iOS 11 customise search bar in navigation bar

I want to change the color of the text and icon in the iOS 11 searchbar when it is embedded in the navigation bar. So placeholder text, search text and search icon.

if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
    navigationController?.navigationBar.prefersLargeTitles = false
    let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
    navigationItem.searchController = searchController
    navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = false

    searchController.searchBar.placeholder = "Suchen"
    searchController.searchBar.tintColor = .white
}

As you can see in the image, the text is grey on a deep blue background, which looks ugly. I want to text and icon to be at least white. (changing the blue background color also does not work really good, see my other question)

The only thing which works is changing the color of the blinking cursor and the "cancel" button, which is done with the .tintColor property.

Solutions which seems to work in iOS 10 and below seem not work anymore in iOS 11, so please post only solutions which you know working in iOS 11. Thanks.

Maybe I miss the point about this "automatic styling" in iOS 11. Any help is appreciated.

I just found out how to set also the rest of them: (with some help of Brandon, thanks!)

The "Cancel" text:

searchController.searchBar.tintColor = .white

The search icon:

searchController.searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "my_search_icon"), for: UISearchBarIcon.search, state: .normal)

The clear icon:

searchController.searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "my_search_icon"), for: UISearchBarIcon.clear, state: .normal)

The search text:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: UIColor.white]

Thanks for the help @Brandon!

The placeholder:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "placeholder", attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.white])

The white background:

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

let searchBar = searchController.searchBar
searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.white
searchBar.barTintColor = UIColor.white

if let textfield = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {
    textfield.textColor = UIColor.blue
    if let backgroundview = textfield.subviews.first {

        // Background color
        backgroundview.backgroundColor = UIColor.white

        // Rounded corner
        backgroundview.layer.cornerRadius = 10;
        backgroundview.clipsToBounds = true;
    }
}

if let navigationbar = self.navigationController?.navigationBar {
    navigationbar.barTintColor = UIColor.blue
}

navigationItem.searchController = searchController
navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = false

Taken from here.

Put

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]

and

UISearchBar.appearance().tintColor = UIColor.white in the AppDelegate.

Alternatively, put them both in [UIViewController viewDidLoad:]

In addition to Darko's answer. In my case I need to get pure white search textfield color. Also I need a custom borderLine and cornerRadius. So if I just set background color to white, set custom corner radius and custom border line I've got something like this.

The problem is that the search bar has some subviews and I've just removed them. Here is my code:

@interface YourViewController () <UISearchBarDelegate, UISearchControllerDelegate>
// your properties
@property (nonatomic,strong) UISearchController *searchController;
@property (nonatomic,strong) UISearchBar *searchBar;
@end

- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];

_searchController = [[UISearchController alloc] initWithSearchResultsController:self.resultsTableController];
_searchController.delegate = self;
_searchController.searchBar.delegate = self;
_searchBar = self.searchController.searchBar;

if (@available(iOS 11.0, *)) {

    UITextField *searchTextField = [_searchBar valueForKey:@"searchField"];
if (searchTextField != nil) {
        searchTextField.layer.cornerRadius = 4.f;
        searchTextField.layer.borderWidth = 1.f;
        searchTextField.clipsToBounds = YES;

        for (UIView *subView in searchTextField.subviews) {
            [subView removeFromSuperview];
        }
}

// Color for "Cancel" button
    _searchBar.tintColor = [UIColor blackColor];
// Add searchController to navgationBar
    _navigationItem.searchController = _searchController;
// Hide searchBar when scroll
    _navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = YES;
}
}

Now I've got a searchBar with pure white background, custom cornerRadius, custom border width. Also I've disabled grey highlight when tap.

Set Search Text Color

(UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]) ).defaultTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]

Set Search Placeholder Color

(UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]) ).attributedPlaceholder = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]

my two cents for Swift 4.x, lightly cleaned up.

Add in controller or App Delegate:

appearance.backgroundColor = .green
let myFont = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: 12)
let attribs = [
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.font.rawValue): myFont,
    NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor.rawValue): UIColor.red
]

appearance.defaultTextAttributes =  attribs

in controller:

self.searchBar.barTintColor = .blue

You will get Blue background, green search bar background, red italic font:

I tried Daroko solution, but i had a problem when changing the background to pure white color (it’s was grey). My solution was to use the setSearchFieldBackgroundImage. also i don't want to rely on apple struct for getting the UITextField

  if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
     let whiteImage = UIImage(color: UIColor.white, size: CGSize(width: searchController.searchBar.layer.frame.width, height: searchController.searchBar.layer.frame.height))
     searchController.searchBar.setSearchFieldBackgroundImage(whiteImage, for: .normal)
     self.navigationItem.searchController = searchController
     self.navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = true
 }


public extension UIImage {
  public convenience init?(color: UIColor, size: CGSize = CGSize(width: 1, height: 1)) {
    let rect = CGRect(origin: .zero, size: size)
     UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(rect.size, false, 0.0)
     color.setFill()
     UIRectFill(rect)
     let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
     UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
     guard let cgImage = image?.cgImage else { return nil }
     self.init(cgImage: cgImage)
} }

I used UIImage extension from : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26542035/create-uiimage-with-solid-color-in-swift

In case someone gets stuck wondering why Darkos solution doesn't work, try changing the UINavigationBar's style to default instead of black. Took me half a day to figure out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This code changes the background color of the text field

Swift 4

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        
        //background color of text field
         UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).backgroundColor = .cyan
        
        }

edited: sample of a UISearchBar in cyan