View controller getting duplicate instantiation

Question

This should be pretty straight forward.

When I use the navigation controller to segue from my root view to my 2nd view, the 2nd view loads fine. The 2nd view creates a t

Answer 1

It's not necessarily true that persistent objects shouldn't be properties of view controller. You can create a property for your second controller (in the root view controller), and only instantiate it the first time you push it. Because you have a strong pointer to it, it won't be deallocated when you go back to the first controller, and your timer will continue to operate.

- (IBAction)goToSecondView {
    if (!self.secondViewController) { // secondViewController is a strong property
        self.secondViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"Second"]; 
    }
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:self.secondViewController animated:YES];
}