Uniwind styles not updated on frozen screens after device theme change

[hayata-suenaga]

What happened?

When inactive screens are frozen (via enableFreeze(true) from react-native-screens or freezeOnBlur: true on expo-router/react-navigation screens), changing the device color scheme on one screen and navigating to another can show stale styles. The screen active during the color-scheme change updates correctly, but frozen screens may keep the previous theme styles.

Affected platforms: iOS and Android (real devices and simulators/emulators, development and production builds).

Suspected cause

Uniwind Pro applies theme-driven style updates by mutating the Shadow Tree directly, bypassing React's reconciliation. When freezeOnBlur (or enableFreeze) is active, react-native-screens freezes inactive screens, which likely prevents the C++ engine from delivering those shadow tree mutations to frozen screens. When the screen is unfrozen on navigation, the pending updates are never replayed.

Workaround

Disable freezeOnBlur / enableFreeze. This is undesirable in larger apps where screen freezing is important for performance.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create an app with at least two navigable screens (e.g. tabs/stack) styled with dark/light variants.
2. Enable screen freezing (enableFreeze(true) in react-native-screens or freezeOnBlur: true on navigator screens).
3. Open Screen A and change the device/system color scheme (light ↔ dark).
4. Confirm Screen A updates correctly.
5. Navigate to Screen B.
6. Observe Screen B still uses styles from the previous color scheme.

Snack or Repository Link (Optional)

https://github.com/hayata-suenaga/uniwind-bug-1

Uniwind version

uniwind-pro 1.0.0-rc.6

React Native Version

0.83.2

Platforms

iOS, Android

Expo

Yes

Additional information

• I've searched for similar issues in this repository and found none
• I am a Uniwind Pro user

[jpudysz]

This is the final boss of ShadowTree architecture. I'm on it

[jpudysz]

Hey @hayata-suenaga, I prepared an experimental build for you. This is the latest rc.6 with a PR for suspended worktree support. Can you update the version in your package.json to 1.0.0-rc.6-22032026 and test it?

You need to clear metro cache and rebuild.

I want to make sure it works and doesn't break anything before making it public.
Thanks!

[hayata-suenaga]

Hi @jpudysz, thank you for putting this together so quickly! I tested 1.0.0-rc.6-22032026 in my minimal reproducible example and the original issue is fixed 🎉

You can check the test in this PR in the MRE repo.

I also tested it in my actual project and the fix is confirmed there too. However, I noticed a potential regression that wasn't present in versions before the release candidate — when switching themes, some components lag behind in reflecting the new theme, rather than all components updating simultaneously as before. I've attached a video of this below.

It's currently late here so I'm heading to bed, but I can try to put together another minimal reproducible example for this potential regression tomorrow.

Really appreciate the effort!

recording.mov

[jpudysz]

Thanks for the confirmation ☺️ I think i know why you see this lag.

Btw. can you try to use any preset?
https://docs.uniwind.dev/pro/theme-transitions

I assume you dont use any preset in the video.

[jpudysz]

Can you try 1.0.0-rc.6-24032026?

[hayata-suenaga]

I'm sorry for the late response. I updated the Uniwind version to "uniwind": "npm:uniwind-pro@1.0.0-rc.6-24032026" and updated the code to use one of the preset theme transitions when calling Uniwind.setTheme.

The original issue of a frozen screen not reflecting a newly-toggled theme when refocused is still resolved in the new RC version. However, lags across components when applying themes on a screen are still present.

This occurs when the transition is triggered by a preference change at the OS level. As per the documentation, preset transitions cannot be used for OS-level theme changes.

This only animates Uniwind’s in-app theme changes. The system dark/light mode transition (triggered by Control Center or Settings) happens instantly at the OS level before the app receives the notification, so users won’t see that transition regardless.

[hayata-suenaga]

This is the screen in which one of the preset theme transition animation can be used.

with-preset.mov

This is the recording that slows the lags when a theme transition is triggered by OS-level preference change.

os-driven.mov

Both examples are from a build that uses the latest RC 1.0.0-rc.6-24032026

[divineniiquaye]

@jpudysz Please the regression and this exact issue is also happening in the uniwind oss verisons, I started experiencing it from v1.5.0.

I've freezeOnBlur / enableFreeze enabled.

Simulator.Screen.Recording.-.iPhone.17.-.2026-03-26.at.09.58.40.mov

[jpudysz]

It has nothing to do with Pro. Pro uses Shadow Tree, here OSS version just re-renders everything.
Not sure why you see the lag

[jpudysz]

@Brentlok any idea what changed since 1.5.0?