How to change text color of PlaceHolder in UISearchBar? (iOS 13)

Question

After looking for updated (iOS 13) answers, I didn't find any solutions to this simple problem :

How to change the textColor of the placeholder in an UISearchBar ?

My app doesn't handle Light/Dark mode. I don't want the system to change my UIPlaceHolder text color. I want it to be always white.

---

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        let attrString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "My PlaceHolder")
        attrString.addAttributes([NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: attrString.length))
        searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = attrString
    }

I expected this code to work. I thought the new property searchTextField would have made it easier to customize my UISearchBar.

EDIT:

This code kind of works in the viewDidAppear method :

if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
     searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "My PlaceHolder", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white.withAlphaComponent(0.80)])
 }

The issue is that the color is changing when you scroll up and down.

Answer 1

As you already mentioned, your code works only in viewDidAppear, which makes the placeholder to flicker from the default gray color to the preferred color.

However, there seem to be a time before viewDidAppear (I couldn't figure it out when exactly), to change the placeholder before the view actually appears.

I suppose, this may be connected to how iOS handles light/dark mode and/or an iOS bug.

The solution I came out with that works around the issue:

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

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        let placeholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Search",
                                             attributes: [
                                                .foregroundColor: UIColor.white
        ])
        let searchTextField = searchBar.searchTextField

        // Key workaround to be able to set attributedPlaceholder
        DispatchQueue.global().async {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = placeholder
            }
        }
    }
}

There seem to be no performance and/or other downside to this method.

If anybody else comes with a better approach, feel free to collaborate.