Attempting to load the view of a view controller while it is deallocating... UISearchController

Solved! It was a simple fix. I changed this code

class ViewController: UITableViewController, UISearchResultsUpdating, UISearchBarDelegate {


var resultSearchController = UISearchController()

to this:

 class ViewController: UITableViewController, UISearchResultsUpdating, UISearchBarDelegate {


var resultSearchController: UISearchController!

This fixes the problem.

UISearchController's view has to be removed from its superview before deallocate. (guess it is a bug)

Objective-C...

-(void)dealloc {
[searchController.view removeFromSuperview]; // It works!
}

Swift 3...

deinit {
self.searchController.view.removeFromSuperview()
}

I struggled with this issue for a couple of weeks. ^^

Here is the Swift version that worked for me (similar toJJHs answer):

deinit{
if let superView = resultSearchController.view.superview
{
superView.removeFromSuperview()
}
}

Hacking together a few solutions I managed to get mine working by adding lines to viewDidLoad before fully setting up the UISearchController:

override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem()


if #available(iOS 9.0, *) {
self.resultSearchController.loadViewIfNeeded()// iOS 9
} else {
// Fallback on earlier versions
let _ = self.resultSearchController.view          // iOS 8
}
self.resultSearchController = ({
let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
controller.searchResultsUpdater = self
controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
controller.searchBar.sizeToFit()


self.tableView.tableHeaderView = controller.searchBar


return controller
})()


self.tableView.reloadData()


}

In Swift2 I got the same error message due to an obvious bug:

let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Oops",
message:"bla.", preferredStyle: UIAlertControllerStyle.Alert)


alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Ok",
style: UIAlertActionStyle.Default,handler: nil))


self.presentViewController(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)

Due to a stupid copy error from myself, I had not included the self.presentViewController line. This caused the same error.

I used Derek's answer, but had to change it slightly. The answer that was provided crashed for me because the call to loadViewIfNeeded() happened before the resultSearchController was defined. (My declaration was

var resultSearchController: UISearchController!

). So I just moved it afterwards and it worked.

If I left out the call entirely, the bug remained, so I'm sure it is an essential part of the answer. I was unable to test it on iOS 8.

It's not a bug. It seems that you have to avoid creating ViewControllers without presenting them. So after SomeViewController() or let variable: SomeViewController you have to call something like this self.presentViewController(yourViewController ...etc). If you don't do that, you will get this warning when this view controller will be dealocated.

I'm a bit late to the party, but here's my solution:

var resultSearchController: UISearchController!


override func viewDidLoad()
{
super.viewDidLoad()


self.resultSearchController = ({
let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
return searchController
})()


self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.resultSearchController.searchBar
self.tableView.reloadData()
}

I hope it works for you.

In Swift 2.2 version that worked for me

deinit {
self.searchController?.view.removeFromSuperview()
}

I think it's helpful!

class SampleClass: UITableViewController, UISearchBarDelegate {


private let searchController =  UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)


override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()


searchController.loadViewIfNeeded() // Add this line before accessing searchController
}


}

Creating a search controller in viewDidLoad() and setting its search bar as the navigation item's title view doesn't create a strong reference to the search controller, which is why it's deallocated.

So instead of doing this:

override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Create search controller
let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
// Add search bar to navigation bar
navigationItem.titleView = searchController.searchBar
// Size search bar
searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
}

You should do this:

var searchController: UISearchController!


override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Create search controller
searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
// Add search bar to navigation bar
navigationItem.titleView = searchController.searchBar
// Size search bar
searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
}

Mine is working like this

func initSearchControl(){


searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)


if #available(iOS 9.0, *) {
searchController.loadViewIfNeeded()
} else {
let _ = self.searchController.view
}


searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
definesPresentationContext = true
tableView.tableHeaderView = searchController.searchBar
searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
}

searchController.loadViewIfNeeded() solves the problem but you need to call it after initializing the searchController

It seem the view is lazy loaded, if you allocated the controller and never show it, the view is not loaded. In this case, if the controller is deallocated, you will received this warning. you could show it once, or call it's loadViewIfNeed() method, or use 'let _ = controller.view' to force load the view to avoid this warning.