UIStatusBarStyle PreferredStatusBarStyle does not

Question

In my iPhone application built with Xcode 5 for iOS 7 I set UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance=YES in info.plist, and in my ViewController I have this code:

-(UIStatusBarStyle) preferredStatusBarStyle
{
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent;
}

But the status bar is still black against the black background.

I know its possible to change this app-wide by setting UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance=NO in info.plist, but I actually need to alter this on a viewController by viewController basis at runtime.

Answer 1

For swift 3, in your UIViewController:

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle { return UIStatusBarStyle.lightContent }

Answer 2

To provide more detail into the accepted answer, put the following line in your app delegate's didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyleLightContent;

Then, in your Info.plist, add View controller-based status bar appearance and set it to NO.

I believe that's how it should be done, NOT from the navigation controller, if you want the same status bar color for the entire app. You might have screens that are not necessarily embedded in a UINavigationController, or a different UINavigationController subclass somewhere else, and other things.

EDIT: You can also do it without typing any code: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18732865/855680

Answer 3

I discovered that if your ViewController is inside a navigationController then the navigationController’s navigationBar.barStyle determines the statusBarStyle.

Setting your navigationBar’s barStyle to UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent will give white status bar text (ie. UIStatusBarStyleLightContent), and UIBarStyleDefault will give black status bar text (ie. UIStatusBarStyleDefault).

Note that this applies even if you totally change the navigationBar’s color via its barTintColor.

Answer 4

I may be coming to this a bit late, but incase anyone else is looking for a working and verified app wide solution.

@mxcl is correct in describing why this is happening. In order to correct it, we simply create an extension (or category in obj-c) that overrides the preferredSatusBarStyle() method of UINavigationController. Here is an example in Swift:

extension UINavigationController {
    public override func preferredStatusBarStyle() -> UIStatusBarStyle {
        if let rootViewController = self.viewControllers.first {
            return rootViewController.preferredStatusBarStyle()
        }
        return super.preferredStatusBarStyle()
    }
}

This code simply extracts the first view controller (the root view controller) and unwraps it (in obj-c just check that it is not nil). If the unwrap is successful (not nil) then we grab the rootViewControllers preferredStatusBarStyle. Otherwise we just return the default.

Hope this helps anyone who might need it.

Answer 5

1) One setting for whole project:

If available, remove UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance key-value pair from your info.plist, or set NO without removing it. If it's not available in your info.plist, do nothing. Default is NO for this property.

Add below code to your AppDelegate.m:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];
}

2) Different settings for different View Controllers:

Add UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance key-value pair to your info.plist and set it to YES.

If your View Controller is not embed in to Navigation Controller. Let's say MyViewController. just add code below to your MyViewController.m file. If your View Controller is embed in to Navigation Controller, create a new Cocoa Touch Class and make it subclass of UINavigationController. Let's say MyNC. Select Navigation Controller View on your Storyboard, at right pane; Utilities -> Identity Inspector -> Custom Class -> Class, type "MyNC". After linking Storyboard View with your "MyNC" Cocoa Touch Class, add code below to your MyNC.m:

- (BOOL)prefersStatusBarHidden {
    return NO;
}

-(UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle {
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent;
}

Answer 6

Swift 4.2

extension UITabBarController {
    open override var childForStatusBarStyle: UIViewController? {
        return selectedViewController
    }
}

extension UINavigationController {
    open override var childForStatusBarStyle: UIViewController? {
        return visibleViewController
    }
}