iOS 7 UINavigationBar appearance not working first time…

Question

I am trying to change the look of the UINavigationBar in my iOS7 app. I am doing the following:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    m_sNumberToCall = @"";

    UIBarButtonItem * btn = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"IconHome.png"] style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(btHomeTouched:)];
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = btn;

    self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = YES;


    [[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"TVCNavBack.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

    NSShadow * shadow = [[NSShadow alloc] init];
    shadow.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.8];
    shadow.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, 1);
    [[UINavigationBar appearance] setTitleTextAttributes: [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                           [UIColor colorWithRed:245.0/255.0 green:245.0/255.0 blue:245.0/255.0 alpha:1.0],
                                                           NSForegroundColorAttributeName,
                                                           shadow,
                                                           NSShadowAttributeName,
                                                           [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:21.0],
                                                           NSFontAttributeName,
                                                           nil]];
}

But, the first time I present the UITableViewController it is the standard iOS7 nav bar, then I press home and present it again and it is my new look.

Any ideas why it does not work the first time?

Answer 1

Don't change the appearance but the navigation bar directly. The appearance affects only the future instances but not the already created ones.

Change:

[[UINavigationBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"TVCNavBack.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];

to:

[self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"TVCNavBack.png"] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];