[Due for payment 2025-07-28] [$250] [DEV] - iOS HybridApp crashes when opening a workspace expense that misses category

[izarutskaya]

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Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: Needs Reproduction
Reproducible in production?: Needs Reproduction
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @QichenZhu
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C049HHMV9SM/p1750945469090739

Action Performed:

1. Launch iOS HybridApp.
2. Create a workspace expense without category.
3. Open that expense.

Expected Result:

Expense opens.

Actual Result:

App crashes.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Platforms Tested:

On which of our officially supported platforms was this issue tested:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Screen.Recording.2025-06-26.at.15.35.12.mov

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @kadiealexander

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @kadiealexander (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[Pujan92]

I am facing a crash when I click on the Money request report preview.

Not only hybrid, standalone app also crash for me.

[kadiealexander]

I don't have a dev environment set up so I can't repro this, have asked for help here.

[ikevin127]

Coming from this Slack thread, I ran the iOS Native cras logs posted there by the user through ChatGPT and here's what it said:

Your app didn’t crash because of a JavaScript error or native module mis-configuration, but because React Native’s Yoga layout engine hit an internal assertion and forcibly aborted. In your log, the killer lines are:

libsystem_c.dylib … __assert_rtn + 268  
New Expensify Dev.debug.dylib facebook::react::YogaLayoutableShadowNode::layout(facebook::react::LayoutContext) (.cold.3) + 40 (YogaLayoutableShadowNode.cpp:701)  
...
facebook::react::YogaLayoutableShadowNode::layout(facebook::react::LayoutContext) + 952 (YogaLayoutableShadowNode.cpp:701)

(repeated many times in the stack)

What this means

• YogaLayoutableShadowNode::layout is the C++ side of RN’s Flexbox layout system.
• An assert() in that function indicates it encountered an impossible or invalid layout state, commonly things like NaN``/∞ dimensions, negative sizes, or contradictory flex rules.
• Once an assertion fails, the runtime calls abort(), which translates into the SIGABRT crash you see.

How to track down the culprit

• Search for unintended NaN/undefined values
• Audit any computed styles (e.g. { width: someCalculation }) and ensure they never evaluate to undefined, null, or NaN.

Check Flexbox props

• Make sure you’re not mixing incompatible props (e.g. flexGrow with a negative flexBasis, or zero/undefined height on children expected to stretch).

Isolate the screen/component

• Reproduce the crash by navigating to the same screen in development with the Inspector open; look for warnings about “invalid style” or check components one by one.

Wrap in <View collapsable={false}>

• Occasionally, Yoga assertions stem from optimizations; disabling collapsable optimizations can help narrow down the cause.

Once you locate which component’s style is blowing up Yoga’s layout assertions, correct its style values (e.g. guard against division by zero or undefined width/height), rebuild, and the crash should go away.

♻️ I think I'd be a good idea to create a main issue about these crashes, since there are multiple devs exoeriencing them on both Android / iOS native apps, and attach sub-issues to the main issue.

👆 Same Yoga related stuff applies to Android: Native as well since I personally experienced similar app crashes on dev right when trying to open a report / a layout is mounted.

Here's what ChatGPT said for Android:

React Native uses the same Yoga layout engine on both iOS / Android, you can absolutely get the very same assertion-abort crash on Android when Yoga hits an invalid layout. Under the hood Android and iOS both compile and ship the C++ Yoga library, so any impossible style state (NaN/∞/negative values, conflicting flex rules, etc.) will trigger that same assert()-and-abort behavior wherever Yoga runs.

What to look for on Android

Android logs

• Run adb logcat *:S ReactNative:V (or filter by your app’s tag) and look for a stack trace pointing into YogaLayoutableShadowNode. It will look almost identical to the iOS one, aside from different dylib/so names.

Layout Inspector / Debug View Hierarchy

• In Android Studio you can attach the Layout Inspector to your running app. As you navigate to the offending screen, look for any views reporting “invalid layout params” or zero/undefined dimensions.

Guard against bad style values

• Just as on iOS, audit any JS expressions that compute width/height/margin/padding. Wrap guards around divisions or optional values:

const safeWidth = isFinite(calculated) ? calculated : fallbackValue;

Component isolation

• Comment out or temporarily remove child views one by one to pinpoint which one throws the assertion. Often it’s a deeply nested flex container inheriting a bad basis or shrink factor.

Tips to prevent Yoga crashes cross-platform

• Default all flex basis values
  Explicitly set flexBasis: 0 or a concrete number where you use flexGrow/flexShrink.
• Avoid expressions that can become NaN
• Any arithmetic in your style props should be wrapped with Number(...) or checked with isFinite().

Use minWidth/minHeight

• If containers can collapse to zero, give them a sensible minimum so Yoga never has to resolve a negative or zero-area expansion.

By following the same audit process—logging to identify the stack, isolating the problematic view, and hardening your flex style values, you’ll be able to track down and address those Yoga assertion failures on both Android and iOS.

[melvin-bot]

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