Changing cursor color on UISearchBar without changing tintColor

Question

I want my searchBar's tint color to be white (meaning the cancel button be white). The cursor is not visible when the tint color is white. Is there a way to set cursor color separately?

I posted a solution with detailed screenshots here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/42444940/4754881 — Derek Soike, Feb 24 '17 at 17:52

score 67 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '14 at 19:59

67

Set your tint color to the color you want the cancel button to be and then use the UIAppearance Protocol to change the tint color on the text field to be the color you wish the cursor to be. Ex:

[self.searchBar setTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];                
[[UITextField appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UISearchBar class], nil] setTintColor:[UIColor darkGrayColor]];

answered Jul 29 '14 at 19:59

McFadden

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Don't know why, by this code (second line) changes also tint for barButton in next modal scene. So I used @Felipe's answer below. – zalogatomek Aug 08 '16 at 11:58
I had the same problem as tzaloga. Anyone any idea why this affects modal scene's bar button item color? – hanjustin Jan 21 '17 at 03:27
since iOS13, you can use searchBar.searchTextField.tintColor – Kamen Dobrev Dec 06 '21 at 17:53

score 17 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

17

Swift 3.0 and 4 version

searchController.searchBar.tintColor = .white        
UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [type(of: searchController.searchBar)]).tintColor = .black

Note that searchBar can't be optional.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Aug 29 '17 at 01:14

Fangming

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score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 07 '16 at 17:03

If you're fond of functional, yet annoying one-liners in Swift, I got Benjamin's for loop down to this:

searchController.searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

searchController.searchBar.subviews[0].subviews.flatMap(){ $0 as? UITextField }.first?.tintColor = UIColor.blueColor()

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered May 14 '19 at 13:45

8

Easiest in Swift 5:

    UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).tintColor = .black

answered May 14 '19 at 13:45

Joshua Hart

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Great! Working! – Senocico Stelian Dec 20 '19 at 08:56

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 10 '16 at 16:26

6

Compact Swift 2.0 solution using for-where syntax (no need to break loop):

// Make SearchBar's tint color white to get white cancel button.
searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.white()

// Loop into it's subviews and find TextField, change tint color to something else.
for subView in searchBar.subviews[0].subviews where subView.isKindOfClass(UITextField) {
        subView.tintColor = UIColor.darkTextColor()
}

answered Feb 10 '16 at 16:26

Felipe Nuila

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This worked for me, when I wanted to change cursor color for only one searchBar. – zalogatomek Aug 08 '16 at 11:49

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 26 '16 at 15:19

searchBar.tintColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
searchBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
for ( UIView *v in [searchBar.subviews.firstObject subviews] )
{
    if ( YES == [v isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]] )
    {
        [((UITextField*)v) setTintColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
        break;
    }
}

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 07 '16 at 05:26

5

This seemed to work for me in swift as well.

    searchController.searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
    UITextField.appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses([searchController.searchBar.dynamicType]).tintColor = UIColor.blackColor()

answered Jul 07 '16 at 05:26

Eric Hodgins

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Both Felipe & Eric's solutions work for me but I feel more comfortable with your solution Eric. – David West Aug 08 '16 at 15:51

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 14 '15 at 14:04

For those looking to do the same in Swift, here is a solution I came accros after quite a lot of trouble :

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    self.searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

    let view: UIView = self.searchBar.subviews[0] as! UIView
    let subViewsArray = view.subviews

    for (subView: UIView) in subViewsArray as! [UIView] {
        println(subView)
        if subView.isKindOfClass(UITextField){
            subView.tintColor = UIColor.blueColor()
        }
    }

}

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered May 09 '17 at 14:40

I would just add an extension to UISearchBar with the following code.

extension UISearchBar {
    var cursorColor: UIColor! {
        set {
            for subView in self.subviews[0].subviews where ((subView as? UITextField) != nil) {
                subView.tintColor = newValue
            }
        }
        get {
            for subView in self.subviews[0].subviews where ((subView as? UITextField) != nil) {
                return subView.tintColor
            }
            // Return default tintColor
            return UIColor.eightBit(red: 1, green: 122, blue: 255, alpha: 100)
        }
    }
}

Adam Studenic · Answer 10 · 2019-08-16T13:03:34.383

3

iOS 9 and above

The easiest way to set a tintColor different for cancel button and textField, use this:

[self.searchBar setTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[[UITextField appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[[UISearchBar class]]] setTintColor:UIColor.blueColor];

edited Aug 16 '19 at 13:03

answered Sep 19 '17 at 09:33

Adam Studenic

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You are missing a [ at the start of your first line... Should be : [self.searchBar setTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]]; – Peter Suwara Aug 16 '19 at 12:27

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 11 '17 at 16:19

1

This is the easiest solution.

let textField = self.searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as! UITextField

    textField.tintColor = UIColor.white

answered Jul 11 '17 at 16:19

Teodor Pavlov

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`let textField = self.searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField; textField?.tintColor = UIColor.white` avoids forced unwrapping and thereby any unwanted crashes. – idrougge Mar 14 '19 at 12:25

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Jul 03 '19 at 15:57

1

Here is a "functional" version of Felipe's answer (Swift 4.2)

// Make SearchBar's tint color white to get white cancel button.
searchBar.tintColor = .white

// Get the TextField subviews, change tint color to something else.
if let textFields = searchBar.subviews.first?.subviews.compactMap({ $0 as? UITextField }) {
        textFields.forEach { $0.tintColor = UIColor.darkGray }
}

edited Jul 03 '19 at 15:57

Dris

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answered Mar 27 '19 at 15:40

Frederic Adda

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Changing cursor color on UISearchBar without changing tintColor

12 Answers12

Swift 3.0 and 4 version

iOS 9 and above