How to enable cancel button with UISearchBar?

This method worked in iOS7.

- (void)enableCancelButton:(UISearchBar *)searchBar
{
    for (UIView *view in searchBar.subviews)
    {
        for (id subview in view.subviews)
        {
            if ( [subview isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]] )
            {
                [subview setEnabled:YES];
                NSLog(@"enableCancelButton");
                return;
            }
        }
    }
}

(Also be sure to call it anywhere after [_searchBar resignFirstResponder] is used.)

try this

for(id subview in [yourSearchBar subviews])
{
    if ([subview isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]]) {
        [subview setEnabled:YES];
    }
}

The accepted solution will not work when you start scrolling the table instead of tapping the "Search" button. In that case the "Cancel" button will be disabled.

This is my solution that re-enables the "Cancel" button every time it is disabled by using KVO.

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

    // Search for Cancel button in searchbar, enable it and add key-value observer.
    for (id subview in [self.searchBar subviews]) {
        if ([subview isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]]) {
            [subview setEnabled:YES];
            [subview addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"enabled" options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew context:nil];
        }
    }
}

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

    // Remove observer for the Cancel button in searchBar.
    for (id subview in [self.searchBar subviews]) {
        if ([subview isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]])
            [subview removeObserver:self forKeyPath:@"enabled"];
    }
}

- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context
{
    // Re-enable the Cancel button in searchBar.
    if ([object isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]] && [keyPath isEqualToString:@"enabled"]) {
        UIButton *button = object;
        if (!button.enabled)
            button.enabled = YES;
    }
}