How do I set selected tab in UITabBarController using StoryBoard?

Grab your instance of UITabBarController then set the selectedViewController property:

yourTabBarController.selectedViewController=[yourTabBarController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:3];//or whichever index you want

*Swift Comment - 18 months later if you convert Yanchi's solution into Swift in your appDelegate you'll get the expected result. The Swift translation is:

let tabBar: UITabBarController = self.window?.rootViewController as! UITabBarController

tabBar.selectedIndex = 1

Alexander, I think your problem is getting correct instance of your tab bar. If your tab bar is your root view controller, then you can do it like this in your appdelegate if didFinishLoading method:

UITabBarController *tabBar = (UITabBarController *)self.window.rootViewController;
    [tabBar setSelectedIndex:3];

Give it a try and tell me the result please.