UIsearchController not becoming first responder in ios 9

Question

I have a UISearchController in the navigation bar and it worked fine until now.

Only on iOS 9 the search bar refuse to be the first responder after the controller is loaded.

The code in viewDidLoad:

self.searchController = ({
        let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
        controller.searchResultsUpdater = self
        controller.delegate = self

        controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false

        let ownSearchBar = controller.searchBar
        ownSearchBar.searchBarStyle = .Default
        ownSearchBar.barStyle = UIBarStyle.Black
        ownSearchBar.placeholder = NSLocalizedString("Search",  comment: "Search")
        ownSearchBar.showsCancelButton = true
        ownSearchBar.sizeToFit()
        ownSearchBar.delegate = self

        controller.searchBar.delegate = self
        controller.hidesNavigationBarDuringPresentation = false

        self.navigationItem.titleView = controller.searchBar
        self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = true
        self.navigationController?.navigationBar.sizeToFit()


        return controller

    })()

The code in viewDidAppear:

override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)

    self.searchController.active = true
    self.searchController.searchBar.text = state.term
    self.segmentedControl.selectedSegmentIndex = state.searchType
}

And my code in didPresentSearchController:

extension SearchController :  UISearchControllerDelegate {
func didPresentSearchController(searchController: UISearchController){
    self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    xButtonWasPressed = true
}

}

Please help me find why only in iOS 9 the search bar don't get the focus

are you looking in simulator or readl device? – katleta3000 Oct 28 '15 at 09:43 — katleta3000, Oct 28 '15 at 09:43
I've checked in both. the device is iPhone 6 – Deano Oct 28 '15 at 09:47 — Deano, Oct 28 '15 at 09:47
Same problem for me. Think this is a bug... :( – Mikael Hellman Nov 23 '15 at 15:07 — Mikael Hellman, Nov 23 '15 at 15:07
Also got this bug everything worked fine in iOS8 :( – ddnl Nov 27 '15 at 13:13 — ddnl, Nov 27 '15 at 13:13

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '15 at 21:55

The same problem for me. Worked well on iOS 8 but stopped working on iOS 9.

The bug is that in didPresentSearchController: method should be the SearchController already loaded but it is not.

So we need to get some delay to load it. My ugly but working solution is

 func didPresentSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {

    UIView.animateWithDuration(0.1, animations: { () -> Void in }) { (completed) -> Void in

         searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

It is really important to have have becomeFirstResponder() in completed part of this method because it is the part when the SearchController is loaded

Hope it helps!

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '21 at 02:10

Helpful things...

In viewDidLoad set self as delegate of the search bar searchController.delegate = self
In viewDidAppear set self.searchController.isActive = true. If you do it in viewWillAppear it might not work without a delay
Use the UISearchControllerDelegate method to make the keyboard active


    func presentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
                searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
            }
    }
}

NOTE: There's a method called didPresentSearchController which you'd think would be the one to use, but that only fires if the system automatically presents the search bar.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 03 '16 at 06:34

Use the following code:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)            
        self.countrySearchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }

Here "countrySearchBar" is the outlet to your searchBar.

Please check my GitHub link to test sample project:

https://github.com/k-sathireddy/SearchDisplayControllerSample

UIsearchController not becoming first responder in ios 9

3 Answers3