UINavigationController “back button” custom text?

Question

The \"back button\" of a UINavigationController by default shows the title of the last view in the stack. Is there a way to have custom text in the back button

Answer 1

From this link:

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem =
   [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Custom Title"
            style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
           target:nil
           action:nil];

As Tyler said in the comments:

don't do this in the visible view controller, but in the view controller that you'd see if you hit the back button

Answer 2

You can set the text in the Interface Builder:

Select the navigation item of the ViewController that the back button would return to:

In the utilities panel attribute inspector, enter your label for the Back Button:

I would prefer this approach over setting the title in code as in the accepted answer.

Also note, you need to do this in the view controller one level up the stack. In other words, don't do this in the visible view controller, but in the view controller that you'd see if you hit the back button.
--Tyler

Answer 3

Add the following code in viewDidLoad or loadView

self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.title = @"Custom text";

I tested it in iPhone and iPad with iOS 9

Answer 4

rein's answer works well.

Note that if you push more than one view controller, the changed back button title will appear for each of them, which may not be what you want.

In that case, you'll need to create the custom UIBarButtonItem each time you push a view controller.

Also, make sure you do it before pushing the view controller, otherwise you will get a screen hiccup as the title changes.