How do I remove all annotations from MKMapView except the user location annotation?

Question

I use removeAnnotations to remove my annotations from mapView but same it remove user location ann. How can I prevent this, or how to get user ann back to view?

NSArray *annotationsOnMap = mapView.annotations;
        [mapView removeAnnotations:annotationsOnMap];

Safier

Answer 1

Update:

When I tried with the iOS 9 SDK the user annotation is no longer removed. You can simply use

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)

---

Historical answer (for apps that run on iOS before iOS 9):

Try this:

NSMutableArray * annotationsToRemove = [ mapView.annotations mutableCopy ] ;
[ annotationsToRemove removeObject:mapView.userLocation ] ;
[ mapView removeAnnotations:annotationsToRemove ] ;

EDIT: Swift version

let annotationsToRemove = mapView.annotations.filter { $0 !== mapView.userLocation }
mapView.removeAnnotations( annotationsToRemove )

Suzetta

I've tried using this instead: self.mapView.viewForAnnotation(annotation!)?.hidden = true but it was giving me weird errors when I change map region. Yours is the better way, thank you! – Kazoo

I implemented this code but I get a fatal error: unexpectedly found nil. I checked whether annotationsToRemove counts greater than one. I have no idea why I am getting this error. Please help me. – Kramer

you have to look and see what line is failed on – Suzetta

It's in the MapView.removeAnnotations line – Kramer

Do you have any ! in your code? How is your MapView variable defined? Change any ! to ? and then further modify your code so it compiles. The crash will probably be resolved. – Suzetta

Answer 2

To clear all the annotations from the map:

[self.mapView removeAnnotations:[self.mapView annotations]];

To remove specified annotations from Mapview

 for (id <MKAnnotation> annotation in self.mapView.annotations)
{
    if (![annotation isKindOfClass:[MKUserLocation class]])
    {
              [self.mapView removeAnnotation:annotation];   
    }

}

Hope this may help you.

Aggress

This answer is much more concise than the accepted one. – Concision

Answer 3

For Swift you can simply use a one-liner:

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)

Edit: As nielsbot mentioned it will also remove the user's location annotation unless you have set it up like this:

mapView.showsUserLocation = true

Voracious

this removes all the annotations, which is not what OP wanted. – Suzetta

The behavior has changed. – Suzetta

Answer 4

If your user location is kind of class of MKUserLocation, use isKindOfClass to avoid removing user location annotation.

if (![annotation isKindOfClass:[MKUserLocation class]]) {

}

Else you can set a flag to recognize the kind of your annotations in – mapView:viewForAnnotation:.

Lacagnia

Answer 5

Swift 4.2 or later

Add this line before adding the annotations

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations.filter { $0 !== mapView.userLocation })

Parthenope

Most efficient answer. – Therm

Answer 6

How about some NSPredicate filter?

NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"className != %@", NSStringFromClass(MKUserLocation.class)];
NSArray *nonUserAnnotations = [self.mapView.annotations filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
[self.mapView removeAnnotations:nonUserAnnotations];

Life is always better with NSPredicate filter

Boeotia

Answer 7

In Swift 4.1:

Normally if you don't want to remove your MKUserLocation annotation you can simply run:

self.mapView.removeAnnotations(self.annotations).

This method by default does not remove the MKUserLocation annotation from the annotations list.

However if you need to filter out all annotations except the MKUserLocation (see annotationsNoUserLocation variable below) for any other reason, like centering on all the annotations but the MKUserLocation annotation you can use this simple extension below.

extension MKMapView {

    var annotationsNoUserLocation : [MKAnnotation] {
        get {
            return self.annotations.filter{ !($0 is MKUserLocation) }
        }
    }

    func showAllAnnotations() {
        self.showAnnotations(self.annotations, animated: true)
    }

    func removeAllAnnotations() {
        self.removeAnnotations(self.annotations)
    }

    func showAllAnnotationsNoUserLocation() {
        self.showAnnotations(self.annotationsNoUserLocation, animated: true)
    }

}

Lido

Answer 8

Hi try this i got the solution from this code:

 NSMutableArray*listRemoveAnnotations = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[Mapview removeAnnotations:listRemoveAnnotations];

 [listRemoveAnnotations release];

Lipography

this doesn't answer the question. In fact this code as no effect--listRemoveAnnotations is empty when -removeAnimations is called. – Suzetta