[Due for payment 2026-05-20] [Due for payment 2026-05-18] [$250] iOS - Attachment - App loads infinitely when taking photo

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.69-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #87681
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): josdjnosdjionjsdonjisod@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: iPhone 15 Pro Max / iOS 26.4.2
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• App camera access is not allowed.

1. Launch Expensify app.
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Tap + > Add attachment > Take photo.

Expected Result:

In-app camera will open.

Actual Result:

App loads infinitely.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7148503_1778255916065.13.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @ShridharGoel

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #87681

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[OSBotify]

Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #87681 - "fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos" by @MelvinBot (High confidence)
Related Issues: #84018 (original crash fix this PR was solving), #87448 (previous deploy blocker for infinite load that this PR claimed to fix)

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #87681 introduced the new AttachmentCamera component that replaced the system camera intent with an in-app VisionCamera modal. When camera permission is not granted, the app enters an infinite loading state on iOS instead of showing the permission UI or a graceful error state.

Assigned: @MelvinBot (PR author), @ShridharGoel and @srikarparsi (approving reviewers) from highest-confidence causing PR only
Labels: Both DeployBlockerCash and DeployBlocker are currently present. This is a Frontend bug — DeployBlocker should be removed, DeployBlockerCash should remain.

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• The melvin-bot comment on the issue directly links PR fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos #87681 as the causing PR
• PR fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos #87681 replaced the system camera launch (launchCamera) with a new in-app AttachmentCamera component that uses react-native-vision-camera
• The issue reproduces only on staging (version 9.3.69-0), which matches PR fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos #87681's merge date of 2026-05-07, shortly before the staging version was cut
• The bug precondition ("App camera access is not allowed") maps directly to the permission-handling logic added by this PR
• Ironically, PR fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos #87681 claimed to fix a previous deploy blocker (iOS - Profile - Avatar edit page loads infinitely after taking photo #87448 "iOS avatar edit page loads infinitely") with "Clean promise resolution flow" — but a new infinite load regression slipped through in the camera permission denied flow

Verification

• Affected files: src/components/AttachmentPicker/AttachmentCamera.tsx (new file), src/components/AttachmentPicker/index.native.tsx (modified), src/hooks/useNativeCamera.ts (modified)
• PR fix: use in-app VisionCamera for chat attachment photos #87681 directly adds and modifies all of these files
• The launchCamera/ directory was entirely deleted by this PR, meaning reverting is the cleanest path to restore the prior working behavior

Root Cause

In AttachmentCamera.tsx, cameraPermissionStatus is initialized to null. When the modal becomes visible, a useEffect asynchronously calls CameraPermission.getCameraPermissionStatus(). On iOS with camera access denied, the status check may involve an async round-trip to the native layer. If getCameraPermissionStatus never resolves (or the promise chain stalls), cameraPermissionStatus stays null indefinitely. Since null !== RESULTS.GRANTED, the permission view should render — but the video evidence shows an infinite spinner instead, suggesting either: (1) the ActivityIndicator branch (cameraPermissionStatus === RESULTS.GRANTED && device == null) is incorrectly reached due to a race condition, or (2) the modal's loading state in index.native.tsx that gates the camera launch is not dismissed. The prior system camera approach (now deleted launchCamera/launchCamera.ios.ts) handled permission denial synchronously and closed cleanly, avoiding this state entirely.