UnsatisfiedLinkError: cannot locate symbol "__cxa_init_primary_exception" on Android with React Native 0.79.2

[naderabdelghany]

Description

I'm encountering a native linking error when trying to use react-native-skia (via the react-native-animated-glow package) on Android, everything works just fine on iOS though. The app crashes on launch with an UnsatisfiedLinkError indicating that the symbol __cxa_init_primary_exception cannot be located in librnskia.so.

Error:

Exception in HostFunction: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: dlopen failed: cannot locate symbol "__cxa_init_primary_exception" referenced by "/data/app/~~CClSDx8Izzsu_ctmvVMOvQ==/com.nk.USANewsUpdates-gC0opkJyMQ2ULN27d7r6nQ==/base.apk!/lib/arm64-v8a/librnskia.so"...
    at com.shopify.reactnative.skia.RNSkiaModule.install(RNSkiaModule.java:54)

The error occurs when the Skia object is accessed in the component, resulting in Skia being undefined which then causes a render error: Cannot read property 'Skia' of undefined.

I've tried and verified that:

• The ANDROID_SUPPORT_FLEXIBLE_PAGE_SIZES=ON flag is already present in node_modules/@shopify/react-native-skia/android/build.gradle (line 161)
• I've performed a complete clean build process multiple times
• I've uninstalled the old app before rebuilding

The issue persists across all attempts.

Additional Context:

• NDK Version: 28.2.13676358
• compileSdkVersion: 35
• targetSdkVersion: 35
• minSdkVersion: 24
• Gradle plugin version: (automatically resolved by RN 0.79.2)
• Build Tools: 35.0.0
• Kotlin version: 2.0.21

React Native Skia Version

2.3.0

React Native Version

0.79.2

Using New Architecture

• [ ] Enabled

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a React Native 0.79.2 project with React 19.0.0
2. Install @shopify/react-native-skia@^2.3.0
3. Install react-native-animated-glow@^3.0.1 (which depends on react-native-skia)
4. Try to use any Skia component
5. App crashes on launch with the UnsatisfiedLinkError

Snack, Code Example, Screenshot, or Link to Repository

The following are the crash errors:

[ankit2saurabh]

https://github.com/Shopify/react-native-skia/issues/3392#issuecomment-3414077681

This will help you

[naderabdelghany]

#3392 (comment)

This will help you

I applied said patch in the comment you mention with the NDK version I already have in my android/build.gradle which is 28.2.13676358 using Yarn and made sure I ran yarn install after but I still got the same errors on Android despite seeing the UnifiedSkiaGlow.tsx file being dynamically bundled to both iOS and Android emulators in the Metro bundler

[wcandillon]

@naderabdalghani if you provide a reproduction, I could take a look

[DigitalZebra]

@naderabdalghani Could this be an issue w/ using NDK 28? From what I can tell, even the latest versions of RN are on NDK 27. Is there a specific reason you are using NDK 28?

[naderabdelghany]

@naderabdalghani Could this be an issue w/ using NDK 28? From what I can tell, even the latest versions of RN are on NDK 27. Is there a specific reason you are using NDK 28?

Yes, to support 16 KB memory page sizes by default