[Due for payment 2026-03-30] [$250] Navigate to non-existing link - Inbox opens upon clicking on "Go back to home page"

[izarutskaya]

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Version Number: 9.3.37-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2241336/folder/13646992/test-cases/41909507
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): undefined
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: MacOS Sequoia 15.7.2, Chrome

Action Performed:

1. Navigate to https://staging.new.expensify.com/anything
2. Verify a page not found is displayed
3. Click on the "Go back to home page" hyperlink
4. Desktop/web - Verify that you're redirected to NewDot home view

Expected Result:

Upon clicking on the "Go back to home page" hyperlink, the user is redirected to the home page.

Actual Result:

Upon clicking on the "Go back to home page" hyperlink, the user is redirected to the Inbox with one of the chats opened

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7083545_1771595986677.TC-4962.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @truph01

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022032425186913195348
• Upwork Job ID: 2032425186913195348
• Last Price Increase: 2026-03-13

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

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

When navigating to a non-existing URL (e.g., /anything), the app correctly shows a "Page not found" screen. However, clicking the "Go back to home page" link navigates to the Inbox with a chat opened, instead of the actual Home page (dashboard).

What is the root cause of that problem?

The "Go back to home page" link in FullPageNotFoundView defaults its onLinkPress to Navigation.goBackToHome() (FullPageNotFoundView.tsx:78).

goBackToHome() calls goBack(ROUTES.INBOX) (Navigation.ts:551-564), which navigates to the REPORTS_SPLIT_NAVIGATOR (the chat list + report view). When this navigator mounts, ReportsSplitNavigator automatically opens the last accessed report via findLastAccessedReport() — which is why the user sees the Inbox with a chat open.

The app has two distinct routes: ROUTES.HOME ('home') for the actual Home dashboard (HomePage.tsx with TimeSensitive, ForYou, Discover sections), and ROUTES.INBOX ('inbox') for the chat/report list. These are separate tabs (NAVIGATION_TABS.HOME vs NAVIGATION_TABS.INBOX). The goBackToHome() function navigates to ROUTES.INBOX, not ROUTES.HOME — a naming mismatch likely from before the Home dashboard page existed as a separate screen.

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

Override the onLinkPress in the NotFoundPage component to navigate to ROUTES.HOME instead of relying on the default Navigation.goBackToHome() which goes to INBOX. Specifically, pass a custom onLinkPress prop from NotFoundPage to FullPageNotFoundView that navigates to the Home tab (e.g., using Navigation.navigate(ROUTES.HOME)).

This approach is scoped to the NotFound page and avoids changing the goBackToHome() function itself, which may be intentionally used elsewhere to navigate to the Inbox.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

1. Change goBackToHome() globally to navigate to ROUTES.HOME instead of ROUTES.INBOX — this would fix NotFoundPage but could break other callers that intentionally expect Inbox navigation.
2. Rename goBackToHome() to goBackToInbox() and create a new goBackToHome() that navigates to ROUTES.HOME — more comprehensive refactor but higher risk.

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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 - @truph01 (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022032425186913195348

[Eskalifer1]

Proposal

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

Navigate to non-existing link - Inbox opens upon clicking on "Go back to home page"

What is the root cause of that problem?

Right now, we're navigating to the Inbox page here:

App/src/components/BlockingViews/FullPageNotFoundView.tsx

Line 78 in 463f3e6

onLinkPress = () => Navigation.goBackToHome(),

App/src/libs/Navigation/Navigation.ts

Lines 545 to 564 in 463f3e6

	/**
	* The goBack function doesn't support recursive pop e.g. pop route from root and then from nested navigator.
	* There is only one case where recursive pop is needed which is going back to home.
	* This function will cover this case.
	* We will implement recursive pop if more use cases will appear.
	*/
	function goBackToHome() {
	const isNarrowLayout = getIsNarrowLayout();
	// This set the right split navigator.
	goBack(ROUTES.INBOX);
	// We want to keep the report screen in the split navigator on wide layout.
	if (!isNarrowLayout) {
	return;
	}
	// This set the right route in this split navigator.
	goBack(ROUTES.INBOX);
	}

But now our main page is HOME, not INBOX.

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

I think there need to be a few more changes here to get this logic right, but we can ask the product team about that.

My main idea is to create a new function, similar to goBackToHome, which will redirect not to the Inbox, but to the HOME page. Or, instead of creating a new function, we could add a parameter to the existing one, and depending on the parameter, navigate to the desired page:

function goBackToHome(shouldRedirectToHome = true) {
    const isNarrowLayout = getIsNarrowLayout();

    // This set the right split navigator.
    goBack(shouldRedirectToHome ? ROUTES.HOME : ROUTES.INBOX);

    // We want to keep the report screen in the split navigator on wide layout.
    if (!isNarrowLayout) {
        return;
    }

    // This set the right route in this split navigator.
    goBack(shouldRedirectToHome ? ROUTES.HOME : ROUTES.INBOX);
}

We’ll also need to review all pages that use FullPageNotFoundView, and those used on chat-related pages should redirect to the INBOX rather than the HOME page—this is the current logic. For such pages, we can pass a separate parameter (for example, shouldRedirectToHome = false), and then pass this parameter to goBackToHome. As a result, most pages that use FullPageNotFoundView will lead to HOME, while those used on chat pages will lead to INBOX.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

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