Android/iOS - The image attachment is not cached on Android and iOS devices

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Version Number: v9.3.39-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #65321
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: Android 13 / Xiaomi Poco F5, iOS 15.8.3 / iPhone 7 Plus
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

1. Open the App
2. Go to any chat
3. Upload a single or multiple attachment files
4. On Android, go to root/android/data/org.me.mobiexpensifyg and try to find the cached image file
5. On iOS, go to On My iPhone/Expensify and try to find the cached image file

Expected Result:

The image attachment cache file can be found in the local folder of Android and iOS devices

Actual Result:

The image attachment is not cached on Android and iOS devices
Note:

• On Android, the Expensify folder (root/android/data/org.me.mobiexpensifyg) exists, but there is no image cached file
• On iOS, the Expensify folder (On My iPhone/Expensify) exists, but there is no image cached file

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

bug2.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #65321

[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.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #65321 - "(1/2) Implement store/caching for attachments" by @NJ-2020 (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

The PR attempts to cache attachment files to a directory that is never created, causing all file caching operations to fail silently on native platforms.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (blocks App deploy). This is a frontend bug in the App repository.

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

The issue was introduced in PR #65321, which adds attachment caching functionality. The PR was merged on 2026-03-16 and is included in the current staging deploy (v9.3.39-1). The bug is only reproducible on staging (where the PR exists) and affects both Android and iOS native apps.

Verification

The PR modifies the attachment handling code and adds new files:

• src/libs/actions/Attachment/index.native.ts - Native attachment caching implementation
• src/libs/CacheAPI/index.native.ts - Cache API stub for native

Key file affected: src/libs/actions/Attachment/index.native.ts

Line 10 defines: const ATTACHMENT_DIR = \${RNFS.DocumentDirectoryPath}/attachments`;`

Lines 22 and 56 attempt to write files to this directory:

• Line 22: await RNFS.copyFile(uri, destPath); - Copies uploaded files
• Line 56: await RNFetchBlob.config({path: filePath}).fetch('GET', uri); - Downloads remote files

Root Cause

The attachments directory is never created before attempting to save files to it.

When RNFS.copyFile() or RNFetchBlob.config({path}) try to write to a non-existent directory, the operations fail. The errors are caught and logged as warnings (lines 28 and 64), but the files are never actually cached.

This is different from the existing iOS file download implementation (src/libs/fileDownload/index.ios.ts line 69), which properly creates the directory first:

return RNFS.mkdir(expensifyDir).then(() => {
    return RNFS.writeFile(localPath, fileData, 'utf8')

The fix would require adding RNFS.mkdir(ATTACHMENT_DIR, {intermediates: true}) before attempting to write files, similar to the iOS download pattern.