Spend - Offline created expenses are not displayed in Spend > Expenses if it was not visited

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: 9.4.45-1
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/2219752/folder/13176877/test-cases/41237365
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: Windows 11, Chrome
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

1. Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. Sign up using a Gmail address.
3. Complete the onboarding flow with the 'Something else' variant.
4. Press CTRL/CMD + D and enable Force offline.
5. Click FAB > Create Expense > Manual, enter any amount, and create the expense for yourself.
6. Navigate to your self DM and click on Submit it to someone.
7. Submit the expense to any 1:1 conversation.
8. Open the submitted expense.
9. Click Spend > Expenses.

Expected Result:

The expense should be displayed in Spend > Expenses.

Actual Result:

The expense is not displayed in Spend > Expenses if the user did not visit Spend > Expenses before going offline.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7219333_1785204239181.LLl3CuXH46.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Nathan Lemma
Bug ID: 7219333

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022082186489663584174
• Upwork Job ID: 2082186489663584174
• Last Price Increase: 2026-07-28

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @marcochavezf

[applause-bot]

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
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[MelvinBot]

Proposal

TL;DR: The optimistic "add this expense to the Search snapshot" logic runs when you create an expense, but not when you submit a self/tracked expense to someone. Since a fresh offline user has no Search snapshot yet, nothing ever writes the submitted expense into it, so Spend > Expenses stays empty until you reconnect and the Search API repopulates the snapshot.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The Spend > Expenses page renders only from an Onyx snapshot_<hash> key, which is normally populated by the Search API. Offline, that API can't run, so the app relies on optimistic updates via getSearchOnyxUpdate to patch the snapshot.

There's already a fix present in 9.4.45-1 for the "never-visited" case (branch #1 writes the current search's snapshot even if it doesn't exist yet). But it doesn't cover this flow, because:

1. "Create Expense → for self" is a track expense, so getSearchOnyxUpdate runs at TrackExpense.ts:625 — but only for the track-create moment.
2. "Submit it to someone" routes through convertTrackedExpenseToRequest, which deletes the transaction from the self-DM track report and re-creates it on a new expense report — but never calls getSearchOnyxUpdate and writes no snapshot_ key at all. So the submit step never puts the expense into the Expenses snapshot.
3. The fallback "fan-out" logic can't compensate either, because its SEARCH_QUERY_BY_HASH map is only populated by the online Search API, so it's empty for a fresh offline user.

Net result: the snapshot the page reads is never updated at submit time → the expense is missing until you're back online.

Evidence (file:line)

• Page reads only the snapshot: SearchResultsProvider.tsx:46,70
• Optimistic snapshot patcher (branch Some initial fixes and code style updates #1 current-search, branch Fix spaces #2 fan-out): SearchUpdate.ts:269-290
• Track-create is the only getSearchOnyxUpdate call in TrackExpense.ts: TrackExpense.ts:625
• Submit/convert path has no snapshot update: convertTrackedExpenseToRequest → API.write(CONVERT_TRACKED_EXPENSE_TO_REQUEST)
• Reference for how a normal request does patch the snapshot: MoneyRequestBuilder.ts:1099
• Fan-out map only filled by online Search API: Search.ts:714-719

Ruled out: it is not a search-hash mismatch and not the status-filter gate — the default Expenses query (type:expense, no status) passes both, so those aren't the residual cause here.

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

Make the submit-a-tracked-expense path patch the Search snapshot the same way expense creation does. In convertTrackedExpenseToRequest, call getSearchOnyxUpdate with the newly-built iouReport/iouAction/transaction and merge its optimisticData/successData/failureData into the CONVERT_TRACKED_EXPENSE_TO_REQUEST write — mirroring the existing call at MoneyRequestBuilder.ts:1099.

Worth double-checking the plain (non-tracked) submit path (submitReport) for the same gap, since it also does not currently write a snapshot.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Alternatives considered

• Have the Expenses page fall back to reading raw transactions/reports from Onyx when the snapshot is missing offline. More invasive and risks divergence from server-side Search semantics; the targeted fix above is smaller and consistent with the existing optimistic pattern.
• Broaden branch Some initial fixes and code style updates #1 to re-run on every report/transaction mutation. Too broad; the clean fix is to have the convert/submit action own its snapshot update like other IOU actions do.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team:
To accept: @MelvinBot implement [this](https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/97267) to create a draft PR.
To refine: @MelvinBot <your feedback>
To reject: Explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @eh2077 (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022082186489663584174

[melvin-bot]

@eh2077 Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[eh2077]

@MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR

🎀👀🎀 C+ reviewed

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @marcochavezf, see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/7972 for more details.