Fail to read Mifare Classic card on iOS

[perohu]

Hello All,

I was able to create a Ionic app with Capawesome NFC plugin to read Mifare Classic cards on Android.

Unfortunatelly the same app fails to initialize the NFC reader on iOS. It returns "not implemented".
I did the instructions listed here: https://capawesome.io/plugins/nfc/#ios

My test phone is an iPhone SE 2gen. Only this iPhone has issues, or all have issues with Mifare Classic cards?

Sorry, i'm new to NFC technology, I need some help.

Thank you!

[robingenz]

Hi, this is a configuration issue. Please check out our iOS Troubleshooting Guide for more information.

[perohu]

Hi,
Unfortunatelly this guide did not help.

Plugin is in package.json
"npx cap sync ios" was run
No WKAppBoundDomains in Info.plist
CocoaPods is not in use

node -v
v25.2.1

npm -v
11.6.2

npx cap doctor
💊 Capacitor Doctor 💊
Latest Dependencies:
@capacitor/cli: 8.2.0
@capacitor/core: 8.2.0
@capacitor/android: 8.2.0
@capacitor/ios: 8.2.0
Installed Dependencies:
@capacitor/cli: 8.2.0
@capacitor/core: 8.2.0
@capacitor/android: 8.2.0
@capacitor/ios: 8.2.0
[success] iOS looking great! 👌
[success] Android looking great! 👌

xcode-select -p
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Do you have any suggestion?

Thank you!!

[robingenz]

In this case I need to debug it myself. It's definitely a configuration issue. Please share a minimal, reproducible example.

[perohu]

I sent you an email, thx!

[robingenz]

1. The "not implemented" error

The isEnabled() method is Android-only and throws a "not implemented" error on iOS. iOS doesn't have a global NFC on/off toggle like Android, so this check isn't needed there.

You can fix this by wrapping the call in a platform check:

import { Capacitor } from '@capacitor/core';

// Only check isEnabled on Android (iOS doesn't have an NFC toggle)
if (Capacitor.getPlatform() === 'android') {
  const { isEnabled } = await Nfc.isEnabled();
  if (!isEnabled) {
    // Show error...
    return;
  }
}

This will allow the scan session to start on iOS.

2. MIFARE Classic is not supported on iOS

Unfortunately, MIFARE Classic cards are not supported on iOS. This is a hardware/software limitation imposed by Apple — their CoreNFC framework simply does not support MIFARE Classic. This affects all iPhones, not just the iPhone SE 2nd gen.

The following MIFARE technologies are supported on iOS:

Technology	Android	iOS
MIFARE Classic	✅	❌ (Apple limitation)
MIFARE DESFire	✅	✅
MIFARE Plus	✅	✅
MIFARE Ultralight	✅	✅

There is nothing that any NFC plugin can do to work around this — it's a restriction at the OS level.

What are your options?

If you need iOS support, you would have to switch to a different card type that iOS supports, such as MIFARE DESFire, MIFARE Ultralight, or NTAG tags.

One more thing

I also noticed that the NFCReaderUsageDescription key in your Info.plist is empty. You should add a user-facing message there, e.g.:

This app uses NFC to read membership cards.

Hope that helps!

[perohu]

Thank you!!!