UINavigationBar custom back button without title

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How can I customize the navigation back button in iOS 7 and above without title? (i.e. with the arrow only)

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem;

I’m just wondering if they have any self.backButtonItem;

OR

something like this?

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
                   initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemBACK 
                   target:self action:@selector(back)];

36 Answers
36

It’s actually pretty easy, here is what I do:

Objective C

// Set this in every view controller so that the back button displays back instead of the root view controller name
self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];

Swift 2

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .Plain, target: nil, action: nil)

Swift 3

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)

Put this line in the view controller that is pushing on to the stack (the previous view controller). The newly pushed view controller back button will now show whatever you put for initWithTitle, which in this case is an empty string.

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