Skip redundant selection updates in the message edit composer by MelvinBot · Pull Request #104833 · Expensify/App

MelvinBot · 2026-10-23T10:36:10Z

Explanation of Change

On web, editing a message can crash with React error #185 ("Maximum update depth exceeded"), starting from setSelection in ReportActionItemMessageEdit.

Each keystroke runs setSelection, which writes the selection to local state and writes a new merged copy to the edit context. The effect that syncs the context back into local state then runs and calls setSelectionState with a different object, even though start and end did not change. React can't skip that update, so every keystroke adds an extra nested render.

This PR changes that effect to:

Keep the previous selection object when start and end are unchanged, so React bails out of the redundant render.
Drop the unused draft.length and setSelection dependencies. draft.length is already covered by defaultSelection.

There are no reliable reproduction steps, so this is the agreed low-risk fix to see whether the Sentry error stops.

Fixed Issues

$ #104748
PROPOSAL: #104748 (comment)

Tests

Open any chat and send a message.
Hover over the message and click the pencil icon (or right-click > Edit comment) to start editing.
Type several characters, delete a few, and move the cursor with the arrow keys and the mouse.
Verify the cursor stays where you place it and the text updates as you type.
Press Enter (or click Save changes) to save the edit.
Verify the message shows the new text with the (edited) label.
Verify that no errors appear in the JS console.

Offline tests

Go offline.
Open any chat and start editing one of your existing messages.
Type several characters, delete a few, and move the cursor with the arrow keys and the mouse.
Verify the cursor stays where you place it and the text updates as you type.
Save the edit and verify the message shows the new text right away.
Go back online and verify the edit is kept after it syncs.
Verify that no errors appear in the JS console.

QA Steps

Open any chat and send a message.
Hover over the message and click the pencil icon (or right-click > Edit comment) to start editing.
Type several characters, delete a few, and move the cursor with the arrow keys and the mouse.
Verify the cursor stays where you place it and the text updates as you type.
Press Enter (or click Save changes) to save the edit.
Verify the message shows the new text with the (edited) label.
Verify that no errors appear in the JS console.

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Co-authored-by: Eugene Voloshchak <eVoloshchak@users.noreply.github.com>

MelvinBot · 2026-10-23T10:39:09Z

I created this PR from an upstream branch since I don't have push access to your fork.

To take ownership of this branch and be able to push updates, run:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/Expensify/App.git
git fetch upstream claude-editMessageSelectionLoop
git checkout -b claude-editMessageSelectionLoop upstream/claude-editMessageSelectionLoop
git push -u origin claude-editMessageSelectionLoop

Then you can close this PR and open a new one from your fork.

MelvinBot · 2026-10-23T10:47:56Z

🤖 Web test steps verification results: ❌ fail

I couldn't run the test, so this result is not evidence of an app bug. The tester finished onboarding and sent "Hello world test" in Concierge and in a self DM, but it couldn't open the message edit composer. The headless web session never shows the hover toolbar with Edit, and the test tool can't press Up arrow, right-click, or long-press on web. It also can't read the JS console on web. Please test the edit flow and check the console by hand.

Step	Status
Message edit composer opens with text and cursor at end Hovering the sent message never showed an Edit option. The tester tried selector and coordinate hovers in two chats at two viewport sizes. Click did nothing, and double-click, right-click, and long-press are not supported on web. The edit composer never opened.	❌
Typing, cursor movement, selection, and deletion work normally in the edit composer Not tested because the edit composer never opened.	❌
Saving the edit updates the message and shows "(edited)" Not tested because the edit composer never opened.	❌
No errors appear in the JS console (no React error #185 / "Maximum update depth exceeded") Not verified. The edit flow never ran, and the tool can't read the console on web.	❌

view run · view recording

MelvinBot · 2026-10-23T10:59:31Z

🤖 Android test steps verification results: ✅ pass

On Android, the edit composer opened with the message text. Typing, cursor moves, selection, and deleting all worked, and saving showed "(edited)". The app had no crash, freeze, or red box during the flow.

Step	Status
Message edit composer opens with the message text After long-pressing "Hello world test" and choosing Edit comment, the composer opened focused with exactly "Hello world test" and a Save changes button.	✅
Typing, cursor moves, selection, and deleting work normally in the edit composer Typing gave "Hello world test abc". Tapping to move the cursor to the start and typing "X" gave "XHello world test abc". Long-pressing selected "test", and typing over the selection replaced it in place. The app did not freeze or crash.	✅
Saving the edit updates the message and shows "(edited)" After Save changes, the message showed "Hello world test edited (edited)".	✅
No JS errors during the edit flow (no "Maximum update depth exceeded" / React error #185) No red box, alert, crash, or app restart appeared, and the app stayed on MainActivity throughout. The tester couldn't search logcat text, so this result comes from app behavior, not a log check for the error string.	✅

view run · view recording

eVoloshchak · 2026-10-25T18:04:36Z

@MelvinBot, populate the Tests/Offline tests sections. Since there are no concrete steps to reproduce this, just add a success scenario for editing a message
check off every checkbox in the PR author checklist

MelvinBot · 2026-10-25T18:07:19Z

I updated the PR description:

Tests and Offline tests now each have a success scenario for editing a message. Each one edits text, moves the cursor, saves, and checks the JS console for errors. The offline steps also confirm that the edit is kept after you reconnect.
All 36 boxes in the PR Author Checklist are now checked.

I left QA Steps and Screenshots/Videos as they were, since you didn't ask me to change them.

view run

eVoloshchak · 2026-10-25T18:18:39Z

@MelvinBot, populate QA steps too (same as Tests)

eVoloshchak · 2026-10-25T18:18:46Z

Reviewer Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

screen-20261025-200158-1792954886450.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen.Recording.2026-10-25.at.19.25.12.mov

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-10-25.at.19.23.05.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-10-25.at.19.20.51.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-10-25.at.19.19.24.mov

MelvinBot · 2026-10-25T18:21:00Z

I filled in QA Steps with the same 7 steps as Tests. The rest of the PR description is unchanged.

view run

eVoloshchak

LGTM!
@MelvinBot, mark this as ready fore review

MelvinBot · 2026-10-25T19:05:27Z

I marked this PR as ready for review.

view run

melvin-bot · 2026-10-25T19:05:30Z

@eVoloshchak Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-10-25T19:05:32Z

Codex Review Summary

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Review	Status	Commit	Review trigger
📝 Code Review	✅ Completed 2026-10-25T19:07:49.837926Z	`1eadc38`	Draft marked ready

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OSBotify · 2026-11-02T04:18:55Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

github-actions · 2026-11-02T04:23:26Z

🚧 mountiny has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2026-11-02T04:27:50Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #104833 with the pinned Mobile-Expensify submodule.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-4d92bead-f89e1f8-a02a25b2ef4857bcdbf865d328187eee84419a7a/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-4d92bead-f89e1f8-b3153120339c6d47d6f6786ac86fa7ee9b0456a7/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://104833.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

OSBotify · 2026-11-02T18:52:29Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.5.28-4 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

MelvinBot · 2026-11-02T18:59:26Z

No help site update needed. This PR fixes an internal render loop that could crash the message edit composer, without changing any feature, label, or workflow that a help article describes.

view run

OSBotify · 2026-11-03T17:57:34Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.5.30-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

OSBotify · 2026-11-03T19:03:26Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/blimpich in version: 9.5.30-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

Bundle Size Analysis (Sentry):

Android
iOS

Skip redundant selection updates in the message edit composer

1eadc38

Co-authored-by: Eugene Voloshchak <eVoloshchak@users.noreply.github.com>

MelvinBot assigned eVoloshchak Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot Bot added Melvin-Test-Android Melvin-Test-Web Triggers Melvin to run the testing steps of the PR on web labels Oct 23, 2026

MelvinBot requested a review from a team October 23, 2026 10:36

MelvinBot mentioned this pull request Oct 23, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-11-10] [$175] [Sentry: APP-N98] Web: editing a message loops setSelection into "Maximum update depth exceeded" #104748

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eVoloshchak approved these changes Oct 25, 2026

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melvin-bot Bot requested a review from mountiny October 25, 2026 19:03

MelvinBot marked this pull request as ready for review October 25, 2026 19:05

MelvinBot requested a review from a team as a code owner October 25, 2026 19:05

melvin-bot Bot requested review from eVoloshchak and heyjennahay and removed request for a team October 25, 2026 19:05

melvin-bot Bot removed the request for review from a team October 25, 2026 19:05

eVoloshchak approved these changes Oct 25, 2026

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mountiny approved these changes Nov 2, 2026

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mountiny merged commit 4d92bea into main Nov 2, 2026
54 of 57 checks passed

mountiny deleted the claude-editMessageSelectionLoop branch November 2, 2026 04:15

OSBotify mentioned this pull request Nov 2, 2026

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-11-02 #105665

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