[Due for payment 2026-05-26] [$250] Spend - The app crashes after selecting a group on the search page.

[izarutskaya]

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Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: Needs Reproduction (All the steps described in the issue were followed, but the bug did not occur)
Reproducible in production?: Needs Reproduction (All the steps described in the issue were followed, but the bug did not occur)
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @ahmedGaber93
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): expensify_bugs

Action Performed:

1. Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. Go to Account → troubleshoot
3. Clear cache and restart
4. Go to Spend → Expenses
5. Open the Display dropdown → Group by → select Merchant
6. Expand a group
7. Click the group checkbox to select the entire group

Expected Result:

The app should not crash, and the group should be selected.

Actual Result:

The app is crashed.

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

Screenshots/Videos

Screen.Recording.2026-05-04.at.11.41.52.AM.1.mov

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @mallenexpensify

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022051601967902931653
• Upwork Job ID: 2051601967902931653
• Last Price Increase: 2026-05-12

[exfy-zapier]

This has been labelled "Needs Reproduction". Follow the steps here: https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/16989

[melvin-bot]

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[ahmedGaber93]

Please assign me here as C+, as I was able to reproduce the issue, and I am the reporter. Steps and video on OP

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The crash occurs at Search/index.tsx:875 in the selection-refresh useEffect. This line performs an unsafe property access without optional chaining:

isSelected: areAllMatchingItemsSelected || selectedTransactions[transactionItem.transactionID].isSelected,

When selectedTransactions[transactionItem.transactionID] is undefined, this throws Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'isSelected').

The safe counterpart on the grouped code path at line 819 correctly uses optional chaining (?.isSelected), but the non-grouped else branch at line 875 does not.

The useEffect (starting at line 739) intentionally omits selectedTransactions from its dependency array (line 899-900), so it reads a potentially stale selectedTransactions when filteredData changes. If filteredData updates (e.g., when group snapshot data loads after expanding a merchant group) and the code enters the non-grouped path at line 836 with transactions that aren't yet in selectedTransactions, line 875 crashes.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Add optional chaining at line 875 to match the safe pattern already used at line 819:

- isSelected: areAllMatchingItemsSelected || selectedTransactions[transactionItem.transactionID].isSelected,
+ isSelected: areAllMatchingItemsSelected || selectedTransactions[transactionItem.transactionID]?.isSelected,

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Adding selectedTransactions to the useEffect dependency array was considered but rejected — it's intentionally excluded to avoid infinite re-render loops (the effect calls setSelectedTransactions, which would retrigger itself). The optional chaining fix is the minimal, safe change that matches the existing pattern on the grouped path.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis, or explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @cretadn22 (External)

[dilshodmackbook-sketch]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

When expenses are grouped by Merchant on the search/expenses page, each group header row in SearchListWithHeader has a checkbox to select the whole group. The group checkbox handler reads the child transaction items from the list data to toggle their selection. However, in the grouped view the list items for a group have a different shape than flat items — the keyForList or child transaction IDs that the selection logic tries to iterate over can be undefined when the grouped view data isn't fully formed (e.g. because the group rows use a different data structure from ungrouped rows).

The relevant logic lives in the selection handler inside SearchListWithHeader (and/or the underlying SelectionList). When a group checkbox is tapped, the code attempts to map over item.transactions (or a similar child array derived from the list section data) to compute which IDs to add/remove from the selection set. If that array is undefined or the item doesn't carry the expected shape, a TypeError is thrown and React Native's error boundary renders a crash screen.

The offending code is in the group checkbox handler, approximately here:
https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/main/src/components/Search/SearchListWithHeader.tsx

And/or in the grouped item data builder in:
https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/main/src/utils/SearchUIUtils.ts

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

The group checkbox press handler should defensively guard against a missing or empty child items array before trying to map/iterate. The fix is to add a nullish fallback so that if the child transactions array is undefined the selection toggle becomes a no-op (or selects zero items) rather than crashing.

- const childTransactionIDs = item.transactions.map((t) => t.keyForList);
+ const childTransactionIDs = (item.transactions ?? []).map((t) => t.keyForList);

Additionally, the grouped list item builder in SearchUIUtils.ts should ensure every group header item always includes a transactions field (defaulting to an empty array) so the above assumption is always safe:

- return {keyForList: groupKey, text: groupName, isGroupHeader: true};
+ return {keyForList: groupKey, text: groupName, isGroupHeader: true, transactions: []};

These two changes together eliminate the crash: the first is a defensive guard at the point of use; the second makes the data contract explicit so future callers also get a safe value.

What alternative solutions did you explore?

I considered wrapping the entire group checkbox handler in a try/catch to swallow the error silently, but that would hide the underlying bad data rather than fix it. I also looked at whether the grouped view could share the same list-item shape as the flat view, but that would require a larger refactor of SearchUIUtils that goes well beyond the minimal scope needed for a bug fix. The two-line guard above is the safest and smallest change.

[melvin-bot]

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