[Android] popToTopOnBlur crashes with "index out of bounds for length 0" when nested native stack has 4+ screens

[IgorNovikov10]

Description

When popToTopOnBlur: true is set on a Tab.Screen whose component is a
createNativeStackNavigator, switching away from that tab crashes on Android with
a fatal IndexOutOfBoundsException if the stack has 4 or more screens pushed.
The crash does NOT occur when the stack depth is 3 or fewer screens.

Expected behavior

popToTopOnBlur pops the nested stack to its first screen (as documented),
regardless of stack depth.

Actual behavior

Fatal crash on Android:

```
java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: index 3 out of bounds for length 0
```

or

```
java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: index 2 out of bounds for length 0
```

The index in the error corresponds to the number of screens minus one. With
≤3 screens, no crash occurs.

Screen_Recording_20260329_192534_Champagne.mp4

Root cause hypothesis

popToTopOnBlur internally dispatches StackActions.popToTop() during the tab
blur event. On Android, this triggers a native fragment transaction that attempts
to pop N-1 fragments simultaneously. The fragment manager's backstack array
appears to be emptied before the pop count is resolved, causing the OOB crash.

Workaround

The only crash-free workaround found is to avoid popToTopOnBlur and instead
manually call navigateToTab (a simple CommonActions.navigate tab switch,
no stack manipulation), accepting that the previous stack state is preserved
until the user next navigates to that tab.

Environment

• react-native: 0.83.1
• react-native-screens: 4.24.0
• @react-navigation/bottom-tabs: 7.15.8
• @react-navigation/native-stack: 7.14.9
• Platform: Android only (iOS works correctly)
• Architecture: Old Architecture (Bridge)

Steps to reproduce

1. Set up a bottom tab navigator with a tab whose component is a native stack:

```jsx
<Tab.Screen
name="MyTab"
component={MyStackNavigator}
options={{ popToTopOnBlur: true }}
/>
```

2. Push 4+ screens deep into that native stack:

```js
navigation.navigate('Screen1');
navigation.navigate('Screen2');
navigation.navigate('Screen3');
navigation.navigate('Screen4'); // <-- 4th screen
```

3. Switch to any other tab programmatically via CommonActions.navigate:

```js
navigationRef.dispatch(
CommonActions.navigate({ name: 'OtherTab' })
);
```

4. App crashes on Android immediately.

Snack or a link to a repository

1

Screens version

4.24.0

React Native version

0.83.1

Platforms

Android

JavaScript runtime

None

Workflow

None

Architecture

None

Build type

None

Device

None

Device model

Samsung Galaxy S25

Acknowledgements

Yes

[github-actions]

Hey! 👋

The issue doesn't seem to contain a minimal reproduction.

Could you provide a snack or a link to a GitHub repository under your username that reproduces the problem?

[github-actions]

Hey! 👋

It looks like you've omitted a few important sections from the issue template.

Please complete Snack or a link to a repository section.

[t0maboro]

Hi @IgorNovikov10 thanks for reporting this issue. So far, I wasn't able to reproduce it with the following setup:

    "@react-navigation/bottom-tabs": "7.15.8",
    "@react-navigation/native": "^7.2.2",
    "@react-navigation/native-stack": "7.14.9",
    "react": "19.2.0",
    "react-native": "0.83.1",
    "react-native-screens": "4.24.0"

Could you take a look at this code snippet if I'm not missing anything important?

import React from 'react';
import { View, Text, Button, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import { NavigationContainer, CommonActions } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createBottomTabNavigator } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';

const Tab = createBottomTabNavigator();
const Stack = createNativeStackNavigator();

function Screen1({ navigation }: any) {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Screen 1</Text>
      <Button
        title="Push Screen 2"
        onPress={() => navigation.navigate('Screen2')}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

function Screen2({ navigation }: any) {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Screen 2</Text>
      <Button
        title="Push Screen 3"
        onPress={() => navigation.navigate('Screen3')}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

function Screen3({ navigation }: any) {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Screen 3</Text>
      <Button
        title="Push Screen 4"
        onPress={() => navigation.navigate('Screen4')}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

function Screen4({ navigation }: any) {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Screen 4</Text>
      <Button
        title="Switch to Other Tab & Crash"
        color="red"
        onPress={() => {
          navigation.dispatch(CommonActions.navigate({ name: 'OtherTab' }));
        }}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

function MyStackNavigator() {
  return (
    <Stack.Navigator>
      <Stack.Screen name="Screen1" component={Screen1} />
      <Stack.Screen name="Screen2" component={Screen2} />
      <Stack.Screen name="Screen3" component={Screen3} />
      <Stack.Screen name="Screen4" component={Screen4} />
    </Stack.Navigator>
  );
}

function OtherTabScreen() {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.text}>Other Tab</Text>
      <Text>If you see this, it didn't crash!</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

export default function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Tab.Navigator>
        <Tab.Screen
          name="MyTab"
          component={MyStackNavigator}
          options={{
            popToTopOnBlur: true,
            headerShown: false,
          }}
        />
        <Tab.Screen name="OtherTab" component={OtherTabScreen} />
      </Tab.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
    padding: 20,
    gap: 10,
  },
  text: {
    fontSize: 18,
    fontWeight: 'bold',
  },
});

thanks in advance!