Expense - Report shows skeleton loader when opening unreported expense for the first time

[vincdargento]

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Version Number: 9.3.7-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #78634
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): jsiodjosjdnisojso@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.1 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to self DM.
3. Create an expense.
4. Open the expense.

Expected Result:

Report will not show skeleton loader when opening unreported expense for the first time.

Actual Result:

Report shows skeleton loader when opening unreported expense for the first time.
In offline mode, it loads infinitely.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

bug.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #80107

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @CortneyOfstad (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.

[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.

[OSBotify]

Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #80107 - "Fix: Display MoneyRequestReport as single transaction after deleting others" by @collectioneur (High confidence)
Related Issues: #79732 (the issue PR #80107 was supposed to fix)

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #80107 should be reverted. While it attempted to fix an edge case with deleted transactions, it introduced a more severe regression that affects the common case of opening an unreported expense.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash - this is a frontend bug requiring an App PR revert/fix. No label changes needed.

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

PR #80107 added oneTransactionID to the useEffect dependency array in SearchMoneyRequestReportPage.tsx (line 185). This was intended to handle the case when transactions are deleted, ensuring the effect re-runs to create a transaction thread for the remaining transaction.

However, this change causes the useEffect to re-run whenever oneTransactionID changes, which includes when:

1. A user creates a new expense (oneTransactionID is set to the new transaction ID)
2. A user opens an unreported expense for the first time

Verification

The PR modifies /home/runner/work/App/App/src/pages/Search/SearchMoneyRequestReportPage.tsx:

• Added oneTransactionID to the dependency array at line 185
• Added a guard at line 167 that only prevents execution for reports with MORE than 2 transactions

Root Cause

When the useEffect re-runs due to oneTransactionID changing:

1. The guard at line 167 (if (visibleTransactions.length > 2)) does NOT prevent execution for single-transaction reports
2. The condition at line 171 (transactionThreadReportID === CONST.FAKE_REPORT_ID) is false after initial load
3. So the effect proceeds to line 177 and calls openReport(reportIDFromRoute, ...)
4. openReport() in /home/runner/work/App/App/src/libs/actions/Report.ts line 1015 sets isLoadingInitialReportActions: true
5. This triggers the skeleton loader to display, even though the report data is already loaded

In offline mode, this creates an infinite loading state because the API call never completes.

Why This Is More Severe Than The Original Bug

• Original bug ([Due for payment 2026-02-17] IOU - "It´s not here" page displayed after deleting IOU from individual chat. #79732): Edge case when multiple transactions are added and all but one deleted without opening
• New bug (Expense - Report shows skeleton loader when opening unreported expense for the first time #80281): Affects the common workflow of creating and opening any unreported expense
• Impact: Degrades UX for all users creating expenses, not just an edge case