iOS UINavigationBar button remains faded after segue back

Another work around is to implement the fix on the parent navigationController - so that each of its child viewController's gets the fix as follows

NOTE: This requires the receiving class to be setup as the UINavigationController delegate

Swift

func navigationController(_ navigationController: UINavigationController, willShow viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
    if #available(iOS 11.2, *) {
        navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = .normal
        navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = .automatic
    }
}

Objective-C

-(void)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController willShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated {    
    if (@available(iOS 11.2, *)) {
        self.navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = UIViewTintAdjustmentModeNormal;
        self.navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = UIViewTintAdjustmentModeAutomatic;
    }
}

What I do is work around this bug, in the view controller's viewWillAppear, as follows:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = .normal
    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.tintAdjustmentMode = .automatic
}

That seems to wake up the button without visual artifacts.

This is a bug in iOS 11.2 and happens because the UIBarButtonItem stays highlighted after navigation and does not return to its normal state after the other view controller pops.

To avoid this behavior, either

1. use a UIBarButtonItem with a UIButton as a custom view

2. disable and re-enable the bar button item in viewWillDisappear(_:) (although this causes the button to appear immediately, use matt's solution to avoid this):

   barButtonItem.isEnabled = false
   barButtonItem.isEnabled = true