Missing xcstrings extraction state for imported keys

[Marzhel]

Describe the bug

When exporting a xcstrings file, any keys that was previously imported will not have extractionState set to manual, resulting in Xcode not generating code symbols.

If I add a new key in the Tolgee UI and export, then the new key will have extractionState set correctly.

To Reproduce

1. Import localizations from file (I tried from "Flat JSON" and xcstrings)
2. Export localizations as xcstrings
3. Notice that the extractionState field is missing for localizations that was previously imported

Expected behavior
When an xcstrings file is exported, all keys must have extractionState set to manual as the localizations are managed on Tolgee

Versions and environment

• Tolgee Platform version: Not sure, I used the cloud hosted version (app.tolgee.io)
• Environment: Cloud hosted
• Browser: N/A

[JanCizmar]

Hello! Thanks for reporting this issue 😊.

The extractionState field in a .xcstrings file indicates how Xcode should treat a string. It can be extracted_with_value for automatically extracted strings, manual for strings that were created by hand, or migrated when a translation has been imported from another format. Xcode 26 only generates internal symbols for keys marked as manual . Some exporters set all keys to manual to stop Xcode from pruning them, but this also disables automatic synchronization with your code .

In our code, we only set extractionState to manual when a key has a description. The idea was that keys with descriptions were added by a developer in the Tolgee UI and should be preserved by Xcode, while imported or auto‑extracted keys should remain under Xcode’s control. However, this means imported keys will not have an extractionState and Xcode will not generate symbols for them.

Would you prefer that we always set extractionState to manual for every key, or should we add an option to choose this behaviour? Let us know what makes the most sense for your workflow. Thanks again for your feedback!

[Marzhel]

Hi again 😊

Thank you for looking into this for me!

For my workflow, it would be best if all keys are in the manual extraction state as I want Xcode to generate the symbols for me as Tolgee is my source of truth for translations. I could imagine that other developers would like to use the automatic mode and have their Swift sources as the source of truth as well, so probably the best solution would be to have either a project level, export level or key level setting to control this behavior.

I'm wondering if using the existence of the description to choose between automatic and manual mode has some potentail for issues with the new AI features of Xcode 26, as it can generate descriptions for localizations automatically. I haven't tested how this behave with Tolgee imports though, but it looks like Xcode will mark these AI generated as such: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/localizing-and-varying-text-with-a-string-catalog#Generate-comments-automatically
I also wasn't able to find this behavior described in the Tolgee documentation 😬