UITableView does not automatically deselect the selected row when the table re-appears

Normally a selected row in a UITableView gets deselected with an animation when the user pops back from the detail view.

However, in my case where I have a UITableView embedded in a UIViewController I have to do it manually in viewWillAppear like so:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // For some reason the tableview does not do it automatically
    [self.tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:self.tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow 
                                  animated:YES];  
}

Why is this and how to fix it?

When your main ViewController is from type UITableViewController, it has a property clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear, which is per default YES - so it will clear the selection automatically.

This property is not available for an UITableView, i guess it's because it has no ViewWillAppear method either.

A UIViewController doesn't need this property because it has no UITableView originally.

conclusion: you'll have to implement it by yourself when you do not use a UITableViewController.

Do the deselection in didSelectRowAtIndexPath instead of viewWillAppear:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
                  didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
     //show the second view..
     [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES]; 
 }

In swift, you can add the following lines in your viewWillAppear

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow() {
    tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated: true)
}

In swift 2, it's without parantheses:

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow {
    tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated: true)
}

In Swift 4 (and 3?) the function name was cleaned up:

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow {
    tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
}

I dont think deselecting the selected row is automatic... I normally do it before pushing to the next view

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 
        didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
 
    [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];
    // to do other things
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:yourNextViewController animated:YES];
}

Nothing is wrong--deselecting the highlighted row is always "manual". If you look at Apple's sample code, you will see the same thing.

In Swift 3 / 4

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
}

If table view selections are not being cleared in a subclass of UITableViewController, despite the fact that clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear is set to true, make sure to call the superclass version of [UIViewController viewWillAppear:animated] if you override that method.

If you fail to call the super version of that method, the value of clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear will have no effect as the work of clearing the table view selection is actually performed in UITableViewController's implementation of viewWillAppear.

If your view controller does not inherit from UITableViewController you will need to clear the selection manually in viewWillAppear.

If you use UITableView without UITableViewController, you can check Apple's sample code Implementing Modern Collection Views - EmojiExplorerViewController.swift viewWillAppear method for how to adopt animated deselection which is in-sync with view controller transition animation.

if let indexPath = self.collectionView.indexPathsForSelectedItems?.first {
    if let coordinator = self.transitionCoordinator {
        coordinator.animate(alongsideTransition: { context in
            self.collectionView.deselectItem(at: indexPath, animated: true)
        }) { (context) in
            if context.isCancelled {
                self.collectionView.selectItem(at: indexPath, animated: false, scrollPosition: [])
            }
        }
    } else {
        self.collectionView.deselectItem(at: indexPath, animated: animated)
    }
}