[New Arch] RTL to LTR of vise versa Layout Direction Change Requires App Termination to Apply

[a-eid]

Description

When toggling RTL layout direction dynamically using I18nManager.forceRTL(true) or switching between languages in the system settings, the Yoga layout engine does not immediately apply the updated layout direction. Even with a forced app restart (e.g., via RNRestart), the changes are not respected.

A complete termination and relaunch of the app is required for the changes to take effect. This creates significant friction for users and developers aiming to support dynamic language and layout changes for right-to-left (RTL) languages.

Report

• I have searched existing issues and this is not a duplicate

Issues and Steps to Reproduce

Toggle RTL programmatically:

I18nManager.forceRTL(true);
I18nManager.allowRTL(true);
RNRestart.Restart();

Alternatively, change the device language to an RTL language (e.g., Arabic ) in the app settings. ( assuming you added such functionality )

Observe that the layout direction does not change immediately.

Terminate the app completely and relaunch it manually. Only then does the layout respect the RTL direction.

Expected Behavior

the layout direction should change.

Actual Behavior

the layout direction does not change.

related react-native Issue

[react-native-bot]

Warning

Missing reproducer: We could not detect a reproducible example in your issue report. Please provide either:

• If your bug is UI related: a Snack
• If your bug is build/upgrade related: a project using our Reproducer Template
• Otherwise send us a Pull Request with the RNTesterPlayground.js edited to reproduce your bug.

[NickGerleman]

Moved to RN repo since this is implementation issue with RN iOS New arch instead of Yoga layer.

[a-eid]

@NickGerleman unfortunately the RN issue is locked and I don't think there is any plans to fix this issue any time soon.
it's blocking many RTL apps from migrating to the new arch.

I thought there might be an issue with how yoga handles RTL & LTR with the new arch..

reproducer

@serhii-yalla

[Linuhusainnk]

Any update on this?

[MehadND]

Any update?

[a-eid]

@blakef are there any plans to fix this issue ? most apps are moving to the new arch, we're unable to because of this issue unfortunately. we'd appreciate if you could share some updates.

[blakef]

AFAIK there isn't work planned to fix this. PRs are always welcome.

Cc @cipolleschi, might know more.

[a-eid]

With libraries targeting only the new arch, eg: reanimated v4, unistyles v3 & shadowlist, I think this is very essential to fix.

Edit: Nitro Views will also only target the new arch.

[Linuhusainnk]

Is this issue addressed in latest version? 0.77

[blakef]

No, it isn't.