useLayoutEffect and server rendering

uselayouteffect-ssr.md

If you use server rendering, keep in mind that neither useLayoutEffect nor useEffect can run until the JavaScript is downloaded.

You might see a warning if you try to useLayoutEffect on the server. Here's two common ways to fix it.

Option 1: Convert to useEffect

If this effect isn't important for first render (i.e. if the UI still looks valid before it runs), then useEffect instead.

function MyComponent() {
  useEffect(() => {
    // ...
  });
}

Like useLayoutEffect, it won't run on the server, but it also won't warn.

Option 2: Lazily show component with useLayoutEffect

If UI looks broken with useEffect but gets fixed by useLayoutEffect, it means that this component doesn't look right until the effect runs. However, that means the server-rendered HTML version of it won't look right until JavaScript loads anyway. So server-rendering it brings no benefit and shows a confusing UI.

To fix this, you can delay showing that component until after the client side JS loads and hydrates the component. To exclude a Child that needs layout effects from the server-rendered HTML, you can render it conditionally:

function Parent() {
  const [showChild, setShowChild] = useState(false);
  
  // Wait until after client-side hydration to show
  useEffect(() => {
    setShowChild(true);
  }, []);
  
  if (!showChild) {
    // You can show some kind of placeholder UI here
    return null;
  }

  return <Child {...props} />;
}

function Child(props) {
  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    // This is where your layout effect logic can be
  });
}

For example, this is handy for jQuery plugins which can be initialized later.

---

If you have some use case that isn't covered, please report a complete minimal code example here and we'll try to help.

Just put this in pages/_app.js or some other top-level place:

// suppress useLayoutEffect warnings when running outside a browser
if (!process.browser) React.useLayoutEffect = React.useEffect;

useLayoutEffect and useEffect have the same argument signature, and neither runs if we're not in a browser. So if we're not in a browser it's safe to globally replace the one that triggers warnings with the one that doesn't.

(If you don't want to rely on the process global, if (typeof window === 'undefined') works too.)

Edit: the above still works, but replacing with () => {} is probably clearer.

this worked for me! but it is showing .browser is depreciated!

Just put this in pages/_app.js or some other top-level place:

// suppress useLayoutEffect warnings when running outside a browser
if (!process.browser) React.useLayoutEffect = React.useEffect;

useLayoutEffect and useEffect have the same argument signature, and neither runs if we're not in a browser. So if we're not in a browser it's safe to globally replace the one that triggers warnings with the one that doesn't.
(If you don't want to rely on the process global, if (typeof window === 'undefined') works too.)
Edit: the above still works, but replacing with () => {} is probably clearer.

this worked for me! but it is showing .browser is depreciated!

You could use typeof window === undefined instead of !process.browser. It's recommended way now.

useLayoutEffect

https://usehooks-ts.com/react-hook/use-isomorphic-layout-effect

After learning a lot more about hooks and the lifecycle of SSR with those hooks, I think it is important to mention that useEffect and useLayoutEffect will always run after initial load from the server (I did not get this for some reason the first few times I was on this thread!). This means that whatever you choose to SSR render, will simply render as whatever you put in your return (…) first. Then, your useLayoutEffect will run and then your useEffect. But these happen after your component is already being shown to the user! The lifecycle of useLayoutEffect running before anything has rendered has changed in SSR.

My main use of using useLayoutEffect was the affect height of elements based on window size before they were rendered by SSR, but that is not possible—they have to first render by SSR, which does not have access to the window! If you want something to change visually based on some browser/window state and variables before it is rendered, you cannot use useLayoutEffect or useEffect! The component will first render from server and then run these hooks, leading to size flickering, etc.

For me, it boils down to three options:

1. Change useLayoutEffect to useEffect: This is important because useEffect you can add css transitions to make the re-sizing less jarring and almost unnoticeable. With useLayoutEffect, these transitions often run less smoothly due to the way the hook works. Source: https://blog.thoughtspile.tech/2021/11/15/unintentional-layout-effect/
2. Simply dynamically import the component as a client component only, making useLayoutEffect actually run before first render of the component! (However, the client component renders after server rendered components, making it flicker in if you do not animate it in :( )
3. Lazily show component with useLayoutEffect: This is nearly the same as the approach as I just mentioned in the previous option and the result is nearly the same. Also, it will flicker in unless you animate it in. The main difference with this approach is that the code for the component is not dynamically imported, so it will be bundled (but not show!) with the first render. This approach also seems easier to add animations to.

With SSR, both useLayoutEffect and useEffect run after your first render from the server, so I don’t really see any reason for someone needing to use useLayoutEffect.

For some reason, I just did not grasp this when I first was dealing with this, and came up with many convoluted workarounds. Hopefully this word dump will help someone.

I just came into a same place like your description, and finally I had to use dynamic and set {ssr:false} in my Next.js app to presever useLayoutEffect. I agree with you that in the situation where useLayoutEffect is needed, mostly it can't be replaced by useEffect.

thanks Dan!!!!

It should be noticed the warning is removed for the upcoming versions.
See PR from the last week [Remove layout effect warning on the server #26395]:
facebook/react#26395

Everyone is discussing this issue in context of testing. I am seeing this issue due to integrations with non-react library (e.g. leaflet). I'd like to use IconButton and Avatar from material UI as marker on the map. The only solution from leaflet perspective to use DivIcon but it requires to render React Elements to string

const html = new L.DivIcon({
    className: 'my-div-ico',
    html: ReactDOMServer.renderToString(
       <IconButton>
          <Avatar>My</Avatar>
       </IconButton>
    ),
    ...
  })

Are there any suggestions about eliminating the warning in this case? None of proposals discussed in this thread do not work.

Hi @fogfish , have you been able to solve this? I've the same problem.

Thanks

did you find a solution to this? I'm in running into the same issue

So if we're on React 18.2.0 and still seeing this error what does that mean given that a "fix" was supposedly merged?

So if we're on React 18.2.0 and still seeing this error what does that mean given that a "fix" was supposedly merged?

I also having the same issue as you

i notice 18.2 is released on 2022, and the code is merged on 2023
so it is just a matter of time if React is releasing a new version anytime soon... or not

@Viktorherald thanks, hadn't noticed the dates. waiting patiently!

A better solution is to use an isomorphic effect.

hooks.ts:

import { useEffect, useLayoutEffect } from 'react'

export const useIsomorphicLayoutEffect = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? useLayoutEffect : useEffect

Component.tsx:

import { useIsomorphicLayoutEffect } from 'hooks.ts'

const Component = () => {
	// Server? useEffect(). Client? useLayoutEffect() 🎉
	useIsomorphicLayoutEffect(() => {})

	return <p>Cool component</p>
}

If you're going to be using a lot of these hooks, you can also just npm i usehooks-ts.

A better solution is to use an isomorphic effect.

This works great, thanks for sharing!

A better solution is to use an isomorphic effect.

hooks.ts:

import { useEffect, useLayoutEffect } from 'react'

export const useIsomorphicLayoutEffect = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? useLayoutEffect : useEffect

Component.tsx:

import { useIsomorphicLayoutEffect } from 'hooks.ts'

const Component = () => {
	// Server? useEffect(). Client? useLayoutEffect() 🎉
	useIsomorphicLayoutEffect(() => {})

	return <p>Cool component</p>
}

If you're going to be using a lot of these hooks, you can also just npm i usehooks-ts.

I use this, works great!

A better solution is to use an isomorphic effect.

hooks.ts:

import { useEffect, useLayoutEffect } from 'react'

export const useIsomorphicLayoutEffect = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? useLayoutEffect : useEffect

Component.tsx:

import { useIsomorphicLayoutEffect } from 'hooks.ts'

const Component = () => {
	// Server? useEffect(). Client? useLayoutEffect() 🎉
	useIsomorphicLayoutEffect(() => {})

	return <p>Cool component</p>
}

If you're going to be using a lot of these hooks, you can also just npm i usehooks-ts.

Thank you!

This solved my problem as well 🙏

just because useLayoutEffect is called does not mean that the display will not look correct unless useLayoutEffect can run, otherwise if this were the case the whole concept of Progressive enhancement would not make sense.

What about this :

import { useLayoutEffect } from "react";
import tenoxui from "tenoxui";
import property from "@tenoxui/property";

const App = () => {
  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    // add tenoxui
    tenoxui(property); // use default property
  }, []);
  return <h1 className="tc-red">Hello World!</h1>;
};

export default App;

Code above is a simple react app using a css framework called tenoxui. It using useLayoutEffect to make sure the style will applied immediately 😅. It's work fast and perfectly fine on vite + react, I want to implement the same thing on nextjs (I am new on nextjs 😭). This is my code :

// utils/styler.ts

import { useLayoutEffect } from "react";
import tenoxui, { makeStyles, use } from "tenoxui";
import property from "@tenoxui/property";

export function styler() {
  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    use(property, { c: "color" });
    makeStyles({
      body: "bg-#0d0d0d",
      main: "p-2rem mh-auto w-mx-1440px",
      ".c-primary": "tc-$primary",
      ".flex-center": "d-flex flex-parent-center"
    });
    tenoxui();
  }, []);
}

// components/Main.tsx

import React from "react";
import { styler } from "@/utils/styler";

const Main = () => {
  styler();
  return (
    <main>
      <h1 className="c-primary">It works!</h1>
      <div className="box-100px bg-$primary flex-center br-4px">
        <p className="tx-#0d0d0d fw-500">It works!</p>
      </div>
    </main>
  );
};

export default Main;

// and finally, pages/index.tsx

import Head from "next/head";
import dynamic from "next/dynamic";

const Main = dynamic(() => import("@/components/Main"), {
  ssr: false
});

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <>
      <Head>
        <title>Docs page</title>
        <meta name="description" content="Generated by create next app" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
        <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
      </Head>
      <Main />
    </>
  );
}

It turns out that it works like I want, the styles will just fastly loaded if because I added ssr: false for Main component. So, I still didn't know how to make these css framework tenoxui will applied for all components. Help...

Btw, this is the links for tenoxui resources :

• https://github.com/tenoxui/css
• https://github.com/tenoxui/property
• https://github.com/nousantx (creator)