iOS 7 and later: set status bar style per view controller

Question

I tried many ways to set the status bar style (default or lightcontent) but can't get it to work on a per view controller basis. I can set the status bar style for the whole app only.

Does anyone have a hint?

I tried UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance

and

-(UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle{ 
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent; 
}

but these methods don't work.

Answer 1

Have you tried this?

1. Set "View controller-based status bar appearance" ( UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance ) to YES in your Info.plist. ( YES is the default, so you can also just leave this value out of your plist.)

2. In your viewDidLoad method, call [self setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate] .

3. Implement preferredStatusBarStyle , returning the status bar style that you want for this view controller.

    - (UIStatusBarStyle) preferredStatusBarStyle { return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent; } 

Answer 2

There is a catch here if your view controller is inside standalone UINavigationController and not a part of Storyboard based UINavigationController then above all methods fail. I came across this situation and then in order to set the status bar to light style i used following

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleBlack];

This worked perfectly for me.

Answer 3

EDIT: This solution is deprecated on iOS 9. Please choose one of the other answers.

With UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance set to NO, I was able to set the style to white text by using:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyleBlackTranslucent;

This is because the text color on this style was white on iOS 6 and below.

UPDATE: According to @jowie you can try that on iOS8:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarStyle = UIBarStyleBlack;

Answer 4

On viewDidLoad method, put this:

Objective C

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];
[self setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate];

Swift

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent
self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()

Answer 5

In Swift I was able to do this by writing:

let tbc : UITabBarController = self.window?.rootViewController as UITabBarController
var moreViewController : UINavigationController = tbc.moreNavigationController

moreViewController.navigationBar.barStyle = UIBarStyle.Black

Basically you're interested in the last line.
This resulted in tabbar changing to white:

Note that I didn't change anything in Info.plist in order to achieve this result.
For more informations regarding changing Navigation Status Bar , please check out this link: http://www.appcoda.com/customize-navigation-status-bar-ios-7/

Answer 6

I bet you have your view controller embedded into a navigation controller. To avoid setting the navigation bar's style to .Black use this subclass:

class YourNavigationController: UINavigationController {
    override func childViewControllerForStatusBarStyle() -> UIViewController? {
        return topViewController
    }
}

Answer 7

Swift:

let tbc : UITabBarController = self.window?.rootViewController as UITabBarController
var moreViewController : UINavigationController = tbc.moreNavigationController
moreViewController.navigationBar.barStyle = UIBarStyle.Black

Objective C:

append this to the controller.m file viewDidLoad method:

[self setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate].

then implement this method in that same controller.m file:

- (UIStatusBarStyle) preferredStatusBarStyle { 
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent; 
}

Official docs:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/TransitionGuide/Bars.html

Article I wrote on my blog:

http://www.ryadel.com/2015/03/04/xcode-set-status-bar-style-and-color-in-objective-c/

Answer 8

In the ViewController that you want to change the status bar's color

- (void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleDefault];
}

- (void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];
}

Answer 9

Swift extension for this because I always forget how this works

extension UIViewController {
    // utility to set the status bar appearance
    // Note: Make sure "View controller-based status bar appearance" is set to NO in your target settings or this won't work
    func setStatusBarForDarkBackground(dark: Bool) {
        UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = dark ? .LightContent : .Default
        setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
    }
}

Answer 10

Xcode 10.3,

In iPhone 8 12.4 Simulator, it is OK.

In iPhone X 12.4 Simulator, I tried all above, not OK.

Then I add it by hand, status bar consists of time, battery, cellular.

StatusBarView

class StatusBottomView: UIView {
    private var batteryView:BatteryView!
    private var timeLabel:UILabel!
    private var timer:Timer?

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        addSubviews()
    }

    private func addSubviews() {
        batteryView = BatteryView()
        batteryView.tintColor = UIColor.blue
        addSubview(batteryView)
        timeLabel = UILabel()
        timeLabel.textAlignment = .center
        timeLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 12)
        timeLabel.textColor = UIColor.blue
        addSubview(timeLabel)
        didChangeTime()
        addTimer()
    }

    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        let h = frame.size.height
        let x: CGFloat = 80
        batteryView.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: ScreenHeight - x - DZMBatterySize.width, y: (h - DZMBatterySize.height) / 2)
        timeLabel.frame = CGRect(x: x, y: 0, width: 50, height: h)
    }

    // MARK: -- Timer

    func addTimer() {
        if timer == nil {
            timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 15, target: self, selector: #selector(didChangeTime), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
            RunLoop.current.add(timer!, forMode: .common)
        }
    }


    func removeTimer() {
        if timer != nil {
            timer!.invalidate()
            timer = nil
        }
    }


    @objc func didChangeTime() {
        timeLabel.text = TimerString("HH:mm")
        batteryView.batteryLevel = UIDevice.current.batteryLevel
    }

}

BatteryLevelView

class BatteryView: UIImageView {

    override var tintColor: UIColor! {

        didSet{ batteryLevelView.backgroundColor = tintColor }
    }

    /// BatteryLevel
    var batteryLevel:Float = 0 {

        didSet{ setNeedsLayout() }
    }

    /// BatteryLevelView
    private var batteryLevelView:UIView!

    convenience init() {

        self.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: DZMBatterySize.width, height: DZMBatterySize.height))
    }


    override init(frame: CGRect) {

        super.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: DZMBatterySize.width, height: DZMBatterySize.height))

        addSubviews()
    }

    func addSubviews() {

        batteryLevelView = UIView()
        batteryLevelView.layer.masksToBounds = true
        addSubview(batteryLevelView)

        image = UIImage(named: "battery_black")?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
        tintColor = UIColor.white
    }

    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        let spaceW:CGFloat = 1 * (frame.width / DZMBatterySize.width) * HJBatteryLevelViewScale
        let spaceH:CGFloat = 1 * (frame.height / DZMBatterySize.height) * HJBatteryLevelViewScale

        let batteryLevelViewY:CGFloat = 2.1*spaceH
        let batteryLevelViewX:CGFloat = 1.4*spaceW
        let batteryLevelViewH:CGFloat = frame.height - 3.4*spaceH
        let batteryLevelViewW:CGFloat = frame.width * HJBatteryLevelViewScale
        let batteryLevelViewWScale:CGFloat = batteryLevelViewW / 100

        var tempBatteryLevel = batteryLevel

        if batteryLevel < 0 {

            tempBatteryLevel = 0

        }else if batteryLevel > 1 {

            tempBatteryLevel = 1

        }

        batteryLevelView.frame = CGRect(x: batteryLevelViewX , y: batteryLevelViewY, width: CGFloat(tempBatteryLevel * 100) * batteryLevelViewWScale, height: batteryLevelViewH)
        batteryLevelView.layer.cornerRadius = batteryLevelViewH * 0.125
    }

}