If you are trying to preserve the value of something during an action that loses it, the natural solution is to hold onto it yourself ("Hold/Restore"):
- "Hold": get content offset to a field or local variable. Apple doc
- .. do whatever you want.
- "Restore": set content offset to the value you got above.
(Sorry, I don't write Objective C code, so can't provide the exact code. An edit to add the code, would be welcome.)
In a different situation, it might be necessary to hold the row you were at, and then scroll back to that row:
(Adapted from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34270078/199364)
(Swift)
1. Hold current row.
let holdIndexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow()
.. do whatever (perhaps ending with "reloadData").
Restore held row:
// The next line is to make sure the row object exists.
tableView.reloadRowsAtIndexPaths([holdIndexPath], withRowAnimation: .None)
tableView.scrollToRowAtIndexPath(holdIndexPath, atScrollPosition: atScrollPosition, animated: true)