UIRefreshControl incorrect title offset during first run and sometimes title missing

Question

The text is offset wrong by the first launch of UIRefreshControl... later sometimes the refresh text doesn't show up at all and just the spiny is visible

I don't think i had this issue with iOS6... might be related to iOS7

Is in a UITableViewController added as a child to a VC, which resides in a modal presented UINavigationController

- (void)viewDidLoad {

    [super viewDidLoad];

    [self setRefreshControlText:@"Getting registration data"];
    [self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];
}

- (void)setRefreshControlText:(NSString *)text {

    UIFont * font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Light" size:10.0];
    NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName:font, NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor blackColor]};
    self.refreshControl.attributedTitle = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text attributes:attributes];

}

enter image description here

Does it happen on the simulator or on a real device? I spent hours on this issue and when I tried the same code on a real device it just ran smoothly. — autremoi, Oct 14 '13 at 22:16

score 39 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 01 '13 at 21:17

39

This is definitely an iOS 7 bug, but I haven't figured out exactly what caused it. It appears to have something to do with the view hierarchy — adding my UITableViewController as a child view to a wrapper view controller appeared to fix it for me at first, although the bug is back since iOS 7 GM.

It looks like adding the following code to your UITableViewController after creating the refresh view fixes the positioning issue for good:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    [self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];
    [self.refreshControl endRefreshing];
});

answered Oct 01 '13 at 21:17

Ben Jackson

860
8
11

That helps indeed but in my case the attributedTitle still overlaps with the tableCells at the beginning and at the end of the refresh process. This started happening when I switched to Xcode 5. – autremoi Oct 14 '13 at 21:51
3

Yeah this issue came back to bite me in a later iOS build even with the workaround. I've noticed that Mail.app has no labels in the app's spinner, which leads me to believe this is a known issue internally that they haven't quite gotten right yet. – Ben Jackson Oct 28 '13 at 16:16
Hmmmm, that's true, Mail.app only shows you the spinner, I tried your approach but it doesn't work, the title overlaps over the table view. – Felix Jan 09 '14 at 21:24
finally found a fix on this, see the post – Peter Lapisu Jan 22 '14 at 14:14
Interestingly, I'm experiencing a similar issue with SSPullToRefresh and switched to UIRefreshControl hoping to resolve this issue, but there seems to be an even bigger mess here. – Marius Soutier Feb 17 '14 at 08:47
2

Hm, [self.refreshControl setNeedsLayout]; seems more appropriate for that kind of problem. begin/end refreshing is a hack. – onekiloparsec Mar 28 '14 at 10:07
It is a hack, but setNeedsLayout does not work. Still a problem in 8.3 Xcode 6. Ugh why won't apple fix this? – lostintranslation May 07 '15 at 03:34
Still have it on iOS9. – Matthieu Riegler Feb 08 '16 at 17:29
It is still buggy for me on iOS 9 as well. (after trying this and actually all other tricks I found) – b.zdybowicz Jul 22 '16 at 10:20

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 04 '14 at 22:24

calling endRefreshing under viewWillAppear did it for me:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    [self.refreshControl endRefreshing];
}

Under iOS7 with a custom UITableViewController inside a UINavigationController

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 04 '14 at 14:24

I had the same problem and for me it worked with layoutIfNeeded after setting the attributedTitle:

- (void)setRefreshControlText:(NSString *)text
{
    UIColor *fg = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.4 alpha:1.0];
    NSDictionary *attrsDictionary = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: fg};
    self.refreshControl.attributedTitle = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text attributes:attrsDictionary];
    [self.refreshControl layoutIfNeeded];
}

Cédric suggested to use [self.refreshControl setNeedsLayout], but this does not force an immediate update of the view, so you must use layoutIfNeeded.

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

I finally found the holy grail on this, which looks working in all cases

note : UIRefreshControl is added to a UITableViewController (note, never add UIRefreshControl just as subview to a normal UIVIewController's UITableView) (best to add UITableViewController as a child VC inside a UIViewController if you must)

note : that this also fixes the problem, that the UIRefreshControl is not vissible at first refresh (link)

Add to you .h

@interface MyViewController ()

@property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL refreshControlFixApplied;

- (void)beginRefreshing;
- (void)beginRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text;
- (void)endRefreshing;
- (void)endRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text;

@end

Add to you .m

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#pragma mark - UIRefreshControl Fix (peter@min60.com) https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19121276/uirefreshcontrol-incorrect-title-offset-during-first-run-and-sometimes-title-mis/
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

- (void)beginRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text {

    [self setRefreshControlText:text];
    [self beginRefreshing];

}

- (void)endRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text {

    [self setRefreshControlText:text];
    [self.refreshControl endRefreshing];

}

- (void)beginRefreshing {

    if (self.refreshControl == nil) {
        return;
    }

    if (!self.refreshControlFixApplied) {

        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{

            if ([self.refreshControl.attributedTitle length] == 0) {
                [self setRefreshControlText:@" "];
            }
            [self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];

            dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{

                [self.refreshControl endRefreshing];

                dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{

                    // set the title before calling beginRefreshing
                    if ([self.refreshControl.attributedTitle length] == 0) {
                        [self setRefreshControlText:@" "];
                    }
                    if (self.tableView.contentOffset.y == 0) {
                        self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, -self.refreshControl.frame.size.height);
                    }
                    [self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];

                    self.refreshControlFixApplied = YES;

                });

            });

        });

    } else {

        if (self.tableView.contentOffset.y == 0) {
            self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, -self.refreshControl.frame.size.height);
        }
        [self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];

    }

}

- (void)endRefreshing {

    if (self.refreshControl == nil) {
        return;
    }

    if (!self.refreshControlFixApplied) {
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            [self endRefreshing];
        });
    } else {
        if (self.tableView.contentOffset.y < 0) {
            self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, 0);
        }
        [self.refreshControl endRefreshing];

    }

}

- (void)setRefreshControlText:(NSString *)text {

    UIFont * font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Light" size:10.0];
    NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName : font, NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor colorWithHex:0x00B92E]};
    self.refreshControl.attributedTitle = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text attributes:attributes];

}

Use only methods

- (void)beginRefreshing;
- (void)beginRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text;
- (void)endRefreshing;
- (void)endRefreshingWithText:(NSString *)text;

For me this is way to much code for such a small issue (which will be fixed soon by Apple I'm sure). — meaning-matters, Feb 26 '14 at 13:35

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 09 '16 at 15:47

UIRefreshControl seems to still be broken on IOS9.3 when you change the attributedTitle while the tableView is pulled down. What seems to work is to subclass UIRefreshControl and force update its layout once the (attributed) title is changed. The core fix is to trigger a change to the tableView contentOffset (causing some hidden magic in the _update method which layouts the spinner and text subviews) and additionally forcing the frame height to its expected value ensuring the background color fills up the pulled down region.

@implementation MEIRefreshControl
{
    __weak UITableView* _tableView;
}

- (instancetype)initWithTableView:(UITableView*)tableView
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
    if (self)
    {
        _tableView = tableView;
    }

    return self;
}

@synthesize title = _title;

- (void)setTitle:(NSString *)title
{
    if (!PWEqualObjects(_title, title))
    {
        _title = title;
        self.attributedTitle = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:_title ? _title : @""];

        [self forceUpdateLayout];
    }
}

- (void)forceUpdateLayout
{
    CGPoint contentOffset = _tableView.contentOffset;
    _tableView.contentOffset = CGPointZero;
    _tableView.contentOffset = contentOffset;
    CGRect frame = self.frame;
    frame.size.height = -contentOffset.y;
    self.frame = frame;
}

@end

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 12 '14 at 05:58

This is the code that seems to fix all the issues. Many of the others that involved beginning or ending refreshing where interfering with other parts of the control.

//This chunk of code is needed to fix an iOS 7 bug with UIRefreshControls
static BOOL refreshLoadedOnce = NO;
if (!refreshLoadedOnce) {
  __weak typeof(self) weakself = self;
  [UIView animateWithDuration:0.25 delay:0 options:UIViewAnimationOptionBeginFromCurrentState animations:^(void){
    self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(0, -weakself.refreshControl.frame.size.height);
  } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
    weakself.refreshControl.attributedTitle = self.refreshControl.attributedTitle;
    [weakself.refreshControl setNeedsUpdateConstraints];
    [weakself.refreshControl setNeedsLayout];
    refreshLoadedOnce = YES;
  }];
}
//End of bug fix

I put this code right before I call the beginRefreshing method of the control for the first time. It will only ever be called once, so it won't impact performance if it is called multiple times. But I imagine it could be executed at several placed as well (maybe in ViewWillAppear, or ViewDidAppear, possibly even ViewDidLoad); — Brett, May 13 '14 at 17:10

Maxime Ashurov · Answer 7 · 2015-10-14T06:30:40.247

I had the same problem, I did solve it by setting attributed text with space string to refresh control directly after init refresh control

_refreshControl = [[UIRefreshControl alloc]init];
[_refreshControl setAttributedTitle:[[NSAttributedString alloc]initWithString:@" "]];

After that, setting new attributed text to refresh control was without any problems.

[[self refreshControl] setAttributedTitle:[[NSAttributedString alloc]initWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Последнее обновление: %@", [dateFormat stringFromDate:[_post dateUpdated]]]]];

UPDATE

I noticed that problem come back when I use attrsDictionary:

this code works fine

NSAttributedString* attributedString = [[NSAttributedString alloc]initWithString:string];
[[self refreshControl] setAttributedTitle: attributedString];

and this make refreshControl's title appear directly after view loaded

NSAttributedString* attributedString = [[NSAttributedString alloc]initWithString:string attributes:attrsDictionary];
[[self refreshControl] setAttributedTitle: attributedString];

I didn't find solution yet.

UPDATE

Finally found solution, after refreshcontrol init set attributed string also with attributes:attrsDictionary

NSDictionary *attrsDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjects:
                                 [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[UIColor appDarkGray], [UIFont fontWithName:@"OpenSans-CondensedLight" size:14.0f], nil] forKeys:
                                 [NSArray arrayWithObjects:NSForegroundColorAttributeName, NSFontAttributeName, nil]];
[_refreshControl setAttributedTitle:[[NSAttributedString alloc]initWithString:@" " attributes:attrsDictionary]];

so after that there is no problem to set new refreshcontrol's title.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 23 '15 at 13:45

The solution for me was to set a text in viewDidAppear, no need to call

beginRefreshing or endRefreshing on the mainQueue

-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"d MMM, HH:mm"];
    NSString *lastUpdated = [NSString stringWithFormat:NSLocalizedString(@"refresh_last_updated", nil),[formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:[[[DatabaseController sharedInstance] getCurrentSettings].lastTimeStamp doubleValue]]]];
    UIFont *font = [UIFont fontWithName:FONT_LATO_LIGHT size:12.0f];
    NSAttributedString *attrString = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:lastUpdated attributes:@{NSFontAttributeName:font}];

    _refreshControl.attributedTitle = attrString;
}

UIRefreshControl incorrect title offset during first run and sometimes title missing

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