Setting the settingsView
to nil does not remove it from its superview. It just nils out your reference to it. ARC or no ARC, the superview is retaining the settingsView
so it's still covering your status bar unless you explicitly remove it. You could try changing the frame so it no longer covers the status bar.
I would recommend you try SparkInspector ( http://www.sparkinspector.com/ ). It is fantastic for solving these sorts of issues.