UINavigationBar Back Button Title can't be removed using navigation bar appearance for iOS 13

Question

In my application, I want to remove the UINavigationBar Back Button title. I have done the following codes

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
     // do other staffs 
     initNavigationBar()

     return true 

}

private func initNavigationBar() {

        let appearance = UINavigationBar.appearance()
        appearance.barTintColor = GLOBAL_TINT_COLOR // a globally declared colour 
        appearance.tintColor = .white
        appearance.barStyle = .black

        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            let backButtonAppearance = UIBarButtonItemAppearance()
            backButtonAppearance.normal.titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear]
            appearance.standardAppearance.backButtonAppearance = backButtonAppearance
            appearance.compactAppearance?.backButtonAppearance = backButtonAppearance
            appearance.scrollEdgeAppearance?.backButtonAppearance = backButtonAppearance
        } else {


            // Hide navigation bar back button items

            UIBarButtonItem.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UINavigationBar.self]).setTitleTextAttributes([NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear], for: .normal)

            UIBarButtonItem.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UINavigationBar.self]).setTitleTextAttributes([NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.clear], for: .highlighted)
        }

}

However, this code always works for iOS 10-12, but not working for iOS 13. Am I missing something?

In other cases, I have found many answers regarding the topic, but found no solution for iOS 13

I never want to use to set back button title as an empty string, rather than fixing it using appearance.

Thanks

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 26 '19 at 09:33

I had a similar issue some weeks ago. I did not find a way to do it globally for the entire application, so I resorted to customizing each navigation controller (which thankfully wasn't many).

I did something like this by extending UINavigationController:

@available(iOS 13, *)
func hideBackButton() {
    let appearance = self.navigationBar.standardAppearance

    let hideBackButtonTitleAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [
        .foregroundColor: UIColor.clear
    ]

    let normalBackButton = appearance.backButtonAppearance.normal
    let highlightedBackButton = appearance.backButtonAppearance.highlighted

    normalBackButton.titleTextAttributes = hideBackButtonTitleAttributes
    highlightedBackButton.titleTextAttributes = hideBackButtonTitleAttributes

    navigationBar.standardAppearance = appearance
}

Then I used the hideBackButton method like so:

navigationController?.hideBackButton()

If there is a better way to do this for the entire application, let me know.

Yeah, I don't want to write down everywhere `navigationController?.hideBackButton()`, if any better solution is found I will answer you. Thanks! — Ankur Lahiry, Sep 26 '19 at 09:47
@AnkurLahiry You can `subClass` `UINavigationController`, put this customization inside and use that `class`. IMO, Using appearance is least recommended. — Kamran, Sep 26 '19 at 11:56

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 21 '21 at 11:50

I have added ios15 remove BackBar button title and Set Navigations:

    if #available(iOS 15, *) {
        let appearance = UINavigationBarAppearance()
        let pargraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        pargraphStyle.alignment = .center
        let fontApply = UIFont.bold(size: 18)
        UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = UIColor.themeColor
        appearance.configureWithOpaqueBackground()
        appearance.backgroundColor = UIColor.black
        appearance.titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.themeColor, NSAttributedString.Key.font: fontApply, NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle: pargraphStyle]
        appearance.shadowImage = nil
        appearance.shadowColor = .clear
        UINavigationBar.appearance().barStyle = .default
        UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = UIColor.themeColor
        UINavigationBar.appearance().isTranslucent = false
        UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorImage = #imageLiteral(resourceName: "BackIcon")
        UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = #imageLiteral(resourceName: "BackIcon")
        UINavigationBar.appearance().standardAppearance = appearance
        UINavigationBar.appearance().scrollEdgeAppearance = appearance
        
        // Set Back Bar Button Appearance
        let appearanceBackButton = UIBarButtonItemAppearance()

        let hideBackButtonTitleAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [
            .foregroundColor: UIColor.clear
        ]

        let normalBackButton = appearance.backButtonAppearance.normal
        let highlightedBackButton = appearance.backButtonAppearance.highlighted

        normalBackButton.titleTextAttributes = hideBackButtonTitleAttributes
        highlightedBackButton.titleTextAttributes = hideBackButtonTitleAttributes
        appearance.buttonAppearance = appearanceBackButton
    
    }

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 07 '19 at 23:30

You can set your back item to have no title like this:

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:nil style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];

Note that this affects what shows up when something else is pushed onto the navigation stack. If you set view controller A as the root of the navigation controller and set A's back item like that, you'll see it when you push view controller B onto the stack. Setting B's back item will not affect what you see in the Back item when B is visible.

UINavigationBar Back Button Title can't be removed using navigation bar appearance for iOS 13

3 Answers3