Assertion failure in [CustomNavigationController popToViewController:transition:] - objective-c

Question

I want to pop view controllers until the desired view controller is at the top of the navigation stack.
I'm doing it this way:
UIViewController *aViewController = [self.navigationController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:lViewControllerIndex];
[self.navigationController popToViewController:aViewController
animated:YES];
From the debugger I can see that aViewController is <MainViewController: 0x79ea3b10>
and self.navigationController.viewControllers is
<MainViewController: 0x79ea3b10>,
<FirstViewController: 0x79eb2630>,
<SecondViewController: 0x7b258f10>
Currently I'm in SecondViewController and I want to go back to MainViewController
But it crashes, the crash message is the following:
***** Assertion failure in -[CustomNavigationController popToViewController:transition:], /SourceCache/UIKit_Sim/UIKit-2935.137/UINavigationController.m:4912**
How can I correctly go back by popping multiple view controller ?
UPDATED [1]:
I was not clear, I don't need a way how to pop to root view controller, I need a way how to pop multiple view controllers. Above, it was only an example going from SecondViewController to MainViewController
UPDATED [2]:
Stack trace:
0 CoreFoundation 0x030a81e4 __exceptionPreprocess + 180
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x02e218e5 objc_exception_throw + 44
2 CoreFoundation 0x030a8048 +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 136
3 Foundation 0x00c7d4de -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 116
4 UIKit 0x01a45ab8 -[UINavigationController popToViewController:transition:] + 918
5 UIKit 0x01a4571d -[UINavigationController popToViewController:animated:] + 56
6 Isi For You 0x000a14b7 -[DetailViewController breadcrumbItemPressedAtIndex:] + 327
7 Isi For You 0x000c4460 -[ListHeaderViewController breadcrumbView:didTapItemAtIndex:] + 144
8 Isi For You 0x00094772 -[BTBreadcrumbView didTapItemAtIndex:] + 162
9 Isi For You 0x0009480f -[BTBreadcrumbView tapItemButton:] + 143
10 libobjc.A.dylib 0x02e33880 -[NSObject performSelector:withObject:withObject:] + 77
11 UIKit 0x018fe3b9 -[UIApplication sendAction:to:from:forEvent:] + 108
12 UIKit 0x018fe345 -[UIApplication sendAction:toTarget:fromSender:forEvent:] + 61
13 UIKit 0x019ffbd1 -[UIControl sendAction:to:forEvent:] + 66
14 UIKit 0x019fffc6 -[UIControl _sendActionsForEvents:withEvent:] + 577
15 UIKit 0x019ff243 -[UIControl touchesEnded:withEvent:] + 641
16 UIKit 0x0193dddd -[UIWindow _sendTouchesForEvent:] + 852
17 UIKit 0x0193e9d1 -[UIWindow sendEvent:] + 1117
18 UIKit 0x019105f2 -[UIApplication sendEvent:] + 242
19 Isi For You 0x00434244 -[CustomUIApplication sendEvent:] + 100
20 UIKit 0x018fa353 _UIApplicationHandleEventQueue + 11455
21 CoreFoundation 0x0303177f __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 15
22 CoreFoundation 0x0303110b __CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 235
23 CoreFoundation 0x0304e1ae __CFRunLoopRun + 910
24 CoreFoundation 0x0304d9d3 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 467
25 CoreFoundation 0x0304d7eb CFRunLoopRunInMode + 123
26 GraphicsServices 0x042cc5ee GSEventRunModal + 192
27 GraphicsServices 0x042cc42b GSEventRun + 104
28 UIKit 0x018fcf9b UIApplicationMain + 1225
29 Isi For You 0x000449e2 main + 82
30 libdyld.dylib 0x038796d9 start + 1
)

Answer 1

That error usually occurs when the View Controller you are trying to pop to is not in the navigation stack. Although in your case it would seem that you view controller is in fact there... You can use popToRootViewControllerAnimated: to pop to your "root".
[self.navigationController popToRootViewControllerAnimated:YES];

Answer 2

If you try to pop without animation it will work. I faced this issue when tried to pop multiple view controllers animated.
If you want to pop n viewControllers till n-1 pop without animation, then pop the last one with animation.

Answer 3

You can use the
- (void)setViewControllers:(NSArray *)viewControllers animated:(BOOL)animated
API on UINavigationController to hop between multiple stack position jumps or indeed completely replace the stack.
from the docs
The view controllers to place in the stack. The front-to-back order of
the controllers in this array represents the new bottom-to-top order
of the controllers in the navigation stack. Thus, the last item added
to the array becomes the top item of the navigation stack.
so recover your current stack with the viewControllers property , mutate as desired (in your case you would be taking a sub-array of the original stack) then dump it back onto the navigation controller.