What does "pending composition has not been applied" exception mean and how can it be avoided?

Question

I have a working application, but sometimes, for reasons unknown to me, the application crashes with this message:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: pending composition has not been applied

I can't find information anywhere about the occurrence of this exception, and I also don't understand how it can be avoided.

Edit #1: After some research and testing, I found out that this exception is thrown when I quickly switch between tabs in BottomNavigation (tabs contain LazyColumn)

user_13791872 · Answer

Since I don't have enough reputation to write a comment I will write it here. Maybe it helps you

I got a same error today. And if I started debugging and I was putting lot of logging rows into my code to understand what exactly causes this issue. And I figured it out what for me caused this error. There was actual problem in my code that threw exception (array index out of bounds), but it seems that somewhere recomposition catches this actual error and throws more generic error.

Simplified my code looked like this

val items = myViewModel.items.collectAsState().value
val focusRequesters = myViewModel.focusRequesters.collectAsState().value
LazyColumn() {
    items(items = items) { item ->
        // When I added new item then I got error in this line, 
        // because I forgot to add new focusRequester when I was adding new item. 
        // so it was actually array index out of bounds error
        val focusRequester = focusRequesters[item.position]
        ...
        // Code to show item
    }
    item {
         AddItemButton(myViewModel)
    }
}

And actual error that it show me in the log was this generic error.

E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.courtesy.test, PID: 27394
    java.lang.IllegalStateException: pending composition has not been applied
        at androidx.compose.runtime.CompositionImpl.drainPendingModificationsForCompositionLocked(Composition.kt:530)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.CompositionImpl.composeContent(Composition.kt:567)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.Recomposer.composeInitial$runtime_release(Recomposer.kt:811)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.ComposerImpl$CompositionContextImpl.composeInitial$runtime_release(Composer.kt:3583)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.CompositionImpl.setContent(Composition.kt:503)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState.subcomposeInto(SubcomposeLayout.kt:408)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState.subcompose(SubcomposeLayout.kt:383)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState.subcompose(SubcomposeLayout.kt:374)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState.subcompose(SubcomposeLayout.kt:363)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState$Scope.subcompose(SubcomposeLayout.kt:648)
        at androidx.compose.material.ScaffoldKt$ScaffoldLayout$1$1$1.invoke(Scaffold.kt:316)
        at androidx.compose.material.ScaffoldKt$ScaffoldLayout$1$1$1.invoke(Scaffold.kt:243)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.MeasureScope$layout$1.placeChildren(MeasureScope.kt:68)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.LayoutNodeSubcompositionsState$createMeasurePolicy$1$measure$1.placeChildren(SubcomposeLayout.kt:527)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode$layoutChildren$1.invoke(LayoutNode.kt:980)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode$layoutChildren$1.invoke(LayoutNode.kt:965)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.snapshots.Snapshot$Companion.observe(Snapshot.kt:2063)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.snapshots.SnapshotStateObserver.observeReads(SnapshotStateObserver.kt:112)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OwnerSnapshotObserver.observeReads$ui_release(OwnerSnapshotObserver.kt:78)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OwnerSnapshotObserver.observeLayoutSnapshotReads$ui_release(OwnerSnapshotObserver.kt:52)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode.layoutChildren$ui_release(LayoutNode.kt:965)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode.onNodePlaced$ui_release(LayoutNode.kt:950)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.InnerPlaceable.placeAt-f8xVGno(InnerPlaceable.kt:78)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.Placeable.access$placeAt-f8xVGno(Placeable.kt:31)
        at androidx.compose.ui.layout.Placeable$PlacementScope.place-70tqf50(Placeable.kt:370)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable.placeOuterWrapper-f8xVGno(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:158)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable.access$placeOuterWrapper-f8xVGno(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:28)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable$placeAt$1.invoke(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:146)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable$placeAt$1.invoke(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:145)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.snapshots.Snapshot$Companion.observe(Snapshot.kt:2063)
        at androidx.compose.runtime.snapshots.SnapshotStateObserver.observeReads(SnapshotStateObserver.kt:112)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OwnerSnapshotObserver.observeReads$ui_release(OwnerSnapshotObserver.kt:78)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OwnerSnapshotObserver.observeLayoutModifierSnapshotReads$ui_release(OwnerSnapshotObserver.kt:59)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable.placeAt-f8xVGno(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:145)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.OuterMeasurablePlaceable.replace(OuterMeasurablePlaceable.kt:170)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.LayoutNode.replace$ui_release(LayoutNode.kt:838)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.remeasureAndRelayoutIfNeeded(MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.kt:262)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.access$remeasureAndRelayoutIfNeeded(MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.kt:36)
        at androidx.compose.ui.node.MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.measureAndLayout(MeasureAndLayoutDelegate.kt:201)
E/AndroidRuntime:     at androidx.compose.ui.platform.AndroidComposeView.onMeasure(AndroidComposeView.android.kt:773)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at androidx.compose.ui.platform.AbstractComposeView.internalOnMeasure$ui_release(ComposeView.android.kt:298)
        at androidx.compose.ui.platform.AbstractComposeView.onMeasure(ComposeView.android.kt:285)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:6957)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:194)
        at androidx.appcompat.widget.ContentFrameLayout.onMeasure(ContentFrameLayout.java:145)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:6957)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1552)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:842)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:721)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:6957)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:194)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:6957)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureChildBeforeLayout(LinearLayout.java:1552)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.measureVertical(LinearLayout.java:842)
        at android.widget.LinearLayout.onMeasure(LinearLayout.java:721)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewGroup.measureChildWithMargins(ViewGroup.java:6957)
        at android.widget.FrameLayout.onMeasure(FrameLayout.java:194)
        at com.android.internal.policy.DecorView.onMeasure(DecorView.java:747)
        at android.view.View.measure(View.java:25466)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performMeasure(ViewRootImpl.java:3397)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.measureHierarchy(ViewRootImpl.java:2228)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:2486)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doTraversal(ViewRootImpl.java:1952)
        at android.view.ViewRootImpl$TraversalRunnable.run(ViewRootImpl.java:8171)
        at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:972)
        at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:796)
        at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:731)
        at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:957)
        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:938)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:223)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7656)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:592)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:947)

So at least for me this error was thrown when actual error happened during recomposition. Of course it would be nice if it would show me the actual error instead of this generic error.

user_8694175 · Answer

For future reference, I once came across this issue when I typed remember wrongly as rememberSavable.

user_16920947 · Answer

I think this is happening to me because I have my TabRows indicator TabPosition set to TabPosition[lazyListState.firstVisibleItemIndex], can't figure out what the solution is yet.

But I essentially want the Indicator to update with the lazy list scrolling visible items

user_9164141 · Answer

So for me the issue was that I was using two times setContent for a ComposeView

Example

I was using this

composeView.setContet {
 composeView.setContent { ... return@setContent }
}

instead I needed to just use one

composeView.setContent { ... return@setContent }

What does "pending composition has not been applied" exception mean and how can it be avoided?

4 Answers