swift: setting back button image in nav bar

In Swift 3.0 + put below code in appdelegate didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method, it will work perfectly

let backImage = UIImage(named: "BackNavigation")?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysOriginal)
UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorImage = backImage
UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = backImage
UIBarButtonItem.appearance().setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment(UIOffsetMake(0, -80.0), for: .default)

Or for Swift 4.0 +

let backImage = UIImage(named: "back-icon").withRenderingMode(.alwaysOriginal)
UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorImage = backImage
UINavigationBar.appearance().backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = backImage
UIBarButtonItem.appearance().setBackButtonTitlePositionAdjustment(UIOffset(horizontal: 0, vertical: -80.0), for: .default)

The last line will remove the title of Navigation Back Button if you don't want to remove title then just remove last line

    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorImage = UIImage(named: "back-icon")
    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.backIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = UIImage(named: "back-icon")

I have figured out by looking into sample code. 1) Create a bar button item in storyboard. 2) Link that button to controller using IBOutlet 3) Add image to the button

 var backImg: UIImage = UIImage(named: "back_btn")
 backBtn.setBackgroundImage(backImg, forState: .Normal, barMetrics: .Default)

PS: image should be added to Images.xcassets folder, see sample code, UICatalog , for details.

If you want to change the back button in every controller you can add this to app delegate in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions

    let backImg: UIImage = UIImage(named: "back_button")!
    UIBarButtonItem.appearance().setBackButtonBackgroundImage(backImg, forState: .Normal, barMetrics: .Default)