Cannot set searchBar as firstResponder

I have a searchBar I'm setting in a tableviewcontroller. i've referenced this similar question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27451088/uisearchbar-cannot-become-first-responder-after-uitableview-did-re-appear but am still unable to set it as first responder. In .h file:

@property (strong, nonatomic) UISearchController *searchController;
@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UISearchBar *searchBar;

In view didload:

self.searchController = [[UISearchController alloc]initWithSearchResultsController:nil];
self.searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self;
self.searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = NO;
self.searchController.hidesNavigationBarDuringPresentation = NO;
    
self.searchController.searchBar.frame = CGRectMake(self.searchController.searchBar.frame.origin.x, self.searchController.searchBar.frame.origin.y, self.searchController.searchBar.frame.size.width, 44.0);
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.searchController.searchBar;

And in viewDidAppear:

-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
  [self.searchController setActive:YES];
  [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
  [super viewDidAppear:animated];
}

When I segue to the view the searchBar animates, but no keyboard appears.

I noticed this issue too. What seems to happen is the call to becomeFirstResponder is done when the searchController is still 'loading'. If you comment out becomeFirstResponder you notice that there is no difference. So we need a way to call becomeFirstResponder after the searchController is 'done' loading.

When I looked at various delegate methods I noticed there is a delegate method:

- (void)didPresentSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController

This method is called right after the searchController has been presented. Then I make the call to becomeFirstResponder:

- (void)didPresentSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController
{
    [searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
}

This fixes the problem. You will notice that when the searchController is loaded, the searchbar now has focus.

The solution with

• (void)didPresentSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController did not work, since this delegate method is called only when the user taps on the search bar...

However, this solution did work:

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
    [self performSelector:@selector(showKeyboard) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.1];
}

- (void) showKeyboard
{
    [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
}

---

Swift 3

delay(0.1) { self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder() }

func delay(_ delay: Double, closure: @escaping ()->()) {
    let when = DispatchTime.now() + delay
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: when, execute: closure)
}

Well, I found the solution that is actually perfectly working for me.

Don't call [self.searchController setActive:YES]; before calling [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];

What's better, don't call [self.searchController setActive:YES]; at all.

Call only [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder]; and the keyboard just pops out as it should, without any delay.

It seems to be somewhat like a bug and a lot of people are confirming it. For example, check here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30522062/when-assigning-focus-via-becomefirstresponder-to-uisearchcontrollers-uisearchba

Swift 4, iOS 11

It works for me

// 1.
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    
    resultSearchController.isActive = true
}

// 2. ->> UISearchControllerDelegate
func didPresentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
    
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

The function searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder() must be called in the main thread and after searchController.active = true in the viewDidLoad method. Here're the full solution. It works on iOS 9.3

override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
  super.viewDidAppear(animated)
  searchController.active = true
  Async.main {
    self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
  }
}

Very similar to other answers, but I had to access the main queue in the ViewDidAppear. The SearchBarController can't be acted upon until the View appears and then can only be done so in the main queue for UI:

searchController.active = true  // doubtful whether this is needed
        
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
            self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
        });

Easy Swift3 variant:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    navigationItem.titleView = mySearchController.searchBar
    mySearchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
    mySearchController.delegate = self

}

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        self.mySearchController.isActive = true
    }
}

func presentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
    mySearchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
}

It works ;-)

Swift 5 solution:

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        definesPresentationContext = true
        searchController.delegate = self
    }

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    searchController.isActive = true
}

extension ViewController: UISearchControllerDelegate {
 func didPresentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
      DispatchQueue.main.async {[weak self] in
          self?.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
       }
  }
}

Xcode 11.4, Swift 5.2

If you just want the SearchBar to appear but not activate the TextField & keyboard. There is no need to dispatch it to the main thread.

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    searchController.isActive = true
}

---

If you want the TextField to activate with the keyboard, then you do need to call it on the main thread. There is no need to make the SearchController active, this happens automatically.

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

---

This may depend on how you configure your SearchController. This is how I configure mine:

// Defined in class
let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)

// Called in viewDidLoad
navigationItem.searchController = searchController
searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
searchController.searchBar.scopeButtonTitles = ["A", "B"]
searchController.searchBar.delegate = self          
searchController.obscuresBackgroundDuringPresentation = false

Alternative Approach

> This answer looks at a number of issues related to this occurrence and explains the debugging logic used to isolate and determine the > specific cause of the problem in my case. Along the way, I share other > possibilities that might have worked in other situations and explain > why this works in my situation.

---

> tldr; Look at the self.definesPresentationContext = true, the > isBeingDismissed, isBeingPresented, canBecomeFirstResponder, and > delegate assignment of the SearchController, the Searchbar, > SearchResultsUpdater and their delegate methods.

(Source of self.definesPresentationContext solution - See SO answer)

One thing to keep in mind is the context of how the SearchBar is being presented. Embedded in a toolbar, navigation bar, another UIView, as an input or input accessory view. All of which, I've found to have some impact on the timing and internal animation of the search bar as it is being presented or dismissed.

I've attempted all of the solutions presented and none of these worked until I reconsidered how I was trying to use the searchBar. In my case, I was pushing a controller (B) with a search controller from a controller (A) that already had an initial searchcontroller on it. I programmatically embedded each of the search controllers within the titleView of my navigation item when doing a pull refresh.

The answers suggesting adding searchbar.becomeFirstResponder() into the life cycle didn't make sense for my use-case since the view was fully loaded by the time I wanted to insert and display my search bar into the navigationItem. The logic also seemed confusing since the view controller lifecycle methods should already be operating on the main thread. Adding a delay to the presentation also seemed to be an interference with the internal operations of the display and animation used by the system.

I found that calling my function to toggle the insertion worked when I pushed the view controller from controllerA but the keyboard would not display properly when pushed from controllerB. The difference between these two situations was that controllerA was a static tableview controller and controllerB had a tableview controller that I had made searchable by adding its own search controller.

> e.g. controllerA with searchbar segues to controllerB with searchbar

Using a number of breakpoints and examining the status of the searchController and the searchbar at different points I was able to determine that the searchController.canBecomeFirstResponder was returning false. I also found that I needed to set the SearchResultsUpdater to self and the delegates on both the searchController and the searchBar.

I finally noted that setting self.definesPresentationContext = true on controllerA was not allowing the keyboard to be displayed when I pushed controllerB onto the navigation stack. My solution was to move the self.definesPresentationContext = true to viewDidAppear on controllerA and in the prepare(for:sender:) method of controllerA I change it to self.definesPresentationContext = false when the destination is controllerB. This resolved the keyboard display issue in my case.

A word on animation ~ I've found that when assigning things to the navigationItem or navigationBar, the system has some built in timing and default animations. I avoid adding custom animation, code in moveToParent methods, or delayed presentations because unexpected behavior occurs in many cases.

Why this solution works

Apple documentation on definesPresentationContext indicates the default behavior and notes some situations where this context adjusts the behavior the controller assigned to manage the keyboard appearance. In my case controllerA was assgined to manage the presentation rather than controllerB, so I just changed that behavior by adjusting this value:

> When using the currentContext or overCurrentContext style to present a > view controller, this property controls which existing view controller > in your view controller hierarchy is actually covered by the new > content. When a context-based presentation occurs, UIKit starts at the > presenting view controller and walks up the view controller hierarchy. > If it finds a view controller whose value for this property is true, > it asks that view controller to present the new view controller. If no > view controller defines the presentation context, UIKit asks the > window’s root view controller to handle the presentation. The default > value for this property is false. Some system-provided view > controllers, such as UINavigationController, change the default value > to true.

The answer is to call becomeFirstResponder in viewDidAppear.

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    searchBar?.becomeFirstResponder()
}

This is what it worked for me in Swift 4

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    searchController.isActive = true
    DispatchQueue.main.async{
        self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

Based on @mislovr's solution, the 0.1 delay was not long enough. Here is my updated code to that answer.

func presentSearchController() {
    searchController.isActive = true
    
    Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 0.1, repeats: true) { [weak searchController] timer in
        guard let searchController = searchController else {
            timer.invalidate()
            return
        }
        
        if searchController.searchBar.canBecomeFirstResponder {
            searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
            timer.invalidate()
        }
    }
}

i fixed this as follows:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    searchController.isActive = true
    
}

func didPresentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {

    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
    
}

What happens is as soon as the view appears you set your searchControllers 'isActive' property to true. This fires the delegate method called didPresentSearchController. when that fires it means that searchcontroller is visible and thus can become first responder.

I think there might be a cleaner solution. I found that the keyboard was sort of 'blipping' up and then back down when presented, and calling becomeFirstResponder in didPresentSearchController: was working, but the keyboard was coming in late, and the animation was a bit quirky.

Wrapping my reload data method with a check for presentation made everyone happy:

- (void)updateSearchResultsForSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController
{
    if (!searchController.isBeingPresented && !searchController.isBeingDismissed) {
        [self.collectionView reloadData];
    }
}

I found this by setting a breakpoint in resignFirstResponder. resignFirstResponder was being called from the reloadData, which in turn was called by updateSearchResultsForSearchController:. It turns out that updateSearchResultsForSearchController: is called during the presentation of the search controller. If you muck with the view hierarchy that the UISearchBar is in during this time, the search controller gets borked. My guess is that the reloadData call was causing the UICollectionReusableView header view to come out and go back into the view hierarchy and forcing the UISearchBar subview to resign first responder.

Another symptom I saw was the the search term was not resetting to the middle of the search bar on cancel, which caused it not to present properly on future clicks.

The solution of mixing @edwardmp and @mislovr answers kind of worked for me (keyboard pops out with a slight delay):

- (void)didPresentSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController {
    [self performSelector:@selector(showKeyboard) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.001];
}

- (void) showKeyboard {
    [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
}

I battled with this for a while but got it working by:

• Initializing the searchController in viewDidLoad()
• Setting active = true in viewDidAppear()
• This triggers didPresentSearchController() in the UISearchControllerDelegate extension.
• Setting searchBar.becomeFirstResponder() in didPresentSearchController()

Here's the full example, it uses Google Maps Autocomplete.

class myViewController: UIViewController {

    // MARK: Variables

    var resultsViewController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController?
    var searchController: UISearchController?
    var resultView: UITextView?

    // MARK: Outlets

    @IBOutlet var myView: UIView!

    // MARK: View Methods

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
    
        resultsViewController = GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController()
        resultsViewController?.delegate = self
    
        searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: resultsViewController)
        searchController?.delegate = self
        searchController?.searchResultsUpdater = resultsViewController
    
        searchController?.searchBar.prompt = "Search for a Place"
        searchController?.searchBar.placeholder = "place name"
        searchController?.searchBar.text = ""
        searchController?.searchBar.sizeToFit()
    
        searchController?.searchBar.returnKeyType = .Next
        searchController?.searchBar.setShowsCancelButton(true, animated: false)
    
        myView.addSubview((searchController?.searchBar)!)
    }

    override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(true)
        searchController?.active = true
    }

    // MARK: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewControllerDelegate Extension

    extension myViewController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewControllerDelegate {
        
        func resultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController,
                       didAutocompleteWithPlace place: GMSPlace) {
            searchController?.active = false
            // Do something with the selected place.
            print("Place name: ", place.name)
            print("Place address: ", place.formattedAddress)
            print("Place attributions: ", place.attributions)
        }

        func resultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController,
                       didFailAutocompleteWithError error: NSError){
            // TODO: handle the error.
            print("Error: ", error.description)
        }

        // Turn the network activity indicator on and off again.
        func didRequestAutocompletePredictionsForResultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = true
        }

        func didUpdateAutocompletePredictionsForResultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = false
        }
    }

    extension myViewController: UISearchControllerDelegate {

        func didPresentSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {
            self.searchController?.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
        }
    }
}

In Objective C:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Setup your SearchViewController here...
}

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    // Will show Cancel button in White colour 
    [[UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[[UISearchBar class]]] setTintColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
    
    // searchController.active = YES;   // This is not necessary

    // set SearchBar first responder inside Main Queue block
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [self->searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
    });
}

Swift 5

class ViewController {
    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)
        // Only after viewDidAppear searchController can be activated
        searchController?.isActive = true
    }
}

extension ViewController: UISearchControllerDelegate {
    // didPresentSearchController not work for me
    func presentSearchController(_ searchController: UISearchController) {
        searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

To me, there’s a quite big lag when using viewDidAppear. It can be better to use becomeFirstResponder asynchronously in viewDidLoad (tested with iOS 10, Swift 3):

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

This is what it worked for me in Swift 3.

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    self.perform(#selector(self.showKeyboard), with: nil, afterDelay: 0.1)
}

func showKeyboard() {
    self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
}

1. Define searchBar.
2. SearchBar textfield "searchField" choice.
3. viewDidLoad or viewWillAppear call code.

@IBOutlet weak var searchBar: UISearchBar!

let textFieldUISearchBar = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldUISearchBar?.becomeFirstResponder()