How to properly trim object graph brought in by NSFetchedResultsController?

Question

Without reference cycles NSFetchedResultsController can turn its managed objects into fault properly when they are not needed. But with reference cycles, it not, so

Answer 1

As I mentioned in my comments HERE, the FRC is responsible to fault-in or fault-out the objects it fetched.
Which in turn break any strong reference cycles between your managed objects.

You can test this by setting a breakpoint in your objects willTurnIntoFault method when scrolling a large enough table.

This is done with no regards as to what other objects reference these fetched objects (as far as I can tell).

Answer 2

I think you should simply avoid strong reference cycles. Usually, there is no compelling reason to have to deal with the problem you describe.

For a detailed discussion, see Apple's Encapsulating Data chapter of the Programming with Objective-C guide where you will find a section titled Avoid Strong Reference Cycles.