Not sure, if this case works for you but I have saved the previous state and then make the transition to that state in a tab menu which needed to save the state for each specific menu.
App.MenuRoute = Em.Route.extend({
actions: {
willTransition: function(transition) {
var handlers = this.router.router.targetHandlerInfos;
var handler = handlers[handlers.length-1];
this.controller.set('lastHandler', handler);
},
selectMenu: function(value) {
var handler = this.controllerFor(value).get('lastHandler');
var routeName = (handler) ? handler.name : value;
var model;
if ( handler && handler.isDynamic ) {
model = handler.context;
}
if ( model ) {
this.transitionTo(routeName, model);
} else {
this.transitionTo(routeName);
}
}
}
}
});