[$250] Expense - Selecting waypoints from recent list shows please select a valid address error

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: V9.3.21-3
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #80042
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): dreamnitethedragon@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Redminote 10S Android 13
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Launch app
2. Create a distance map expense in self dm
3. Open the expense
4. Go offline
5. Change the waypoints as kerala and pondy
6. Tap save
7. Tap plus icon - track distance - map
8. Tap start and select kerala from below list
9. Tap stop and select pondy from below list

Expected Result:

Selecting waypoints from recent list must not show please select a valid address error.

Actual Result:

Selecting waypoints from recent list shows please select a valid address error.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

1.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @abzokhattab

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022029611581959131748
• Upwork Job ID: 2029611581959131748
• Last Price Increase: 2026-03-05

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @mallenexpensify (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

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

When a user creates a distance expense while offline, saves waypoints, and then later selects those same waypoints from the recent waypoints list in a new distance expense, the app shows "Please select a valid address" error on each selected waypoint.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The root cause is a null-to-zero conversion in the recentWaypointsSelector function that turns missing coordinates into Null Island (lat=0, lng=0).

Here's the chain:

1. Offline waypoints lack coordinates by design. In IOURequestStepWaypoint.tsx, the renamedInputKeys prop maps lat and lng to empty strings (''), which causes AddressSearch to skip storing them in the form. When the user saves offline, values.lat and values.lng are undefined. A code comment confirms this is intentional: "the lat/long will be filled in on the backend".

2. These incomplete waypoints get saved to the recent list. saveWaypoint in Transaction.ts saves the waypoint (with undefined/null lat/lng) to NVP_RECENT_WAYPOINTS.

3. The selector converts null to 0. recentWaypointsSelector in IOURequestStepWaypoint.tsx does lat: waypoint.lat ?? 0 and lng: waypoint.lng ?? 0. The nullish coalescing operator converts null/undefined to literal 0, creating a coordinate at Null Island (0°N, 0°E).

4. Selecting the recent waypoint saves lat=0, lng=0 to the transaction. The selectWaypoint function passes these zero values through to saveWaypoint.

5. The Null Island check triggers the error. isWaypointNullIsland in TransactionUtils/index.ts returns true when lat === 0 && lng === 0, and DistanceRequestRenderItem.tsx displays "Please select a valid address".

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

In recentWaypointsSelector (src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepWaypoint.tsx), filter out waypoints that have null/undefined lat or lng values before the mapping step, rather than converting them to 0. Waypoints without valid coordinates should not appear in the recent suggestions list since they would always produce Null Island errors when selected.

The filter should check that both waypoint.lat and waypoint.lng are defined and not null (i.e., they are actual numbers) before including the waypoint in the mapped output.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

1. Don't save to recent list when offline: Skip adding waypoints to NVP_RECENT_WAYPOINTS in saveWaypoint when lat/lng are missing. This would work but is more invasive — it changes the save logic rather than the display logic, and means offline-saved addresses would never appear in recents even after the backend fills in coordinates.

2. Update recent waypoints when backend resolves coordinates: When the backend fills in lat/lng for the transaction waypoints (after coming back online), also update the corresponding NVP_RECENT_WAYPOINTS entries. This is the most complete fix but requires backend coordination and is more complex.

3. Change isWaypointNullIsland to also handle null/undefined: Make the check return true for missing coordinates, not just zero coordinates. This would prevent the specific error message but wouldn't solve the underlying problem of broken waypoints being selectable.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, or @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis.

[melvin-bot]

Current assignee @abzokhattab is eligible for the External assigner, not assigning anyone new.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022029611581959131748