Virtualized Combobox does not scroll to the selected item in React 19

^{Originally posted by **elenasolomon** March 4, 2025}
Hello,

In our application, we have a large form with multiple ComboBox components, each containing a significant number of items (2000+). Without virtualization, the interaction is not performant. To address this, I attempted to implement a custom ComboBox using @react-aria/Virtualizer.

The issue I’m facing concerns the display of the selected item when the popover is open. In @react-spectrum/ComboBox, when the popover is opened using the Arrow Down key, the selected item is automatically brought into view. I tried to implement a similar behavior, but I am encountering the following problem:
1. I select an item from the list (e.g., one from the middle).
2. The popover closes as expected.
3. When I reopen the popover by pressing Arrow Down, I expect to see the selected item in view. However, the popover instead displays the first items in the list.
4. If I press Arrow Down/Arrow Up again, the scroll adjusts, and the selected item becomes visible. The focus moves from the selected item to the next item in the list.

I also tried a separate implementation using UNSTABLE_Virtualizer, but I encountered the same behavior.

What confuses me the most is that this [example](https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/pedantic-black-vrd8rh) (posted by @LFDanLu in [this issue](https://github.com/adobe/react-spectrum/issues/7361)) works correctly in the CodeSandbox environment. However, when I run the same code in a separate project (a basic CRA application), the behavior differs: locally, the ComboBox requires a second Arrow Down press to bring the selected item into view. It feels like I’m missing a render.

Environment
• **Dependencies**:
• react and react-dom v19
• react-aria-components v1.6.0
• **Tested Versions**:
• Also tested with react v18 and react-aria-components v1.4.0 & v1.5.0
• **Browsers**:
• Chrome 133.0.6943.142
• Firefox

**Questions**
1. Any idea what might be causing this behavior?
2. I noticed that the scroll-into-view feature works only when using Arrow Down but not when clicking the open button. Is there a way to configure ComboBox to scroll to the selected item when the open button is clicked?

Thanks in advance for your help!