Uisearchbar Change Placeholder Color

UISearchBar change placeholder color

for iOS5+ use the appearance proxy

[[UILabel appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UISearchBar class], nil] setTextColor:[UIColor redColor]];

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

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.

How to change UISearchBar Placeholder and image tint color?

If you have a custom image you could use, you can set the image and change the placeholder text color using something similar to the following:

[searchBar setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"SearchWhite"] forSearchBarIcon:UISearchBarIconSearch state:UIControlStateNormal];

UITextField *searchTextField = [searchBar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];    
if ([searchTextField respondsToSelector:@selector(setAttributedPlaceholder:)]) {
    UIColor *color = [UIColor purpleColor];
    [searchTextField setAttributedPlaceholder:[[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Search" attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color}]];
}

In that example I used purpleColor, instead you can use the + (UIColor *)colorWithRed:(CGFloat)red green:(CGFloat)green blue:(CGFloat)blue alpha:(CGFloat)alpha method to create your custom dark green color.

EDIT: I just realized you were writing it in swift... duh. Quickly typed this out so I didn't leave the answer in just Obj-C.

    searchBar.setImage(UIImage(named: "SearchWhite"), forSearchBarIcon: UISearchBarIcon.Search, state: UIControlState.Normal);

    var searchTextField: UITextField? = searchBar.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField
    if searchTextField!.respondsToSelector(Selector("attributedPlaceholder")) {
        var color = UIColor.purpleColor()
        let attributeDict = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.purpleColor()]
        searchTextField!.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "search", attributes: attributeDict)
    }

Swift 3.0

    var searchTextField: UITextField? = searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
    if searchTextField!.responds(to: #selector(getter: UITextField.attributedPlaceholder)) {
        let attributeDict = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white]
        searchTextField!.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Search", attributes: attributeDict)
    }

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