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Unexpected memory leak in SwiftUI with Combine on iOS 17 when using @StateObject

๐Ÿ‘€ Views: 239 ๐Ÿ’ฌ Answers: 1 ๐Ÿ“… Created: 2025-06-11
swift swiftui combine memory-management Swift

I'm converting an old project and I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer. I'm facing an issue with memory management in my SwiftUI application on iOS 17. I have a `ViewModel` that Iโ€™ve marked with `@StateObject`, but it seems to be causing a memory leak when navigating between views. My `ViewModel` conforms to `ObservableObject` and has a few `@Published` properties that are updated via Combine publishers. Here's a simplified version of my code: ```swift import SwiftUI import Combine class ViewModel: ObservableObject { @Published var data: String = "" private var cancellables = Set<AnyCancellable>() init() { fetchData() } func fetchData() { Just("Fetched Data") .delay(for: .seconds(1), scheduler: RunLoop.main) .sink { [weak self] value in self?.data = value } .store(in: &cancellables) } } struct ContentView: View { @StateObject private var viewModel = ViewModel() var body: some View { VStack { Text(viewModel.data) NavigationLink(destination: DetailView()) { Text("Go to Detail") } } } } struct DetailView: View { var body: some View { Text("Detail View") } } ``` When I navigate back from `DetailView` to `ContentView`, the memory usage of the app keeps increasing, and Instruments shows that the `ViewModel` is not being deallocated. Iโ€™ve tried using `[weak self]` in the Combine subscription, but it doesnโ€™t seem to help. I also confirmed that there are no strong references in the `ViewModel` that could be causing the leak. Iโ€™m using Xcode 15 and Swift 5.9. Has anyone experienced similar issues with `@StateObject` in SwiftUI or have suggestions on how to resolve this? Any insights into proper memory management practices with Combine and SwiftUI would be greatly appreciated. I'm working on a CLI tool that needs to handle this. Is there a better approach? I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning Swift. Could this be a known issue?