'editButtonItem.title' Cannot Be Updated in iOS 26

Question

Created 3w

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Participants 2

In iOS 26, I found that editButtonItem.title cannot be programmatically updated as before. Even when explicitly setting the title in viewWillAppear or inside setEditing(_:animated:), the text remains the default “Edit” / “☑️”.

Here is a minimal reproducible example:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    private let infoLabel: UILabel = {
        let l = UILabel()
        l.text = "uneditable"
        l.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 28, weight: .medium)
        l.textAlignment = .center
        l.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return l
    }()
    
    private let textField: UITextField = {
        let tf = UITextField()
        tf.placeholder = "This will become effective when you edit it."
        tf.borderStyle = .roundedRect
        tf.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        tf.isEnabled = false
        return tf
    }()
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground
        navigationItem.title = "sample"
        navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = editButtonItem
        
        setupLayout()
    }
    
    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillAppear(animated)
        
        updateEditButtonTitle()
    }

    
    private func setupLayout() {
        view.addSubview(infoLabel)
        view.addSubview(textField)
        
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            infoLabel.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor),
            infoLabel.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor, constant: -40),
            
            textField.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: infoLabel.bottomAnchor, constant: 20),
            textField.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.layoutMarginsGuide.leadingAnchor),
            textField.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.layoutMarginsGuide.trailingAnchor),
            textField.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 44),
        ])
    }
    
    override func setEditing(_ editing: Bool, animated: Bool) {
        super.setEditing(editing, animated: animated)
        
        textField.isEnabled = editing
        infoLabel.text = editing ? "editable" : "uneditable"
        
        if editing {
            textField.becomeFirstResponder()
        } else {
            textField.resignFirstResponder()
        }
        
        updateEditButtonTitle()
    }
    
    private func updateEditButtonTitle() {
        editButtonItem.title = isEditing ? "done" : "edit"
    }
}

Expected behavior

Changing editButtonItem.title should update the displayed title of the bar button item.

Actual behavior (iOS 26)

The title remains the default “Edit” / “☑️” text, ignoring programmatic updates.

This worked in previous iOS versions. It appears that in iOS 26 the system may be overriding editButtonItem.title automatically, preventing custom titles.

Is this an intentional change, or a bug introduced in iOS 26?

Answered by RickMaddy in 853544022

The simplest solution is to avoid using editButtonItem and create your own UIBarButtonItem that does the same thing. Then you can style it anyway you want and set the titles to what you want. The stock button simply toggles isEditing:

setEditing(!isEditing, animated: true)

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Answer 1

RickMaddy OP

3w

Accepted Answer

The simplest solution is to avoid using editButtonItem and create your own UIBarButtonItem that does the same thing. Then you can style it anyway you want and set the titles to what you want. The stock button simply toggles isEditing:

setEditing(!isEditing, animated: true)

1