How to find topmost view controller on iOS

I think you need a combination of the accepted answer and @fishstix's

+ (UIViewController*) topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topController;
}

Swift 3.0+

func topMostController() -> UIViewController? {
    guard let window = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow, let rootViewController = window.rootViewController else {
        return nil
    }

    var topController = rootViewController

    while let newTopController = topController.presentedViewController {
        topController = newTopController
    }

    return topController
}

To complete JonasG's answer (who left out tab bar controllers while traversing), here is my version of returning the currently visible view controller:

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)rootViewController {
    if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navigationController = (UINavigationController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navigationController.visibleViewController];
    } else if (rootViewController.presentedViewController) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    } else {
        return rootViewController;
    }
}

iOS 4 introduced the rootViewController property on UIWindow:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

You'll need to set it yourself after you create the view controller though.

A complete non-recursive version, taking care of different scenarios:

The view controller is presenting another view

The view controller is a UINavigationController

The view controller is a UITabBarController

Objective-C

 UIViewController *topViewController = self.window.rootViewController;
 while (true)
 {
     if (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
         topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
         UINavigationController *nav = (UINavigationController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = nav.topViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
         UITabBarController *tab = (UITabBarController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = tab.selectedViewController;
     } else {
         break;
     }
 }

Swift 4+

extension UIWindow {
    func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        var top = self.rootViewController
        while true {
            if let presented = top?.presentedViewController {
                top = presented
            } else if let nav = top as? UINavigationController {
                top = nav.visibleViewController
            } else if let tab = top as? UITabBarController {
                top = tab.selectedViewController
            } else {
                break
            }
        }
        return top
    }
}

Getting top most view controller for Swift using extensions

Code:

extension UIViewController {
    @objc func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        // Handling Modal views
        if let presentedViewController = self.presentedViewController {
            return presentedViewController.topMostViewController()
        }
        // Handling UIViewController's added as subviews to some other views.
        else {
            for view in self.view.subviews
            {
                // Key property which most of us are unaware of / rarely use.
                if let subViewController = view.next {
                    if subViewController is UIViewController {
                        let viewController = subViewController as! UIViewController
                        return viewController.topMostViewController()
                    }
                }
            }
            return self
        }
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.selectedViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

extension UINavigationController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.visibleViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

Usage:

UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.rootViewController!.topMostViewController()

To complete Eric's answer (who left out popovers, navigation controllers, tabbarcontrollers, view controllers added as subviews to some other view controllers while traversing), here is my version of returning the currently visible view controller:

=====================================================================

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)viewController {
    if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navContObj = (UINavigationController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navContObj.visibleViewController];
    } else if (viewController.presentedViewController && !viewController.presentedViewController.isBeingDismissed) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = viewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    }
    else {
        for (UIView *view in [viewController.view subviews])
        {
            id subViewController = [view nextResponder];
            if ( subViewController && [subViewController isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]])
            {
                if ([(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]  && ![subViewController presentedViewController].isBeingDismissed) {
                    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]];
                }
            }
        }
        return viewController;
    }
}

=====================================================================

And now all you need to do to get top most view controller is call the above method as follows:

UIViewController *topMostViewControllerObj = [self topViewController];

This answer includes childViewControllers and maintains a clean and readable implementation.

+ (UIViewController *)topViewController
{
    UIViewController *rootViewController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    return [rootViewController topVisibleViewController];
}

- (UIViewController *)topVisibleViewController
{
    if ([self isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]])
    {
        UITabBarController *tabBarController = (UITabBarController *)self;
        return [tabBarController.selectedViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if ([self isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]])
    {
        UINavigationController *navigationController = (UINavigationController *)self;
        return [navigationController.visibleViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if (self.presentedViewController)
    {
        return [self.presentedViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if (self.childViewControllers.count > 0)
    {
        return [self.childViewControllers.lastObject topVisibleViewController];
    }

    return self;
}

I recently got this situation in one my project, which required to displayed a notification view whatever the controller displayed was and whatever was the type (UINavigationController, classic controller or custom view controller), when network status changed.

So I juste released my code, which is quite easy and actually based on a protocol so that it is flexible with every type of container controller. It seems to be related with the last answers, but in a much flexible way.

You can grab the code here : PPTopMostController

And got the top most controller using

UIViewController *c = [UIViewController topMostController];

For latest Swift Version:
Create a file, name it UIWindowExtension.swift and paste the following snippet:

import UIKit

public extension UIWindow {
    public var visibleViewController: UIViewController? {
        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(self.rootViewController)
    }

    public static func getVisibleViewControllerFrom(_ vc: UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let nc = vc as? UINavigationController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(nc.visibleViewController)
        } else if let tc = vc as? UITabBarController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(tc.selectedViewController)
        } else {
            if let pvc = vc?.presentedViewController {
                return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(pvc)
            } else {
                return vc
            }
        }
    }
}

func getTopViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    let appDelegate = UIApplication.shared.delegate
    if let window = appDelegate!.window {
        return window?.visibleViewController
    }
    return nil
}

Use it anywhere as:

if let topVC = getTopViewController() {

}

This is an improvement to Eric's answer:

UIViewController *_topMostController(UIViewController *cont) {
    UIViewController *topController = cont;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    if ([topController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UIViewController *visible = ((UINavigationController *)topController).visibleViewController;
        if (visible) {
            topController = visible;
        }
    }

    return (topController != cont ? topController : nil);
}

UIViewController *topMostController() {
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    UIViewController *next = nil;

    while ((next = _topMostController(topController)) != nil) {
        topController = next;
    }

    return topController;
}

_topMostController(UIViewController *cont) is a helper function.

Now all you need to do is call topMostController() and the top most UIViewController should be returned!

Use below extension to grab current visible UIViewController. Worked for Swift 4.0 and later

Swift 4.0 and Later:

extension UIApplication {
    
    class func topViewController(_ viewController: UIViewController? = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {
        if let nav = viewController as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(nav.visibleViewController)
        }
        if let tab = viewController as? UITabBarController {
            if let selected = tab.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(selected)
            }
        }
        if let presented = viewController?.presentedViewController {
            return topViewController(presented)
        }
        return viewController
    }
}

How to use?

let objViewcontroller = UIApplication.topViewController()

@implementation UIWindow (Extensions)

- (UIViewController*) topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [self rootViewController];

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topController;
}

@end

Here is my take on this. Thanks to @Stakenborg for pointing out the way to skip getting UIAlertView as the top most controller

-(UIWindow *) returnWindowWithWindowLevelNormal
{
    NSArray *windows = [UIApplication sharedApplication].windows;
    for(UIWindow *topWindow in windows)
    {
        if (topWindow.windowLevel == UIWindowLevelNormal)
            return topWindow;
    }
    return [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
}

-(UIViewController *) getTopMostController
{
    UIWindow *topWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
    if (topWindow.windowLevel != UIWindowLevelNormal)
    {
        topWindow = [self returnWindowWithWindowLevelNormal];
    }

    UIViewController *topController = topWindow.rootViewController;
    if(topController == nil)
    {
        topWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate.window;
        if (topWindow.windowLevel != UIWindowLevelNormal)
        {
            topWindow = [self returnWindowWithWindowLevelNormal];
        }
        topController = topWindow.rootViewController;
    }

    while(topController.presentedViewController)
    {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    if([topController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]])
    {
        UINavigationController *nav = (UINavigationController*)topController;
        topController = [nav.viewControllers lastObject];

        while(topController.presentedViewController)
        {
            topController = topController.presentedViewController;
        }
    }

    return topController;
}

Simple extension for UIApplication in Swift:

NOTE:

It cares about moreNavigationController within UITabBarController

extension UIApplication {

    class func topViewController(baseViewController: UIViewController? = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {

        if let navigationController = baseViewController as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(navigationController.visibleViewController)
        }

        if let tabBarViewController = baseViewController as? UITabBarController {

            let moreNavigationController = tabBarViewController.moreNavigationController

            if let topViewController = moreNavigationController.topViewController where topViewController.view.window != nil {
                return topViewController(topViewController)
            } else if let selectedViewController = tabBarViewController.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(selectedViewController)
            }
        }

        if let splitViewController = baseViewController as? UISplitViewController where splitViewController.viewControllers.count == 1 {
            return topViewController(splitViewController.viewControllers[0])
        }

        if let presentedViewController = baseViewController?.presentedViewController {
            return topViewController(presentedViewController)
        }

        return baseViewController
    }
}

Simple usage:

if let topViewController = UIApplication.topViewController() {
    //do sth with top view controller
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)rootViewController {
    if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navigationController = (UINavigationController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navigationController.visibleViewController];
    } else if (rootViewController.presentedViewController) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    } else {
        return rootViewController;
    }
}

Swift 4.2 Extension

extension UIApplication {

    class func topViewController(controller: UIViewController? = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {
        if let navigationController = controller as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(controller: navigationController.visibleViewController)
        }
        if let tabController = controller as? UITabBarController {
            if let selected = tabController.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(controller: selected)
            }
        }
        if let presented = controller?.presentedViewController {


            return topViewController(controller: presented)
        }
        return controller
    }
}

Use it from anywhere like,

 UIApplication.topViewController()?.present(yourController, animated: true, completion: nil)

or like,

 UIApplication.topViewController()?
                    .navigationController?
                    .popToViewController(yourController,
                                         animated: true)

Fit to any classes like UINavigationController, UITabBarController

Enjoy!

A concise yet comprehensive solution in Swift 4.2, takes into account UINavigationControllers, UITabBarControllers, presented and child view controllers:

extension UIViewController {
  func topmostViewController() -> UIViewController {
    if let navigationVC = self as? UINavigationController,
      let topVC = navigationVC.topViewController {
      return topVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let tabBarVC = self as? UITabBarController,
      let selectedVC = tabBarVC.selectedViewController {
      return selectedVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let presentedVC = presentedViewController {
      return presentedVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let childVC = children.last {
      return childVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    return self
  }
}

extension UIApplication {
  func topmostViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    return keyWindow?.rootViewController?.topmostViewController()
  }
}

Usage:

let viewController = UIApplication.shared.topmostViewController()

Yet another Swift solution

func topController() -> UIViewController? {

    // recursive follow
    func follow(from:UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let to = (from as? UITabBarController)?.selectedViewController {
            return follow(to)
        } else if let to = (from as? UINavigationController)?.visibleViewController {
            return follow(to)
        } else if let to = from?.presentedViewController {
            return follow(to)
        }
        return from
    }

    let root = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController

    return follow(root)

}

Here is what worked for me.

I found that sometimes the controller was nil on the key window, as the keyWindow is some OS thing like an alert, etc.

 + (UIViewController*)topMostController
 {
     UIWindow *topWndow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
     UIViewController *topController = topWndow.rootViewController;

     if (topController == nil)
     {
         // The windows in the array are ordered from back to front by window level; thus,
         // the last window in the array is on top of all other app windows.
         for (UIWindow *aWndow in [[UIApplication sharedApplication].windows reverseObjectEnumerator])
         {
             topController = aWndow.rootViewController;
             if (topController)
                 break;
         }
     }

     while (topController.presentedViewController) {
         topController = topController.presentedViewController;
     }

     return topController;
 }

Expanding on @Eric's answer, you need to be careful that the keyWindow is actually the window you want. If you are trying to utilize this method after tapping something in an alert view for example, the keyWindow will actually be the alert's window, and that will cause problems for you no doubt. This happened to me in the wild when handling deep links via an alert and caused SIGABRTs with NO STACK TRACE. Total bitch to debug.

Here's the code I'm using now:

- (UIViewController *)getTopMostViewController {
    UIWindow *topWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
    if (topWindow.windowLevel != UIWindowLevelNormal) {
        NSArray *windows = [UIApplication sharedApplication].windows;
        for(topWindow in windows)
        {
            if (topWindow.windowLevel == UIWindowLevelNormal)
                break;
        }
    }

    UIViewController *topViewController = topWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
        topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topViewController;
}

Feel free to mix this with whatever flavor of retrieving the top view controller you like from the other answers on this question.

Alternative Swift solution:

static func topMostController() -> UIViewController {
    var topController = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController
    while (topController?.presentedViewController != nil) {
        topController = topController?.presentedViewController
    }

    return topController!
}

This solution is the most complete. It takes in consideration: UINavigationController UIPageViewController UITabBarController And the topmost presented view controller from the top view controller

The example is in Swift 3.

There are 3 overloads

//Get the topmost view controller for the current application.
public func MGGetTopMostViewController() -> UIViewController?  {

    if let currentWindow:UIWindow = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow {
        return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromWindow: currentWindow)
    }

    return nil
}

//Gets the topmost view controller from a specific window.
public func MGGetTopMostViewController(fromWindow window:UIWindow) -> UIViewController? {

    if let rootViewController:UIViewController = window.rootViewController
    {
        return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController:  rootViewController)
    }

    return nil
}


//Gets the topmost view controller starting from a specific UIViewController
//Pass the rootViewController into this to get the apps top most view controller
public func MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController viewController:UIViewController) -> UIViewController {

    //UINavigationController
    if let navigationViewController:UINavigationController = viewController as? UINavigationController {
        let viewControllers:[UIViewController] = navigationViewController.viewControllers
        if navigationViewController.viewControllers.count >= 1 {
            return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: viewControllers[viewControllers.count - 1])
        }
    }

    //UIPageViewController
    if let pageViewController:UIPageViewController = viewController as? UIPageViewController {
        if let viewControllers:[UIViewController] = pageViewController.viewControllers {
            if viewControllers.count >= 1 {
                return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: viewControllers[0])
            }
        }
    }

    //UITabViewController
    if let tabBarController:UITabBarController = viewController as? UITabBarController {
        if let selectedViewController:UIViewController = tabBarController.selectedViewController {
            return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: selectedViewController)
        }
    }

    //Lastly, Attempt to get the topmost presented view controller
    var presentedViewController:UIViewController! = viewController.presentedViewController
    var nextPresentedViewController:UIViewController! = presentedViewController?.presentedViewController

    //If there is a presented view controller, get the top most prensentedViewController and return it.
    if presentedViewController != nil {
        while nextPresentedViewController != nil {

            //Set the presented view controller as the next one.
            presentedViewController = nextPresentedViewController

            //Attempt to get the next presented view controller
            nextPresentedViewController = presentedViewController.presentedViewController
        }
        return presentedViewController
    }

    //If there is no topmost presented view controller, return the view controller itself.
    return viewController
}

Great solution in Swift, implement in AppDelegate

func getTopViewController()->UIViewController{
    return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.rootViewController!)
}
func topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController:UIViewController)->UIViewController{
    if rootViewController is UITabBarController{
        let tabBarController = rootViewController as! UITabBarController
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(tabBarController.selectedViewController!)
    }
    if rootViewController is UINavigationController{
        let navBarController = rootViewController as! UINavigationController
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(navBarController.visibleViewController)
    }
    if let presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController {
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(presentedViewController)
    }
    return rootViewController
}

A lot of these answers are incomplete. Although this is in Objective-C, this is the best compilation of all of them that I could put together for right now, as a non-recursive block:

Link to Gist, in case it gets revised: https://gist.github.com/benguild/0d149bb3caaabea2dac3d2dca58c0816

Code for reference/comparison:

UIViewController *(^topmostViewControllerForFrontmostNormalLevelWindow)(void) = ^UIViewController *{
    // NOTE: Adapted from various stray answers here:
    //   https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6131205/iphone-how-to-find-topmost-view-controller/20515681

    UIViewController *viewController;

    for (UIWindow *window in UIApplication.sharedApplication.windows.reverseObjectEnumerator.allObjects) {
        if (window.windowLevel == UIWindowLevelNormal) {
            viewController = window.rootViewController;
            break;
        }
    }

    while (viewController != nil) {
        if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
            viewController = ((UITabBarController *)viewController).selectedViewController;
        } else if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
            viewController = ((UINavigationController *)viewController).visibleViewController;
        } else if (viewController.presentedViewController != nil && !viewController.presentedViewController.isBeingDismissed) {
            viewController = viewController.presentedViewController;
        } else if (viewController.childViewControllers.count > 0) {
            viewController = viewController.childViewControllers.lastObject;
        } else {
            BOOL repeat = NO;

            for (UIView *view in viewController.view.subviews.reverseObjectEnumerator.allObjects) {
                if ([view.nextResponder isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]]) {
                    viewController = (UIViewController *)view.nextResponder;

                    repeat = YES;
                    break;
                }
            }

            if (!repeat) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    return viewController;
};

I know its very late and might be redundant. But following is the snippet I came up with which is working for me :

    static func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        return topViewController(vc: UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController)
    }

    private static func topViewController(vc:UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let rootVC = vc {
            guard let presentedVC = rootVC.presentedViewController else {
                return rootVC
            }
            if let presentedNavVC = presentedVC as? UINavigationController {
                let lastVC = presentedNavVC.viewControllers.last
                return topViewController(vc: lastVC)
            }
            return topViewController(vc: presentedVC)
        }
        return nil
    }

Swift:

extension UIWindow {

func visibleViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    if let rootViewController: UIViewController  = self.rootViewController {
        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(rootViewController)
    }
    return nil
}

class func getVisibleViewControllerFrom(vc:UIViewController) -> UIViewController {
if vc.isKindOfClass(UINavigationController.self) {

    let navigationController = vc as UINavigationController
    return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom( navigationController.visibleViewController)

} else if vc.isKindOfClass(UITabBarController.self) {

    let tabBarController = vc as UITabBarController
    return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(tabBarController.selectedViewController!)

} else {

    if let presentedViewController = vc.presentedViewController {

        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(presentedViewController.presentedViewController!)

    } else {

        return vc;
    }
}
}

Usage:

 if let topController = window.visibleViewController() {
            println(topController)
        }

I think most of the answers have completely ignored UINavigationViewController, so I handled this use case with following implementation.

+ (UIViewController *)topMostController {
    UIViewController * topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;
    while (topController.presentedViewController || [topController isMemberOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        if([topController isMemberOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
            topController = [topController childViewControllers].lastObject;
        } else {
            topController = topController.presentedViewController;
        }
    }

    return topController;
}

This works great for finding the top viewController 1 from any root view controlle

+ (UIViewController *)topViewControllerFor:(UIViewController *)viewController
{
    if(!viewController.presentedViewController)
        return viewController;
    return [MF5AppDelegate topViewControllerFor:viewController.presentedViewController];
}

/* View Controller for Visible View */

AppDelegate *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate;
UIViewController *visibleViewController = [AppDelegate topViewControllerFor:app.window.rootViewController]; 

Not sure if this will help what you're trying to accomplish by finding the topmost view controller, but I was trying to present a new view controller, but if my root view controller already had a modal dialog, it would be blocked, so I would cycle to the top of all modal view controllers using this code:

UIViewController* parentController =[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

while( parentController.presentedViewController &&
       parentController != parentController.presentedViewController )
{
    parentController = parentController.presentedViewController;
}

you could find the top most view controller by using

NSArray *arrViewControllers=[[self navigationController] viewControllers];
UIViewController *topMostViewController=(UIViewController *)[arrViewControllers objectAtIndex:[arrViewControllers count]-1];