Expense-In self dm, unable to delete the split expense.

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: V9.4.19-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/test-runs/TR-36581/folder/13176670/47002824/1453338367?sort=-identifier
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): dreamnitethedragon+vegst@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Redmi note 10s android 13
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Launch app
2. Open self dm
3. Create a Expense
4. Open the expense - more - split the expense
5. Open a split expense - more - delete

Expected Result:

In self dm, must be able to delete the split expense.

Production behaviour: split option is not shown.

Actual Result:

In self dm, unable to delete the split expense.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7190542_1782361400489.Screenrecorder-2026-06-25-09-48-11-49.1.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Julia Ponikarchuk
Bug ID: 7190542

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @mananjadhav

[applause-bot]

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/6879ff67c8a9c938bfc5178f88fd3b084b6ef3a42cc6bd4418fbe2e30cc6294e

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @stitesExpensify (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

In a self DM, after splitting an existing expense (more → "Split the expense"), opening one of the resulting split expenses and trying to delete it (more → Delete) does nothing — the split can't be deleted.

What is the root cause of that problem?

Splitting an expense in a self DM is a not-yet-shipped feature that is hidden in production and only visible on staging/dev builds. The bug report confirms this — "Production behaviour: split option is not shown." The whole flow is gated on isProduction rather than a beta, and the delete path for the splits it produces is incompletely gated, so deleting a self-DM split routes into a "redistribute" path instead of an actual delete.

The entry point is hidden in prod via ReportSecondaryActionUtils.ts:148-151 (return !isProduction), and initSplitExpense early-returns in prod for self DM at SplitExpenses.ts:69-71. So on the staging build (V9.4.19-1) the option appears and creates split children that are unreported transactions on the self DM (moneyRequestReportID = UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID).

The delete then breaks because the self-DM/unreported short-circuit in the delete grouping is itself prod-only:

Delete path evidence

useDeleteTransactions.ts:199-203 — the isUnreportedSelfDMSplit short-circuit to the normal delete path runs only when isProduction:

const isUnreportedSelfDMSplit = transaction?.reportID === CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID;
if (isProduction && isUnreportedSelfDMSplit) {
    acc.nonSplitTransactions.push(item);   // normal deleteMoneyRequest path
    return acc;
}

On the staging build (isProduction === false), the split instead falls into splitTransactionsByOriginalTransactionID and is handled by the split restore/redistribute path rather than deleteMoneyRequest, so the tapped split is not deleted.

getChildTransactions — TransactionUtils/index.ts:2787-2798 similarly excludes unreported/self-DM children only in prod, so child counting diverges between environments.

Separately, the report-action context-menu Delete is hard-blocked for any SPLIT action at ReportUtils.ts:3232-3239 (// For now, users cannot delete split actions), which is why the option is missing from that surface too.

In short: this is staging-only behavior of an in-progress feature, not a production-facing regression.

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

Because the feature is intentionally hidden in production, this likely should not block the deploy — confirm with the feature owner. To actually fix it for when self-DM split ships, make the delete path for unreported/self-DM split children environment-consistent: either drop the isProduction && qualifier on the isUnreportedSelfDMSplit short-circuit in useDeleteTransactions.ts:200 and the matching guard in getChildTransactions so unreported self-DM splits route to deleteMoneyRequest in all environments, or fully gate the self-DM split feature off until the delete flow is complete.

The right call (route-to-delete vs. fully gate off) depends on whether self-DM split is meant to ship soon — the feature owner should confirm the intended direction.

What alternative solutions did you explore?

Tracing the SPLIT context-menu action delete (canDeleteReportAction's SPLIT hard-block) — relevant to the context-menu surface, but the header Delete divergence above is the path the tester hit.

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Confidence: High — this is determinable from code; the isProduction gating fully explains why it reproduces on staging but the option doesn't even appear in production.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team:
To accept: @MelvinBot implement [this](https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/94532) to create a draft PR.
To refine: @MelvinBot <your feedback>
To reject: Explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.