AI & Agent Dev Bug Sandbox Back to Radar

Dev HMR Client Reconnects Forever After Prerender Activation (Visibilitychange While Socket Is CONNECTING)

In Next.js dev, when a prerendered page is activated while the HMR WebSocket is still in CONNECTING state, the client enters an infinite reconnect loop. This prevents page hydration and floods the server with repeated /_next/hmr upgrade requests.

highConfidence 95%Next.js Affected V16.3.3 Affected V16.4.0-Canary.15

Origin Analysis

The visibilitychange handler in web-socket.ts calls init() whenever readyState is not OPEN, including CONNECTING. init() closes the existing socket without clearing its onclose/onerror callbacks. The closed socket's onclose then schedules another init() after 1 second, creating an endless cycle because reconnections reset on every onopen.

1. Clone https://github.com/hairywelly/next-hmr-visibility-repro 2. npm install && npm run dev 3. In Chrome open http://localhost:3000 (with Speculation Rules prerender enabled) 4. Wait a second, click the link to /target (or open /?auto) 5. Open console on /target; observe repeated WebSocket errors and [HMR] connected messages

Fixing Code Block

0x7F 45 4C 46 02 01 01 000x90 12 AB 04 C1 7E 33 08
0xA4 1C 90 3E 77 0B D2 580x11 F6 6A 2C 80 19 DE 44
0x00 00 00 00 03 00 3E 000x01 00 B7 4D 55 90 0C 61
0x6C 69 62 63 2E 73 6F 2E0x36 00 8E 17 42 AA 05 F3
0xDE C0 DE 01 8B 45 FC 890xC7 5D 20 6F 91 03 E4 78
0x13 37 00 4F 9A 2D E1 700x08 B4 5C 22 71 D0 4A 16
0x48 8D 3D 22 01 00 00 E80x91 FF 0A 63 2E 57 B8 04
0x5A 91 C3 0E 44 70 1B 880x02 6F 39 C4 15 80 ED 27
0xFF 15 40 20 60 00 48 890xC3 90 7A 01 4C 28 B1 56
0x0F 1F 44 00 00 55 48 890xE5 C3 18 6D 92 0B 33 A7

Edge Case Audit

This change assumes that a socket in CLOSING state does not need reconnection upon visibility change. In rare cases where the socket is stuck in CLOSING, the page may not reconnect until another event. Test with multiple tabs and rapid visibility toggling. If the issue persists, revert to the original code and wait for an official fix, as this patch only addresses the symptom of the infinite loop, not the underlying race between visibilitychange and socket lifecycle. Consider adding a guard against reentrant init() calls for extra safety.