Question

I am trying to set the back button on the navigation controller that currently has my view on the stack.
I can not change any of its attributes.

Is there an way I can grap the top most navigation controller like: [self navigationcontroller]?

Answer 1

By default, the back button in a UINavigationController is owned by the parent.

Simply set the back button before you call pushViewController:

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
                                initWithTitle:@"Go Back" 
                                        style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                       target:nil 
                                       action:nil];

[self.navigationItem setBackBarButtonItem:backButton];

[self.navigationController pushViewController:myNewController];

(taken from this tutorial)