# Component Lifecycle in Flow

## How Salesforce Flow Handles Components on Screen

When a user navigates through a Flow, Salesforce doesn't keep all components of every screen alive in the background. Each time the user moves to a new screen or leaves and returns, Salesforce **destroys the old screen's components and rebuilds them from scratch**.

This is standard Salesforce platform behavior — it applies to all Flow Screen components, not just Avonni.

Understanding this matters because it affects selections, scroll positions, expanded rows, and any other component state not stored in a Flow variable.

***

## What Survives and What Doesn't

When Salesforce rebuilds a screen, two things happen:

1. **Flow variables persist.** Anything stored in a Flow output variable (selected record IDs, text inputs, checkbox values) survives the rebuild. The Flow runtime holds these values.
2. **Internal component state is lost.** Anything that lives inside the component but isn't mapped to a Flow variable gets reset. This includes scroll position, expanded/collapsed sections, column sort order, and visual selection highlighting.

| What persists (Flow variables)              | What resets (internal state)     |
| ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Selected record IDs in an output collection | Visual checkmarks on rows        |
| Text field values                           | Scroll position                  |
| Checkbox/toggle values                      | Expanded/collapsed row groups    |
| Combobox selected value                     | Column sort order                |
| Any value mapped to a Flow variable         | Hover states, focus, active tabs |

***

## When This Becomes a Problem

### Visibility rules

The most common scenario where this catches people off guard is **conditional visibility**. When you set a visibility rule on a component (like "show this Data Table only when a checkbox is checked"), Salesforce destroys the component whenever the condition is false and rebuilds it whenever the condition becomes true again.

If a user selects 5 rows in a Data Table, the table is hidden by a visibility rule and then shown again; the table reloads with zero visual selections—even though the output variable still holds the 5 record IDs.

This is not a bug. The component was destroyed and recreated. It has no memory of its previous state.

### Screen navigation

The same thing happens when users navigate away from a screen and come back. The components on the original screen are destroyed. When the user returns, Salesforce rebuilds them. Flow variables are restored, but the visual state is gone.

***

## How to Work Around This

### Keep stateful components visible

The simplest fix: don't put conditional visibility on components that hold important state (Data Tables with selections, components with expanded sections, sorted columns). If you need to show/hide content, consider using a separate screen instead of a visibility toggle.

### Use output variables for everything that matters

If a piece of state matters to your process, map it to a Flow output variable. Selections? Map the selected IDs to a collection variable. Sort order? Store it in a text variable. This way, even when the component rebuilds, the values are available.

### Consider Dynamic Components for persistent UIs

If your use case requires components that stay mounted and never lose state — dashboards, interactive data views, multi-tab layouts — [**Avonni Dynamic Components**](/dynamic-components/welcome.md) are a better fit. Dynamic Components on a Lightning Page don't get destroyed and rebuilt the way Flow Screen components do.

[**See Dynamic vs. Flow Components**](/flow/getting-started/flow-vs.-dynamic-components.md) for guidance on choosing the right approach.

***

## Common Symptoms of Lifecycle Issues

These are all normal behaviors caused by component lifecycle — not bugs:

* **Data Table checkmarks disappear** after navigating away and back, or after a visibility toggle. The selected IDs are still in your Flow variable, but the component was rebuilt without visual selection state.
* **Grouped rows collapse** when you return to a screen. The grouping configuration reloads, but the expanded/collapsed state of individual groups isn't persisted.
* **Sort order resets** to the default column after screen navigation.
* **Active tab resets** in a Tabs component after a visibility toggle.

If you're seeing one of these behaviors, check whether a visibility rule or screen navigation is triggering a rebuild before reporting it as a bug


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