useEffect not called in React Native when back to screen

Question

How are you. This is scenario of this issue. Let's say there are 2 screens to make it simple.

1. enter A screen. useEffect of A screen called.
2. navigate to B screen from A screen

3. navigate back to A screen from B. at this time, useEffect is not called.

   function CompanyComponent(props) {
   
      const [roleID, setRoleID] = useState(props.user.SELECTED_ROLE.id)
   
      useEffect(()=>{ 
   
    // this called only once when A screen(this component) loaded,  
    // but when comeback to this screen, it doesn't called
      setRoleID(props.user.SELECTED_ROLE.id)
    }, [props.user])
   }
   

So the updated state of Screen A remain same when comeback to A screen again (Not loading from props)

I am not changing props.user in screen B. But I think const [roleID, setRoleID] = useState(props.user.SELECTED_ROLE.id) this line should be called at least.

I am using redux-persist. I think this is not a problem. For navigation, I use this

// to go first screen A, screen B
function navigate(routeName, params) {
    _navigator.dispatch(
        NavigationActions.navigate({
            routeName,
            params,
        })
    );
}
// when come back to screen A from B
function goBack() {
    _navigator.dispatch(
        NavigationActions.back()
    );
}

Is there any callback I can use when the screen appears? What is wrong with my code?

Thanks

Answer 1

Below solution worked for me:

import React, { useEffect } from "react";
import { useIsFocused } from "@react-navigation/native";

const ExampleScreen = (props) => {
    const isFocused = useIsFocused();

    useEffect(() => {
        console.log("called");
 
        // Call only when screen open or when back on screen 
        if(isFocused){ 
            getInitialData();
        }
    }, [props, isFocused]);

    const getInitialData = async () => {}    

    return (
        ......
        ......
    )
}

I've used react navigation 5+

@react-navigation/native": "5.6.1"

Answer 2

When you navigate from A to B, component A is not destroyed (it stays in the navigation stack). Therefore, when you navigate back the code does not run again.

Perhaps a better way to acheive what you want to to use the navigation lifecycle events (I am assuming you are using react-navigation) I.e. subscribe to the didFocus event and run whatever code you want whenever the component is focussed E.g

const unsubscribe = props.navigation.addListener('didFocus', () => {
    console.log('focussed');
});

Don't forget to unsubscribe when appropriate e.g.

// sometime later perhaps when the component is unmounted call the function returned from addListener. In this case it was called unsubscribe
unsubscribe();