Removing the title text of an iOS UIBarButtonItem

Question

What I wanted to do is to remove the text from the  Back  button of a UIBarButtonItem  leaving only the blue chevron on the navigation bar  Keep in mind that I m developing for iOS 7  I ve tried several methods  including  but not limited to   This is the image method which I did not like  the image looked out of place    UIBarButtonItem  barBtnItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc initWithImage  UIImage imageNamed   iOS7BackButton   style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target self action  selector goToPrevious     self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem   barBtnItem    Another method I tried was this  which simply did not work  nothing was displayed    UIBarButtonItem  barBtn     UIBarButtonItem alloc init   barBtn title      self navigationItem leftBarButtonItem barBtn    What I wanted to achieve is something like the back buttons found in the iOS 7 Music app  which only featured a single chevron    Thanks

User · Answer

Sometimes it is helpful to see things in context. Here is a minimal project that hides the "back" text but still shows the arrow.

Storyboard

There is a show segue from the "Show Second View Controller" button to the second view controller.

I also added a Navigation Item to the second view controller so that it would have a title. This is optional. It does not affect the back button.

Code

FirstViewController.swift

import UIKit
class FirstViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBAction func showSecondViewControllerButtonTapped(sender: UIButton) {

        // hide the back button text
        navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
    }
}

SecondViewController.swift

import UIKit
class SecondViewController: UIViewController {
    // Nothing at all needed here
}

Alternate method (IB only, no code)

On the storyboard select the navigation item for the first view controller (not the second). Just enter a space for the Back Button text.

User · Answer

On iOS7  Apple introduced two new properties to UINavigationBar   backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage  and  backIndicatorImage    By simply calling once     UINavigationBar appearance  setBackIndicatorImage  UIImage imageNamed   your image       UINavigationBar appearance  setBackIndicatorTransitionMaskImage  UIImage imageNamed   your image mask       It will render a custom image instead of the default chevron glyph  inheriting the keyWindow s tint color   And for removing the title  I ll suggest Kamaros s answer  Remember to call this code on the view controller that s pushing your new view controller  Removing the title text of an iOS UIBarButtonItem

User · Answer

SWIFT 3  navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title

User · Answer

Simple solution to this problem  working on iOS7 as well as 6  is to set custom title view in viewDidLoad   -  void viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad        UILabel  titleLabel     UILabel alloc  initWithFrame CGRectZero       titleLabel text   self title      titleLabel backgroundColor    UIColor clearColor         titleLabel sizeToFit        self navigationItem titleView   titleLabel      Then  in viewWillAppear  you can safely call  self navigationController navigationBar topItem title           Because your title view is custom view  it won t get overwritten when moving back in the navigation stack

User · Answer

This works for me to display just the  back  chevron without any text   self navigationController navigationBar topItem title          Set this property in viewDidLoad of the View Controller presenting the navigation bar and it will do the trick   Note  I have only tested it in iOS 7  which is within scope of the question

User · Answer

NSDictionary  attributes    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys                                   UIColor clearColor  UITextAttributeTextColor                                  nil          UIBarButtonItem appearance  setTitleTextAttributes attributes                                                 forState UIControlStateNormal     I was having a same problem and I did it this way     --EDIT--  this is a solution when you really want to remove title text of all UIBarbuttonItem   If you only want to remove the title of the back bar button item  there is no one simple convenient solution   In my case  since I only have few UIBarButtonItems that need to show title text I just changed those specific buttons  titleTextAttributes  If you want to be more specific use the code below  which will only change navigation bar buttons   NSDictionary  attributes    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys                                   UIColor clearColor  UITextAttributeTextColor                                  nil      UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedIn  UINavigationBar class   nil  setTitleTextAttributes attributes                                                 forState UIControlStateNormal

User · Answer

Just entering a single space for the Back button navigation item works

User · Answer

In the prepareForSegue  method of your first ViewController you set that views title to      so when the next view is pushed it will display the previous ViewController title which will be       -  void prepareForSegue  UIStoryboardSegue   segue sender  id sender      self navigationItem title             The only problem with this is that when you hit the back button your previous view won t have a title  so you may add it again on viewWillAppear   -  void viewWillAppear  BOOL animated      self navigationItem title     First View Title       I don t like very much this solution but it works and i didn t find other way to do it

User · Answer

If like me you re using a custom view instead of the UINavigationBar and you re stuck with the back button then you have to do a bit of work that feels a bit cludgey     self navigationController navigationBar setHidden NO   self navigationController navigationBar topItem title         self navigationController navigationBar setHidden YES     It seems like if it doesn t get presented then no matter what it ll try show a title  this means it s shown then hidden before it s drawn and solves the problem

User · Answer

If you want to remove the back button item title in iOS11  you can try it            implementation UIView  PrivateBackButton          void initialize           if   NSProcessInfo processInfo  operatingSystemVersion majorVersion  lt  11 0  return          static dispatch once t onceToken          dispatch once  amp onceToken                  NSObject hookInstanceMethodForClass  self class  originalMethod  selector layoutSubviews  newMethod  selector mc layoutSubviews                           -  void mc layoutSubviews            self mc layoutSubviews            self updateiOS11LaterUI              -  void updateiOS11LaterUI           if   NSProcessInfo processInfo  operatingSystemVersion majorVersion  lt  11 0  return          if    self isKindOfClass NSClassFromString    UIBackButtonContainerView     return            self removeAllSubviews            self superview mas remakeConstraints   MASConstraintMaker  make                make width mas equalTo  44                           end

User · Answer

UIBarButtonItem appearance  setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment UIOffsetMake -60  -60                                                           forBarMetrics UIBarMetricsDefault     Then you can remove the back button item title    If you use Storyboard  you can set navigation attributes inspector Back Button with space

User · Answer

Perfect solution globally  func application application  UIApplication  didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions   NSObject  AnyObject    - gt  Bool        UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes  NSForegroundColorAttributeName UIColor clearColor     forState  UIControlState Normal      UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes  NSForegroundColorAttributeName UIColor clearColor     forState  UIControlState Highlighted       return true

User · Answer

I create a custom class for UINavigationController and apply it to all of the navigation controllers in my app  Inside this custom UINavigationController class I set the UINavigationBar delegate to self once the view loads   -  void viewDidLoad       self navigationBar delegate   self      Then I implement the delegate method   -  BOOL navigationBar  UINavigationBar   navigationBar shouldPushItem  UINavigationItem   item           This will clear the title of the previous view controller        so the back button is always just a back chevron without a title     if  self viewControllers count  gt  1            UIViewController  previousViewController    self viewControllers objectAtIndex  self viewControllers count - 2            previousViewController title                  return YES      This way I simply assign my custom class to all my navigations controllers and it clears the title from all the back buttons  And just for clarity  I always set the title for all my other view controllers inside viewWillAppear so that the title is always updated just before the view appears  in case it is removed by tricks like this

User · Answer

Only need to set blank title text in ParentViewController    self navigationItem title        If you need title text then Put below two methods in ParentViewController   - void viewWillAppear  BOOL animated       self navigationItem title     TitleText      - void viewWillDisappear  BOOL animated       self navigationItem title

User · Answer

I didn t have a lot of success with the provided answers but I did find a really simple work around  In your storyboard  you can click on your UIViewController s Navigation Item and set the back button text  I set it to a single     space and it gave me the behavior I was looking for

User · Answer

When you re setting the button s title  use      instead of       --EDIT--  Does anything change when you try other strings  I m using the following code myself successfully   UIBarButtonItem  backButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle backString style UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target nil action nil     self navigationItem  setBackBarButtonItem backButton     backString is a variable that is set to      or   Back   depending on if I m on iOS 7 or a lower version   One thing to note is that this code isn t in the controller for the page I want to customize the back button for  It s actually in the controller before it on the navigation stack

User · Answer

If you are using Storyboards you can go to Attributes Inspector of the ViewController s Navigation Item  click on Navigation Bar  and set the Back Button property to      one space character   This will set the Back Button title to one space character  leaving the chevron visible  No need to mess with code     Note that this will set Back Button title for the Back Button that will segue to this View Controller from the one that was pushed on top of it  not for the Back Button that will be displayed inside this Controller

User · Answer

self navigationController navigationBar topItem title

User · Answer

You can also use this   UIBarButtonItem  temporaryBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  init   temporaryBarButtonItem title        self navigationItem backBarButtonItem   temporaryBarButtonItem    temporaryBarButtonItem release     This works for me

User · Answer

extension UIViewController      func hideBackButton            navigationItem backBarButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title      style   plain  target  nil  action  nil

User · Answer

I ve made a very simple zero config category to hide all back button titles through out app you can check it out here  This question already has accepted answer  but for others it can be helpful   EDIT    h file   import  lt UIKit UIKit h gt    interface UINavigationController  HideBackTitle  extern void PJSwizzleMethod Class cls  SEL originalSelector  SEL swizzledSelector     end    m file   import  UINavigationController HideBackTitle h   import  lt objc runtime h gt     implementation UINavigationController  HideBackTitle      void load       static dispatch once t onceToken      dispatch once  amp onceToken             PJSwizzleMethod  self class                        selector pushViewController animated                         selector pj pushViewController animated                -  void pj pushViewController  UIViewController   viewController animated  BOOL animated       UIViewController  disappearingViewController    self viewControllers lastObject      if  disappearingViewController            disappearingViewController navigationItem backBarButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle     style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target nil action nil             if   disappearingViewController            return  self pj pushViewController viewController animated animated             return  self pj pushViewController viewController animated animated         end  void PJSwizzleMethod Class cls  SEL originalSelector  SEL swizzledSelector        Method originalMethod   class getInstanceMethod cls  originalSelector       Method swizzledMethod   class getInstanceMethod cls  swizzledSelector        BOOL didAddMethod       class addMethod cls                  originalSelector                  method getImplementation swizzledMethod                   method getTypeEncoding swizzledMethod         if  didAddMethod            class replaceMethod cls                          swizzledSelector                          method getImplementation originalMethod                           method getTypeEncoding originalMethod          else           method exchangeImplementations originalMethod  swizzledMethod

User · Answer

I am listing out the solutions which worked for me so far   override func viewDidLoad     super viewDidLoad         self navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title         1   let barAppearace   UIBarButtonItem appearance   barAppearace setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment UIOffsetMake 0  -60   forBarMetrics UIBarMetrics Default      2  UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes  NSForegroundColorAttributeName UIColor clearColor     forState  UIControlState Normal    3  UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes  NSForegroundColorAttributeName UIColor clearColor     forState  UIControlState Highlighted    4

User · Answer

UIBarButtonItem appearance  setBackButtonBackgroundImage backButtonImage forState UIControlStateNormal barMetrics UIBarMetricsDefaultPrompt     UIBarButtonItem appearance  setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment UIOffsetMake 10 0  NSIntegerMin  forBarMetrics UIBarMetricsDefault     UIBarButtonItem appearance  setTitleTextAttributes   NSForegroundColorAttributeName  UIColor whiteColor                                                                  NSFontAttributeName  UIFont systemFontOfSize 1                                                       forState UIControlStateNormal

User · Answer

Actually you can do this with just one trick    Override UINavigationBar class and add this line of code   -  void layoutSubviews      self backItem title             super layoutSubviews       Then initialize your UINavigationController with this custom UINavigationBar class   etc  UINavigationController   navController     UINavigationController alloc  initWithNavigationBarClass  CBCNavigationBar class  toolbarClass nil    Hope this helps

User · Answer

Swift 3 1 You can do this by implementing the delegate method of UINavigationController  It ll hide the Title with back button only  we ll still get the back arrow image and default functionality   func navigationController   navigationController  UINavigationController     willShow viewController  UIViewController  animated  Bool            let item   UIBarButtonItem title       style   plain  target  nil                       action  nil          viewController navigationItem backBarButtonItem   item

User · Answer

Non of the answers helped me  But a trick did - I just cleared the title of the view controller that pushed  where the back button is going to  just before pushing it   So when the previous view doesn t have a title  on iOS 7 the back button will only have an arrow  without text   On viewWillAppear of the pushing view  I placed back the original title

User · Answer

Hide Back Button Title of Navigation Bar  UIBarButtonItem  barButton     UIBarButtonItem alloc  init   barButton title           blank or any other title self navigationController navigationBar topItem backBarButtonItem   barButton

User · Answer

This worked for me in iOS10  Call this from viewDidLoad of the view controller   self navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title

User · Answer

case    lt Back as  lt   override func viewWillAppear animated  Bool    navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title

User · Answer

I was able to cobble something together using DonnaLea s answer  This is how the solution appears in my UIViewController subclass   var backItemTitle String   override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad          store the original title     backItemTitle   self navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title        remove the title for the back button     navigationController  navigationBar topItem  title         override func willMoveToParentViewController parent  UIViewController         super willMoveToParentViewController parent      if parent    nil              restore the orignal title         navigationController  navigationBar backItem  title   backItemTitle           The problem with the original answer is that it removes the title from the controller when you pop back to it  Attempting to reset the title in viewWillDisappear is too late in the transition process  It causes the title to snap back in instead of animating nicely  However the willMoveToParentViewController happens sooner and allows for the correct behavior   Caveat  I ve only tested this with a normal UINavigationController push   pop  There might be additional unexpected behavior in other situations

User · Answer

Here s what I m doing me  which is simpler to remove the title of back button  override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad       navigationController  navigationBar  backItem  title

User · Answer

Just set offset for UIBarButtonItem appearance     UIBarButtonItem appearance  setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment UIOffsetMake -1000  -1000                                                       forBarMetrics UIBarMetricsDefault

User · Answer

This is better solution   Other solution is dangerous because it s hack   extension UINavigationController        func pushViewControllerWithoutBackButtonTitle   viewController  UIViewController  animated  Bool   true            viewControllers last  navigationItem backBarButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title      style   plain  target  nil  action  nil          pushViewController viewController  animated  animated

User · Answer

Implement your own UIViewController base class and override setTitle     interface CustomViewController   UIViewController  end   implementation CustomViewController  -  void setTitle  NSString   title       super title           This will remove the  Back  title     UILabel  titleView    UILabel new          customize the label as you wish     titleView text   title       titleView sizeToFit       self navigationItem titleView   titleView      end   Now in any UIViewController where you want to set the title  you can just write self title     MyTitle  as you normally would  and no text will appear on the back bar item when pushing a new UIViewController

User · Answer

This is using subclass navigationController removes the  Back    I m using this to remove it  permanently through the app      h  interface OPCustomNavigationController   UINavigationController    end     m  implementation OPCustomNavigationController  -  void awakeFromNib        self backButtonUIOverride YES      -  void pushViewController  UIViewController   viewController animated  BOOL animated        self backButtonUIOverride NO         super pushViewController viewController animated animated      -  void backButtonUIOverride  BOOL isRoot       if   self viewControllers count          return       UIViewController  viewController       if  isRoot                viewController   self viewControllers firstObject            else               int previousIndex   self viewControllers count - 1           viewController    self viewControllers objectAtIndex previousIndex              viewController navigationItem backBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle                                                                                            style UIBarButtonItemStylePlain                                                                                       target nil                                                                                       action nil       end

User · Answer

This worked for me in iOS 7    In viewDidLoad   self navigationItem backBarButtonItem title           Yes  that s a space between the quotes

User · Answer

To set the back button title for a view controller without changing its title use   Objective-C   self navigationItem backBarButtonItem     UIBarButtonItem alloc  initWithTitle     style self navigationItem backBarButtonItem style target nil action nil     Swift   navigationItem backBarButtonItem   UIBarButtonItem title      style   plain  target  nil  action  nil    To be clear  this is done on the view controller that you would see if you hit the back button  i e  instead of seeing   lt  Settings  you want to just see   lt   then on your SettingsViewController you would put this in your init  Then you don t get any of the problems of the title not showing when you re looking at the view controller itself

User · Answer

I couldn t get it to work using Guto Araujo s answer of navigationBar topItem title         However  I was able to get the desired effect by setting self title       in the init method of my view controller   Setting it in init is important  viewDidLoad won t work

User · Answer

In iOS 11 you can use the next code to hide back button title   Swift   UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes   NSForegroundColorAttributeName   UIColor clear    for   normal  UIBarButtonItem appearance   setTitleTextAttributes   NSForegroundColorAttributeName   UIColor clear    for   highlighted    This code doesn t remove title from navigation bar  but just makes it transparent  to back button still holds space for title  If you need to have more space for view controller title  then you need to use another solution

[ios] Removing the title text of an iOS UIBarButtonItem

Alternate method (IB only, no code)

Examples related to ios

Examples related to uinavigationbar

Examples related to uibarbuttonitem

Examples related to uinavigationitem