TextFormField Android "Failed assertion: 'initialValue == null || controller == null': is not true." Despite controller being null in debug.

[msmiech]

I want to try out flutter for a new project (Android mobile app primarily) but I regularly encounter the following error at building a TextFormField during debug on my device (Samsung Galaxy S7 G930F, Android 7.0):

Syncing files to device SM G930F...
I/flutter (32149): ══╡ EXCEPTION CAUGHT BY WIDGETS LIBRARY ╞═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
I/flutter (32149): The following assertion was thrown building LoginPage(dirty, state: _LoginPageState#7e27e):
I/flutter (32149): 'package:flutter/src/material/text_form_field.dart': Failed assertion: line 72 pos 15: 'initialValue
I/flutter (32149): == null || controller == null': is not true.
I/flutter (32149): 
I/flutter (32149): Either the assertion indicates an error in the framework itself, or we should provide substantially
I/flutter (32149): more information in this error message to help you determine and fix the underlying cause.

The project template that I have used for trying this out is https://github.com/putraxor/flutter-login-ui

When debugging the affected sections (i.e., assert statements) - assert(initialValue == null || controller == null); the debugger says initialValue is a valid string, as defined, and the controller is null (which I have explicitly set to null before and asserted that before building the TextFormField). This issue occurs primarily during debug and results in a red screen on the device. It does not always appear in debug mode, after some manual restarts (without refreshing the code), it works sometimes beyond this point, sometimes not. This issue does not appear when running the app in regular (non-debug) mode. This issue does also not appear when using an Android emulator (e.g. Android P x86 image).

Doctor summary:
[√] Flutter (Channel beta, v0.4.4, on Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.81], locale de-AT)
    • Flutter version 0.4.4 at C:\work\flutter
    • Framework revision f9bb4289e9 (3 weeks ago), 2018-05-11 21:44:54 -0700
    • Engine revision 06afdfe54e
    • Dart version 2.0.0-dev.54.0.flutter-46ab040e58

[√] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 27.0.3)
    • Android SDK at C:\work\Android\sdk
    • Android NDK location not configured (optional; useful for native profiling support)
    • Platform android-P, build-tools 27.0.3
    • Java binary at: C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jre\bin\java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_152-release-1024-b02)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[√] Android Studio (version 3.1)
    • Android Studio at C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio
    • Flutter plugin version 24.2.1
    • Dart plugin version 173.4700
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_152-release-1024-b02)

[√] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.1)
    • IntelliJ at C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2018.1
    • Flutter plugin version 24.2.2
    • Dart plugin version 181.4892.1

[√] VS Code, 64-bit edition (version 1.23.1)
    • VS Code at C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code
    • Dart Code extension version 2.12.1

[√] Connected devices (1 available)
    • SM G930F • ad0617020e32eacbe5 • android-arm64 • Android 7.0 (API 24)

• No issues found!

[HansMuller]

I wasn't able to reproduce this failure mode.

I put a one-file version of the app (sans assets) here: https://gist.github.com/HansMuller/266cf806708fffef5440860c3892e1ed

If you could explain what additional changes and what sequence of reloads/restarts are needed to trigger this failure, I'd appreciate it

[msmiech]

Thank you for looking into it.
I created a new project with a different name using the same code and the error does not appear on the device anymore... I apologize for raising this issue perhaps too early.
For a brief amount of time there was in fact a problem with the TextFormField parameters but it appears that any newer version of the APK, where this issue was resolved, was not installed/updated properly on my device (maybe a caching problem or a problem of the device itself, I unfortunately cannot tell). Is there a recommended way to force a clean reinstall of the app? (Simply uninstalling it on the device and then reinstalling it via Android Studio did not change anything within the "broken" project)

[HansMuller]

Sometimes, it helps to rm -rf build in the project's directory, before flutter run, particularly if you've just updated the packages flutter depends on with flutter update-packages

[brmc]

I just had this problem. For anyone else coming along, check if you have passed both initialValue and controller to the TextField. If so, pass text to the TextEditingController and remove the initialValue from the TextField:

Instead of this:

TextFormField(
  initialValue: 'foo',
  controller: TextEditingController(),
), 

do this:

TextFormField(
  controller: TextEditingController(text: 'foo'),
), 

My problem arose when I used a refactoring option in Android Studio to convert from a stateless to a stateful widget

[zoechi]

@mart1n8891 Is this still an issue?

[PaoloGi]

still an issue there

[JotaFerreira]

same problem

[acheronian]

+1

[HansMuller]

This isn't a bug. The failed assertion indicates that you must either provide a controller or an initialValue, but not both:

I/flutter (16012): 'package:flutter/src/material/text_form_field.dart': Failed assertion: line 101 pos 15:
I/flutter (16012): 'initialValue == null || controller == null': is not true.

Both properties specify the text field's initial value. If the controller is specified it's typically a Stateful widget's State field so that rebuilding the stateful parent widget doesn't reset the text field's value. If both values were specified and the implementation used the initialValue to set the controller's value, then rebuilding the stateful parent widget would similarly reset the textfield's values.

There's more about this in the PR that introduced the assertion: #15484

[HansMuller]

Note also: if there's a test case out there where only specifying an initial value inexplicably triggers the assertion (as was originally reported), please reopen this bug.

TextFormField(
  initialValue: 'foo',
  controller: null,
)

[J1GGZ]

I'm experiencing the same issue currently. I am primarily looking to have a user enter his/her location coordinates for a map marker. I was hoping to lazy load it but what about having the textfield filled upon a button press?

[anisbouziane]

This isn't a bug. The failed assertion indicates that you must either provide a controller or an initialValue, but not both:

I/flutter (16012): 'package:flutter/src/material/text_form_field.dart': Failed assertion: line 101 pos 15:
I/flutter (16012): 'initialValue == null || controller == null': is not true.

Both properties specify the text field's initial value. If the controller is specified it's typically a Stateful widget's State field so that rebuilding the stateful parent widget doesn't reset the text field's value. If both values were specified and the implementation used the initialValue to set the controller's value, then rebuilding the stateful parent widget would similarly reset the textfield's values.

There's more about this in the PR that introduced the assertion: #15484

nice one bro, it's solved for me !!

[MaxanDsouza]

This isn't a bug. The failed assertion indicates that you must either provide a controller or an initialValue, but not both:

I/flutter (16012): 'package:flutter/src/material/text_form_field.dart': Failed assertion: line 101 pos 15:
I/flutter (16012): 'initialValue == null || controller == null': is not true.

Both properties specify the text field's initial value. If the controller is specified it's typically a Stateful widget's State field so that rebuilding the stateful parent widget doesn't reset the text field's value. If both values were specified and the implementation used the initialValue to set the controller's value, then rebuilding the stateful parent widget would similarly reset the textfield's values.

There's more about this in the PR that introduced the assertion: #15484

Thanks! This worked!

[romreed]

I catch this error at
Flutter 1.17.5 • channel stable • https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
Framework • revision 8af6b2f (10 дней назад) • 2020-06-30 12:53:55 -0700
Engine • revision ee76268252
Tools • Dart 2.8.4

[github-actions]

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