editButtonItem set but no minus button problem

If you don't subclass UITableViewController, there is a way to do it. Just implement setEditing:animated: in your UIViewController subclass as follows:

- (void) setEditing:(BOOL)editing animated:(BOOL)animated {

    [super setEditing: editing animated: animated];

    [self.tableView setEditing:editing animated:animated];

}
- (void)viewDidLoad {

    [super viewDidLoad];


    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem;

}
wow!!