// Guidelines for upgrading Expo SDK versions and fixing dependency issues
Add an iOS App Clip target to an Expo app. Use when the user mentions App Clip, AASA, apple-app-site-association, appclips, smart app banner, or wants to ship a lightweight iOS Clip invoked from a URL alongside their parent app.
Integrate Expo and React Native into an existing native iOS or Android app. Use when the user mentions brownfield, embedding React Native in a native app, AAR/XCFramework, or adding Expo to an existing Kotlin/Swift project. Covers both the isolated approach and the integrated approach.
Guide for creating and writing Expo native modules and views using the Expo Modules API (Swift, Kotlin, TypeScript). Covers module definition DSL, native views, shared objects, config plugins, lifecycle hooks, autolinking, and type system. Use when building or modifying native modules for Expo.
Check the health of published EAS Updates: crash rates, install/launch counts, unique users, payload size, and the split between embedded and OTA users per channel. Use when the user asks how an update is performing, whether a rollout is healthy, how many users are on the embedded build vs OTA, or wants to gate CI on update health.
`@expo/ui/jetpack-compose` package lets you use Jetpack Compose Views and modifiers in your app.
`@expo/ui/swift-ui` package lets you use SwiftUI Views and modifiers in your app.
| name | upgrading-expo |
| description | Guidelines for upgrading Expo SDK versions and fixing dependency issues |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| license | MIT |
@react-navigation/* imports to expo-router entry points (codemod + manual mapping)Beta versions use .preview suffix (e.g., 55.0.0-preview.2), published under @next tag.
Check if latest is beta: https://exp.host/--/api/v2/versions (look for -preview in expoVersion)
npx expo install expo@next --fix # install beta
npx expo install expo@latest
npx expo install --fix
Run diagnostics: npx expo-doctor
Clear caches and reinstall
npx expo export -p ios --clear
rm -rf node_modules .expo
watchman watch-del-all
First check if ios/ and android/ directories exist in the project. If neither directory exists, the project uses Continuous Native Generation (CNG) and native projects are regenerated at build time — skip this section and "Clear caches for bare workflow" entirely.
If upgrading requires native changes:
npx expo prebuild --clean
This regenerates the ios and android directories. Ensure the project is not a bare workflow app before running this command.
These steps only apply when ios/ and/or android/ directories exist in the project:
cd ios && pod install --repo-updatenpx expo run:ios --no-build-cachecd android && ./gradlew clean"experiments": { "reactCompiler": true } to app.json — it's stable and recommendedapp.json to let Expo manage it automaticallypackage.json: @babel/core, babel-preset-expo, expo-constants.| Old Package | Replacement |
|---|---|
expo-av | expo-audio and expo-video |
expo-permissions | Individual package permission APIs |
@expo/vector-icons | expo-symbols (for SF Symbols) |
AsyncStorage | expo-sqlite/localStorage/install |
expo-app-loading | expo-splash-screen |
| expo-linear-gradient | experimental_backgroundImage + CSS gradients in View |
When migrating deprecated packages, update all code usage before removing the old package. For expo-av, consult the migration references to convert Audio.Sound to useAudioPlayer, Audio.Recording to useAudioRecorder, and Video components to VideoView with useVideoPlayer.
Check if package.json has excluded packages:
{
"expo": { "install": { "exclude": ["react-native-reanimated"] } }
}
Exclusions are often workarounds that may no longer be needed after upgrading. Review each one.
Check if there are any outdated patches in the patches/ directory. Remove them if they are no longer needed.
autoprefixer isn't needed in SDK +53. Remove it from dependencies and check postcss.config.js or postcss.config.mjs to remove it from the plugins list.postcss.config.mjs in SDK +53.Remove redundant metro config options:
experimentalImportSupport is enabled by default in SDK +54.EXPO_USE_FAST_RESOLVER=1 is removed in SDK +54.Since SDK 55, users can opt-in to use Hermes engine v1 for improved runtime performance. This requires setting useHermesV1: true in the expo-build-properties config plugin, and may require a specific version of the hermes-compiler npm package. Hermes v1 will become a default in some future SDK release.
The new architecture is enabled by default, the app.json field "newArchEnabled": true is no longer needed as it's the default. Expo Go only supports the new architecture as of SDK +53.