Can you manually add to an iPhone/iPad Navigation Bar a back button item?

I have a reference to a "UIBarButtonItem", is there a way I can add a custom "Back Navigation Button" to that item when it is not part of a Navigation based view?

I can add a left button:

UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
initWithTitle:@"Custom Back"开发者_Python百科 
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self
action:@selector(backAction:)];

menuItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton; //This doesn't seem to work.

menuItem.popOverNavigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backButton; //This shows a normal button

So how could I make the leftmost button look like a back navigation button?

UPDATE: This other question answered the root of my problem that was leading me to try and do this non-standard UI setup:

iPad: Merge concept of SplitViewController and NavigationController in RootView?

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I think the correct way to set the back button is to set it for the view controller that you would be going back to. For example:

RootViewController > DetailViewController

If you want the back button to say "Custom Back" whilst you're on DetailViewController, you have to actually set RootViewController's back button to "Custom Back".

Hope that makes sense.

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Having just struggled with this: I think the answer is “no.” You'll need a controller hierarchy.