Why does UITableViewCell remain highlighted?

Question

What would cause a table view cell to remain highlighted after being touched? I click the cell and can see it stays highlighted as a detail view is pushed. Once the detail

Answer 1

If none of these work for you, consider this work-around:

Use an unwind segue to call:

@IBAction func unwind_ToTableVC (segue: UIStoryboardSegue) {
    if let index = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow {
        tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(index, animated: true)
    }
}

Why do this? Primarily if you're having trouble getting the deselect code to run at the right time. I had trouble with it not working on the viewWillAppear so the unwind worked a lot better.

Steps:

1. Write the unwind segue (or paste from above) into your 1st VC (the one with the table)

2. Go to the 2nd VC. Control-drag from the Cancel/Done/Etc button you're using to dismiss that VC and drag to the Exit Icon at the top.

3. Select the unwind segue you created in step 1

   Good luck.

Answer 2

In your didSelectRowAtIndexPath you need to call deselectRowAtIndexPath to deselect the cell.

So whatever else you are doing in didSelectRowAtIndexPath you just have it call deselectRowAtIndexPath as well.

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
 // Do some stuff when the row is selected
 [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];
}

Answer 3

For the Swift users, add this to your code:

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
    tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated: true)
}

It's paulthenerd's answer except in Swift instead of Obj-C.

Answer 4

Updated with Swift 4

After few experiments, also based of previous answers, I've got the conclusion that the best behaviour can be achieved in 2 ways: (almost identical in practice)

// First Solution: delegate of the table View
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: false)
}

// Second Solution: With the life cycle of the view.
override func viewDidDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidDisappear(animated)

    let selectedRow: IndexPath? = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow
    if let selectedRow = selectedRow {
        tableView.deselectRow(at: selectedRow, animated: false)
    }
}

I'm personally adopting the first solution, because it's simply more concise. Another possibility, if you need a little animation when you return to your tableView, is to use viewWillAppear:

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

    let selectedRow: IndexPath? = _view.tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow
    if let selectedRow = selectedRow {
        _view.tableView.deselectRow(at: selectedRow, animated: true)
    }
}

Last but not least, if you're using a UITableViewController, you can also take advantage of the property clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear.

Answer 5

Xcode 10, Swift 4

I had this same issue and discovered I left an empty call to viewWillAppear at the bottom of my tableViewController. Once I removed the empty override function the row no longer stayed highlighted upon return to the tableView view.

problem func

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
  // need to remove this function if not being used.
}

removing empty function solved my problem.

Answer 6

The most clean way to do it is on viewWillAppear:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // Unselect the selected row if any
    NSIndexPath*    selection = [self.tableView indexPathForSelectedRow];
    if (selection) {
        [self.tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:selection animated:YES];
    }
}

This way you have the animation of fading out the selection when you return to the controller, as it should be.

Taken from http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=577677

Swift version

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

    // deselect the selected row if any
    let selectedRow: IndexPath? = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow
    if let selectedRowNotNill = selectedRow {
        tableView.deselectRow(at: selectedRowNotNill, animated: true)
    }
}