---
title: "Filtering"
description: "Learn more about how to configure your SDK to filter events reported to Sentry."
url: https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/configuration/filtering/
---

# Filtering | Sentry for Apple

When you add Sentry to your app, you get a lot of valuable information about errors and performance. And lots of information is good -- as long as it's the right information, at a reasonable volume.

The Sentry SDKs have several configuration options to help you filter out events.

We also offer [Inbound Filters](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/data-management/filtering.md) to filter events in sentry.io. We recommend filtering at the client level though, because it removes the overhead of sending events you don't actually want. Learn more about the [fields available in an event](https://develop.sentry.dev/sdk/foundations/transport/event-payloads/).

## [Filtering Error Events](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/configuration/filtering.md#filtering-error-events)

Configure your SDK to filter error events by using the `beforeSend` callback method and configuring, enabling, or disabling integrations.

### [Using `beforeSend`](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/configuration/filtering.md#using-before-send)

All Sentry SDKs support the `beforeSend` callback method. Because it's called immediately before the event is sent to the server, this is your last chance to decide not to send data or to edit it. `beforeSend` receives the event object as a parameter, which you can use to either modify the event’s data or drop it completely by returning `null`, based on custom logic and the data available on the event.

```swift
import Sentry

SentrySDK.start { options in
    options.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
    options.beforeSend = { event in
        // modify event here or return nil to discard the event
        return event
    }
}
```

Note also that breadcrumbs can be filtered, as discussed in [our Breadcrumbs documentation](https://docs.sentry.io/product/error-monitoring/breadcrumbs.md).

## [Filtering Spans](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/apple/configuration/filtering.md#filtering-spans)

To prevent certain spans from being reported to Sentry, use the `beforeSendSpan` configuration option, which allows you to provide a function to evaluate the current span and drop it if it's not one you want. This API is available from Cocoa SDK version 8.30.0 and above.

```swift
import Sentry

SentrySDK.start { options in
    options.dsn = "___PUBLIC_DSN___"
    options.beforeSendSpan = { span in
        // Modify or drop the span here
        if (span.description == "unimportant span") {
            // Don't send the span to Sentry
            return nil
        }
        return span
    }
}
```