1. In info.plist set View controller-based status bar appearance to YES
2. In view controllers not contained by UINavigationController implement this method.

In Objective-C:

- (UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle
{ 
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent; 
}

In Swift:

override func preferredStatusBarStyle() -> UIStatusBarStyle {
    return UIStatusBarStyle.LightContent
}

Subclass UINavigationController and then override these methods:

In Objective-C:

- (UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle
{ 
    return UIStatusBarStyleLightContent; 
}

In Swift:

override func preferredStatusBarStyle() -> UIStatusBarStyle {
    return .lightContent
}

Alternatively, you can set barStyle on the UINavigationBar instance:

Objective C:

// e.g. in your view controller's viewDidLoad method:
self.navigationController.navigationBar.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlack;  // this will give you a white status bar

Swift

// e.g. in your view controller's viewDidLoad method:
navigationController?.navigationBar.barStyle = .black // this will give you a white status bar

UIBarStyle options are default, black, blackOpaque, blackTranslucent. The latter 3 should all give you a status bar with white text, just the last two specify the opacity of the bar.

Note: you can still change the appearance of your navigation bar as you like.

If you are using library that contains (for example) AwesomeViewController with a wrong status bar color you can try this:

  let awesomeViewController = AwesomeViewController()
  awesomeViewController.navigationBar.barStyle = .blackTranslucent // or other style

If you are using UIViewControllerContainment there are a few other methods that are worth looking at.

When you want a child viewController to control the presentation of the status bar (i.e. if the child is positioned at the top of the screen

in Swift

class RootViewController: UIViewController {

    private let messageBarViewController = MessageBarViewController()        

    override func childViewControllerForStatusBarStyle() -> UIViewController? {
        return messageBarViewController
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        //add child vc code here...

        setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
    }
}

class MessageBarViewController: UIViewController {
    
    override func preferredStatusBarStyle() -> UIStatusBarStyle {
        return .Default 
    }
}

SWIFT:

Step 1:

In your Info.plist add the following attribute:

View controller-based status bar appearance

and set its value to

NO

as described in the image below:

Step 2:

In your AppDelegate.swift file, in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method, add this code:

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .lightContent

or

UIApplication.shared.statusBarStyle = .default

• The .lightContent option will set the colour of the statusBar to white, for the entire app.

• The .default option will set the colour of the statusBar to the original black colour, for the entire app.
  
  

---

OBJECTIVE-C:

Follow the first step from the SWIFT Section. Then add this code to the AppDelegate.m file:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];

or

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleDefault];