appium: Problems with finding elements on Android + React Native 57

The problem

Our native app is build with React Native. Our previous build was build with RN 0.54.2 and we are now upgrading to RN 0.57.2. We had a script where we open the app, click on a feature and go to that feature. This script works with the App build with RN 0.54.2 but fails with a RN 0.57.2. The script itself has not been changed, also the Appium version has not changed (this happens on and 1.8.1 and 1.9.1

Environment

• Appium: 1.8.1||1.9.1
• Desktop: Local on OSX / Sauce Labs physical device cloud
• Node.js version: 8.9.1
• Mobile platform/version under test: Android
• Real device or emulator/simulator: Sim and Real devices (Android version is not impacting this)
• Appium CLI or Appium.app|exe: CLI

Details

I now have 2 apps, a app-54.apk build and a app-57.apk build. The app-54.apk build works fine, but the app-57.apk fails with the following log

Log

[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/c7b33a34-a356-4aa2-9f84-38f7d77580cd/elements
[HTTP] {"using":"accessibility id","value":"test-TestLink Screen"}
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] Calling AppiumDriver.findElements() with args: ["accessibility id","test-TestLink Screen","c7b33a34-a356-4aa2-9f84-38f7d77580cd"]
[debug] [BaseDriver] Valid locator strategies for this request: xpath, id, class name, accessibility id, -android uiautomator
[debug] [BaseDriver] Waiting up to 0 ms for condition
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Matched '/elements' to command name 'findElements'
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [POST /elements] to [POST http://localhost:8200/wd/hub/session/1eecfb74-9a20-428a-99f6-f4c34be589db/elements] with body: {"strategy":"accessibility id","selector":"test-TestLink Screen","context":"","multiple":true}
[JSONWP Proxy] Got an unexpected response: {"sessionId":"1eecfb74-9a20-428a-99f6-f4c34be589db","status":13,"value":"java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'java.lang.String java.lang.CharSequence.toString()' on a null object reference\n\tat io.appium.uiautomator2.model.internal.CustomUiDevice.findObjects(Custom...
[debug] [MJSONWP] Matched JSONWP error code 13 to UnknownError
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] Encountered internal error running command: UnknownError: An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'java.lang.String java.lang.CharSequence.toString()' on a null object reference
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.model.internal.CustomUiDevice.findObjects(CustomUiDevice.java:183)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.handler.FindElements.findElements(FindElements.java:114)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.handler.FindElements.safeHandle(FindElements.java:84)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.handler.request.SafeRequestHandler.handle(SafeRequestHandler.java:37)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.server.AppiumServlet.handleRequest(AppiumServlet.java:250)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.server.AppiumServlet.handleHttpRequest(AppiumServlet.java:241)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.appium.uiautomator2.http.ServerHandler.channelRead(ServerHandler.java:44)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:366)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:352)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:345)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.handler.codec.MessageToMessageDecoder.channelRead(MessageToMessageDecoder.java:102)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:366)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:352)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:345)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.CombinedChannelDuplexHandler$DelegatingChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(CombinedChannelDuplexHandler.java:435)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.fireChannelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:293)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:267)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.CombinedChannelDuplexHandler.channelRead(CombinedChannelDuplexHandler.java:250)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:366)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:352)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:345)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline$HeadContext.channelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:1294)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:366)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:352)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline.fireChannelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:911)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.nio.AbstractNioByteChannel$NioByteUnsafe.read(AbstractNioByteChannel.java:131)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKey(NioEventLoop.java:611)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeysOptimized(NioEventLoop.java:552)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeys(NioEventLoop.java:466)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:438)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$2.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:140)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at io.netty.util.concurrent.DefaultThreadFactory$DefaultRunnableDecorator.run(DefaultThreadFactory.java:144)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)] 	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:764)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at errorFromMJSONWPStatusCode (/Users/wimselles/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.1/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-base-driver/lib/protocol/errors.js:789:10)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at ProxyRequestError.getActualError (/Users/wimselles/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.1/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-base-driver/lib/protocol/errors.js:683:14)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at /Users/wimselles/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.1/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-base-driver/lib/jsonwp-proxy/proxy.js:234:19
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at Generator.throw (<anonymous>)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at asyncGeneratorStep (/Users/wimselles/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.1/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/@babel/runtime/helpers/asyncToGenerator.js:3:24)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at _throw (/Users/wimselles/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.1/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/@babel/runtime/helpers/asyncToGenerator.js:29:9)
[debug] [MJSONWP (c7b33a34)]     at <anonymous>
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/c7b33a34-a356-4aa2-9f84-38f7d77580cd/elements 500 36 ms - 3572

I can’t seem to pinpoint the problem. Did anybody saw this problem in the past?