Fix onboarding null initial path crash

[KJ21-ENG]

Explanation of Change

Normalize the saved onboarding initial path inside getOnboardingInitialPath() before passing it to React Navigation or checking it with string helpers. When ONYXKEYS.ONBOARDING_LAST_VISITED_PATH is null, the helper now treats it as an empty path and falls back through the normal onboarding route logic instead of passing null into getStateFromPath().

The PR also adds a regression unit test that covers the null path case directly.

Fixed Issues

$ #92417
PROPOSAL: #92417 (comment)

Tests

1. Create a new account.
2. Complete the onboarding flow.
3. Verify that the onboarding flow completes successfully.

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

Same as tests. This change only normalizes the locally stored onboarding path before route parsing and does not add any network behavior.

QA Steps

Same as tests.

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
  • I added steps for local testing in the Tests section
  • I added steps for the expected offline behavior in the Offline steps section
  • I added steps for Staging and/or Production testing in the QA steps section
  • I added steps to cover failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
  • I tested this PR with a High Traffic account against the staging or production API to ensure there are no regressions (e.g. long loading states that impact usability).
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I ran the tests on all platforms & verified they passed on:
  • Android: Native
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: Native
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• I verified there are no console errors (if there's a console error not related to the PR, report it or open an issue for it to be fixed)
• I followed proper code patterns (see Reviewing the code)
  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick)
  • I verified that comments were added to code that is not self explanatory
  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
  • I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
  • I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
• If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
• I followed the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
• I tested other components that can be impacted by my changes (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar are working as expected)
• I verified all code is DRY (the PR doesn't include any logic written more than once, with the exception of tests)
• I verified any variables that can be defined as constants (ie. in CONST.ts or at the top of the file that uses the constant) are defined as such
• I verified that if a function's arguments changed that all usages have also been updated correctly
• If any new file was added I verified that:
  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
• If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
  • A similar style doesn't already exist
  • The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG))
• If new assets were added or existing ones were modified, I verified that:
  • The assets are optimized and compressed (for SVG files, run npm run compress-svg)
  • The assets load correctly across all supported platforms.
• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
• If the PR modifies a component related to any of the existing Storybook stories, I tested and verified all stories for that component are still working as expected.
• If the PR modifies a component or page that can be accessed by a direct deeplink, I verified that the code functions as expected when the deeplink is used - from a logged in and logged out account.
• If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
  • I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
  • I added Design label and/or tagged @Expensify/design so the design team can review the changes.
• If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
• I added unit tests for any new feature or bug fix in this PR to help automatically prevent regressions in this user flow.
• If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.

Screenshots/Videos

N/A. This is a routing/helper crash prevention change covered by unit tests and does not change UI rendering.

Android: Native

N/A - no UI change.

Android: mWeb Chrome

N/A - no UI change.

iOS: Native

N/A - no UI change.

iOS: mWeb Safari

N/A - no UI change.

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-06-04.at.4.26.02.PM.mp4

[melvin-bot]

@cretadn22 Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[KJ21-ENG]

@cretadn22 Sorry, I mistakenly marked the wrong PR as ready for review. This PR is not quite ready yet, but I will ping you when it is. Apologies for the confusion, and thanks! 😅

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/libs/actions/Welcome/OnboardingFlow.ts	81.08% <87.50%> (ø)
... and 10 files with indirect coverage changes

[KJ21-ENG]

@cretadn22 PR is ready for review. The original production trigger depends on bad persisted onboarding/navigation state and is not reliably reachable through normal user actions. Also, setting the public Onyx key to null is not enough because top-level null removes the key, so it does not faithfully reproduce the bad persisted value.

For validation, I used the same controlled frontend probe on staging and dev:

• Staging/unfixed: calling getOnboardingInitialPath() with onboardingInitialPath: null crashes with Cannot read properties of null (reading 'replace').
• Dev/fixed: the same input no longer crashes and returns /onboarding.

Controlled proof script

(() => {
    const tag = '[Issue 92417]';
    const proofId = 'issue-92417-proof';

    document.getElementById(proofId)?.remove();

    const showResult = ({title, detail, isCrash}) => {
        const root = document.createElement('div');
        root.id = proofId;
        root.style.cssText = `
            position: fixed;
            inset: 0;
            z-index: 2147483647;
            display: flex;
            align-items: center;
            justify-content: center;
            background: ${isCrash ? '#3b0505' : '#062d14'};
            color: white;
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            padding: 48px;
        `;

        const box = document.createElement('div');
        box.style.cssText = `
            width: min(1100px, 90vw);
            border: 2px solid ${isCrash ? '#ff7a7a' : '#75d68b'};
            border-radius: 10px;
            padding: 32px;
        `;

        box.innerHTML = `
            <h1 style="margin: 0 0 24px; font-size: 32px;">${title}</h1>
            <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; background: rgba(0,0,0,.35); padding: 20px; border-radius: 8px; font-size: 16px;">${detail}</pre>
            <p style="opacity: .75;">Issue 92417 controlled frontend proof</p>
        `;

        root.appendChild(box);
        document.body.appendChild(root);
    };

    const chunkKey = Object.keys(window).find((key) => key.startsWith('webpackChunk'));

    if (!chunkKey) {
        throw new Error(`${tag} Could not find webpack chunk registry.`);
    }

    let webpackRequire;
    window[chunkKey].push([
        [`issue-92417-proof-${Date.now()}`],
        {},
        (req) => {
            webpackRequire = req;
        },
    ]);

    const candidates = Object.keys(webpackRequire.m).filter((id) => {
        const source = Function.prototype.toString.call(webpackRequire.m[id]);
        return source.includes('getOnboardingInitialPath') || (source.includes('onboardingInitialPath') && source.includes('getStateFromPath'));
    });

    console.log(tag, 'candidate modules:', candidates);

    const params = {
        isUserFromPublicDomain: false,
        hasAccessiblePolicies: false,
        onboardingValuesParam: undefined,
        currentOnboardingPurposeSelected: 'newDotPersonalSpend',
        currentOnboardingCompanySize: '11-50',
        onboardingInitialPath: null,
        onboardingValues: undefined,
        isAccountValidated: true,
    };

    for (const id of candidates) {
        const mod = webpackRequire(id);

        for (const [exportName, exportedValue] of Object.entries(mod)) {
            if (typeof exportedValue !== 'function') {
                continue;
            }

            if (exportName !== 'getOnboardingInitialPath' && !Function.prototype.toString.call(exportedValue).includes('onboardingInitialPath')) {
                continue;
            }

            console.log(tag, `Calling ${exportName} from module ${id} with onboardingInitialPath: null`);

            try {
                const result = exportedValue(params);
                const detail = [
                    'NO CRASH',
                    '',
                    `Called module: ${id}`,
                    `Export: ${exportName}`,
                    'Input: onboardingInitialPath = null',
                    `Returned: ${result}`,
                ].join('\n');

                console.log(tag, 'NO CRASH', detail);
                showResult({
                    title: 'Fixed: onboarding null path no longer crashes',
                    detail,
                    isCrash: false,
                });
                return;
            } catch (error) {
                const detail = [
                    'CRASH REPRODUCED',
                    '',
                    `Called module: ${id}`,
                    `Export: ${exportName}`,
                    'Input: onboardingInitialPath = null',
                    '',
                    error?.stack || String(error),
                ].join('\n');

                console.error(tag, error);
                showResult({
                    title: 'Broken: onboarding null path crashes',
                    detail,
                    isCrash: true,
                });
                return;
            }
        }
    }

    throw new Error(`${tag} Could not find callable getOnboardingInitialPath export.`);
})();

Screen.Recording.2026-06-04.at.4.26.02.PM.mp4

[KJ21-ENG]

@cretadn22 Kind ping here. Thanks!

[cretadn22]

@KJ21-ENG Could you update the test steps to follow the standard onboarding flow. This will allow QA to verify that the main user path is still working perfectly.

Updated Test Steps:

1. Create a new account.
2. Complete the onboarding flow.
3. Verify that the onboarding flow completes successfully.

[KJ21-ENG]

@KJ21-ENG Could you update the test steps to follow the standard onboarding flow. This will allow QA to verify that the main user path is still working perfectly.

Updated Test Steps:

1. Create a new account.
2. Complete the onboarding flow.
3. Verify that the onboarding flow completes successfully.

@cretadn22 Done!

[cretadn22]

Reviewer Checklist

• I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
• I verified the correct issue is linked in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I verified testing steps are clear and they cover the changes made in this PR
  • I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
  • I verified the steps for Staging and/or Production testing are in the QA steps section
  • I verified the steps cover any possible failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
• I checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I verified that the composer does not automatically focus or open the keyboard on mobile unless explicitly intended. This includes checking that returning the app from the background does not unexpectedly open the keyboard.
• I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
  • Android: HybridApp
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: HybridApp
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• If there are any errors in the console that are unrelated to this PR, I either fixed them (preferred) or linked to where I reported them in Slack
• I verified proper code patterns were followed (see Reviewing the code)
  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick).
  • I verified that comments were added to code that is not self explanatory
  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
  • I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
  • I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
• If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
• I verified that this PR follows the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
• I verified other components that can be impacted by these changes have been tested, and I retested again (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar have been tested & I retested again)
• I verified all code is DRY (the PR doesn't include any logic written more than once, with the exception of tests)
• I verified any variables that can be defined as constants (ie. in CONST.ts or at the top of the file that uses the constant) are defined as such
• If a new component is created I verified that:
  • A similar component doesn't exist in the codebase
  • All props are defined accurately and each prop has a /** comment above it */
  • The file is named correctly
  • The component has a clear name that is non-ambiguous and the purpose of the component can be inferred from the name alone
  • The only data being stored in the state is data necessary for rendering and nothing else
  • For Class Components, any internal methods passed to components event handlers are bound to this properly so there are no scoping issues (i.e. for onClick={this.submit} the method this.submit should be bound to this in the constructor)
  • Any internal methods bound to this are necessary to be bound (i.e. avoid this.submit = this.submit.bind(this); if this.submit is never passed to a component event handler like onClick)
  • All JSX used for rendering exists in the render method
  • The component has the minimum amount of code necessary for its purpose, and it is broken down into smaller components in order to separate concerns and functions
• If any new file was added I verified that:
  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
• If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
  • A similar style doesn't already exist
  • The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG)
• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
• If the PR modifies a component related to any of the existing Storybook stories, I tested and verified all stories for that component are still working as expected.
• If the PR modifies a component or page that can be accessed by a direct deeplink, I verified that the code functions as expected when the deeplink is used - from a logged in and logged out account.
• If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
  • I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
  • I added Design label and/or tagged @Expensify/design so the design team can review the changes.
• If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
• For any bug fix or new feature in this PR, I verified that sufficient unit tests are included to prevent regressions in this flow.
• If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.
• I have checked off every checkbox in the PR reviewer checklist, including those that don't apply to this PR.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-06-06.at.15.16.26.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen.Recording.2026-06-06.at.15.13.05.mov

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-06-06.at.15.14.06.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-06-06.at.15.11.20.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-06-06.at.15.01.29.mov

[cretadn22]

Due to a timeout issue, we need to kick off test job 8 again