How can I change the UISearchBar search text color?

If you want to set text color for UISearchBar in storyboard (without code), it is easy to do as well (in identity inspector). Here is a red text for search bar.

Working in Swift 4 for me:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: UIColor.white]

Swift 4.2, IOS 12:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white]

You have to access the UITextField inside the UISearchBar. You can do that by using valueForKey("searchField")

var textFieldInsideSearchBar = yourSearchbar.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor

Swift 3 update

let textFieldInsideSearchBar = yourSearchbar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor

If you only need to make it readable on a dark background you can change the barStyle. The following makes text and buttons in the searchbar white:

searchController.searchBar.barStyle = .black