React Hooks setInterval memory leak

Question

I have created a countdown timer component that passes the data to another component, and I use setTimeout. The component works as expected but an warning appears in my console:

Warning: Can't perform a React state update on an unmounted component. This is a no-op, but it indicates a memory leak in your application. To fix, cancel all subscriptions and asynchronous tasks in a useEffect cleanup function.

As I use setTimeout in useEffect I tried to add clearInterval in a return function, but this doesn't seem to help. Bellow you can find my component:

export default function createEvent(WrappedComponent) {
  const Event = props => {
    const [{ endDate }] = useState(props);
    const [days, setDays] = useState('');
    const [hours, setHours] = useState('');
    const [minutes, setMinutes] = useState('');
    const [seconds, setSeconds] = useState('');

    const interval = useRef();

    useEffect(() => {
      interval.current = setInterval(() => {
        const date = moment.unix(endDate).format('MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
        const then = moment(date, 'MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
        const now = moment();
        const countdown = moment(then - now);
        const daysFormat = countdown.format('D');
        const hoursFormat = countdown.format('HH');
        const minutesFormat = countdown.format('mm');
        const secondsFormat = countdown.format('ss');

        setDays(`${daysFormat} days`);
        setHours(hoursFormat);
        setMinutes(minutesFormat);
        setSeconds(secondsFormat);

        return () => {
          clearInterval(interval.current);
          interval.current = null;
        };
      }, 1000);
    }, []);

    return (
      <WrappedComponent
        days={days}
        hours={hours}
        minutes={minutes}
        seconds={seconds}
        {...props}
      />
    );
  };

  return Event;
}

If I try to imitate clear from somewhere else place by adding another useEffect right under the last one, like so:

  useEffect(() => {
    setTimeout(() => clearInterval(interval.current), 15000)
  }, [])

Warning disappears but the countdown will not working any more. So how do I make this right, to not affect the countdown and clear the warning?

Answer 1

The clean up function for a useEffect hook [1] needs to be returned from the function you give to useEffect. You are returning your clean up function in the function you give to setInterval.

useEffect(() => {
  interval.current = setInterval(() => {
    const date = moment.unix(endDate).format('MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
    const then = moment(date, 'MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
    const now = moment();
    const countdown = moment(then - now);
    const daysFormat = countdown.format('D');
    const hoursFormat = countdown.format('HH');
    const minutesFormat = countdown.format('mm');
    const secondsFormat = countdown.format('ss');

    setDays(`${daysFormat} days`);
    setHours(hoursFormat);
    setMinutes(minutesFormat);
    setSeconds(secondsFormat);
  }, 1000);

  // move clean up function to here:
  return () => {
    clearInterval(interval.current);
    interval.current = null;
  };
}, []);

[1] https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-effect.html

Answer 2

You don't need createRef for effects. and return should be after the interval.

useEffect(() => {
      const timer = setInterval(() => {
        const date = moment.unix(endDate).format('MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
        const then = moment(date, 'MM DD YYYY, h:mm a');
        const now = moment();
        const countdown = moment(then - now);
        const daysFormat = countdown.format('D');
        const hoursFormat = countdown.format('HH');
        const minutesFormat = countdown.format('mm');
        const secondsFormat = countdown.format('ss');

        setDays(`${daysFormat} days`);
        setHours(hoursFormat);
        setMinutes(minutesFormat);
        setSeconds(secondsFormat);

      }, 1000);

       return () => {
          clearInterval(timer);
        };
    }, []);