Setting caretHidden for a TextInput component on iOS (iPhone SE 3) causes continuous metal rendering errors

[mariovisic]

Description

Setting the caretHidden prop on a <TextInput> component when rendered on iOS results in an error that spams the iOS logs (~ 20-30 times per second):

Surface 1073741823 x 1073741823 is too large

As the error is generated so frequently this creates a lot of activity on the app. In my use case this is causing XCUITest to wait continuously for the app to be idle which never happens, so our end to end tests tend to stall when displaying a text input with a hidden caret.

We are using the iPhone SE 3 in the simulator for our testing which shows the error, it does not seem to occur with the iPhone 17 Pro, I haven't tested other phones but the obvious difference is the home button on the SE 3. I was able to reproduce this problem on a fresh v0.87 metro app with a single text input.

I believe this may be due to calculations that use the caret position that run even though the caret is not displayed, though I'm not 100% sure.

RCTUITextField.mm (for single line input) and RCTUITextView.mm for multi line input both set the caret to CGRectZero which would give it dimensions and size of 0, which I could see causing the problem, though I'm not sure what code is using these values for calculations.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install the app with npm install
2. Run the app on iOS on the iPhone SE 3 with npm run ios -- --simulator="iPhone SE 3"
3. Open the Console.app and start viewing logs for the simulator (you can filter by metal to make the error more clear)
4. Focus the input field by tapping on it
5. Check the errors in the console app

React Native Version

0.87.1

Affected Platforms

Runtime - iOS

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info

System:
 OS: macOS 26.6.2
 CPU: (14) arm64 Apple M4 Pro
 Memory: 435.84 MB / 48.00 GB
 Shell:
 version: "5.9"
 path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
 Node:
 version: 24.11.0
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.0/bin/node
 Yarn:
 version: 1.22.22
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.0/bin/yarn
 npm:
 version: 11.6.1
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.0/bin/npm
 Watchman:
 version: 2026.01.12.00
 path: /opt/homebrew/bin/watchman
Managers:
 CocoaPods:
 version: 1.16.2
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/installs/ruby/3.4.8/bin/pod
SDKs:
 iOS SDK:
 Platforms:
 - DriverKit 25.2
 - iOS 26.2
 - macOS 26.2
 - tvOS 26.2
 - visionOS 26.2
 - watchOS 26.2
 Android SDK:
 API Levels:
 - "29"
 - "33"
 - "35"
 - "36"
 Build Tools:
 - 33.0.2
 - 35.0.0
 - 36.0.0
 System Images:
 - android-28 | Google APIs ARM 64 v8a
 - android-29 | Google APIs ARM 64 v8a
 Android NDK: Not Found
IDEs:
 Android Studio: 2025.3 AI-253.32098.37.2534.15336583
 Xcode:
 version: 26.2/17C52
 path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
 Java:
 version: javac 17
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/shims/javac
 Ruby:
 version: 3.4.8
 path: /Users/mario/.local/share/mise/installs/ruby/3.4.8/bin/ruby
npmPackages:
 "@react-native-community/cli":
 installed: 20.2.0
 wanted: 20.2.0
 react:
 installed: 19.2.3
 wanted: 19.2.3
 react-native:
 installed: 0.87.1
 wanted: 0.87.1
 react-native-macos: Not Found
npmGlobalPackages:
 "*react-native*": Not Found
Android:
 hermesEnabled: true
 newArchEnabled: true
iOS:
 hermesEnabled: true
 newArchEnabled: true

Stacktrace or Logs

Subsystem: com.apple.coreanimation
Category: Metal
Surface 1073741823 x 1073741823 is too large

MANDATORY Reproducer

https://github.com/mariovisic/react-native-example-ios-carret-error

Screenshots and Videos

[levibuzolic]

Gave this a bit of a test.

• Appears to only happen on iOS 17 (or earlier), not related to device. The same iPhone SE 3 simulator produced errors on iOS 17.2 but none on iOS 18.0 or 26.5.
• As reported, only single-line inputs are affected. RCTUITextView uses the same CGRectZero override for multiline inputs but produced no errors.
• Only happens when the caret moves. An idle, focused field produced no errors. Errors start once typing begins.
• React Native is not the source of the rendering fault. A small UIKit app reproduced it with a UITextField subclass that returned CGRectZero.

I have a PR incoming with a potential fix using tintColor, just trying to work out if the fix should be targetted to iOS 17 only or be used everywhere.