Animated reloadData on UITableView

You can make a basic animation of reLoadData using:

// Reload table with a slight animation
[UIView transitionWithView:tableViewReference 
                  duration:0.5f 
                   options:UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionCrossDissolve 
                animations:^(void) {
    [tableViewReference reloadData];
} completion:NULL];

I did category method.

- (void)reloadData:(BOOL)animated
{
    [self reloadData];

    if (animated) {

        CATransition *animation = [CATransition animation];
        [animation setType:kCATransitionPush];
        [animation setSubtype:kCATransitionFromBottom];
        [animation setTimingFunction:[CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseInEaseOut]];
        [animation setFillMode:kCAFillModeBoth];
        [animation setDuration:.3];
        [[self layer] addAnimation:animation forKey:@"UITableViewReloadDataAnimationKey"];

    }
}

You cannot animate reloadData. You will have to use the table view's insert..., delete..., move... and reloadRows... methods to make it animate.

This is pretty straightforward when using an NSFetchedResultsController. The documentation for NSFetchedResultsControllerDelegate contains a set of sample methods that you just have to adapt to your own code:

- (void)controllerWillChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller {
    [self.tableView beginUpdates];
}


- (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeSection:(id <NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo>)sectionInfo
    atIndex:(NSUInteger)sectionIndex forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type {

    switch(type) {
        case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert:
            [self.tableView insertSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex]
                            withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            break;

        case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete:
            [self.tableView deleteSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex]
                             withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            break;
    }
}


- (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeObject:(id)anObject
    atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type
    newIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)newIndexPath {

    UITableView *tableView = self.tableView;

    switch(type) {

        case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert:
            [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath]
                       withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            break;

        case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete:
            [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath]
                       withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            break;

        case NSFetchedResultsChangeUpdate:
            [self configureCell:[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]
                  atIndexPath:indexPath];
            break;

        case NSFetchedResultsChangeMove:
            [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath]
                       withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath]
                       withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
            break;
    }
}


- (void)controllerDidChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller {
    [self.tableView endUpdates];
}

You can simply call this lines when you want to reload the entire table with an animation:

NSRange range = NSMakeRange(0, [self numberOfSectionsInTableView:self.tableView]);
NSIndexSet *sections = [NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndexesInRange:range];
[self.tableView reloadSections:sections withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];