UIStatusBarStyle PreferredStatusBarStyle does not work on iOS 7

I discovered that if your ViewController is inside a navigationController then the navigationController’s navigationBar.barStyle determines the statusBarStyle.

Setting your navigationBar’s barStyle to UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent will give white status bar text (ie. UIStatusBarStyleLightContent), and UIBarStyleDefault will give black status bar text (ie. UIStatusBarStyleDefault).

Note that this applies even if you totally change the navigationBar’s color via its barTintColor.

OK, here's the trick. You do have to add the key "View controller-based status bar" and set the value to No.

This is counter to what it appears the meaning of this key is, but even if you set the value to No, you can still change the appearance of the status bar, and whether it shows or not in any view controller. So it acts like "Yes" but set it to "No"!

Now I can get the status bar white or dark.