How do I change the title of the "back" button on a Navigation Bar

in Xcode 4.5 using storyboard, by far the easiest solution i've found when the value of the Back button doesn't have to change dynamically is to use the "Back Button" field associated with the Navigation Item of the View Controller to which you want the "Back" button to say something else.

e.g. in the screenshot below, i want the Back button for the view controller(s) that i push to have "Back" as the title of the Back button.

![enter image description here][1]

of course, this won't work if you need the back button to say something slightly different each time … there are all of the other solutions here for that.


[1]:

Stan's answer was the best one. But it also have a problem, when you use the controller with a Tab Bar and change the controller's title, you could change the Tab Bar's title too.So the best answer is change the view_controller.navigationItem.title only and use the view_controller.navigationItem.title in the function.
Answer is here:(With ARC and add them into view's viewDidLoad)

static NSString * back_button_title=@"Back"; //or whatever u want
if (![view_controller.navigationItem.title isEqualToString:back_button_title]){
UILabel* custom_title_view = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
custom_title_view.text = view_controller.navigationItem.title; // original title
custom_title_view.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20];
custom_title_view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
custom_title_view.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
custom_title_view.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.5];
custom_title_view.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, -1);

[custom_title_view sizeToFit];

view_controller.navigationItem.titleView = custom_title_view;
view_controller.navigationItem.title = back_button_title;
}

In myself use, I make it a function like this, just have the feature with one line code in the viewDidLoad.


+ (void)makeSubViewHaveBackButton:(UIViewController*) view_controller{
static NSString * back_button_title=@"Back"; //or whatever u want
if (![view_controller.navigationItem.title isEqualToString:back_button_title]){
UILabel* custom_title_view = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
custom_title_view.text = view_controller.navigationItem.title; // original title
custom_title_view.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20];
custom_title_view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
custom_title_view.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
custom_title_view.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.5];
custom_title_view.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0, -1);

[custom_title_view sizeToFit];

view_controller.navigationItem.titleView = custom_title_view;
view_controller.navigationItem.title = back_button_title;
}
}

Here is the answer:

In `viewDidAppear:animated` (NOT in `viewDidLoad`) do the following

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
[self.navigationController.navigationBar.backItem setTitle:@"anything"];

// then call the super
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
}

That if you want to keep the shape of the back button.

This work better for me. Try :

self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
initWithTitle:@"Back" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:nil action:nil];

If you want not only to change the text of the Back button to the same text and remain the original left-arrow shape, but also to do something when user clicks the Back button, I recommend you to have a look around my "[CustomNavigationController](

[To see links please register here]

;.

This should be placed in the method that calls the ViewController titled "NewTitle".
Right before the push or popViewController statement.

UIBarButtonItem *newBackButton =
[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"NewTitle"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target:nil
action:nil];
[[self navigationItem] setBackBarButtonItem:newBackButton];
[newBackButton release];

This works for me as a "simplified" version of previous posted answers.

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];

backButton.title = @"Go Back";

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

Remember to put the code inside the parent view controller (e.g. the view that has your table view or UITableViewController), **not** the child or detail view (e.g. UIViewController).

You can easily localize the back button string like this:

backButton.title = NSLocalizedString(@"Back Title", nil);

I know, the question is very old, but I found a nice solution.

UIBarButtonItem *barButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] init];
barButton.title = @"Custom Title";
self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.backBarButtonItem = barButton;

Works from childView! Tested with iOS 7.

It seems that the navigation controller looks for

previousViewController.navigationItem.title

If nothing there it looks for

previousViewController.title

In Swift/iOS8, the following worked for me:

let backButton = UIBarButtonItem(
title: "Back Button Text",
style: UIBarButtonItemStyle.Bordered,
target: nil,
action: nil
);

self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

Ported from Felipe's answer.