UITabBar not showing selected item images in ios 7

You need to use tabBarItem initWithTitle:image:selectedImage

[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"title" image:image selectedImage:imageSel];

in conjunction with changing the UIImage rendering mode:

imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal

or (to apply parent views template tint mask, this option is default for Tab bar Items unless you opt out with the above rendering mode)

imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysTemplate

here is a code sample for one tab bar item :-

UIImage *musicImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"music.png"];
UIImage *musicImageSel = [UIImage imageNamed:@"musicSel.png"];

musicImage = [musicImage imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];
musicImageSel = [musicImageSel imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal];

self.musicViewController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Music" image:musicImage selectedImage:musicImageSel];

Hope this helps

Set bar item image's render mode to original can solve this problem. This can be done by using images in the .xcassets, so you don't have to write lots of codes.

First step, drap&drop your bar item images to Assets.xcassets.

Second step, choose the bar item image, and change [Render As] to [Original Image]

ps: I usually set the TabBarController's tab bar items all by story board to avoid writing lots of code.

Add these lines of codes in

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
UITabBarController *tabBarController = (UITabBarController *)self.window.rootViewController;
UITabBar *tabBar = tabBarController.tabBar;
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem1 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:0];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem2 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:1];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem3 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:2];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem4 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:3];

tabBarItem1.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"selectimg"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem1.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"deselectimg"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem1.title = @"xxxx";

tabBarItem2.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"selectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem2.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"deselectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem2.title = @"xxxx";

tabBarItem3.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"selectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem3.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"deselectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem3.title = @"xxxx";

tabBarItem4.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"selectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem4.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"deselectimg"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
tabBarItem4.title = @"xxxx";

return YES;
}

this works for me... and hope for the best...

No answers helped fixing this issue. The main reason is that my TabBarController wasn't my RootViewController.

The solution I used for Storyboards, and I just clicked my UITabButton and I added a runtime attribute for selectedImage:

For each of the different views associated with the UITabController.

After spending a couple of hours trying to make my custom tabbar to work for both iOS 6 & 7, that's what worked for me...

UITabBarController *tabBarController = (UITabBarController *)[[self window] rootViewController];

UITabBar *tabBar = tabBarController.tabBar;
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem1 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:0];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem2 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:1];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem3 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:2];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem4 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:3];

tabBarItem1.title = @"Home";
tabBarItem2.title = @"Map";
tabBarItem3.title = @"Weather";
tabBarItem4.title = @"Info";

if ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] < 7) {
    [tabBarItem1 setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_home_white.png"] withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_home_black.png"]];
    [tabBarItem2 setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_cloud_white.png"] withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_cloud_black.png"]];
    [tabBarItem3 setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_map_white.png"] withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_map_black.png"]];
    [tabBarItem4 setFinishedSelectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_info_white.png"] withFinishedUnselectedImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_info_black.png"]];
} else {
    tabBarItem1.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_home_white"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
    tabBarItem1.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_home_black"] imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];

    tabBarItem2.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_cloud_white"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
    tabBarItem2.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_cloud_black"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];

    tabBarItem3.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_map_white"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
    tabBarItem3.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_map_black"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];

    tabBarItem4.selectedImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_info_white"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
    tabBarItem4.image = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"cyexplore_info_black"]imageWithRenderingMode:UIImageRenderingModeAlwaysOriginal ];
}

UIImage* tabBarBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tabbar.png"];
[[UITabBar appearance] setBackgroundImage:tabBarBackground];
[[UITabBar appearance] setSelectionIndicatorImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"tabbar_selected.png"]];
[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIColor blackColor], UITextAttributeTextColor, nil] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[UIColor whiteColor], UITextAttributeTextColor, nil] forState:UIControlStateSelected];