Custom NavigationRenderer for back button not called while navigating back in xamarin forms application

Issue

Here is the code for the custom renderer i used to assign a custom icon as my back button.

namespace MyProjectName.Droid.Renderers
{
  public class MyNavigationRenderer: PageRenderer
  {
    protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Xamarin.Forms.Page> e)
    {
      base.OnElementChanged(e);

      var context = (Activity)Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Context;
      
      var toolbar = context.FindViewById<AndroidX.AppCompat.Widget.Toolbar>(Droid.Resource.Id.toolbar);

      toolbar.NavigationIcon = AndroidX.Core.Content.ContextCompat.GetDrawable(context, Resource.Drawable.bbutton_nav);

    }   
  }
}

This code successfully replaces the native back arrow icon with my custom bbutton_nav. When i navigate forward(Navigate.PushAsync()), the custom icon appears on all the upcoming screens. But when i click on the back icon to go back one page(Navigate.PopAsync()), the old native back arrow reappears instead of the new custom icon that was set by the renderer. When i tried debugging , i found out that the renderer class was not getting called when navigating back(Navigation.PopAsync()). Any help on how to mitigate this issue is appreciated. Thanks

Solution

Create a custom renderer for NavigationPage instead of Page , and override the OnLayout method .

Android will change the detault icon back in UpdateToolbar method , and OnLayout method is triggered every time while current page is changed.

Android Solution

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(NavigationPage), typeof(MyNavigationRenderer))]
namespace FormsApp.Droid
{
    public class MyNavigationRenderer : NavigationPageRenderer
    {
        Context _context;

        AndroidX.AppCompat.Widget.Toolbar _toolbar;

        public MyNavigationRenderer(Context context) : base(context)
        {
            _context = context;
        }

        public override void OnViewAdded(Android.Views.View child)
        {
            base.OnViewAdded(child);
            if (child.GetType() == typeof(AndroidX.AppCompat.Widget.Toolbar))
            {
                _toolbar = (AndroidX.AppCompat.Widget.Toolbar)child;
                _toolbar.SetNavigationIcon(Resource.Drawable.bbutton_nav);
            }
        }

        protected override void OnLayout(bool changed, int l, int t, int r, int b)
        {
            base.OnLayout(changed, l, t, r, b);

            if (_toolbar != null)
            {
                if (_toolbar.NavigationIcon != null)
                {
                    _toolbar.NavigationIcon = AndroidX.Core.Content.ContextCompat.GetDrawable(_context, Resource.Drawable.bbutton_nav);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Refer to https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/183344/how-to-change-navigation-back-button-icon .

iOS Solution

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(NavigationPage), typeof(MyRenderer))]
namespace FormsApp.iOS
{
    class MyRenderer : NavigationRenderer
    {
        public override void ViewDidLayoutSubviews()
        {
            base.ViewDidLayoutSubviews();

          
            if (this.NavigationBar.TopItem.BackBarButtonItem == null)
            {
                this.NavigationBar.BackIndicatorImage = UIImage.FromFile("dots.png");
                this.NavigationBar.BackIndicatorTransitionMaskImage = UIImage.FromFile("dots.png");
                this.NavigationBar.TopItem.BackBarButtonItem = new UIBarButtonItem("", UIBarButtonItemStyle.Plain, null);
            }
        }

    }
}

Answered By - ColeX - MSFT