud-saves folder was a copy: it now starts without cloud saves and the launcher says why, instead of sending every save into the app.
• Devices and OS: no device ran this. The cause was read from LiveContainer's source (TweakLoader/DocumentPicker.m, LCBootstrap.m, LiveContainerSwiftUI/Views/AppList/AppSettings/LCAppSettingsView.swift for the Fix File Picker toggle) and its FAQ's "file picker not working" entry, not from an iPhone run; the folder rules are exercised on macOS only.
• regress.py impact origin/main..HEAD: maps the three iOS files to *:*, so it names every game. No check --games run, for the reason in the bullet above.
• Measurements before and after: not a speed, memory or power change.
• Not checked: any iPhone or iPad run; LiveContainer's copy mode end to end (whether asCopy:YES on a folder still hands back a copy on current iOS — the rule refuses any folder the app owns, whatever made it); a folder in a third-party provider (Dropbox, Google Drive).

Docs

• Finding in its reference entry (docs/reference/services.md, save-data section) with docs_symptoms.py run; docs/settings.md says what the launcher refuses and points at DM_SAVE_SYNC in an env.txt.
• Chain tool changed → dmsh_chain.py --header run and dmsh_chain.h included — not applicable, no chain tool changed.
• No game files, keys or data extracted from a game.