How to delete all Annotations on a MKMapView

Question

Is there a simple way to delete all the annotations on a map without iterating through all the displayed annotations in Objective-c?

score 254 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 25 '13 at 09:53

Yes, here is how

[mapView removeAnnotations:mapView.annotations]

However the previous line of code will remove all map annotations "PINS" from the map, including the user location pin "Blue Pin". To remove all map annotations and keep the user location pin on the map, there are two possible ways to do that

Example 1, retain the user location annotation, remove all pins, add the user location pin back, but there is a flaw with this approach, it will cause the user location pin to blink on the map, due to removing the pin then adding it back

- (void)removeAllPinsButUserLocation1 
{
    id userLocation = [mapView userLocation];
    [mapView removeAnnotations:[mapView annotations]];

    if ( userLocation != nil ) {
        [mapView addAnnotation:userLocation]; // will cause user location pin to blink
    }
}

Example 2, I personally prefer to avoid removing the location user pin in the first place,

- (void)removeAllPinsButUserLocation2
{
    id userLocation = [mapView userLocation];
    NSMutableArray *pins = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:[mapView annotations]];
    if ( userLocation != nil ) {
        [pins removeObject:userLocation]; // avoid removing user location off the map
    }

    [mapView removeAnnotations:pins];
    [pins release];
    pins = nil;
}

does this remove the user location too? what if I want to remove all the annotations besides the user location? — kevin Mendoza, Jun 13 '10 at 22:17
You do not need to save any reference to user location. Read my answer below for more info. — Aviel Gross, Apr 15 '14 at 19:55

score 36 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 15 '11 at 10:59

36

Here is the simplest way to do that:

-(void)removeAllAnnotations
{
  //Get the current user location annotation.
  id userAnnotation=mapView.userLocation;

  //Remove all added annotations
  [mapView removeAnnotations:mapView.annotations]; 

  // Add the current user location annotation again.
  if(userAnnotation!=nil)
  [mapView addAnnotation:userAnnotation];
}

edited Jan 15 '11 at 10:59

McDowell

107,573
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answered Jan 15 '11 at 07:30

Sandip Sarkar

377
3
2

Good answer, much faster than iterating through all of them, especially if you have more than a handful of annotations. – Matthew Frederick Jan 15 '11 at 11:10
6

Removing an annotation then adding it back, causes the pin to blink on the map. Might not a be a big deal for some apps, but it can be annoying for the user if you consistently updating the map with new annotations. – RocketMan Aug 03 '11 at 12:51
For some reason, my userLocation annotation always disappears using this method. Victor Van Hee's solution works for me. – btt Dec 16 '11 at 17:12

score 18 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 29 '10 at 07:02

18

Here's how to remove all annotations except the user location, written out explicitly because I imagine I will come looking for this answer again:

NSMutableArray *locs = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (id <MKAnnotation> annot in [mapView annotations])
{
    if ( [annot isKindOfClass:[ MKUserLocation class]] ) {
    }
    else {
        [locs addObject:annot];
    }
}
[mapView removeAnnotations:locs];
[locs release];
locs = nil;

answered Aug 29 '10 at 07:02

Victor Van Hee

9,679
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Thank you,This worked for me with copy and paste and removing [locs release] and changing mapView to _mapView. I was following a great tutorial for MKDirections here http://www.devfright.com/mkdirections-tutorial and wanted to remove the pin after getting directions. I added the code below the last line of that method to the 'clear route'method – Hblegg Mar 18 '14 at 05:37
update remove multiple - (IBAction)clearRoute:(UIBarButtonItem *)sender { self.destinationLabel.text = nil; self.distanceLabel.text = nil; self.steps.text = nil; [self.mapView removeOverlay:routeDetails.polyline]; NSMutableArray *locs = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; for (id annot in [_mapView annotations]) { if ( [annot isKindOfClass:[ MKUserLocation class]] ) { } else { [locs addObject:annot]; } } [_mapView removeAnnotations:locs]; [_mapView removeOverlays:_mapView.overlays]; } – Hblegg Mar 18 '14 at 19:56

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 15 '14 at 19:54

You do not need to save any reference to user location. All that is needed is:

[mapView removeAnnotations:mapView.annotations];

And as long as you have mapView.showsUserLocation set to YES, you will still have user location on the map. Settings this property to YES basically asks the map view to start updating and fetching user location, to to show it on the map. From the MKMapView.h comments:

// Set to YES to add the user location annotation to the map and start updating its location

I ended up using this format: [self.mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)] — Edward Hasted, Jul 06 '15 at 17:25

score 13 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 20 '12 at 23:14

This is very similar to Sandip's answer, except that it doesn't re-add the user location so the blue dot doesn't blink on and off again.

-(void)removeAllAnnotations
{
    id userAnnotation = self.mapView.userLocation;

    NSMutableArray *annotations = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:self.mapView.annotations];
    [annotations removeObject:userAnnotation];

    [self.mapView removeAnnotations:annotations];
}

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 02 '15 at 04:07

6

Swift version:

func removeAllAnnotations() {
    let annotations = mapView.annotations.filter {
        $0 !== self.mapView.userLocation
    }
    mapView.removeAnnotations(annotations)
}

answered Aug 02 '15 at 04:07

Kosuke Ogawa

7,383
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score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 18 '16 at 12:51

6

Swift 2.0 Simple and the best:

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)

answered Mar 18 '16 at 12:51

Maselko

4,028
2
22
21

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 10 '16 at 19:26

5

Swift 3

if let annotations = self.mapView.annotations {
    self.mapView.removeAnnotations(annotations)
}

answered Oct 10 '16 at 19:26

mckanet

337
3
3

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 08:56

0

To remove one type of subclass you can do

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations.filter({$0 is PlacesAnnotation}))

where PlacesAnnotation is a subclass of MKAnnotation

answered Jul 03 '19 at 08:56

Tharak

128
4

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 24 '20 at 18:37

Here is the function to remove all markers as well as all routes (if any) from MKMapView:

 func removeAppleMapOverlays() {
    let overlays = self.appleMapView.overlays
    self.appleMapView.removeOverlays(overlays)
    let annotations = self.appleMapView.annotations.filter {
            $0 !== self.appleMapView.userLocation
        }
    self.appleMapView.removeAnnotations(annotations)
}

Cheers

How to delete all Annotations on a MKMapView

10 Answers10

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