Pressing the Arrow Up key while viewing consecutive report previews causes a message located below the previews to enter edit mode, but the page does not automatically scroll to or focus the message being edited.

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: Needs Reproduction (Unable to reproduce)
Reproducible in production?: Needs Reproductuion
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @FitseTLT
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Expensify bugs

Action Performed:

Preconditions
Have a workspace chat with multiple consecutive report previews.
Have a text message below the report previews.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Navigate to the workspace chat.
2. Scroll to the area containing the consecutive report previews.
3. Press the Arrow Up key.
4. Observe the message below the report previews.

Expected Result:

The message that enters edit mode should automatically scroll into view and receive focus.

Actual Result:

A message located below the report previews enters edit mode, but the page does not auto-scroll to the message or automatically focus it.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

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

Screenshots/Videos

2026-08-28.16-52-36.mp4

2026-08-28.00-13-15.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @FitseTLT

[exfy-zapier]

This has been labelled "Needs Reproduction". Follow the steps here: https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/16989

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

Pressing ArrowUp in an empty composer correctly puts the newest editable text message into edit mode even when several consecutive report previews sit above it — but on desktop web the list does not auto-scroll to that message and the edit input does not get focus.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The action selection is correct: useLastEditableAction.ts:31 skips report previews (they fail canEditReportAction) and lands on the newest text message — matching the repro.

The real problem is that on desktop web there is no code that scrolls the list to a message when it enters edit mode. The scroll-into-view + focus rely entirely on the inline editor mounting:

• ArrowUp only writes a draft, with no follow-up scroll — ComposerWithSuggestions.tsx:644-649.
• Focus (and the browser's native scroll-into-view) fires only when ReportActionItemMessageEdit mounts (autoFocus + focusComposerWithDelay on mount).
• The report actions list is a virtualizing FlashList with a finite drawDistance={1500}. When the user has scrolled up past several tall consecutive report previews, the newest text message (bottom of the list) is far outside the render window and is not mounted, so its editor never renders → no focus, no scroll.
• The one edit-start scroll that would fix this is gated to mobile Chrome only, so desktop web (the affected platform) is excluded — ReportActionItemMessageEdit.tsx:445-447.

Multiple consecutive report previews matter because they are tall, which is what pushes the target message outside the render window.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

When a persisted action enters edit mode, trigger a scroll to that action on desktop web too, not just mobile Chrome. The narrowest change is to broaden the existing gate at ReportActionItemMessageEdit.tsx:445-447 so it also runs on web — but because the target row can be virtualized out (unmounted), the onFocus path can't be relied on. The more robust fix is to call reportScrollManager.scrollToIndex(index) right after saveReportActionDraft in ComposerWithSuggestions.tsx, with an onScrollToIndexFailed fallback (the item is unmeasured while off-screen), so the row mounts, focus lands, and the message scrolls into view.

Investigation details & evidence

Data flow of the bug

1. User scrolls up so tall consecutive report previews fill the viewport; the newest text message (FlashList index 0) is virtualized out (beyond drawDistance 1500).
2. ArrowUp in the empty composer → saveReportActionDraft for the newest editable action (correctly skipping report previews). No scroll call follows.
3. The message is "editing" in Onyx, but its ReportActionItem / ReportActionItemMessageEdit is not mounted.
4. autoFocus and the mount-time focus effect never run → no focus, and no browser-native scroll-into-view.
5. No desktop-web scroll-on-edit-start exists (the only one is isMobileChrome-gated) → no auto-scroll.

Why not the other scroll paths

• The Concierge streamed-draft autoscroll (useReportActionsScroll.ts) only fires for useConciergeDraft, not regular edits.
• useEditMessage.ts:58-62 scrolls to index 0 only when leaving an edit, not entering.
• The row index handed to FlashList is the true data index, so scrollToIndex(index) targets the correct row — the issue is that no scroll is called and the cell isn't mounted, not a wrong offset.

One thing to confirm during implementation: whether the target row is genuinely unmounted (virtualized out) versus mounted-but-just-below-the-fold at the scroll position in the issue video. Either way the fix is the same — issue a scroll on edit-start for web — but it determines whether onScrollToIndexFailed handling is required.

Confidence: Medium-High — strong, consistent code evidence across two independent traces; a live in-app reproduction was attempted but blocked by an unrelated dev-environment issue (the test browser rendered a blank page), so this is not yet confirmed by runtime observation.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team:
To accept: @MelvinBot implement [this](https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/99760) to create a draft PR.
To refine: @MelvinBot <your feedback>
To reject: Explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

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view run

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @ChavdaSachin (External)

[melvin-bot]

Unable to auto-create job on Upwork. The BZ team member should create it manually for this issue.

[FitseTLT]

@ChavdaSachin If u cannot reproduce it as a reporter I can take over 👍

[ChavdaSachin]

Sure @FitseTLT.
Please take over.

Thanks.

[FitseTLT]

@mallenexpensify U can assign me here

[melvin-bot]

@ChavdaSachin Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!