UITabBar with custom height in Swift, does not work for iOS 14 or later.

Tabbar.Swift

// Does not work on iOS 14.0 or later, keeping the gist just for reference.
extension UITabBar {
    override open func sizeThatFits(size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        super.sizeThatFits(size)
        var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
        sizeThatFits.height = 71
        return sizeThatFits
    }
}

I have found a solution for iOS 13.4 that doesn't require too much to be changed.

First step is to change your code (I'll use the example above, but your code might be slightly different if you've done something custom);

Change from this;

extension UITabBar {
    override open func sizeThatFits(size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        super.sizeThatFits(size)
        var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
        sizeThatFits.height = 71
        return sizeThatFits
    }
}

To this;

class CustomTabBar : UITabBar {
    override open func sizeThatFits(_ size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        super.sizeThatFits(size)
        var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
        sizeThatFits.height = 71
        return sizeThatFits
    }
}

Then in your storyboard, click your "Tab Bar Controller"'s tab bar and change the class from UiTabBar to CustomTabBar. This ensures that sizeThatFits is called.

If you've created your UITabBarController programmatically, you can set custom class for UITabBar class like this :

init() {
       super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
       object_setClass(self.tabBar, CustomTabbar.self)

       /* some stuff here */ 
}

That's a bit weird because Apple don't let us set a custom instance of UITabBar.

If you've created your UITabBarController programmatically, you can set custom class for UITabBar class like this :

init() {
       super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
       object_setClass(self.tabBar, CustomTabbar.self)

       /* some stuff here */ 
}

That's a bit weird because Apple don't let us set a custom instance of UITabBar.

@RemiRodrigues thx, you saved me a lot of time

I have found a solution for iOS 13.4 that doesn't require too much to be changed.

First step is to change your code (I'll use the example above, but your code might be slightly different if you've done something custom);

Change from this;

extension UITabBar {
    override open func sizeThatFits(size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        super.sizeThatFits(size)
        var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
        sizeThatFits.height = 71
        return sizeThatFits
    }
}

To this;

class CustomTabBar : UITabBar {
    override open func sizeThatFits(_ size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
        super.sizeThatFits(size)
        var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
        sizeThatFits.height = 71
        return sizeThatFits
    }
}

Then in your storyboard, click your "Tab Bar Controller"'s tab bar and change the class from UiTabBar to CustomTabBar. This ensures that sizeThatFits is called.

Thanks @jcrooke This is working awesomely.

I hope I'm missing something, but there's no way for me to make any of those solutions work.

In my project, UITabViewController is an initial controller and no matter what I do, the default size of the tab bar is loaded first and it changes to the new height defined with the override of sizeThatFits shortly after.

So I load the tab bar twice and it has this buggy look when the height of the tab bar changes.

I'm running iOS 14.1 and I' have tried older devices before iPhone X too in a simulator.

Any help is appreciated.

nothing from mentioned here works for me in iOS 14+

Same here unfortunately

Work for me in iOS 14+, and others

class WeiTabBarController: UITabBarController {
    
    init() {
        
        super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
        
        object_setClass(self.tabBar, WeiTabBar.self)
        
    }
    
    required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
    
    
    class WeiTabBar: UITabBar {
        
        override func sizeThatFits(_ size: CGSize) -> CGSize {
            
            var sizeThatFits = super.sizeThatFits(size)
            
            sizeThatFits.height = 120
            
            return sizeThatFits
            
        }
        
    }
    
}

@RemiRodrigues Thanks, you really saved me a lot of headaches.

@Wei18 Thank you man it works like a charm!

@Wei18 you are a champ

Hi, This method works but how can I center the tab bar image to the updated height?

@Wei18 Thank you that's work for me too on iOS 14+

@Wei18 thank you! still working for swift 5+