CALayer shadowColor not changing

Question

So I set the shadow of a layer of an UIView correctly the first time (it shows perfectly fine) but when I try to change the color (nothing else, just the layer.shadowColor) it won't update in the view. It still shows the original color. I already tried layer setNeedsDisplay without any luck.

self.profileIconShadow.layer.cornerRadius = self.profileIcon.frame.size.height / 2;
self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0f;
self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowRadius = self.profileIcon.frame.size.width * .025;
self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeZero;

// if ([entry[@"isInactive"] boolValue]) { // Original
if (true) { // Overrode temporarily to test it out
    self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
    [self.profileIconShadow.layer setNeedsDisplay];
}

The shadow get set correctly the first time as needed. But then I try changing the color it still stays black instead of turning red.

This is how it should look.

Edit #2: I have noticed that if I comment out the black color when I first make the shadow, it will change to red later on. Can I not change shadowColor multiple times?

Answer 1

I tried your code last night, i even made an animation of on and off switch out of your code before i went to sleep.. haha..

The question: Can I not change shadowColor multiple times?, of course you can.. ;)

The only potential reason why your layer is not updating is maybe it is not executed in the main thread, to make sure try this:

if ([entry[@"isInactive"] boolValue]) 
{ // Original
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ 

        self.profileIconShadow.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;

        [self.profileIconShadow.layer setNeedsDisplay];

    }
}