I have an issue with a common ViewModel and navigation in my Compose Multiplatform application

[meet2602]

Describe the bug
I have an issue with a common ViewModel and navigation in my Compose Multiplatform application. The ViewModel is initialized in the common main:

val headlineViewModel = viewModel { HeadlineViewModel() }

I use two NavHost components for navigation:

@Composable
fun RootNavGraph() {
    val rootNavController = rememberNavController()
    NavHost(
        navController = rootNavController,
        route = Graph.RootGraph,
        startDestination = Graph.MainScreenGraph,
    ) {
        composable(route = Graph.MainScreenGraph) {
            MainScreen(rootNavController)
        }
        composable(route = NewsRouteScreen.NewsDetail.route) {
            rootNavController.previousBackStackEntry?.savedStateHandle?.get<String>("article")?.let { article ->
                val currentArticle: Article = Json.decodeFromString(article)
                ArticleDetailScreen(rootNavController, currentArticle)
            }
        }
    }
}

@Composable
fun MainNavGraph(
    rootNavController: NavHostController,
    homeNavController: NavHostController = rememberNavController(),
    innerPadding: PaddingValues,
) {
    NavHost(
        modifier = Modifier
            .fillMaxSize()
            .padding(innerPadding),
        navController = homeNavController,
        route = Graph.MainScreenGraph,
        startDestination = MainRouteScreen.Headline.route,
    ) {
        composable(route = MainRouteScreen.Headline.route) {
            HeadlineScreen(rootNavController)
        }
        composable(route = MainRouteScreen.Search.route) {
            SearchScreen(rootNavController)
        }
        composable(route = MainRouteScreen.Bookmark.route) {
            BookmarkScreen(rootNavController)
        }
    }
}

When navigating from the main screen to the detail screen:

navController.navigate(NewsRouteScreen.NewsDetail.route)

and then back to the main screen:

navController.navigateUp()

the MainNavGraph resets to the default start destination (MainRouteScreen.Headline.route). This causes the ViewModel to be recreated and any navigation state or position within the MainNavGraph is lost. How can I prevent the MainNavGraph from resetting and preserve the navigation state when navigating back?

Affected platforms

• Android
• Desktop (Windows, Linux, macOS)
• iOS

Versions

compose-plugin = "1.6.11"
kotlin = "2.0.0"
lifecycleViewmodel = "2.8.2"
navigationCompose = "2.8.0-alpha02"

Additional context
I also tried using Koin in Android with viewModelOf and on other platforms with singleOf, and it works perfectly.

[gustavopeq]

I'm having same issue. On my app, I have a bottom navigation bar, which leads to different screens, each with its own viewModel.
Every time I navigate to one of the screens, a new viewModel is created for that screen.
This issue is happening either on Android or IOS... with iOS I understand it still needs some work, as the lifecycle is different than Android. But I'm concerned why Android is having this issue as well.

[MatkovIvan]

The problem here is in unsupported restoring (de/serialization) of NavHostController outside of Android. It's tracked in #4735

Workaround 1: Use single NavHostController and define nested graphs via NavGraphBuilder.navigation() function. See documentation
Workaround 2: Move second rememberNavController() call out of wiped composition.

Closing as duplicate

But I'm concerned why Android is having this issue as well.

It's clearly a separate one. If it doesn't work on Android - it's not an issue for this fork, please report the bug to Google.

[okushnikov]

Please check the following ticket on YouTrack for follow-ups to this issue. GitHub issues will be closed in the coming weeks.