How to disable back swipe gesture in UINavigationController on iOS 7

Question

In iOS 7 Apple added a new default navigation behavior. You can swipe from the left edge of the screen to go back on the navigation stack. But in my app, this behavior conflicts with my custom left menu. So, is it possible to disable this new gesture in UINavigationController?

Answer 1

I found a solution:

Objective-C:

if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = NO;
}

Swift 3+:
self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false

Answer 2

I found out setting the gesture to disabled only doesn't always work. It does work, but for me it only did after I once used the backgesture. Second time it wouldn't trigger the backgesture.

Fix for me was to delegate the gesture and implement the shouldbegin method to return NO:

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    // Disable iOS 7 back gesture
    if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
        self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = NO;
        self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
    }
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];

    // Enable iOS 7 back gesture
    if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
        self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = YES;
        self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = nil;
    }
}

- (BOOL)gestureRecognizerShouldBegin:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
    return NO;
}

Answer 3

Just remove gesture recognizer from NavigationController. Work in iOS 8.

if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)])
    [self.navigationController.view removeGestureRecognizer:self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer];

Answer 4

As of iOS 8 the accepted answer no longer works. I needed to stop the swipping to dismiss gesture on my main game screen so implemented this:

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
     [super viewDidAppear:animated];

if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
    }
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
    if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = nil;
    }

}

- (BOOL)gestureRecognizerShouldBegin:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
     return NO;
}

Answer 5

I've refined Twan's answer a bit, because:

1. your view controller may be set as a delegate to other gesture recognisers
2. setting the delegate to nil leads to hanging issues when you go back to the root view controller and make a swipe gesture before navigating elsewhere.

The following example assumes iOS 7:

{
    id savedGestureRecognizerDelegate;
}

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    savedGestureRecognizerDelegate = self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate;
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = savedGestureRecognizerDelegate;
}

- (BOOL)gestureRecognizerShouldBegin:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
    if (gestureRecognizer == self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer) {
        return NO;
    }
    // add whatever logic you would otherwise have
    return YES;
}

Answer 6

Please set this in root vc:

-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewDidAppear:YES];
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = NO;

}

-(void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewDidDisappear:YES];
    self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = YES;
}

Answer 7

For Swift:

navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.enabled = false

Answer 8

swift 5, swift 4.2 can use the code in the below.

// disable
self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false
// enable
self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = true

Answer 9

it works for me in ios 10 and later :

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    if ([self.navigationController respondsToSelector:@selector(interactivePopGestureRecognizer)]) {
        self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = NO;
    }

}

it doesnt work on viewDidLoad() method.

Answer 10

EDIT

If you want to manage swipe back feature for specific navigation controllers, consider using SwipeBack.

With this, you can set navigationController.swipeBackEnabled = NO.

For example:

#import <SwipeBack/SwipeBack.h>

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    navigationController.swipeBackEnabled = NO;
}

It can be installed via CocoaPods.

pod 'SwipeBack', '~> 1.0'

I appologize for lack of explanation.

Answer 11

My method. One gesture recognizer to rule them all:

class DisabledGestureViewController: UIViewController: UIGestureRecognizerDelegate {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.delegate = self
    }

    func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
        // Prevent going back to the previous view
        return !(navigationController!.topViewController is DisabledGestureViewController)
    }
}

Important: don't reset the delegate anywhere in the navigation stack: navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!.delegate = nil

Answer 12

This is the way on Swift 3

works for me

    self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false

Answer 13

All of these solutions manipulate Apple's gesture recognizer in a way they do not recommend. I've just been told by a friend that there's a better solution:

[navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer requireGestureRecognizerToFail: myPanGestureRecognizer];

where myPanGestureRecognizer is the gesture recognizer you are using to e.g. show your menu. That way, Apple's gesture recognizer doesn't get turned back on by them when you push a new navigation controller and you don't need to rely on hacky delays that may fire too early if your phone is put to sleep or under heavy load.

Leaving this here because I know I'll not remember this the next time I need it, and then I'll have the solution to the issue here.

Answer 14

None of the given answers helped me to resolve the issue. Posting my answer here; may be helpful for someone

Declare private var popGesture: UIGestureRecognizer? as global variable in your viewcontroller. Then implement the code in viewDidAppear and viewWillDisappear methods

override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {

    super.viewDidAppear(animated)

    if self.navigationController!.respondsToSelector(Selector("interactivePopGestureRecognizer")) {

        self.popGesture = navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer
        self.navigationController!.view.removeGestureRecognizer(navigationController!.interactivePopGestureRecognizer!)
    }
}


override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {

    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)

    if self.popGesture != nil {
        navigationController!.view.addGestureRecognizer(self.popGesture!)
    }
}

This will disable swipe back in iOS v8.x onwards

Answer 15

This works in viewDidLoad: for iOS 8:

  dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, (int64_t)(0.1 * NSEC_PER_SEC)), dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
      self.navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = false;
  });

Lots of the problems could be solved with help of the good ol' dispatch_after.

Though please note that this solution is potentially unsafe, please use your own reasoning.

Update

For iOS 8.1 delay time should be 0.5 seconds

On iOS 9.3 no delay needed anymore, it works just by placing this in your viewDidLoad:
(TBD if works on iOS 9.0-9.3)

navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.enabled = false

Answer 16

For Swift 4 this works:

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UIGestureRecognizerDelegate {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

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

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

        self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.gesture.isEnabled = false
    }

}

Answer 17

It worked for me for most of the viewcontrollers.

self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false

It wasn't not working for some viewcontrollers like UIPageViewController. On UIPageViewController's pagecontentviewcontroller below code worked for me.

override func viewDidLoad() {
   self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false
   self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = self
}
override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
   self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.isEnabled = false
   self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer?.delegate = nil
}

On UIGestureRecognizerDelegate,

func gestureRecognizerShouldBegin(_ gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) -> Bool {
   if gestureRecognizer == self.navigationController?.interactivePopGestureRecognizer {
      return false
}
      return true
}