Also fell into this scenario recently. The setup was:

• ‘Application’

• • ‘Framework’ (uses SwiftData)

The classes were wrapped in ‘@available’, but similar to you, this didn’t solve the import issue - making the app crash instantly. I had to move my code that interacts with SwiftData into its own target.

I found a solution which was:

• ‘Application’

• • ‘Framework’ (without anything SwiftData)

  • ‘Framework’ that uses SwiftData, and optionally links SwiftData

In the Framework, I used ‘#if canImport(X)’, and in the Application, I added ‘SwiftData’ as an optional link.

Now runs on older versions of iOS that don’t support SwiftData.