Swift: Become First Responder on UITextField Not Working?

Question

I've created a custom UIViewController with one UITextField on Storyboard. On viewDidLoad, I set the UITextFIeld to becomeFirstResponder, nothing happened (no keyboards popped up).

I then tried calling resignFirstResponder(), but it returned false. Next I tried to find who the first responder is through looping all the subviews using the code over @ Get the current first responder without using a private API. It turns out none of the sub views are the first responder.

My ViewController in storyboard

enter image description here

My Code

class BLTestViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {

    @IBOutlet var tf: UITextField

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        tf.delegate = self
        tf.becomeFirstResponder()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
    }
}

As simple as it gets...WHY ISN'T THE KEYBOARD COMING UP!!! One thing I do have on is auto layout, but I'm not sure if that affects the keyboard popping up.

Try making your text field the first responder in `viewWill/DidAppear:`. — duci9y, Aug 17 '14 at 21:18
Is the text field connected to your view controller with an outlet connection? — duci9y, Aug 17 '14 at 21:25
quick idea, I think you may still be calling it too early in viewDidAppear etc... just to test can you set up button that calls a method containing tf.becomeFirstResponder() --- this way we can rule out timing as a problem — Woodstock, Aug 17 '14 at 21:27
Yes the textField is connected as an IBOutlet. I tried putting `tf.becomeFirstResponder()` in `func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(textField: UITextField!) -> Bool` which is where I ultimately want to be and is later than `viewDidAppear`, but got a "BAD Access Exception. — blee908, Aug 17 '14 at 21:30
Are you testing in the simulator? Keyboard doesn't appear in simulator in beta 4 for me. Running on device shows it though. — Eugene, Aug 17 '14 at 21:41
Yes I'm running on the simulator, I'm trying to run it on the device, but it saids "No provisioned iOS devices are available with a compatible iOS version..." i just updated to the latest iOS version with my iPhone 5. — blee908, Aug 17 '14 at 22:39
The problem only appears on Xcode 6 b5 with the iPhone 4s simulator. This code works well for the iPhone 5s simulator. You should file a radar. — Imanou Petit, Aug 17 '14 at 22:39
Side note: you shouldn't call `becomeFirstResponder()` from within `textFieldShouldBeginEditing()` — Aaron Brager, Aug 17 '14 at 22:48
@Eugene. I think you're right, this seems to be an issue with the xCode 6 simulator itself!!! God dammit Apple. — blee908, Aug 18 '14 at 00:23
@bennett It appears that there's quite an easy way to bring the keyboard up anyway. Select the text field you'd like to edit in the simulator and press command+k — Eugene, Aug 18 '14 at 16:41
See [this question][1]. Basically press Apple+K [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24420873/swift-xcode-6-keyboard-not-showing-up-in-ios-simulator — nflacco, Aug 19 '14 at 05:09
Sorry it didn't work for you, but your code worked great for me. +1 — stevenspiel, Oct 01 '14 at 00:21
look at this [solution][1], it'll help ;) [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24420873/swift-xcode-6-keyboard-not-showing-up-in-ios-simulator — dimpiax, Oct 09 '14 at 12:52

score 25 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 14 '21 at 01:59

25

Swift 4 it worked for me
try it

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    
    textView.becomeFirstResponder()
    
}

edited Feb 14 '21 at 01:59

timbre timbre

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answered Sep 05 '18 at 07:04

Methawin Intharakham

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Executing from inside dispatch queue did it for me. – rodrigochousal Jan 15 '19 at 19:05
2

`viewDidAppear` is ran on the main thread, ie **delaying** is what's needed, not dispatching to **main**. If you're already on main thread and then dispatch to main, then whatever that you've just dispatched will go to the end of the main queue. I suppose: `DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInteractive).async{}` would also fix the issue, due to the delay it creates. A view must have a Window before it becomes the responder, and that can only happen **after** viewcontroller's `viewWillAppear` or `viewDidAppear` is called. So any attempt to make a view the responder before is overridden – mfaani Oct 25 '19 at 21:26

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 01 '15 at 10:08

I just tested it with a textfield by calling self.tf.becomeFirstResponder() indside viewDidLoad() function and its working absolutely fine. You'll need to toggle your keyboard by pressing command + K as nflacco just pointed out and disable the hardware keyboard in the simulator as:

iOS Simulator -> Hardware -> Keyboard
Uncheck "Connect Hardware Keyboard"

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 11 '14 at 08:07

6

I think

class BLTestViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {

@IBOutlet var tf: UITextField

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        tf.delegate = self
        self.focustf()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
    }

    func focustf(){
    self.tf.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}

edited Dec 11 '14 at 08:07

Hitesh

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answered Dec 11 '14 at 07:27

Hoàng Kiên

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2

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 13 '18 at 19:07

5

Swift 4 and iOS 11

In my case, no mater what I tried, I was not able to set first responder until I tried this.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplay cell: UITableViewCell, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    if cell.isKind(of: YOURTABLEVIEWCELL.self) {
        if let yourCell = cell as? YOURTABLEVIEWCELL{
            yourCell.yourUiTextField.becomeFirstResponder()
        }
    }
}

Hope this helps someone stuck with the same problem.

answered Feb 13 '18 at 19:07

Derek Hierholzer

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5

in my case i need to focus on custom header section textfield when the user click the row of the section. is it possible? I tried to put the same way in did select row at index path but its not working for me.! – Hari Narayanan Sep 19 '18 at 13:07
@HariNarayanan , might try similar to above but with tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) – Derek Hierholzer Nov 07 '18 at 21:13
This works when trying to set first responder to a textfield in a table view cell. Even calling it after a 5 second delay in ViewDidLoad did not properly bring up the keyboard. But first responder sets properly from this method. – pkamb Oct 22 '21 at 01:03

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 22 '21 at 00:58

4

Try setting it after a delay:

DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.5) {
    textField.becomeFirstResponder()
}

sometimes the wrong is the time in render the view

edited Oct 22 '21 at 00:58

pkamb

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answered Oct 09 '19 at 15:53

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 01 '22 at 19:57

0

If you are using the iOS Simulator, press ⌘ command + shift + K to open the keyboard.

edited Mar 01 '22 at 19:57

shim

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answered Oct 03 '19 at 12:33

Talha Ahmed

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Swift: Become First Responder on UITextField Not Working?

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