Reports - Name and phone number disappear from Attendees list after reset app/relogin

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.6-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #79498
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): soidjsojnsidojsio@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.1 / Chrome
App Component: Search

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Rules are enabled.
• Attendee tracking is enabled in Rules.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to self DM.
3. Create an expense.
4. Open the expense.
5. Click Attendees field.
6. Enter name and phone number which is not in the contact list.
7. Go to Reports > Expenses.
8. Open Filters > Attendees.
   → Name and phone number in Step 6 appear in Attendees list.
9. Go to Account > Troubleshoot > Clear cache and restart > Reset and refresh or relogin.
10. Go to Reports > Expenses.
11. Open Filters > Attendees.

Expected Result:

Name and phone number in Step 6 will appear in Attendees list.

Actual Result:

Name and phone number disappear from Attendees list after reset app/relogin.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7055135_1769041293393.5.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #79498

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @brianlee-expensify (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.

[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.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #79498 - "Fix filtering attendees names in the Reports page" by @lakchote (High confidence)
Related Issues: N/A

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #79498 introduced a feature to filter by attendee names in the Reports page. However, the implementation stores name-only attendees (attendees without accountIDs) in NVP_RECENT_ATTENDEES, which is only persisted locally in Onyx and not synced with the backend. When users clear cache or relogin, this local data is lost, causing the attendee names to disappear from the filter list.

This is a data persistence issue that affects the core functionality of the attendee filter feature. A revert is recommended to prevent users from experiencing data loss when using this feature.

Labels: DeployBlockerCash will remain (App deploy is blocked). DeployBlocker will be removed (this is a frontend bug, not a backend issue).

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

PR #79498 was merged on 2026-01-21 at 16:58:43Z and is included in version 9.3.6-0 (the version where this bug was reported). The melvin-bot comment in the issue explicitly linked this PR as the cause.

Verification

The PR modifies the following key files related to attendee filtering:

• src/components/Search/SearchFiltersParticipantsSelector.tsx - Added logic to handle name-only attendees
• src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts - Modified getFilteredRecentAttendees to support name-only attendees
• src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts - Updated to store attendees using email || displayName as the unique key

Root Cause

The bug occurs due to this data flow issue:

1. Storage: When attendees are added with just a name/phone, they are stored in NVP_RECENT_ATTENDEES Onyx key (lines 4444-4452 in src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts):

optimisticData.push({
    onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.MERGE,
    key: ONYXKEYS.NVP_RECENT_ATTENDEES,
    value: lodashUnionBy(
        transactionChanges.attendees?.map(({avatarUrl, displayName, email}) => ({avatarUrl, displayName, email})),
        recentAttendees,
        (attendee) => attendee.email || attendee.displayName,
    ).slice(0, CONST.IOU.MAX_RECENT_REPORTS_TO_SHOW),
});

2. The Problem: NVP_RECENT_ATTENDEES is stored only in local Onyx storage (not synced to backend via API call). This is evident because:

   • The optimistic data push happens locally
   • There is no corresponding successData or API parameter to sync this to the server
   • When cache is cleared, all Onyx-only data is lost

3. Recovery Failure: In SearchFiltersParticipantsSelector.tsx (lines 283-336), when the page loads after cache clear:

   • It tries to reconstruct attendees from initialAccountIDs
   • For name-only attendees, it searches in recentAttendees (line 301)
   • But recentAttendees is now empty/undefined after cache clear
   • The fallback creates a minimal option (lines 308-319), but this is not properly displayed in the filter list

4. Why the fallback fails: The getFilteredRecentAttendees function expects the attendee to exist in recentAttendees array to properly format it as an option. When this array is empty, it cannot recreate the name-only attendees for display.

The fix should ensure that name-only attendees are either:

• Synced to the backend and retrieved via API (proper fix)
• Stored in a more persistent Onyx key with backend sync
• Or the filter values should only store accountIDs (not support name-only attendees until backend support exists)