android app crashes with a Fatal signal (SIGSEGV)

[yahya-valus]

Description

Hey everyone, following up on a specific crash pattern with @reactvision/react-viro on Android. The app crashes with a Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) specifically when the AR camera is active and the app is moved to the background for an extended period (approximately 5+ minutes). The crash will only happen when the 3dModel in ARScene is rendered from a url.

The Stack Trace

#00 pc 00000000004ef650 ... libviro_renderer.so (VROPlatformRunTask)
#01 pc 00000000003a5f60 ... libviro_renderer.so (VROPlatformRunTask(int)+428)

Environment

1. Development OS: macOS
2. Device OS & Version: Android 15 & 16
3. Version: @reactvision/react-viro 2.52.1, React Native 0.81.5
4. Device(s): Samsung and Pixel devices

Current (failing) Attempt

I am currently using AppState to conditionally hide/unmount ViroARSceneNavigator when the app goes inactive/background.

However, it seems that the native cleanup is not deep enough to survive a long background stay, and the renderer still attempts to access a stale GL context on resume.

Questions

1. Is there a way to completely deallocate the Viro native bridge when the app hits the background, rather than simply unmounting the component?
2. Has anyone successfully handled onPause/onResume at the native Android level to prevent the renderer from accessing a reclaimed OpenGL context?
3. Is there a recommended lifecycle handling pattern for long background AR sessions?

Reproducible Demo

1. Launch the app and navigate to a screen with ViroARSceneNavigator active.
2. Keep the AR camera running.
3. Move the app to the background.
4. Wait approximately 5+ minutes.
5. Resume the app.
6. Observe crash with Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) in libviro_renderer.so.

The issue is consistently reproducible under these conditions.

Here is the link for my repo as well: https://github.com/yahyafahim/Viro-AR

[matyasproch]

I get this error nearly every time when I switch tabs using expo and @react-navigation/native. Happens only on Android.

"@react-navigation/native": "^7.1.8",
"@reactvision/react-viro": "2.52.0",
"expo": "~54.0.25",
"react-native": "0.81.5",
"react-native-screens": "~4.16.0",

I have tabs navigation, one of the tabs has AR inside. I also have mount/unmount logic which unmounts the AR when the screen is not focused, the app goes to background etc. When I switch through the tabs, after few switches, the app crashes with SIGSEGV: Segfault for various reasons (see screenshot). It happens all the time for a test version via Firebase. It rarely happens for a local build. It doesn't happen every time I leave the tab, but it always happens in 3-4 switches.

Examples of traces from Sentry: