I am using a SectionList in React Native to display multiple sections with multiple items in each section. I am programmatically scrolling to specific sections and items using the scrollToLocation method.

The issue I am facing is that if I attempt to scroll to an item with an itemIndex of 0, the SectionList always scrolls to the first item of the first section, regardless of the sectionIndex I provide. If the itemIndex is greater than 0, the scrolling works as expected and goes to the correct section and item. The issue is happening in iOS. Here’s a simplified code to reproduce the issue:

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import {
  SectionList,
  View,
  Text,
  Button,
  StyleSheet,
  StatusBar,
} from 'react-native';

const App = () => {
  const sectionListRef = useRef<SectionList>(null);

  const sections = Array.from({ length: 10 }, (_, sectionIndex) => ({
    title: `Section ${sectionIndex + 1}`,
    data: Array.from(
      { length: 30 },
      (_, itemIndex) => `Item ${sectionIndex + 1}.${itemIndex + 1}`
    ),
  }));

  const scrollToLocation = ({
    sectionIndex,
    itemIndex,
  }: {
    sectionIndex: number;
    itemIndex: number;
  }) => {
    {
      sectionListRef.current?.scrollToLocation({
        sectionIndex,
        itemIndex,
        viewPosition: 0.5, // Center the item in the view
      });
    }
  };

  const onScrollFail = (info: any) => {
    console.log('Failed to scroll, retrying', info);
    setTimeout(() => {
      scrollToLocation({ sectionIndex: 0, itemIndex: info.index });
    }, 500);
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <View style={styles.buttonsContainer}>
        <Button
          title="Sec: 1 item: 1"
          onPress={() => scrollToLocation({ sectionIndex: 0, itemIndex: 0 })}
        />
        <Button
          title="Sec: 4 item: 1"
          onPress={() => scrollToLocation({ sectionIndex: 3, itemIndex: 0 })}
        />
      </View>
      <SectionList
        ref={sectionListRef}
        sections={sections}
        keyExtractor={(item, index) => item + index}
        renderItem={({ item }) => (
          <View style={styles.item}>
            <Text>{item}</Text>
          </View>
        )}
        renderSectionHeader={({ section }) => (
          <View style={styles.header}>
            <Text style={styles.headerText}>{section.title}</Text>
          </View>
        )}
        onScrollToIndexFailed={onScrollFail}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    padding: 10,
    paddingTop: 50,
  },
  buttonsContainer: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
    justifyContent: 'space-between',
    marginBottom: 10,
  },
  item: {
    padding: 15,
    backgroundColor: '#f9f9f9',
    borderBottomWidth: 1,
    borderBottomColor: '#ddd',
  },
  header: {
    padding: 10,
    backgroundColor: '#e0e0e0',
  },
  headerText: {
    fontWeight: 'bold',
  },
});

export default App;

It could be tested in expo-snack as well.