UIWindow with wrong size when using landscape orientation

Question

I have an empty application and there is no storyboard or xib involved. I want to have a hidden status bar and support only landscape orientation. Again, I wan't to make those changes only within code and don't touch the Info.plist.

Problem

I create a UIWindow with a controller that says the only supported orientation is landscape. In that case my UIWindow is created in the dimension of portrait mode and doesn't rotate. The expected result would be a screen that is completely cyan.

This is my delegate:

#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "AppViewController.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
  self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor cyanColor];
  self.window.rootViewController = [[AppViewController alloc] init];
  [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
  return YES;
}

@end

This is my controller:

#import "AppViewController.h"

@implementation AppViewController

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotate {
  return YES;
}

- (UIInterfaceOrientation)preferredInterfaceOrientationForPresentation {
  return UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft;
}

- (BOOL)prefersStatusBarHidden {
  return YES;
}

- (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations {
  return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscape;
}

@end

What I've tried so far

If I set the rootViewController after calling makeKeyAndVisible everything seems to work at first.

self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor cyanColor];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
self.window.rootViewController = [[AppViewController alloc] init];

There are still some issues. First of all I don't like this since it seems to be very fragile. Second problem is that in a more complex application that sets a GLKViewController as the rootViewController I get the following result (expected would be no black area on the left):

It looks like the status bar is not hidden early enough. Several gesture recognizers are active and in the GLKViewController and clicking on the black area yields the following log message:

2014-09-25 13:20:42.170 StackOverflowExample[6971:107907] unexpected nil window in _UIApplicationHandleEventFromQueueEvent, _windowServerHitTestWindow: UIClassicWindow: 0x7fa20b805e00; frame = (0 0; 375 667); userInteractionEnabled = NO; gestureRecognizers = NSArray: 0x7fa20b80a620; layer = UIWindowLayer: 0x7fa20b806890

I also performed various other changes, like attaching an empty UIViewController and adding my view as a sub-view. In that case my view looks correct but the window is still using the wrong dimensions.

Everything rotates correct if I do not override the supportedInterfaceOrientations methods in my view controller. But that is of course not what I want.

Answer 1

When you run landscape app from portrait mode UIScreen has portrait bounds in iOS 8 (only if you haven't this app in app switch panel, as iOS 8 makes some cache). Even displaying window with makeKeyAndVisible doesn't change it's frame. But it changes [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds according to AppViewController avaliable orientation.

#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "AppViewController.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  // Portrait bounds at this point
  self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];

  self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor cyanColor];
  self.window.rootViewController = [[AppViewController alloc] init];
  [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
  return YES;
}

@end

So let's change window's frame after [self.window makeKeyAndVisible]

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    self.window = [UIWindow new];
    self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor cyanColor];
    self.window.rootViewController = [[AppViewController alloc] init];
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

    // Here it is
    self.window.frame = [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds;
    return YES;
}

I think that it is iOS 8 bug.