WebView recently started crashing on Android on some devices

[lukebaker]

Starting on March 14, our app started seeing crash reports from users that have this backtrace:

backtrace:
  #00  pc 0000000001d86b06  /data/app/com.google.android.webview-1gfF7Rp8MIUc8tMyCVn5pg==/lib/arm/libwebviewchromium.so

Our last release was on February 7, so we haven't introduced any changes. Additionally, it doesn't appear to be related to the content that we're showing as all the content we've been showing for the past month also shows the problem.

I was able to duplicate it on the following:

• Android 5.1.1 running Chrome 72.0.3526.121
• Android 9 running Chrome 73.0.3683.75

The WebView is inside of a ScrollView with other non-WebView components. On screen load the WebView is visible, but if we scroll down so that the WebView content is fully off the screen, the app will crash.

If I remove the overflow: "hidden" fix, the app will not crash, but the WebView doesn't render properly within the content. Setting the style of the WebView to include opacity: 0.99 also does not render the content properly (i.e., it still needs whatever the overflow: "hidden" fix does).

Here is what I see in logcat:

F/libc    ( 2321): Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1, fault addr 0x210 in tid 2422 (RenderThread)
I/DEBUG   (  358): *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
I/DEBUG   (  358): UUID: d5116ccd-12dd-45df-a8a0-73da73812fc5
I/DEBUG   (  358): Build fingerprint: 'Sony/D5503/D5503:5.1.1/14.6.A.1.236/2031203603:user/release-keys'
I/DEBUG   (  358): Revision: '0'
I/DEBUG   (  358): ABI: 'arm'
I/DEBUG   (  358): pid: 2321, tid: 2422, name: RenderThread  >>> org.blah.app <<<
I/DEBUG   (  358): signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR), fault addr 0x210
I/DEBUG   (  358):     r0 04000000  r1 00000001  r2 00000000  r3 00000001
I/DEBUG   (  358):     r4 a1172168  r5 00000010  r6 a1172164  r7 00000210
I/DEBUG   (  358):     r8 b6e10e04  r9 9521fbcc  sl 00000000  fp a11725ac
I/DEBUG   (  358):     ip 00000001  sp a1172138  lr 00000031  pc a9f7cafc  cpsr 20010030
I/DEBUG   (  358): 
I/DEBUG   (  358): backtrace:
I/DEBUG   (  358):     #00 pc 01d86afc  /data/app/com.google.android.webview-2/lib/arm/libwebviewchromium.so

I wonder if it is related to #429, but that description does not fit what I see exactly.

[christianbach]

@lukebaker I can confirm that the crashes is related. we where seeing the Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) in our production app. Our solution to fixing the problem was setting opacity: 0.99 on the actual webview and keeping overflow: hidden on the container.

[malonguwa]

@christianbach @lukebaker this crash also happens on Samsung S8 Android 8 with similar error "Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) ..... (RenderThread)". when I try to navigate back from any screen included WebView, and I tried @christianbach 's fix, it is working.

Edited: the fix is working under WebView with other components. But does not fix the issue if I have the single webView for the entire screen.

[dlindstrm]

@malonguwa do you really need to wrap the webview with overflow: hidden if you have a single webview covering the entire screen?

[malonguwa]

@dlindstrm cos when I navigate to my webViewScreen and then click the back button on the left top l, the app crash..... and I guess it is related to the webView component, cos this only happens when navigate back from the WebViewScreen, if no webView everything works well, but this walk around does not work in my case

[Titozzz]

Let's keep all discussion to #429! This will probably help get this solved faster 💯

[gamingumar]

@lukebaker I can confirm that the crashes is related. we where seeing the Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) in our production app. Our solution to fixing the problem was setting opacity: 0.99 on the actual webview and keeping overflow: hidden on the container.

This solved the issue for me. I was getting a random crash only on android when I navigate back from a screen that was using webview in react navigation.

Only thing I was getting from error log in Android Studio was W/google-breakpad

[zibs]

@gamingumar Same, using opacity:0.99 on the webview somehow solves it from crashing on android

[KestasVenslauskas]

Still still persists in Hermes engine. Had to disable it also enable hardwareAcceleration on android.

[hweister]

Still still persists in Hermes engine. Had to disable it also enable hardwareAcceleration on android.

no, there is nothing related to Hermes engine, it is just an Chrome bug, using opacity: 0.99 can bypass this problem

[ngankt2]

`const Nav = createStackNavigator({

    IntroSlider: IntroSlider,
    Root: TabNavigator,
    LocationDetail: {screen: LocationDetail},
   .....
}, {

    mode: 'modal', //<---In my case, I added this option and it worked fine. "react-navigation-stack": "^2.0.15",
    headerMode: 'none',
},

);`

[pavjacko]

opacity: 0.99 works 👍 .
If it does not, make sure your container has at least fixed height.

This works:

<View style={{ overflow: 'hidden', width: '100%', height: 500 }}>
        <WebView style={{ opacity: 0.99 }} />
</View>

This still crashes:

<View style={{ overflow: 'hidden', flex: 1 }}>
        <WebView style={{ opacity: 0.99 }} />
</View>

If your WebView needs to be full screen just use Dimensions.get('window') instead of flex