Mastering iOS 7 UIStatusBarStyle

iOS 7 introduces the UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance plist setting allowing us to change the statusBar’s text color when the main viewController changes.

Getting it to work can feel tricky however.

1. Ensure you set UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance to boolean YES in your plist.
2. Ensure you set still set the default statusBar style in your plist, this will show during the splash screen.
3. Override preferredStatusBarStyle providing your viewController is not inside a UINavigationController.
4. If your viewController is inside a navigationController then preferredStatusBarStyle seems to be ignored completely. Instead the navigationController’s navigationBar’s barStyle is used. A Dark barStyle makes the statusBar white, the default barStyle makes the statusBar text black.

This in fact makes some sense. The application queries the main viewController’s preferredStatusBar style, so if you have a navigationController the main viewController is the navigationController.