Android crash when Rive animation is mounted/unmounted quickly

Hey,

We’re seeing a fairly high-volume crash on Android with rive-react-native 9.5.0.

It seems to happen with a specific loading animation that’s sometimes shown only very briefly (for example during quick transitions). We suspect it might be related to the animation being mounted and then unmounted very quickly, but we haven’t been able to reliably reproduce it locally.

It’s affecting users across all Android OS versions and different devices, no clear pattern.

Stacktrace

java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to read from field 'int android.view.View.mViewFlags' on a null object reference in method 'void android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList()'
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4559)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.recreateChildDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4587)
    at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList(ViewGroup.java:4560)
    at android.view.View.updateDisplayListIfDirty(View.java:22125)
    at android.view.ThreadedRenderer.updateViewTreeDisplayList(ThreadedRenderer.java:695)
    at android.view.ThreadedRenderer.updateRootDisplayList(ThreadedRenderer.java:701)
    at android.view.ThreadedRenderer.draw(ThreadedRenderer.java:799)
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.draw(ViewRootImpl.java:4723)
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performDraw(ViewRootImpl.java:4424)
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:3627)
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doTraversal(ViewRootImpl.java:2367)
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl$TraversalRunnable.run(ViewRootImpl.java:9232)
    at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:1336)
    at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:1344)
    at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:977)
    at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:890)
    at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:1319)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:942)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:201)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:288)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7937)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:569)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1019)

Are there any known issues around view cleanup or lifecycle on Android in 9.5.0?
And is this something that may already be fixed in a newer version?

Happy to test anything or provide more info if needed.

Thanks 🙏

Start by testing rive-react-native 9.5.0 on Android with an animation that mounts and unmounts during a quick transition, using the supplied ViewGroup.dispatchGetDisplayList stacktrace as the symptom to investigate. Inspect Android view cleanup and lifecycle handling, then compare behavior with newer versions; done means the crash is reliably reproduced and fixed or its status in a newer release is established.