iOS-Create expense- App freezes when new user hasn't got ws create expense then select You

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: v9.4.41-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/test-runs/65568271/folder/13176877/51105169/1585993030?sort=-identifier
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): lekima20+614707@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: iPhone 16 pro/ 26.5.2
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Open app
2. Login with new user (select "Something else" in onboarding flow)
3. Tap Inbox tab
4. Tap on FAB and select Create expense
5. Tap on Manual tab
6. Tap on You
7. Tap on Amount box or any button

Expected Result:

App should work without error

Actual Result:

App freezes

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7213234_1784621080084.Vfud5823_1_.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Mita Rachim
Bug ID: 7213234

[applause-bot]

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
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[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @aldo-expensify (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[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.

[MelvinBot]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #96228 - "feat: remove isNewManualExpenseFlowEnabled beta flag" by @thelullabyy (High confidence)
Related Issues: #93854 (the issue #96228 was implementing)

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #96228 turned the new manual expense flow ON for 100% of users by deleting the NEW_MANUAL_EXPENSE_FLOW beta gate. This is exactly the flow the bug describes (Manual tab → select "You" → tap Amount), it is a self-contained feature toggle, and reverting cleanly restores the previously-shipped (production) manual flow with no dependent PRs — matching the fact that this is not reproducible in production (where the beta was off) but is reproducible in staging.

Assigned: @thelullabyy (PR author), @ikevin127, @joekaufmanexpensify, @puneetlath (approving reviewers) from the highest-confidence causing PR only
Labels: No label changes. DeployBlockerCash is kept (App deploy is blocked by a frontend regression). No DeployBlocker label was present.

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• The bug repro is the manual expense creation flow: FAB → Create expense → Manual tab → tap You → tap Amount → freeze. PR feat: remove isNewManualExpenseFlowEnabled beta flag #96228's title and body are explicitly about making "the new manual expense flow works as default."
• PR feat: remove isNewManualExpenseFlowEnabled beta flag #96228 merged 2026-07-20T17:54:40Z, landing in the v9.4.41-0 staging build (it appears in the StagingDeployCash checklist Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-07-21 #96534). It was not in production, which is why the freeze reproduces on staging only — a textbook regression-from-this-release signature.
• The PR removed every isNewManualExpenseFlowEnabled / CONST.BETAS.NEW_MANUAL_EXPENSE_FLOW guard, so the new flow's embedded-confirmation UX (stacked ParticipantPicker, auto-assign participant useEffect, always-mounted AmountField with its focus/participant-picker coupling) is now exercised by all users — including a brand-new user with no workspace whose only default participant is the self-DM ("You").

Verification

Files that implement the affected flow and were changed by #96228:

• src/components/MoneyRequestConfirmationList/sections/AmountField.tsx — the AmountField autofocus useEffect (now [autoFocus, isAmountFieldDisabled, isParticipantPickerVisible]) and the NumberWithSymbolForm render are no longer gated by the beta; this is the "tap Amount box" surface in the repro.
• src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepConfirmation.tsx — the participant auto-assign effect and the <ParticipantPicker> are now rendered unconditionally.
• src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepParticipants.tsx — participant-step behavior (workspaces-only logic) changed to always use the new-flow branch.
• src/hooks/useDefaultParticipants.ts / src/hooks/useResetIOUType.ts — default-participant seeding (self-DM "You" for a new user) is now always active.

Confirmed the beta flag is fully gone from the current codebase (grep -rn "NEW_MANUAL_EXPENSE_FLOW\|isNewManualExpenseFlowEnabled" src returns nothing), so #96228's changes are the live state driving this flow.

Root Cause

By removing the beta gate, the new embedded-confirmation manual flow became the default for a user segment it had not been validated against: a new user with no workspace creating a manual expense assigned to "You" (self-DM). In this path the confirmation screen now hosts the always-mounted AmountField alongside the auto-assign participant effect and the stacked ParticipantPicker; the freeze occurs when the Amount input is focused in this new-user/self-DM state on iOS. Under the old (production) beta-off flow this UX was never rendered, so the freeze did not exist in production. Reverting the flag rollout restores the known-good flow while a targeted fix for the new flow's self-DM/no-workspace case is developed.

Note: #95771 ("Fix iOS freeze when picking a brand-new P2P recipient on the distance confirmation step") is in the same release and touches a superficially similar freeze, but it is scoped to the Track distance / Map confirmation with a brand-new P2P recipient, not the Manual tab + "You" (self-DM) path in this report, so it is not the cause here.