Changing the Status Bar Color for specific ViewControllers using Swift in iOS8

After reading all the suggestions, and trying out a few things, I could get this to work for specific viewcontrollers using the following steps :

First Step:

Open your info.plist and insert a new key named "View controller-based status bar appearance" to NO

Second Step (Just an explanation, no need to implement this):

Normally we put the following code in the application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method of the AppDelegate,

Swift 2

UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent

Swift 3

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

but that affects the statusBarStyle of all the ViewControllers.

So, how to get this working for specific ViewControllers - Final Step:

Open the viewcontroller file where you want to change the statusBarStyle and put the following code in viewWillAppear(),

Swift 2

UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent

Swift 3

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

Also, implement the viewWillDisappear() method for that specific viewController and put the following lines of code,

Swift 2

override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
    UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyle.Default

}

Swift 3

override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
    UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyle.default
}

This step will first change the statusBarStyle for the specific viewcontroller and then change it back to default when the specific viewcontroller disappears. Not implementing the viewWillDisappear() will change the statusBarStyle permanently to the new defined value of UIStatusBarStyle.LightContent

---

(As of October 25, 2021)

Swift 5, Swift 4.2, Swift 4

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
}
override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
    .lightContent
}

---

Swift 4.2 solution with NavigationController

First Step:

Open your info.plist and insert a new key named "View controller-based status bar appearance" or UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance to YES to let each VC use their own status property.

Second Step

In each VC, override the preferredStatusBarStyle property like this :

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent //.default for black style
}

Last step

Override the preferredStatusBarStyle property in your custom NavigationController class :

class NavigationController : UINavigationController {

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {

    if let topVC = viewControllers.last {
        //return the status property of each VC, look at step 2
        return topVC.preferredStatusBarStyle  
    }

    return .default
}

---

I followed this tutorial and it worked for me. However, I am not sure if there are any caveats.

https://coderwall.com/p/dyqrfa/customize-navigation-bar-appearance-with-swift

Open your info.plist and set UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance to false.

In the first function in AppDelegate.swift, which contains didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, set the color you want.

UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyle.LightContent

Swift 3 Update * UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

---

There's a billion answers here so I thought why not add another in the form of an extension (with help from @Cœur)

Swift 3

Extension:

extension UIApplication {
    class var statusBarBackgroundColor: UIColor? {
        get {
            return (shared.value(forKey: "statusBar") as? UIView)?.backgroundColor
        } set {
            (shared.value(forKey: "statusBar") as? UIView)?.backgroundColor = newValue
        }
    }
}

Implementation:

UIApplication.statusBarBackgroundColor = .blue

---

In your Info.plist you need to define View controller-based status bar appearance to any value.

If you define it YES then you should override preferredStatusBarStyle function in each view controller.

If you define it NO then you can set style in AppDelegate using

UIApplication.sharedApplication().setStatusBarStyle(UIStatusBarStyle.LightContent, animated: true)

---

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    self.navigationController?.navigationBarHidden =  true

    UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarHidden = false
    UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent

    let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.sharedApplication().valueForKey("statusBar") as! UIView
    if statusBar.respondsToSelector("setBackgroundColor:") {
        statusBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.redColor()
    }

}

---

Swift 3

let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.shared.value(forKey: "statusBar") as! UIView
if statusBar.responds(to: #selector(setter: UIView.backgroundColor)) {
  statusBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.black
} 

That's the solution for setting background color of the status bar for specific view controller.

---

SWIFT 2

I was able to successfully change the appearance of the status bar background by adding the following in my viewWillAppear:

let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.sharedApplication().valueForKey("statusBar") as! UIView

    if statusBar.respondsToSelector(Selector("setBackgroundColor:")) {
        statusBar.backgroundColor = .redColor()
    }

---

(As of June 10, 2020)

Swift 5 (Without editing .Plist file)

If you are using Storyboard, go to the NavigationController, select the navigationBar, click on the Attributes Inspector, then change the style. if you need light content (white status bar) set it anything except default lets say set style black And if you want dark content (black status bar) set it default.

The default (UIBarStyleDefault) results in the dark foreground UIStatusBarStyleDefault status bar. And UIBarStyleBlack will give a UIStatusBarStyleLightContent status bar.

Programatically

let nav = UINavigationController(rootViewController: rootViewController)

    nav.navigationBar.barStyle = .default //gives you dark Content status bar

    nav.navigationBar.barStyle = .black  //gives you light content status bar

Without Navigation Bar (Edit .Plist)

add UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance / View controller-based status bar appearance to your info.plist, and set value is true.

Override the preferredStatusBarStyle property in your Controller

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {
        return .lightContent
    }
}

---

Implement preferredStatusBarStyle as you mentioned and call self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate() in ViewDidLoad and also in Info.plist set UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance to YES (It's YES by default)

It is not clear why it is not working.I need to check code.One other suggestion is go with working code in viewDidLoad UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent and change this to default when you view get disappeared viewWillDisappear.

---

In my situation,I use storyboard to organize my view controllers.I want to change all status bar style.

You can see in picture below.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/w5dhR.png

Stars View Controller is a CPBaseNavigationController,and CPBaseNavigationController is subclass of UINavigationController.

I try doing the next setps:

In AppDelegate.swift func didFinishLaunchingWithOptions,add //change status bar color UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarHidden = false UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent but no effect. In StoryBoard,find the Base Tab BarController(picture on the above).select Attributes Inspector, change the Sattus Bar attribute to Light Content.so bad,no effect.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/aBC4b.png

Last I get it.In my custom navigation controller CPBaseNavigationController,add func preferredStatusBarStyle override func preferredStatusBarStyle() -> UIStatusBarStyle { return .LightContent } It works well!

Besides,statusBarStyle deprecated in 9.0,you can use -[UIViewController preferredStatusBarStyle].

---

Everything is much easier in Swift 3.0 Xcode 8

Using the code below in App Delegate file, after

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {

insert this:

UINavigationBar.appearance().barStyle = .black

UINavigationBar.appearance().barTintColor = UIColor(red: 230, green: 32, blue: 31, alpha: 1.0)

---

Swift 3

//
//  LoginController.swift
//  Swift 3
//
//  Created by The Crab on 17/01/2017.
//  Copyright © 2017 Paxi Labs. All rights reserved.
//

import UIKit

class LoginController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()

        view.backgroundColor = UIColor(red: 61/255, green: 91/255, blue: 151/255, alpha: 1)

    }

    override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
        return .lightContent
    }
}

---

for swift 3

.plist

View controller-based status bar appearance = NO

AppDelegate.swift

  func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        // Custom statubar
        UIApplication.shared.isStatusBarHidden = false
        UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent
        let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.shared.value(forKey: "statusBar") as! UIView
        statusBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.gray

        return true
    }

---

Works for Navigation Based Application

    var addStatusBar = UIView()
    addStatusBar.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width, 20);
    addStatusBar.backgroundColor = global().UIColorFromRGB(0x65b4d9)
    self.window?.rootViewController?.view .addSubview(addStatusBar)

---

Another really easy way to make this work is just to create an extension of the UINavigationController class.

Since overriding the preferredStatusBarStyle: method wont work UNLESS we do it inside of the UINavigationController class.

    extension UINavigationController {
        open override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
            return .lightContent
        }
    }

---

Swift 4 For specific ViewController without navigationViewController embedded just add this to your ViewController file.

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent
}

---

I had some trouble with this one. I didn't really feel good about globally changing the status bar color in view did appear and then changing it back on view did disappear like the accepted answer. Believe it or not you can get this working by overriding preferredStatusBarStyle on your desired view controller. After much time this is what I did to get it working:

Change View controller-based status bar appearance in your info.plist to YES. Now any full screen view controller can change the status bar style by overriding preferredStatusBarStyle. I specify full screen because this will not work for (non-full screen) modal view controllers, not without setting modalPresentationCapturesStatusBarAppearance to Yes that is. Also if you have embedded view controllers, like in a navigation controller for example, it will ask the top most view controller for status bar style. Overriding childViewControllerForStatusBarStyle and passing the embedded view controller is supposed to work but it didn't for me. So I just returned the embedded view controllers preferred status bar as the preferred status bar style. Something like this: override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle { if let topViewController = viewControllers.last { return topViewController.preferredStatusBarStyle } return .default }

---

In Swift 5 or xcode 11 and later set (View controller-based status bar appearance) key in info.plist as NO Then go to project target and select general, Set status bar style to dark or light

---

I had set specific color (in RGB format) using below code in App Delegate file:

func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
. . .

 UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarHidden = false
        UIApplication.sharedApplication().statusBarStyle = .LightContent

        let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.sharedApplication().valueForKey("statusBar") as! UIView
        if statusBar.respondsToSelector(Selector("setBackgroundColor:")) {
            statusBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.init(red: 0.1, green: 0.27, blue: 0.60, alpha: 1.0)
        }

. . .
}

You also need to add below key in Info.plist file :

View controller-based status bar appearance with boolean value set to NO

https://i.stack.imgur.com/WerEO.png

https://i.stack.imgur.com/JXso0.png

---

I can suggest you a simpler way,

Just call setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate in viewDidLoad as Apple docs says,

Call this method if the view controller's status bar attributes, such as hidden/unhidden status or style, change. If you call this method within an animation block, the changes are animated along with the rest of the animation block.

Implement preferredStatusBarStyle returning your preferred type.

It worked for me in iOS 10.1.

Objective C

[self setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate];

-(UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle {
     return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent;
}

Swift

setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()

var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle { 
    return .lightContent
}

I am surprised nobody pointed this out. Anyway enjoy :)

---

Custom color for the status bar (iOS11+, Swift4+)

If you are looking for a solution how to change the status bar to your custom color, this the working solution.

let statusBarView = UIView()
view.addSubview(statusBarView)
statusBarView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
    statusBarView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.topAnchor),
    statusBarView.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leftAnchor),
    statusBarView.rightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.rightAnchor),
    statusBarView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor)
])
statusBarView.backgroundColor = .blue

---

What worked with me, in the Storyboard, go to the Navigation Controller, select the navigation bar, click on the Attributes Inspector, then change the style from default to black. That's it!

---

In Swift 4 or 4.2

You can add on your vc

preferredStatusBarStyle

and set return value to

.lightContent or .default

ex:

override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
        return .lightContent
}

---

Swift 3.0 Update

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {

        UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

        return true
    }

---

SWIFT 4.2 Hey, I wanted to share a solution, that worked for me that I got from a great article on this ellusive subject by Graig Grummitt.

Step 1 As others have mentioned ADD below to your PLIST

View controller-based status bar appearance YES

Step 2 in the RootViewcontroller add below

var statusBarHidden: Bool = false {
        didSet(newValue) {
            UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.1) {
                self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
            }
        }
    }

    override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool {
        return statusBarHidden
    }

    var vcStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle = .default {
        didSet(newValue) {
            UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.1) {
                self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
            }
        }
    }

    override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
        return vcStatusbarStyle
    }

When updating either property statusBarHidden or vcStatusBarStyle it will call setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate() and will update the status bar with the new values for either prefersStatusBarHidden or preferredStatusBarStyle. In my situation I had to update these properties for the container viewcontroller, that was the parent of the visable childviewcontroller. I did this using a simple delegate method.

protocol MainViewControllerDelegate {
    func updateStatusBarStyle(statBarStayle: UIStatusBarStyle)
    func toggleStatusBar(visable: Bool)
}

Ofcourse when instantiating the childViewController(Visible VC) don't forget to set the MainViewcontroller(Container VC) as its delegate. I sometimes do. :)

childViewController.delegate = self

Then in the childViewController I just called the delegate method when needed to update the status bar.

self.delegate?.updateStatusBarStyle(statBarStayle: .default)

As mentioned above Graig Grummitt goes into more detail about this solution and also working with UINavigationControllers as well. Link here: The Mysterious Case of the Status Bar

---

There are two situation:

1.show navigation bar

1) add1UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance / View controller-based status bar appearance to your info.plist, and set value is true.

2) Override the preferredStatusBarStyle property in your custom NavigationController class : (from @guillama)

class NavigationController : UINavigationController {

    override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {

    if let topVC = viewControllers.last {
        //return the status property of each VC, look at step 2
        return topVC.preferredStatusBarStyle  
    }
        return .default
    }

3) override preferredStatusBarStyle in your specific view controller:

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent
}

2.hidden navigation bar

1) ditto

2) don't need second step above, you should implement third step directly.

override var preferredStatusBarStyle : UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent
}

---

I use this way in Swift 5, Swift 4.2.

Add next values to Info.plist:

UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance = YES

or

UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance = NO (to see changes)

UIStatusBarHidden = NO

UIStatusBarStyle = UIStatusBarStyleDefault (or set to UIStatusBarStyleLightContent if you want to see light status bar texts on launching)

https://i.stack.imgur.com/diddT.png

Then place code below to specific view controllers where you want to see light content (to see dark texts set preferredStatusBarStyle to .darkContent).

override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent
}

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    if let statusBar: UIView = UIApplication.shared.value(forKey: "statusBar") as? UIView {
        statusBar.backgroundColor = .sunflowerYellow
    }
}

---

Click on the Supporting Files group(left side top - name of your project). Navigate to Info. Click on + somewhere between lists, like below bundle name. And add "View controller-based status bar appearence" and set it to NO. Then open AppDelegate.swift and modify like this:

func application(application: UIApplication!, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: NSDictionary!) -> Bool {

UIApplication.sharedApplication().setStatusBarStyle(UIStatusBarStyle.LightContent, animated: true)

return true
}

Thats it.

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