[$250] Reports - Highlight animation is visible on added expense after duplication.

[jponikarchuk]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Version Number: 9.3.47.0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #86048
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+2250@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 / Android 12 (Hybrid app) - Windows 11 / Chrome
App Component: Search

Action Performed:

Prerequisite: Account has at least one workspace.

1. Open the Expensify app.
2. Open any workspace chat.
3. Create a manual expense.
4. Navigate to "Reports" > "Expenses"
5. Open the just created expense.
6. Tap on "More" > "Duplicate"
7. Note that duplicate expense is displayed highlighted on report.

Expected Result:

When an expense is duplicated while on "Reports" page, no navigation or highlight animation should be displayed on new expense.

Actual Result:

After an expense is duplicated, the new expense is displayed highlighted.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Video.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @TaduJR

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022036889862368461400
• Upwork Job ID: 2036889862368461400
• Last Price Increase: 2026-04-01

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

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

When an expense is duplicated while viewing the "Reports" > "Expenses" page, the newly created duplicate expense is displayed with an unwanted highlight animation. The expected behavior is that no highlight animation should appear when duplicating an expense.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The search highlight system has two independent trigger paths:

1. Manual path: highlightTransactionOnSearchRouteIfNeeded() at src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts:1155-1160 — only fires when isFromGlobalCreate is truthy. The duplicate action explicitly sets isFromGlobalCreate: undefined at src/libs/actions/IOU/Duplicate.ts:533, so this path correctly does NOT trigger for duplicates.

2. Automatic path: The useSearchHighlightAndScroll hook at src/hooks/useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:79-143 watches ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.TRANSACTION for new entries. When any new transaction appears in Onyx while the Search page is focused, the hook detects it, triggers a search refresh, and highlights the new transaction ID (lines 204-218).

The root cause is that the automatic detection path has no way to distinguish between a transaction created from the global create button (which should be highlighted) and a transaction created by the duplicate action (which should not). When duplicateExpenseTransaction calls requestMoney/trackExpense, a new transaction is optimistically added to Onyx. If the user is viewing the Reports > Expenses search page, the useSearchHighlightAndScroll hook detects this new transaction, re-searches, and highlights it — causing the unwanted animation.

The relevant code path:

• Duplicate.ts:659-777 → calls requestMoney/trackExpense/createDistanceRequest → new transaction added to Onyx
• useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:98 → detects hasTransactionsIDsChange = true
• useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:130-133 → sets hasNewItemsRef.current = true, triggeredByHookRef.current = true
• useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:210-218 → new transaction passes all filters and gets added to newSearchResultKeys
• Search/index.tsx:1202-1217 → sets shouldAnimateInHighlight = true on the item → highlight animation renders

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

Add a mechanism to suppress the automatic highlight detection for transactions created by the duplicate action. The cleanest approach is to use the existing ONYXKEYS.TRANSACTION_IDS_HIGHLIGHT_ON_SEARCH_ROUTE Onyx key as a "suppress list" — when a transaction is duplicated, write its ID with false to this key. Then in the automatic detection logic at useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:210-218, check if the transaction ID is explicitly set to false in transactionIDsToHighlight and exclude it from highlighting.

Specifically:

1. In src/libs/actions/IOU/Duplicate.ts, after the call to requestMoney/trackExpense/createExpenseByType returns with the new transaction, call mergeTransactionIdsHighlightOnSearchRoute(CONST.SEARCH.DATA_TYPES.EXPENSE, {[newTransactionID]: false}) to explicitly suppress highlighting.
2. In useSearchHighlightAndScroll.ts:210-218, add a check: if the transaction ID exists in transactionIDsToHighlight with value false, exclude it from the newTransactionIDs array.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

An alternative would be to add a new Onyx key (e.g., TRANSACTION_IDS_SUPPRESS_HIGHLIGHT) or a ref/flag that the duplicate action sets before creating the transaction and the hook checks. However, reusing the existing TRANSACTION_IDS_HIGHLIGHT_ON_SEARCH_ROUTE key with false values is simpler and doesn't require new Onyx keys or plumbing.

Another alternative would be to prevent the useSearchHighlightAndScroll hook from triggering the search refresh entirely during duplicate operations by setting a global "suppress" flag. However, this could interfere with legitimate highlights if multiple operations happen concurrently.

---

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 - @abzokhattab (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022036889862368461400

[abelhailefen]

Proposal

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

When a user duplicates an existing expense from the Expenses search page, the newly created duplicate item appears with a brief highlight animation. This animation is intended only for brand-new expenses created via the global action menu, and it should not play for duplicated items.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The search page relies on a background observer that constantly watches the local database for newly added transactions. Whenever it detects a new expense while the user is viewing the search page, it automatically triggers a visual highlight on that item to draw the user's attention.

Currently, this background observer lacks the context to differentiate between an expense that was just created from scratch and one that was generated via the duplicate action. Because the duplicate action inserts a new transaction into the database, the observer blindly detects it as a "new" item and improperly triggers the highlight animation.

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

I need to introduce a mechanism to explicitly suppress the highlight behavior for specific transactions, starting with duplicated expenses.

First, I will update the logic responsible for duplicating an expense. Immediately after the new duplicate transaction is generated, I will capture its unique ID. I will then register this ID into the existing search highlight tracking state, but specifically flag it to be ignored (setting its highlight requirement to false).

Second, I will update the background observer that controls search highlights. Before it applies the highlight animation to any newly detected transaction, it will first verify the ID against the highlight tracking state. If it sees that the transaction's ID has been explicitly flagged to be ignored, it will skip applying the animation entirely.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

I considered creating an entirely new local state variable specifically for tracking suppressed transactions, or setting a global "pause" flag to disable all highlights while the duplicate action is running. However, repurposing the already existing search highlight tracking state to accept an explicit "do not highlight" instruction is much cleaner. It avoids cluttering the database with new keys and safely prevents race conditions if multiple background actions occur simultaneously.

[surafeal-dev]

Proposal Suppress search highlight for duplicated expenses

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.
When a user duplicates an existing expense from the Expenses search page, the newly created duplicate item appears with a brief highlight animation. This animation is intended only for brand-new expenses created via the global action menu, and it should not play for duplicated items.

• When duplicating an expense while viewing Reports → Expenses (the search page), the newly created duplicate briefly shows the search-item highlight animation. This animation is intended only for brand-new expenses created via the global create action and should not play for duplicated items.

Root cause

• useSearchHighlightAndScroll watches ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.TRANSACTION and treats any newly added transaction (while the search route is focused) as highlightable. The duplicate action creates a new transaction optimistically, so the observer detects it and triggers the highlight.
• The manual highlight path (highlightTransactionOnSearchRouteIfNeeded) distinguishes global creates via isFromGlobalCreate, but duplicates explicitly do not set isFromGlobalCreate, so they fall through to the automatic observer which has no context to ignore them.

Proposed changes

1. Reuse the existing ONYXKEYS.TRANSACTION_IDS_HIGHLIGHT_ON_SEARCH_ROUTE mapping as a suppression mapping by writing {[transactionID]: false} for duplicated transactions.
2. After the duplicate action obtains the new transaction ID, call the existing helper mergeTransactionIdsHighlightOnSearchRoute(CONST.SEARCH.DATA_TYPES.EXPENSE, {[newTransactionID]: false}) to mark the ID as "do not highlight".
3. Update useSearchHighlightAndScroll so that before adding a newly detected transaction to the highlight candidates it checks transactionIDsToHighlight[id]. If the value is false, skip highlighting that transaction.

• This approach reuses an existing Onyx key and helper, avoids adding new global flags, and respects Onyx action-file patterns.

Alternatives considered

• Introducing a new TRANSACTION_IDS_SUPPRESS_HIGHLIGHT key (more explicit, but more plumbing).
• A global "suppress highlights while duplicating" flag (fragile with concurrent operations).

[github-actions]

⚠️ @TaduJR Your proposal is a duplicate of an already existing proposal and has been automatically withdrawn to prevent spam. Please review the existing proposals before submitting a new one.