'How to resign first responder from text field when user tap elsewhere?

I have filled my view with ScrollView (same size as the view) and I'm stuck at how to resign first responder when user tap elsewhere in the View (or the scrollview). Any idea on how to do that ? I'm using the following method but it's not working as expected:

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [textField resignFirstResponder];
    return YES;
}

Thx for helping,

Stephane

Solution 1:^[1]

I found the answer here:

If your ultimate aim is just to resign the first responder, this should work: [self.view endEditing:YES]

The endEditing(_:) method is designed right for it

Causes the view (or one of its embedded text fields) to resign the first responder status.

Solution 2:^[2]

For a more robust and clean solution add a tap gesture recognizer to your primary view.

This will work better with nested views and will be cleaner than secret buttons in code and UI builder.

In your view did load:

UITapGestureRecognizer* tapBackground = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(dismissKeyboard:)];
[tapBackground setNumberOfTapsRequired:1];
[self.view addGestureRecognizer:tapBackground];

..and define your target action to be triggered on tap:

-(void) dismissKeyboard:(id)sender
{
    [self.view endEditing:YES];
}

Solution 3:^[3]

The best option is the shortest way ;)

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    [self.view endEditing:YES];
}

Solution 4:^[4]

Using Swift you can do this:

func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    let tap: UITapGestureRecognizer = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.hideKeyboardByTappingOutside))
    
    self.view.addGestureRecognizer(tap)
}

@objc func hideKeyboardByTappingOutside() {
    self.view.endEditing(true)
}

Solution 5:^[5]

UIViewController inherits from UIResponder so a naive way (I am pretty sure is not the smartest way to do it) would be by overwriting the following methods (at least 1 of them)

– touchesBegan:withEvent:
– touchesMoved:withEvent:
– touchesEnded:withEvent:
- touchesCancelled:withEvent:

Next you could get the touched view by doing

UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
UIView *touchedView = [touch view];

finally resign the first responder if that view is not your text field

if(touchedView != textField){
    [textField resignFirstResponder];
}

Demerits of this approach:

You will have to handle the "tap" by yourself. (Same problem as the old iOS 3.1 or earlier). You will have to come up with your own implementation to differentiate single taps from drags, swipes, double taps, long taps, etc. Is not hard to get it working well but it is not likely you get it exactly the same way Apple detects taps (timings, distances, thresholds count!) However, that depends on your needs.

If your view structure is simple enough then you could add a gesture recognizer to the container view and resign the first responder every time the handler is called :)

Hope this helps

Solution 6:^[6]

Nobody has yet presented the best answer here:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] sendAction:@selector(resignFirstResponder) to:nil from:nil forEvent:nil];

From the documentation on this method:

Normally, this method is invoked by a UIControl object that the user has touched. The default implementation dispatches the action method to the given target object or, if no target is specified, to the first responder. Subclasses may override this method to perform special dispatching of action messages.

I bolded the relevant part of that paragraph. By specifying nil for the to: parameter, we automatically call the given selector on the first responder, wherever it is, and we don't need to have any knowledge of where in the view hierarchy it is. This can also be used to invoke other methods on the first responder as well, not just cause it to resign first responder status.

Solution 7:^[7]

    -(BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [self.TextField resignFirstResponder];

    return YES;
}

Solution 8:^[8]

Give a unique Tag to your UITextfield (i.e. 333), then to resign the first responder do this:

UITextField *textField = (UITextField *)[self.view viewWithTag:333];
[textField resignFirstResponder];

Solution 9:^[9]

Just create an IBOutlet or pointer to the text field and call [textField resignFirstResponder]; from where ever you want.

Solution 10:^[10]

UITapGestureRecognizer *tap = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc]initWithTarget:self action:@selector(TapTodissmiss)];

[self.view addGestureRecognizer:tap];

and selector

-(void)TapTodissmiss{

    [self.txtffld resignFirstResponder];

}

Solution 11:^[11]

I am posting this as a separate answer because a lot of the other answers recommend using [textField resignFirstResponder]. This is causing an invalid capability error in Xcode 11.5 with the incomprehensible addition "Unable to insert COPY_SEND"

On a iPad with iOS 9.3.6:

2020-05-23 20:35:01.576 _BSMachError: (os/kern) invalid capability (20)
2020-05-23 20:35:01.580 _BSMachError: (os/kern) invalid name (15)

On a iPad with iPadOS 13.5:

2020-05-23 20:38:49 [Common] _BSMachError: port 12f0f; (os/kern) invalid capability (0x14) "Unable to insert COPY_SEND"

On a iPhone with iOS 13.5:

2020-05-23 20:43:34 [Common] _BSMachError: port d503; (os/kern) invalid capability (0x14) "Unable to insert COPY_SEND"

[textField resignFirstResponder] cannot be used anymore.

Solution 12:^[12]

When possible the best option is to make your UIView to inherit from UIButton instead.

You just need to change it in Interface Builder and immediately you will get the options to create an Action "Touch Up Inside" like any other button.

Your view will work as usual because UIButton is still a view but you will get notified when someone taps on the view. There you can call

[self.view endEditing:YES];

To resign any keyboard.

Please note that if your view is an UIScrollView this solution is not for you.

Solution 13:^[13]

Create your IBOutlet in ViewController.h file like below:

//YOUR ViewController.h FILE

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ViewController : UIViewController
{
    //WIRE THIS WITH YOUR UITextField OBJECT AT YOUR .xib FILE
    IBOutlet UITextField *yourIBOutletUITextField;
}

@end

Add this to your ViewController.m file:

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
     [yourIBOutletUITextField resignFirstResponder];
}

like below:

//YOUR ViewController.m FILE

#import "ViewController.h"

@implementation ViewController


//ADD THIS METHOD BELOW
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
     [yourIBOutletUITextField resignFirstResponder];
}


- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
    // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use.
}

#pragma mark - View lifecycle

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.

    }

- (void)viewDidUnload
{
    [super viewDidUnload];
    // Release any retained subviews of the main view.
    // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil;
}

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
}

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}

- (void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidDisappear:animated];
}

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    // Return YES for supported orientations
    return (interfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown);
}

@end

Solution 14:^[14]

For my implementation, [self.view endEditing:YES] did not work.

To finally make sure the keyboard was hidden, I had to make one of my views the first responder, and then immediately make it resign as per the function below:

-(void) hideKeyboardPlease{
   [uiTextTo becomeFirstResponder];
   [uiTextTo resignFirstResponder];
}

Solution 15:^[15]

This is what I do...

UITapGestureRecognizer *tapGesture = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(hideAllKeyboards)];
tapGesture.cancelsTouchesInView = NO;
[self.view addGestureRecognizer:tapGesture];

-(void) hideAllKeyboards {
    [textField_1 resignFirstResponder];
    [textField_2 resignFirstResponder];
    [textField_3 resignFirstResponder];
    .
    .
    .
    [textField_N resignFirstResponder];
}

Solution 16:^[16]

This is the easiest way iv found that works consistently. Just add a tap gesture recognizer on the view and you're good to go.

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {

[self.view endEditing:YES];

}

Solution 17:^[17]

Update

I found another simple way

simply declare a property :-

@property( strong , nonatomic) UITextfield *currentTextfield;

and a Tap Gesture Gecognizer:-

@property (strong , nonatomic) UITapGestureRecognizer *resignTextField;

In ViewDidLoad

_currentTextfield=[[UITextField alloc]init];
_resignTextField=[[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc]initWithTarget:@selector(tapMethod:)];

[self.view addGestureRecognizer:_resignTextField];

Implement the textfield delegate method didBeginEditing

 -(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{


      _currentTextfield=textField;

    }

Implement Your Tap Gesture Method (_resignTextField)

 -(void)tapMethod:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)Gesture{

     [_currentTextfield resignFirstResponder];

 }

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1	Eugene Berdnikov
Solution 2	Andres Canella
Solution 3	Onder OZCAN
Solution 4
Solution 5	nacho4d
Solution 6	Gavin
Solution 7	Deepakraj Murugesan
Solution 8	Lefteris
Solution 9	Or Ron
Solution 10	Ghanshyam Tomar
Solution 11	Jan Ehrhardt
Solution 12	Julio Bailon
Solution 13	EFE
Solution 14	Lenny
Solution 15	Fahim Parkar
Solution 16	Andrew Cook
Solution 17

'How to resign first responder from text field when user tap elsewhere?

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