How to enable back/left swipe gesture in UINavigationController after setting leftBarButtonItem?

Question

I got the opposite issue from here. By default in iOS7, back swipe gesture of UINavigationController\'s stack could pop the presented ViewCon

Answer 1

This is the best way to enable/ disable swipe to pop view controller in iOS 10, Swift 3 :

For First Screen [ Where you want to Disable Swipe gesture ] :

class SignUpViewController : UIViewController,UIGestureRecognizerDelegate {

//MARK: - View initializers
override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
}

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    swipeToPop()
}

override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
}

override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
    super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
}

func swipeToPop() {

    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = true;
    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self;
}

func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {

    if gestureRecognizer == self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer {
        return false
    }
    return true
} }

For middle screen [ Where you want to Enable Swipe gesture ] :

class FriendListViewController : UIViewController {

//MARK: - View initializers
override func viewDidLoad() {

    super.viewDidLoad()
    swipeToPop()
}

func swipeToPop() {

    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = true;
    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = nil;
} }

Answer 2

If you want this behaviour everywhere in your app and don't want to add anything to individual viewDidAppear etc. then you should create a subclass

class QFNavigationController:UINavigationController, UIGestureRecognizerDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate{
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self
        delegate = self
    }

    override func pushViewController(_ viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
        super.pushViewController(viewController, animated: animated)
        interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false
    }

    func navigationController(_ navigationController: UINavigationController, didShow viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
        interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = true
    }

    // IMPORTANT: without this if you attempt swipe on
    // first view controller you may be unable to push the next one
    func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
        return viewControllers.count > 1
    }

}

Now, whenever you use QFNavigationController you get the desired experience.

Answer 3

We're all working around some old bugs that haven't been fixed likely because it's "by design." I ran into the freezing problem @iwasrobbed described elsewhere when trying to nil the interactivePopGestureRecognizer's delegate which seemed like it should've worked. If you want swipe behavior reconsider using backBarButtonItem which you can customize.

I also ran into interactivePopGestureRecognizer not working when the UINavigationBar is hidden. If hiding the navigation bar is a concern for you, reconsider your design before implementing a workaround for a bug.

Answer 4

For those who are still having trouble with this, try separating the two lines as below.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    self.navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.delegate = self
    ...

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    self.navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.isEnabled = true
    ...

Obviously, in my app,

interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.isEnabled

got reset to false before the view was shown for some reason.

Answer 5

Setting a custom back button disable the swipe back feature.

The best thing to do to keep it is to subclass UINavigationViewController and set itself as the interactivePopGestureRecognizer delegate; then you can return YES from gestureRecognizerShouldBegin to allow the swipe back.

For example, this is done in AHKNavigationController

And a Swift version here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43433530/308315

Answer 6

Swift 3:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)

    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self
}

func gestureRecognizer(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer, shouldRecognizeSimultaneouslyWith otherGestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
    return true
}

func gestureRecognizer(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer, shouldRequireFailureOf otherGestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
    return (otherGestureRecognizer is UIScreenEdgePanGestureRecognizer)
}