UINavigationController with custom navigationItem titleView not working inside UITabBarController under iOS 26

Question

I've sample code for the reference which works fine prior iOS 26 but not in iOS 26.

class SampleViewController: UIViewController {
 override func viewDidLoad() {
 super.viewDidLoad()
 
 let aTitleView = UIView()
 aTitleView.backgroundColor = .gray
 aTitleView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
 
 navigationItem.titleView = aTitleView
 navigationItem.setHidesBackButton(true, animated: false)
 
 
 navigationController?.edgesForExtendedLayout = .all
 navigationController?.setNavigationBarHidden(false, animated: true)
 navigationController?.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage()
 navigationController?.navigationBar.setBackgroundImage(UIImage(), for: .default)
 navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorImage = UIImage()
 navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = UIImage()
 }
 
 override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
 super.viewWillAppear(animated)
 navigationController?.setNavigationBarHidden(false, animated: false)
 }
}

This view controller is inside a UITabBarController. The app has a UITabBarController as a home screen along with 3 tabs. You can consider the above controller for all 3 tabs.

Can anyone show me exactly where my code is wrong or what is missing?

• Paulw11: Define "doesn't work". You say "This view controller is inside UITabBarController.". Is it in a navigation controller that is in the tab? If not then I am not surprised it isn't working.

Answer 1

For some reason iOS 26 requires explicit size for titleView. Add width and height constraints to aTitleView and it should appear on screen.

• HangarRash: Another option, if the title view is a custom view class, is to override the intrinsicContentSize property to return a proper size for the view.