iOS start Background Thread

If you use performSelectorInBackground:withObject: to spawn a new thread, then the performed selector is responsible for setting up the new thread's autorelease pool, run loop and other configuration details – see "Using NSObject to Spawn a Thread" in Apple's Threading Programming Guide.

You'd probably be better off using Grand Central Dispatch, though:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
    [self getResultSetFromDB:docids];
});

GCD is a newer technology, and is more efficient in terms of memory overhead and lines of code.

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Updated with a hat tip to Chris Nolet, who suggested a change that makes the above code simpler and keeps up with Apple's latest GCD code examples.

Enable NSZombieEnabled to know which object is being released and then accessed. Then check if the getResultSetFromDB: has anything to do with that. Also check if docids has anything inside and if it is being retained.

This way you can be sure there is nothing wrong.

Well that's pretty easy actually with GCD. A typical workflow would be something like this:

dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0ul);
    dispatch_async(queue, ^{
        // Perform async operation
        // Call your method/function here
        // Example:
        // NSString *result = [anObject calculateSomething];
                dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
                    // Update UI
                    // Example:
                    // self.myLabel.text = result;
                });
    });

For more on GCD you can take a look into Apple's documentation here