How do you keep the cancel button in the search bar enabled when the keyboard is dismissed?

Question

Answer 1

Implement the below searchBarShouldEndEditing delegate method in your code. Hope it will helpful.

(BOOL)searchBarShouldEndEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar 
{
    [[searchBar valueForKey:@"_cancelButton"] setEnabled:YES];
    return YES;
}

Answer 2

Call to [self.searchBar resignFirstResponder] will make the cancel button disabled. Hence, you should always update cancel button to enable after calling it.

Objective-C

[searchBar resignFirstResponder];
UIButton *cancelButton = (UIButton *)[searchBar valueForKey:@"cancelButton"];
[cancelButton setEnabled:YES];

Swift

searchBar.resignFirstResponder()
if let cancelButton = searchBar.value(forKey: "cancelButton") as? UIButton
    cancelButton.isEnabled = true
}

In my experience, view.endEditing(true) is the problem. Because it's also called .resignFirstResponder if there's a UITextField inside the view, which is contained in UISearchBar.

https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiview/1619630-endediting

Answer 3

This Worked For me

// ViewdidLoad()
SearchBar.enableCancelButton(in: ParentViewOfSearchBar)

Answer 4

For Swift 4.0

if let cancelButton : UIButton = searchBar.value(forKey: "cancelButton") as? UIButton{
    cancelButton.isEnabled = true
}

Answer 5

Try this simple solution, works perfect for me

extension UISearchBar {

    func enableCancelButton(in view: UIView) {

        view.subviews.forEach {
            enableCancelButton(in: $0)
        }

        if let cancelButton = view as? UIButton {
            cancelButton.isEnabled = true
            cancelButton.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
        }
    }
}

extension ViewController: UISearchBarDelegate {

    func searchBarTextDidEndEditing(_ searchBar: UISearchBar) {
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
            searchBar.enableCancelButton(in: searchBar)
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

This is what worked for me to handle any dismissal such as searchBar.resignFirstResponder(), view.endEditing(false), interactive swipe to dismiss, presenting a view controller, etc.

extension ViewController: UISearchBarDelegate {

    func searchBarShouldEndEditing(_ searchBar: UISearchBar) -> Bool {
        //cancel button becomes disabled when search bar isn't first responder, force it back enabled
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
            if let cancelButton = searchBar.value(forKey: "cancelButton") as? UIButton {
                cancelButton.isEnabled = true
            }
        }
        return true
    }

}

Making sure to set searchBar.delegate = self.