Cannot add right bar button in navigation bar in storyboards iOS8 Cannot add right bar button in navigation bar in storyboards iOS8 ios ios

Cannot add right bar button in navigation bar in storyboards iOS8


Well, it seems there is a problem with the differences between new segues introduced in iOS 8 and the old ones. In this case it is the difference between push segues which allows adding a right bar button in storyboard and show segue which if added automatically (dragging from a controller to another) does not allow dropping the button in the navigation bar.

The reason is when using the old segues, the controller would automatically be given a navigation bar, thus you can add elements to it, while if using the new segues the navigation bar is not automatically added to the controller in the storyboard.

What solved this issue for me was:

  1. Selecting the segue which leads to the problematic controller
  2. Changing it to the "deprecated" push segue
  3. Changing it back to the accepted show segue

Result: Now I can add as always the right bar button item through Storyboard.


if you want to add BarButtonItem to not RootViewController you must first add Navigation Item to your ViewController.


First select a UIBarButtonItem from the object library. Then drag into the right corner of the navigationBar.

UIBarButtonItemNavigation bar