ComposeUiClusterRenderer crashes with IllegalStateException: "Composed into the View which doesn't propagate ViewTreeLifecycleOwner!" on fast back gesture with compose-ui 1.10.0

[jakubrzeznicki]

Summary

ComposeUiClusterRenderer in maps-compose 8.2.0 crashes with an
IllegalStateException when the user navigates back quickly while the cluster
renderer is still processing markers in the background.
The crash was introduced by compose-ui 1.10.0 (shipped with
material3 1.5.0-alpha15), which added a strict requirement that every
AbstractComposeView must be composed inside a view tree that propagates
ViewTreeLifecycleOwner. ComposeUiClusterRenderer renders Compose
composables into off-screen ComposeViews to produce BitmapDescriptors for
Google Maps markers; these views are detached from the window and therefore
have no ViewTreeLifecycleOwner, causing the crash.

The problem did not occur with compose-ui 1.9.x
(shipped by the same Compose BOM via material3 1.5.0-alpha14).

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Stack Trace

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Composed into the View which doesn't propagate ViewTreeLifecycleOwner!
    androidx.compose.ui.platform.AbstractComposeView.ensureCompositionCreated(ComposeView.android.kt:338)
    androidx.compose.ui.platform.AbstractComposeView.onMeasure(ComposeView.android.kt:441)
    android.view.View.measure(View.java:29816)
    com.google.maps.android.compose.clustering.ComposeUiClusterRenderer.renderViewToBitmapDescriptor(ClusterRenderer.kt:213)
    com.google.maps.android.compose.clustering.ComposeUiClusterRenderer.getDescriptorForCluster(ClusterRenderer.kt:184)
    com.google.maps.android.clustering.view.DefaultClusterRenderer.onBeforeClusterRendered(DefaultClusterRenderer.java:911)
    com.google.maps.android.compose.clustering.ComposeUiClusterRenderer.onBeforeClusterRendered(ClusterRenderer.kt:169)
    com.google.maps.android.clustering.view.DefaultClusterRenderer$CreateMarkerTask.perform(DefaultClusterRenderer.java:1082)
    com.google.maps.android.clustering.view.DefaultClusterRenderer$MarkerModifier.performNextTask(DefaultClusterRenderer.java:728)
    com.google.maps.android.clustering.view.DefaultClusterRenderer$MarkerModifier.handleMessage(DefaultClusterRenderer.java:700)
    android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:110)
    android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:273)
    android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:363)
    android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:10060)
    java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
    com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:632)
    com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:975)

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Use maps-compose 8.2.0 with the Clustering() composable.
2. Configure a clusterContent or clusterItemContent lambda (custom Compose
   UI for clusters/markers) — this activates ComposeUiClusterRenderer.
3. Set compose-ui to 1.10.0 (e.g., via material3 1.5.0-alpha15 or a
   Compose BOM that includes compose-ui 1.10.0).
4. Navigate to a screen that displays a GoogleMap with many markers so that
   clustering is still rendering in the background.
5. Immediately perform a back gesture (predictive back or regular back)
   before the cluster renderer finishes processing all markers.
6. Observe the crash.

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Expected Behavior

Navigating back while cluster rendering is in progress should not crash the
app. Either:

• ComposeUiClusterRenderer should cancel in-flight rendering when it detects
  the parent screen is no longer active, or
• ComposeUiClusterRenderer should supply a ViewTreeLifecycleOwner to its
  off-screen ComposeView before calling measure(), so that
  AbstractComposeView.ensureCompositionCreated succeeds even on a detached
  view.

---

Actual Behavior

The app crashes immediately with:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Composed into the View which doesn't propagate ViewTreeLifecycleOwner!

The crash occurs on the main thread via DefaultClusterRenderer$MarkerModifier
which uses an Android Handler to continue rendering even after the hosting
Activity/Fragment has moved on.

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Root Cause Analysis

ComposeUiClusterRenderer.renderViewToBitmapDescriptor (ClusterRenderer.kt:213)
creates a detached ComposeView, calls view.measure(...), which triggers
AbstractComposeView.onMeasure → ensureCompositionCreated.

Starting with compose-ui 1.10.0, ensureCompositionCreated validates that
ViewTreeLifecycleOwner.get(this) != null. A detached view has no lifecycle
owner in its tree, so the check fails.

With compose-ui 1.9.x (the version bundled in material3 1.5.0-alpha14) this
validation was absent or lenient, so the same code path worked fine.

The fix must be applied in maps-compose:

• Set a ViewTreeLifecycleOwner on the off-screen view before measuring it
  (e.g., using ViewTreeLifecycleOwner.set(view, ProcessLifecycleOwner.get())),
  or
• Interrupt the MarkerModifier handler when the map composable leaves the
  composition.

---

Workaround

Pin material3 to 1.5.0-alpha14 (or any version that does not pull in
compose-ui 1.10.0):

# gradle/libs.versions.toml
compose-material3 = { module = "androidx.compose.material3:material3", version = "1.5.0-alpha14" }

This overrides the Compose BOM and avoids the breaking compose-ui change
until maps-compose is fixed.

---

Environment

Component	Version
maps-compose	8.2.0
maps-compose-utils	8.2.0
android-maps-utils	4.1.0
compose-ui (crashing)	1.10.0 (via material3 1.5.0-alpha15)
compose-ui (working)	1.9.x (via material3 1.5.0-alpha14)
Compose BOM	2026.02.01
maps-compose clustering API	Clustering() composable with custom clusterContent + clusterItemContent
Cluster algorithm	NonHierarchicalViewBasedAlgorithm
Android minSdk	29
compileSdk	36
Kotlin	2.3.10
AGP	9.1.0

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Additional Notes

• The crash only occurs when custom Compose content is provided for cluster
  rendering (i.e., clusterContent / clusterItemContent lambdas are set),
  because that activates ComposeUiClusterRenderer instead of the default
  icon-based renderer.
• The crash is reliably reproducible on fast back navigation; it does not occur
  if the user waits for cluster rendering to complete before navigating away.
• This is a regression introduced by the compose-ui 1.10.0 breaking
  change — maps-compose needs to be updated to satisfy the new lifecycle
  requirement.

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[kikoso]

Hi @jakubrzeznicki . The culprit seems to be this line of the ComposeView, checking a potential fix.