 <p>I had the same issue. And so starts a search of SO. So the above helped me out, but the whole, "if iOS9 thing" might be best framed like this:</p> <pre><code>if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(inputAssistantItem)]) { // iOS9. UITextInputAssistantItem* item = [self inputAssistantItem]; item.leadingBarButtonGroups = @[]; item.trailingBarButtonGroups = @[]; } </code></pre> <p>Happily, I'd created a sub-class of a UITextField, (CHTextField) and was in use everywhere. So it was a very easy fix to whack this in the over-ridden "init" method.</p> <p>Hope it helps.</p>