react-native-legacy-patches

A zero-dependency CLI utility to apply essential compatibility patches and code modifications to legacy React Native projects (e.g. React Native 0.62.x and packages like reanimated v1, touch-id, widget-center) to compile and run on modern Android versions (Android 14+ / API 34 & 35).

The Problems This Solves

1. Gradle 7.x & 8.x Compatibility (Plugin with id 'maven' not found): Older versions of native libraries (like react-native-reanimated v1 and react-native-widget-center) use the deprecated maven plugin in their build.gradle. Gradle 7+ completely removed it. This package patches them to use maven-publish instead.

2. Android 14+ Broadcast Receiver Security Crashes (SecurityException: One of RECEIVER_EXPORTED or RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED should be specified): On Android 14 (API 34) and higher, registering a dynamic broadcast receiver without specifying export flags is a security violation and crashes the app immediately on startup. This tool patches MainApplication.java to override and inject the safety flags globally, and also includes patches for the internal code of React Native.

Usage

You can run this tool directly without installation using npx:

1. List Available Patches

See which npm packages have compatibility patches available:

npx react-native-legacy-patches --list

2. Apply a Specific Patch

Apply the patch for a single library (e.g. react-native-reanimated):

npx react-native-legacy-patches --patch react-native-reanimated

This copies the .patch file into your local patches/ folder and applies it using patch-package.

3. Apply All Patches

Copy and apply all legacy compatibility patches at once:

npx react-native-legacy-patches --all

4. Patch MainApplication.java (Android 14+ Compatibility)

Automatically scans your project's android/ directory and overrides registerReceiver in your MainApplication.java to prevent runtime SecurityException crashes:

npx react-native-legacy-patches --patch-app

Manual Integration / Local Setup

If you want to install it as a development dependency:

npm install --save-dev react-native-legacy-patches

Then add it to your package script or run locally:

npx react-native-legacy-patches --all

Contributing / Adding New Patches

To add a new patch to this repository:

1. Make your changes to the target package inside node_modules/.
2. Run npx patch-package <package-name> to generate the patch in your project's patches/ folder.
3. Copy the generated .patch file into the patches/ folder of this repository.
4. The CLI will automatically detect the new patch and list it.