[Web] Users sometimes taken back to previous URL (or blank page) when clicking some links

[ichthyos]

Describe the bug

Intermittently, clicking on Home or Profile makes the browser leave bluesky and navigate to the page that my browser was on before bluesky.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior are unclear, but I experience the bug after clicking on Home or Profile in the navigation on the left hand side.

Expected behavior

I would be taken to the appropriate page in bluesky.

Screenshots

N/A

Details

• Platform: Desktop Chrome Windows
• Platform version: Version 113.0.5672.93 (Official Build) (64-bit)
• App version: Latest at https://staging.bsky.app/

Additional context

Not sure whether navigation to other pages (Search, Notifications, Moderation, Settings) are affected by the same bug.

[DavidBuchanan314]

I've had this happen several times too, but also having trouble finding a reliable way to reproduce it. Something that might be related is that toggling between Following and What's Hot does not push a history state.

[TheUnlocked]

It feels like the history is being improperly memoized somehow. Try the following steps and print out history.state.id in the console beforehand and after pressing each button.

1. Home -> Search -> My Feeds -> Notifications -> My Feeds
2. Press back, goes to search (not notifications)
3. Press back, goes to home

history.state is managed by react-navigation so it's possible this is an upstream issue, or it could just be some subtle bug with how bluesky invokes react-navigation.

[tinymoons-dev]

I've experienced the same issue, but I can't reliably reproduce the behavior.

Windows, Chrome Version 114.0.5735.199 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[estrattonbailey]

Update: we're aware this is an issue but have been unable to reproduce as of yet. We'll keep this issue open and in the backs of our minds until we're able to figure out what's causing this 👍

[Zero3K]

I am able to replicate it. Pressing Shift + F5 causes the page to show properly.

[ansh]

@Zero3K Can you please provide reproduction steps?

[Zero3K]

I do not know how I got it to happen.

[deceptionagent]

i can reproduce this on demand in Safari on macOS:

1. open a new blank browser window.
2. enter google.com into the address bar and go. (any non-bsky.app site is fine, you just need a backstop in the history that will demonstrate the bug.)
3. go to http://bsky.app
4. click Notifications
5. click any notification
6. click the browser's back button
7. click that notification again
8. click the reply button on the single-post page that loads
9. click Cancel in the reply panel
10. click Home

--> your browser will now jump back to your backstop page.

the bug reproduces 100% of the time for me with these steps.

[Bossett]

reproduces as described on Chrome 121 (Win 11)

[mozzius]

can reproduce on Firefox 122.0.1 (macOS Sonoma)

[mozzius]

Seems opening the composer is not necessary - you can skip steps 8 and 9.

I can also reproduce going google -> bsky.app -> search -> a suggested profile -> back -> a suggested profile -> home

[deceptionagent]

yeah i'm betting there are several ways to get here. i only spent a few minutes attempting to reduce it further.

i had tried a version without the composer and the bug didn't reproduce. i must have made a mistake while trying to reduce it. oops. :)

[goeo-]

ohhhh this is why it seems to happen more on mac,, because people actually use the two finger swipe to go back. on Mouse Requiring OSes i am way more likely to click on the back arrow in the app instead of on the browser.

[gaearon]

Fantastic, thank you for the repros. This should make it a lot easier to diagnose. Anyone wants to dig into the source?

[n0vedad]

It seems to be related to the fact that when you click on a post and NOT click the back arrow but click the home button, sometimes it takes you to your last position in your timeline, or sometimes it takes you to the top of your timeline (without fetching new posts)

[SlickDomique]

You don't have to search at all. bsky -> any page -> back -> any other page -> home also triggers it

Weirdly enough this is not triggering any navigation events, only beforeunload gets triggered when this happens

[mozzius]

I can replicate this on other react navigation sites (for example https://evanbacon.dev )

Edit: here's a short thread where I tried to debug the issue https://bsky.app/profile/www.mozzius.dev/post/3kleujracen2d
TL;DR: it's react-navigation issue with handling the back button

[SlickDomique]

It's happening somewhere in or after batchedUpdates in react-dom

[SlickDomique]

I further described the bug and have submitted potential fix to the react-navigation repository. The linked issue contains very simple repo with this issue replicated and a video showing the problem.

react-navigation/react-navigation#11832

[haileyok]

@SlickDomique Thank you! Applying your patch for now while we wait for it to get merged in. Thanks for digging into it!!