UITableView clear background

I realize that iOS 7 has not officially been released and we should not discuss it BUT I am going crazy trying to figure out this problem. On iOS 6, my table view was transparent and looked great. First time running iOS 7, and the background is white.

I have tried making the table backgroundColor, cell color etc etc to UIColor clearColor but have no change.

How to fix this problem?

    // Fix for iOS 7 to clear backgroundColor
    cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    cell.backgroundView = [[UIView new] autorelease];
    cell.selectedBackgroundView = [[UIView new] autorelease];

in cellForRowAtIndexPath

Also, make sure that your tableview actually has transparent background (in storyboard):

Put this:

cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

In this section:

cellForRowAtIndexPath

Try setting backgroundView to nil first.

[self.tableView setBackgroundView:nil];
[self.tableView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];

Not sure if this is a change in documentation with iOS7 or has always been there and just did not affect background color, but per UITableView Class Reference @property backgroundView

"You must set this property to nil to set the background color of the table view."

edit: corrected code syntax

This has been answered, but incorrectly in a lot of ways.

You need to implement the below delegate method:

    - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView  willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    [cell setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
}

You can't put the fix in cellForRowAtIndexPath because that is after the cell is rendered, and it will flash a white background before the background gets set to clear (on slower devices).

Use this delegate method and your problems are solved!

Actually the officially correct place to change cell background color is different according to documentation (UITableViewCell Class Reference):

> Whether you use a predefined or custom cell, you can change the cell’s > background using the backgroundView property or by changing the > inherited backgroundColor property. In iOS 7, cells have a white > background by default; in earlier versions of iOS, cells inherit the > background color of the enclosing table view. If you want to change > the background color of a cell, do so in the > tableView:willDisplayCell:forRowAtIndexPath: method of your table view > delegate.

swift 3, 4 and 5

cell.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear

This is quite a frustrating problem. Here's my current solution:

Add this to your UITableViewCell subclass.

- (void)didMoveToSuperview {
    [super didMoveToSuperview];

    self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
}

This worked for me in iOS7+:

self.tableView.backgroundColor =[UIColor blueColor];
self.tableView.opaque = NO;
self.tableView.backgroundView = nil;`

and then in cellForRowAtIndexPath:

cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

This did only work for me when i edited a clear background color for each cell and a clear color for the table itself.. BOTH PROGRAMMATICALLY

to set the clear color for the table:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    initMenu()
    myTableView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()
}

to set the color for the cells:

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("tablecellid", forIndexPath: indexPath)
    cell.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()
    return cell
}

try this code snippet

cell.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:1.0 alpha:0.5];

One thing to nice. The default color of UITable seems to be white (I don't know why)

But better change that.

First set

tableView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Second set

tableCell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

create IB Outlet for table view @IBOutlet weak var yourTable : UITableView!

in view load

override func viewDidLoad() {
    yourTable.delegate = self
    yourTable.dataSource = self
    
    yourTable.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()
}

if you want to clear color of Cell also do this in

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
 
    cell.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor() 

}

In my app, I had to set the backgroundColor on my UITableViewCell class to [UIColor clearColor] color when I updated for iOS 7.

In my case the cell was created using a xib. it seems like interface builder on xcode5 has trouble setting clearColor to the cell.backgroundColor.

All I needed to do was indeed to set

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// get the cell from the nib
//then force the backgroundColor
cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]
return cell;
}

Try

[myTable setSeparatorStyle:UITableViewCellSeparatorStyleNone];
[myTable setSeparatorInset:UIEdgeInsetsZero];

And

cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Just select Clear Color on View Background for the table and for the cell also.

swift 3

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
}

// Fix iOS 7 clear backgroundColor compatibility 
// I Think this two lines only are enough

cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
cell.selectedBackgroundView = [[UIView new] autorelease];

In swift 3

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "CustomCell", for: indexPath)
    cell.backgroundColor = .clear
    cell.backgroundView = UIView()
    cell.selectedBackgroundView = UIView()
    return cell
}

Set

tableView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

in viewDidLoad.

if this is not working, try:

tableView.backgroundView = nil;