5 Lessons Learned From A Major React Native Upgrade

Huidobro took on a freelance project for an app that needed Android 64-bit support and updates for iOS 13. Its last commit was about a year old, and it used React Native 0.55. The iOS build could not find its simulator, and the Android build also failed.

Huidobro’s first lesson was that developers are not alone: React Native Upgrade Helper provides diffs and setup guidance between versions, though it is not a complete solution. His second lesson was to break the upgrade into smaller tasks, such as enabling autolinking, fixing compiler errors, repairing UI issues, and addressing crashes and warnings. He tackled iOS first, then Android, resolving one problem at a time.

React Native 0.59 would have added Android 64-bit support, while 0.60 introduced autolinking; Huidobro chose 0.62 to stay closer to the current release and reduce future upgrade work. He used a bleeding-edge branch for small, potentially broken commits, then cleaned up the history with rebasing and squashing before integrating the work.

The project had 72 listed dependencies, but Huidobro did not need to make a major upgrade to every one. He used semantic versioning to choose when a minor or patch update was sufficient, balancing improvements against a timely delivery. He also emphasized patience, thanking open-source contributors, and expecting future platform changes to require more upgrades.