PhotoMessage *newPhotoMsg = [[PhotoMessage alloc] initWithInfoFromServer:info];
newPhotoMsg.state = kStateDownloading;

self.photoDownloadTask = [[BGSessionManager sharedManager] downloadTaskWithRequest:request progress:nil destination:^NSURL *(NSURL *targetPath, NSURLResponse *response) {
    NSURL *filePath = // some file url
    return filePath;
} completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSURL *filePath, NSError *error) {
    if (!error) {
        // update the PhotoMessage Object
        newPhotoMsg.state = kStateDownloadFinished;
        newPhotoMsg.resourcePath = filePath;
    }
}];

[self.photoDownloadTask resume];

UIBackgroundTaskIdentifier __block taskId = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^(void) {
    // handle timeout gracefully if you can

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:taskId];
    taskId = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
}];

if (taskId != UIBackgroundTaskInvalid) {
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:taskId];
    taskId = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
}

//
//  BackgroundSessionManager.h
//
//  Created by Robert Ryan on 10/11/14.
//  Copyright (c) 2014 Robert Ryan. All rights reserved.
//

#import "AFHTTPSessionManager.h"

@interface BackgroundSessionManager : AFHTTPSessionManager

+ (instancetype)sharedManager;

@property (nonatomic, copy) void (^savedCompletionHandler)(void);

@end

//
//  BackgroundSessionManager.m
//
//  Created by Robert Ryan on 10/11/14.
//  Copyright (c) 2014 Robert Ryan. All rights reserved.
//

#import "BackgroundSessionManager.h"

static NSString * const kBackgroundSessionIdentifier = @"com.domain.backgroundsession";

@implementation BackgroundSessionManager

+ (instancetype)sharedManager
{
    static id sharedMyManager = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        sharedMyManager = [[self alloc] init];
    });
    return sharedMyManager;
}

- (instancetype)init
{
    NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration backgroundSessionConfigurationWithIdentifier:kBackgroundSessionIdentifier];
    self = [super initWithSessionConfiguration:configuration];
    if (self) {
        [self configureDownloadFinished];            // when download done, save file
        [self configureBackgroundSessionFinished];   // when entire background session done, call completion handler
        [self configureAuthentication];              // my server uses authentication, so let's handle that; if you don't use authentication challenges, you can remove this
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)configureDownloadFinished
{
    // just save the downloaded file to documents folder using filename from URL

    [self setDownloadTaskDidFinishDownloadingBlock:^NSURL *(NSURLSession *session, NSURLSessionDownloadTask *downloadTask, NSURL *location) {
        if ([downloadTask.response isKindOfClass:[NSHTTPURLResponse class]]) {
            NSInteger statusCode = [(NSHTTPURLResponse *)downloadTask.response statusCode];
            if (statusCode != 200) {
                // handle error here, e.g.

                NSLog(@"%@ failed (statusCode = %ld)", [downloadTask.originalRequest.URL lastPathComponent], statusCode);
                return nil;
            }
        }

        NSString *filename      = [downloadTask.originalRequest.URL lastPathComponent];
        NSString *documentsPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)[0];
        NSString *path          = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:filename];
        return [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
    }];

    [self setTaskDidCompleteBlock:^(NSURLSession *session, NSURLSessionTask *task, NSError *error) {
        if (error) {
            // handle error here, e.g.,

            NSLog(@"%@: %@", [task.originalRequest.URL lastPathComponent], error);
        }
    }];
}

- (void)configureBackgroundSessionFinished
{
    typeof(self) __weak weakSelf = self;

    [self setDidFinishEventsForBackgroundURLSessionBlock:^(NSURLSession *session) {
        if (weakSelf.savedCompletionHandler) {
            weakSelf.savedCompletionHandler();
            weakSelf.savedCompletionHandler = nil;
        }
    }];
}

- (void)configureAuthentication
{
    NSURLCredential *myCredential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithUser:@"userid" password:@"password" persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];

    [self setTaskDidReceiveAuthenticationChallengeBlock:^NSURLSessionAuthChallengeDisposition(NSURLSession *session, NSURLSessionTask *task, NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *challenge, NSURLCredential *__autoreleasing *credential) {
        if (challenge.previousFailureCount == 0) {
            *credential = myCredential;
            return NSURLSessionAuthChallengeUseCredential;
        } else {
            return NSURLSessionAuthChallengePerformDefaultHandling;
        }
    }];
}

@end

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession:(NSString *)identifier completionHandler:(void (^)())completionHandler {
    NSAssert([[BackgroundSessionManager sharedManager].session.configuration.identifier isEqualToString:identifier], @"Identifiers didn't match");
    [BackgroundSessionManager sharedManager].savedCompletionHandler = completionHandler;
}

for (NSString *filename in filenames) {
    NSURL *url = [baseURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:filename];
    NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
    [[[BackgroundSessionManager sharedManager] downloadTaskWithRequest:request progress:nil destination:nil completionHandler:nil] resume];
}