I try to do the following simple thing:
NSArray * entities = [context executeFetchRequest:inFetchRequest error:&fetchError];
Nothing fancy.
I had the same issue. If you run under the debugger and when the app "hangs" stop th app (use the "pause" button on the debugger. If you're at the executeFetchRequest line, then check the context variable. If it has a ivar _objectStoreLockCount and its greater than 1, then its waiting on a lock on the associated store.
Somewhere you're creating a race condition on your associated store.