stopAnimating

StopAnimating is a method used in iOS user interface programming to halt a repeating animation on a view. It is most commonly invoked on UIActivityIndicatorView to stop the spinning indicator, or on UIImageView when the view is configured with an array of images for animation. In Swift, the method is defined as func stopAnimating(), and in Objective-C as - (void)stopAnimating. Paired with startAnimating() and the isAnimating property, it enables simple start/stop control of animations.

In UIActivityIndicatorView, calling stopAnimating stops the spinner animation and sets the isAnimating property to false; if the hidesWhenStopped property is true, the indicator is hidden automatically when the animation stops. The method is safe to call multiple times; if the indicator is already stopped, nothing changes.

In UIImageView, if the image view has animationImages set, stopAnimating halts the animation sequence, and the currently displayed frame remains visible. To reset to the first frame, you may set the image to the first frame and then stop.

Best practices: perform on the main thread, avoid blocking user input during start/stop; pair with appropriate state checks to avoid redundant calls. The method is part of UIKit’s animation controls and is distinct from Core Animation primitives, which require different stopping handles.

See also: startAnimating, isAnimating, hidesWhenStopped.