Hi Apple Team and community,
We've noticed a change in how UITableView separators are rendered in iOS 26 (tested using Xcode 26.0), and we'd like to confirm if this is an intentional behaviour change or a potential bug.
Issue Description
- In a .plain-style UITableView, the top separator line above the first cell in each section is no longer rendered in iOS 26. We've confirmed that this separator is also absent from the view hierarchy.
- This issue did not occur in previous iOS versions (e.g., iOS 18), where the top separator above the first cell of a section was rendered as expected.
- The issue doesn't occur for UITableView with no sections.
Expected Behavior
- When using a .plain style UITableView, the standard top separator should appear above the first cell of each section, as part of the default system rendering.
Actual Behavior
- In iOS 26, this top separator is missing, even though the rest of the separators render normally.
Environment
- iOS version: iOS 26 (Simulator)
- Xcode version: Xcode 26.0
- Tested using: UIKit with Swift, both Storyboard and programmatic view setups
Sample app and screenshots: Drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aoXeFHO_Sya-6Rvp0fZ0s2V4KLQucRMb?usp=sharing
Questions:
- Is this a known change in rendering behavior for UITableView in iOS 26?
- If not, is anyone else experiencing the same issue? We'd appreciate any insights or potential workarounds to restore the top separator in .plain-style table views.
Any clarification or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!