🐛 Bug Report: getCredentials() returns empty, hasValidCredentials() false even when user is logged in

[NikulVnnovate57]

Checklist

• The issue can be reproduced in the react-native-auth0 sample app (or N/A).
• I have looked into the Readme, Examples, and FAQ and have not found a suitable solution or answer.
• I have looked into the API documentation and have not found a suitable solution or answer.
• I have searched the issues and have not found a suitable solution or answer.
• I have searched the Auth0 Community forums and have not found a suitable solution or answer.
• I agree to the terms within the Auth0 Code of Conduct.

Description

📱 Environment:

• Platform: iOS
• Device: iPhone 16 Pro

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🔍 Issue Summary:

We have a hidden Admin/Secret screen in our app to log Auth0 and token info for debugging.

Sometimes after login, we encounter the following:

• hasValidCredentials() → returns false
• getCredentials() → returns nothing (no token)
• Auth0Loading → false
• Auth0 Error → The stored credentials instance does not contain a refresh token.
• User Token and Token Expire At → not found

However, once the app is closed and reopened, everything works fine again. All values are populated, and hasValidCredentials() returns true.

This issue is very hard to reproduce and happens very rarely — but it's a critical problem because we rely on hasValidCredentials() to determine login state. If it’s false, we show the login screen — even if the user is already logged in.

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🧪 What we’re seeing:

Auth0 Valid Credentials: false
Auth0 Error: The stored credentials instance does not contain a refresh token.
Auth0 Loading: false
User Token: Token not found from Auth 0
Token Expire At: Token Expiry not found from Auth 0

This was captured on our in-app admin screen.

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🖼 Screenshot:

(Attached separately)

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❓ Expected Behavior:

• If a user has successfully logged in and we haven't cleared the session, getCredentials() should return the token.
• hasValidCredentials() should return true unless the token is expired or manually cleared.

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❌ Problems:

• We're not using refresh tokens.
• If token is expired, we logout the user.
• But the above state is being returned while Auth0Loading = false, meaning we are not in a loading state either.

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Reproduction

🔁 Reproduction Steps:

1. Open the app (fresh install or already logged in).
2. At app start, we do the following check to verify login state:

const credentials = await getCredentials();  // supposed to return access token
const isValidUser = await hasValidCredentials();  // expected to return true if user is logged in

3. If isValidUser is true, we assume the user is logged in and navigate inside the app.

4. After that, we log all relevant details in our secret Admin screen:

   • Auth0 Valid Credentials
   • Auth0 Error
   • Auth0 Loading
   • User Token
   • Token Expire At

5. ❗ Bug:

   • getCredentials() → returns no token
   • hasValidCredentials() → returns false
   • error shows: The stored credentials instance does not contain a refresh token.
   • user object does contain data like name, email, etc.

6. Now, if the user kills and reopens the app, everything works as expected:

   • hasValidCredentials() → true
   • getCredentials() → returns token
   • No error, all values are populated correctly

This issue occurs rarely and is very difficult to reproduce but impacts user experience significantly when it does.

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Additional context

No response

react-native-auth0 version

^4.6.0

React Native version

0.79.2

Expo version

No response

Platform

iOS

Platform version(s)

Latest IOS

[subhankarmaiti]

Hi @NikulVnnovate57 ,
Are you trying with 4.6.0 with your RN version 0.79.2?
It seems there may be some race conditions in your implementation, causing us to attempt accessing credentials before they are stored. Please review your implementation to see if that’s the case.

Is it only for IOS?

[NikulVnnovate57]

We are currently focused primarily on iOS, so we haven't tested this issue extensively on Android yet.

Yes, we are using:

"react-native-auth0": "^4.6.0"

"react-native": "0.79.2"

[subhankarmaiti]

The version you’re currently using isn’t recommended for React Native 0.79.2.
Are you using the new architecture or the old one?
I’d suggest trying our latest beta release, which includes Turbo Module support, and see if that resolves your issue.

[NikulVnnovate57]

We are using the new architecture in React Native. Could you please confirm which version of react-native-auth0 is recommended this one 4.6.0 or any other ?

[subhankarmaiti]

Please use v5.0.0-beta.2, until we release v5.0.0-beta.5 version.

[NikulVnnovate57]

@subhankarmaiti Thanks. I'll check

[bruno-at-breezy]

had the same issue

[NikulVnnovate57]

@subhankarmaiti Faced this issue again using stable version 4.6.0

[NikulVnnovate57]

@subhankarmaiti Another user is also facing the same issue. Is there any update on this?

[mraoxy]

Had the same issue here. I am using the 5.0.0.-beta.4 version.

"expo": "^53.0.20",
"react-native": "0.79.5"

Platform: iOS 18.6.1

[subhankarmaiti]

@mraoxy @NikulVnnovate57
Could you please share a code snippet that reproduces the error? I tested the scenario as described, but I wasn’t able to reproduce it on my end.

[robinclaes]

We have the same issue but no consistent reproduction steps.
Feels like a race condition. For us it happens super randomly.

Hard to provide a code snippet because it seems a bug with the internals of this library.

On 5.0.0-beta.5