Ios – Why does viewWillAppear not get called when an app comes back from the background

iosiphoneobjective cviewwillappear

I'm writing an app and I need to change the view if the user is looking at the app while talking on the phone.

I've implemented the following method:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    NSLog(@"viewWillAppear:");
    _sv.frame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 320.0, self.view.bounds.size.height);
}

But it's not being called when the app returns to the foreground.

I know that I can implement:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(statusBarFrameChanged:) name:UIApplicationDidChangeStatusBarFrameNotification object:nil];

but I don't want to do this. I'd much rather put all my layout information in the viewWillAppear: method, and let that handle all possible scenarios.

I've even tried to call viewWillAppear: from applicationWillEnterForeground:, but I can't seem to pinpoint which is the current view controller at that point.

Does anybody know the proper way to deal with this? I'm sure I'm missing an obvious solution.

Best Answer

Swift

Short answer

Use a NotificationCenter observer rather than viewWillAppear.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    // set observer for UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(willEnterForeground), name: UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification, object: nil)

}

// my selector that was defined above
@objc func willEnterForeground() {
    // do stuff
}

Long answer

To find out when an app comes back from the background, use a NotificationCenter observer rather than viewWillAppear. Here is a sample project that shows which events happen when. (This is an adaptation of this Objective-C answer.)

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {

    // MARK: - Overrides

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        print("view did load")

        // add notification observers
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(didBecomeActive), name: UIApplication.didBecomeActiveNotification, object: nil)
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(willEnterForeground), name: UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification, object: nil)

    }

    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        print("view will appear")
    }

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        print("view did appear")
    }

    // MARK: - Notification oberserver methods

    @objc func didBecomeActive() {
        print("did become active")
    }

    @objc func willEnterForeground() {
        print("will enter foreground")
    }

}

On first starting the app, the output order is:

view did load
view will appear
did become active
view did appear

After pushing the home button and then bringing the app back to the foreground, the output order is:

will enter foreground
did become active

So if you were originally trying to use viewWillAppear then UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification is probably what you want.

Note

As of iOS 9 and later, you don't need to remove the observer. The documentation states:

If your app targets iOS 9.0 and later or macOS 10.11 and later, you don't need to unregister an observer in its dealloc method.

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