How do I change the title of the "back" button on a Navigation Bar

Question

Currently the left bar button default value is the title of the view that loaded the current one, in other words the view to be shown when the button is pressed (back button).

I want to change the text shown on the button to something else.

I tried putting the following line of code in the view controller's viewDidLoad method but it doesn't seem to work.

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.title = @"Log Out";

What should I do?

Thanks.

Solution 1

This should be placed in the method that calls the ViewController titled "NewTitle". Right before the push or popViewController statement.

UIBarButtonItem *newBackButton = 
        [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"NewTitle" 
                                         style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered 
                                        target:nil 
                                        action:nil];
[[self navigationItem] setBackBarButtonItem:newBackButton];
[newBackButton release];

Solution 2

In ChildVC this worked for me...

self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.title = @"Back";

Works in Swift too!

self.navigationController!.navigationBar.topItem!.title = "Back"

Solution 3

Here is the documentation for backBarButtonItem:

"When this navigation item is immediately below the top item in the stack, the navigation controller derives the back button for the navigation bar from this navigation item. [...] If you want to specify a custom image or title for the back button, you can assign a custom bar button item (with your custom title or image) to this property instead."

View Controller A (the "parent" view controller):

self.title = @"Really Long Title";
UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Short" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:nil action:nil];
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

When any other view controller B is on top of the navigation stack, and A is right below it, B's back button will have the title "Short".

Solution 4

in Xcode 4.5 using storyboard, by far the easiest solution i've found when the value of the Back button doesn't have to change dynamically is to use the "Back Button" field associated with the Navigation Item of the View Controller to which you want the "Back" button to say something else.

e.g. in the screenshot below, i want the Back button for the view controller(s) that i push to have "Back" as the title of the Back button.

of course, this won't work if you need the back button to say something slightly different each time … there are all of the other solutions here for that.

Solution 5

I know, the question is very old, but I found a nice solution.

UIBarButtonItem *barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];
barButton.title = @"Custom Title";
self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.backBarButtonItem = barButton;

Works from childView! Tested with iOS 7.

View more solutions

Comments

[Lal Krishna]

Please check iOS 11+ solution - Doesn't require to create backbutton again.

[Alex Reynolds]

When in the child view controller, calling this from the child view controller will not work. You have to call this from the parent view controller, while within the child view controller.

[Alex Reynolds]

A leftBarButtonItem does not have the appearance of a backBarButtonItem, if that is important in the application design.

[Dale]

Of the solutions posted (thank you very much) this one seems to work, albeit as Alex stated above, the left bar button doesn't look like a back bar item. How can I make it look like a back bar item???

[Jordan]

Then make this the answer because the one the one you chose is technically incorrect.

[Dimitris]

Or in one line: self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"Back", @"") style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:nil action:nil] autorelease]; Thanks!

[JonB]

To change the back button for my third level view controller (second push) I had to use the following line instead of the above answer: [[self.parentViewController navigationItem] setBackBarButtonItem: newBackButton]; Am I doing something wrong?

[benvolioT]

Jordan says he "[added] a little more clarity on where to put the code." Here is even more clarity: put it in the first (aka parent) controller, immediately before the call to push the second (aka child) controller.

[MiQUEL]

this is the best solution if you don't care about localization.

[ArtFeel]

you can create a custom BaseViewController and put it in to -viewDidLoad:

[Joe Strout]

You don't have to do this right before push or pop. You can do it in viewDidLoad or loadView or wherever else you set the title and other properties for this view. Victor Bogdan's answer below is clearer, IMHO.

[Alex Zavatone]

Tested and verified on iOS 7 in Xcode 5.0.2. This WILL change the previous screen's title to Back when you go back to it though.

[Eric Chen]

Simpliest solution. Works on both iOS 6 and 7. Put in the base UIViewController and done. Much better than the IB solution or setting in the pushing vc.

[Nikita]

it changes title of previous view controller, that's the problem in this solution

[Travis M.]

Not bad except that they can see it change titles. I tried in viewWillAppear and it doesn't work.

[Warren Burton]

swift 1.1 syntax is self.navigationController?.navigationBar.topItem?.backBarBut‌​tonItem

[narco]

This only seems to work to one level. It is not working for a child of a child for me. iOS 8.

[Dan Beaulieu]

@Nikita, You can set the tile back in viewWillDisappear

[Septronic]

I'm using this in iOS 8.4 and 9. I'm doing this just before I push the new viewcontroller (I'm doing it through segue), and it works beautifully.

[Ian Pinto]

Above solution works, except do not need last line in ARC mode. 'release' is unavailable in automatic reference counting mode.

[Kiryl Bielašeŭski]

Use UIBarButtonItemStylePlain when minimum deployment target is iOS7 or later. UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered is deprecated.

[Merkurial]

the tricky part is you need to set the back button in the PARENT view controller and not the child view. Wasted an hour just figured this out.

[gravitron]

this will actually change the title of the view controller previous in the stack to "TEXT", which is less than ideal.

[Micro]

Style should be UIBarButtonItemStyle.Plain

[Womble]

Thanks for this. What a truly pathetic API this is. And representative of UIKit in general. Between navigation bars and Status Bars in iOS, it's a wonder we still develop for this goddamned platform. Thank baby jesus for Stack Overflow and its contributors!

[AnBisw]

Man, i gotta tell you, it's 2017 and it's still a pain in the a$$ to handle the back button. Your method worked for me and I ended up with the "<" sign although I wanted the word "Cancel", but I will settle for what I got. :)

[Illya Krit]

According to your blog post: override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() { super.viewWillLayoutSubviews() let customBackButton = UIBarButtonItem(title: "BackTitle", style: .bordered, target: nil, action: nil) self.navigationController?.navigationBar.backItem?.backBarBu‌​ttonItem = customBackButton }

[villapossu]

The original question didn't say anything about using storyboards, so it's definitely good this is not the accepted answer, however correct a solution this is for storyboard-based development.

[heyfrank]

@Wobmle: You should develop for Android for a few months ;)