How to debug navigationcontroller.tintColor not changing? - ios

Question

For some reason I can't figure out why I'm not able to change the tintColor of my navigation bar buttons in my app and I don't know how to figure out why. Can you recommend how I can debug this issue?
I am adding this to the viewDidLoad of my view controller:
UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = .green
However, nothing changes and the back button and Aa bar button stay the default grey color.
The navigation + status bars are translucent and sit on top of the background color of the viewcontroller through out the app.
I am able to change the barbutton to .green in a test app where I do the exact same (add it to ViewDidLoad of a vc, make sure that the barbutton images assets are set to Template so they'll take on the color I set). But for whatever reason, that same thing won't change in my app prototype.
Are there are any common reasons for this that I might not know of?
Added: the bar button was added via storyboard only.
And here is the code attempt to change its color via the viewDidLoad of 1 viewcontroller:
Class ViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = .green
}
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.isTranslucent = true
}
}

Answer 1

If you want to use the global appearance() proxy, then you can't do it in your view controller.
If you want to change the tintColor in viewDidLoad of your view controller then you have to set it on your controller's navigationController instance directly:
navigationController?.navigationBar.tintColor = .green
To use the appearance() proxy, and set a global tintColor for navigation bars, you'll have to do it before your navigation controller is initialized.
For example, it will work if you do it in your app delegate's application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:):
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = .green
return true
}
See the UIAppearance documentation for details of why this is:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiappearance
"iOS applies appearance changes when a view enters a window, it doesn’t change the appearance of a view that’s already in a window. To change the appearance of a view that’s currently in a window, remove the view from the view hierarchy and then put it back."

Answer 2

Navigation Bar color
To change the background color of the navigation bar, use the below code
navigationController?.navigationBar.barTintColor = .green
Change .green with your desired color.
Navigation Bar Text Color
navigationController?.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.green]
Change .green with your desired color.

Answer 3

UINavigationBar.appearance().barTintColor = UIColor(hex:"YourColorcode")
UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = UIColor.white
UINavigationBar.appearance().titleTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white,
NSFontAttributeName: UIFont(name:"AvenirNext-Medium", size:19.0)]
UIBarButtonItem.appearance().setTitleTextAttributes([NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white,
NSFontAttributeName: "YourFontName"], for: UIControlState.normal)