25
votes

The following code will work fine in iOS < 7.0. In iOS 7 the scrolling will be choppy and erratic while the UITextView is updating. I'm not sure if this is a bug in iOS 7, or I am doing something wrong.

TestController.h

//TODO: Add UITextView in storyboard and tie to textView outlet

#define MAX_TEXT_VIEW_CHARACTERS 1000
@interface TestController : UIViewController  {
    NSMutableString *_outputText;
    NSTimer *_outputTimer;
}

@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UITextView *textView;

@end

TestController.m

@implementation TestController
@synthesize textView;

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    _outputText = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:MAX_TEXT_VIEW_CHARACTERS];
    _outputTimer =  [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.01 target:self selector:@selector(outputLine:) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
}

-(void)outputLine:(NSTimer *) theTimer {
    static int i = 0;
    //Run this 100 times
    if (i > 99) {
        [_outputTimer invalidate];
        return;
    }
    [self outputToScreen:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Some string %d\r", ++i]];
}

-(void)outputToScreen:(NSString *)str {
    if (!str || !str.length) return;  //Nothing to output

    NSInteger outputTextSize = _outputText.length;
    [_outputText appendString:str];
    if (outputTextSize > MAX_TEXT_VIEW_CHARACTERS)
        [_outputText deleteCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, outputTextSize - MAX_TEXT_VIEW_CHARACTERS)];
    self.textView.text = _outputText;

    [self scrollOutputToBottom];
}

-(void)scrollOutputToBottom {
    CGPoint p = [textView contentOffset];
    [textView setContentOffset:p animated:NO];
    [textView scrollRangeToVisible:NSMakeRange([textView.text length], 0)];
}

@end
9
For what it’s worth, I’m having problems even with a simple setContentOffset call. The content offset changes, but the view doesn’t scroll. The accepted answer worked.zoul
Good point zoul. This is why I added both setContentOffset and scrollRageToVisible to show that neither method of scrolling works like it should with the new UITextView in iOS 7.Mikt25
Is this still an issue in iOS 10?philipkd
Is this still an issue in iOS 13? (It appears to be, no matter what I do I can't get the damned thing to scroll. sigh)Robert Atkins

9 Answers

56
votes

This works for me in iOS7.

-(void) scrollToBottom {
  [textView scrollRangeToVisible:NSMakeRange([textView.text length], 0)];
  [textView setScrollEnabled:NO];
  [textView setScrollEnabled:YES];
}
27
votes

This is obviously an iOS 7 bug. Here is a workaround until apple fixes it. The workaround is basically instantiates a UITextView by creating an NSTextStorage and NSLayoutManager from scratch. Apple must have forgotten to initialize something in UITextView initialization method. I filed a bug report and I hope you do too.

// ios7 bug fix
// check if the device is running iOS 7.0 or later
NSString *reqSysVer = @"7.0";
NSString *currSysVer = [[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion];
BOOL osVersionSupported = ([currSysVer compare:reqSysVer  options:NSNumericSearch] != NSOrderedAscending);

if (osVersionSupported) {
    NSTextStorage* textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] init];
    NSLayoutManager* layoutManager = [NSLayoutManager new];
    [textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];
    NSTextContainer *textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:self.view.bounds.size];
    [layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer];
    yourTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:someFrameForYourTextView
                                       textContainer:textContainer];
    // if using ARC, remove these 3 lines
    [textContainer release];
    [layoutManager release];
    [textStorage release];
}
else {
    yourTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:someFrameForYourTextView];
}
4
votes

There are two problems in iOS 7 that could explain your problem:

  • The contentOffset is not always up to date in iOS 7.
  • scrollRangeToVisible: will not scroll to an empty line at the end of the text view.

The solution could be:

-(void)scrollOutputToBottom {
    CGRect caretRect = [textView caretRectForPosition:textView.endOfDocument];
    [textView scrollRectToVisible:caretRect animated:NO];
}
2
votes

Try this:

// Don't forget to set textView's delegate 
-(void)textViewDidChangeSelection:(UITextView *)textView {
    [textView scrollRangeToVisible:NSMakeRange([textView.text length], 0)];
}
1
votes

For those who are using Swift, I post here the same answer as RawMean (thanks again!). As I wrote this (dec. 2014), the problem still exist in iOS 8.1 and his solution work perfectly...

var textView: UITextView!
var textStorage: NSTextStorage!
var layoutManager: NSLayoutManager!
var textContainer: NSTextContainer!


override func viewDidLoad() {
    textStorage = NSTextStorage()
    layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
    textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)

    let newTextViewRect = view.bounds
    let containerSize = CGSize(width: newTextViewRect.width, height: CGFloat.max)

    textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: containerSize)
    layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)

    textView = UITextView(frame: newTextViewRect, textContainer: textContainer)

    textView.delegate = self
    view.addSubview(textView)

}

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    textView.frame = view.bounds
}

and I used the scrollRangeToVisible method to scroll smoothly at the bottom as text is added...

let length = countElements(textView.text)
let range:NSRange = NSMakeRange(length - 1, 1)
textView.scrollRangeToVisible(range)
0
votes

Basically setScrollEnabled = YES need to be set before layoutSubviews get called. It worked for me.

0
votes

That works for me. Reference: UITextView setText should not jump to top in ios8

self.textView.layoutManager.allowsNonContiguousLayout = NO;
self.textView.text = fileContent;
if(fileContent.length > 1)
{
    NSRange range = NSMakeRange(self.textView.text.length - 1, 1);
    [self.textView scrollRangeToVisible:range];
}
0
votes

Swift 2.0 - IOS 8

This is basically a Swift 2.0 version of dklt's answer above. Previously I was using the same method without the 2 lines of scrollEnabled. Most of the time it works fine. However, when scrollToBottom() is called in quick succession at almost the same time, it doesn't works sometimes.

The 2 lines of scrollEnabled doesn't makes much sense, but after adding them the method works consistently!

Note: I have tried to put the 2 lines of scrollEnabled in various position before or after the scrollRangeTovisible, as was suggested in dklt's answer's comments...

ONLY dklt's original solution works for me. The rest doesn't.

func scrollToBottom()
{
    let range:NSRange = NSMakeRange(self.textView.text.characters.count - 1, 1)

    self.textView.scrollRangeToVisible(range)
    self.textView.scrollEnabled = false
    self.textView.scrollEnabled = true
}
-1
votes

please try this solution

-(void) scrollToBottom {
    [textView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0.0, textView.contentSize.height) animated:YES];
}