Expo on iOS is constantly refreshing my React Native app on MacOS, caused by Dropbox / iCloud

Question

I'm building a simple React Native app and using the Expo iOS app to run it. But Expo is constantly refreshing my app, making it unusable / untestable. It refreshes every few seconds, sometimes multiple times a second, when I haven't changed anything. The only times when there is enough of a break between refreshes for me to test out the app is when, in my terminal, the app decides to rebuild (Again, nothing changed) and takes a few seconds to rebuild the bundle.

I set up the app using create-react-native-app and run it with npm start -- I've changed nothing else, besides adding a few components.

I've tried quitting my IDE (Sublime) and changing to a stronger wifi network.

I'm developing on macOS Sierra 10.12.2 and running on an iPhone 6S.

Luke Knepper · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-28T22:38:00.777

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It turns out this happened because my app's code was stored inside a Dropbox folder. (The same applies to iCloud backups.)

I guess that Dropbox's / iCloud's syncing interferes with watchman or other Expo / React Native internals.

I solved the problem by removing the app's directory from my Dropbox folder.

edited Jan 28 '18 at 22:38

answered Jul 07 '17 at 19:15

Luke Knepper

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Same problem with iCloud. Took me hours before I found the solution here. Thanks! – Daniel Tovesson Jan 28 '18 at 15:25
For iCloud backups, waiting until the backup is close to complete solves the problem as well. – Shamar Yarde Oct 08 '18 at 01:09
You can also just pause Dropbox syncing, then re-enable when you are done with development, which I chose to do in order to keep my project with all my other dev work on Dropbox. – Jeremy Mullin Jan 04 '19 at 11:46

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 09:43

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For all the people who have this problem on Mac because of iCloud downloading the folder, if you rename a folder to "tmp" then iCloud will skip it.

answered Dec 12 '19 at 09:43

Oscar Hedeby Iversen

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 07 '17 at 20:52

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Do you have watchman installed?

The React Native packager ("metro bundler") watches your app directory for changes and reloads the app whenever a file is changed in the directory, oddly this doesn't cause any problems for me when I use Dropbox, though.

answered Jul 07 '17 at 20:52

brentvatne

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I had `watchman` as a local dep and also tried it with and without watchman as a global dep (`npm install -g watchman`). I didn't try installing watchman with brew, though. – Luke Knepper Jul 10 '17 at 23:05
It only seems to happen on a Dropbox folder while the files in the RN app folder are actively syncing to Dropbox. If you pause syncing the behavior stops. If you resume syncing the behavior starts again. – Matthew Snyder Dec 20 '18 at 22:43

Expo on iOS is constantly refreshing my React Native app on MacOS, caused by Dropbox / iCloud

3 Answers3