[Bug]: External ID and User Tags being cleared/removed automatically #1659

Activity

1. bundleberk

   added

   Bug_old

   on May 1, 2026
2. afnanalfazary commented on May 3, 2026

   

   afnanalfazary

   on May 3, 2026

   Last edited by afnanalfazary

   More actions

   We are experiencing a very similar issue on iOS using SDK version 5.5.0, and it matches the behavior described here.
   In our case:
   The app calls OneSignal.login(externalId) correctly
   The push subscription is initially created and appears under the correct external_id
   Notifications work correctly (foreground, background, and terminated)
   After some time (e.g., ~1 hour or after lifecycle changes), the push subscription is no longer associated with that external_id
   The subscription either:
   becomes attached to an anonymous OneSignal user, or
   disappears from the expected user’s subscriptions in the dashboard
   Additional observation
   We also consistently observe the following pattern:
   Same physical device
   Same time window
   Multiple active push subscriptions
   Subscriptions distributed across different OneSignal users (one with external_id, another anonymous)
   This appears to be a single underlying identity/subscription association issue, which manifests as:
   The active subscription is temporarily linked to the correct user, then later gets detached
   The same device ends up with subscriptions spread across multiple OneSignal users
   This leads to inconsistent notification delivery when targeting by external_id.
   What we verified on our side
   We do NOT call OneSignal.logout()
   We removed any custom logic using subscription IDs (no active_subscription tag)
   We only target users via external_id
   We re-link the user on:
   app launch
   app became active
   onPushSubscriptionDidChange
   We use manual forwarding with OneSignal_disable_swizzling = true
   Questions
   1-Is this a known issue in SDK 5.5.0 related to identity reconciliation or subscription association?
   2-Is there any scenario where the SDK may overwrite or drop the external_id after login?
3. marclucraft commented on May 8, 2026

   

   marclucraft

   on May 8, 2026

   More actions

   Hello @afnanalfazary!

   Are you using "Country" and/or "Language" as tags, as @bundleberk described in their report, or any other tags that share names with user properties?

   Also, is the behaviour still the same after removing the active_subscription tag logic you described?
4. nan-li commented on May 8, 2026

   

   nan-li

   on May 8, 2026

   Contributor

   More actions

   Additionally, can you elaborate on this point:

   a regression where identified users are being reverted to "Anonymous" status.

   Does the user have the same onesignal_id, but the external_id is gone? Or is the user in the SDK a new user with a new onesignal_id?
5. bundleberk commented on May 11, 2026

   

   bundleberk

   on May 11, 2026

   Last edited by bundleberk

   Author

   More actions

   Onesignal ids seem to be changing too but it is not the case for every subscription that had lost their external ids.

   There is one user that got 11 different onesignal ids in the last 12 days.

   But overall half of the users that lost their external ids had their onesignal ids changed. The other half's onesignal ids stayed the same.
6. nan-li commented on May 12, 2026

   

   nan-li

   on May 12, 2026

   Contributor

   More actions

   Onesignal ids seem to be changing too but it is not the case for every subscription that had lost their external ids.
   There is one user that got 11 different onesignal ids in the last 12 days.

   Ok, so this is saying the push subscription moved to a new user, as a OneSignal ID uniquely identifies a single user instance from the perspective of a OneSignal, and does not change for a OneSignal user. A new OneSignal ID would mean a new user instance.

   When you say one user got 11 different onesignal ids, you mean that a user has logged into a device and hasn't done anything different (no logouts, no other logins to a different user) and the onesignal ID is changing (user instance is changing)? How are you finding this information? Is it reproducible or do you have logs / data that we can look at? Please send any sensitive information to support@onesignal.com and reference this issue.

   But overall half of the users that lost their external ids had their onesignal ids changed. The other half's onesignal ids stayed the same.

   The half whose onesignal IDs stayed the same, did the same onesignal ID previously have an external_id and now the external_id is gone (as the following example illustrates)? Or do you mean the OneSignal User in the app stayed the same?

   // When you View User, you previously see it has an external_id
     "identity": {
       "external_id": "user1",
       "onesignal_id": "1861a7b6-23d3-4751-9454-13889856aae4"
     },
   
   // But now the external_id is gone for the same onesignal_id
     "identity": {
       "onesignal_id": "1861a7b6-23d3-4751-9454-13889856aae4"
     },
   
7. bundleberk commented on May 13, 2026

   

   bundleberk

   on May 13, 2026

   Last edited by bundleberk

   Author

   More actions

   @nan-li is it technically safe to downgrade from 5.5.0 to 5.2.14? would it break anything?
8. nan-li commented on May 15, 2026

   

   nan-li

   on May 15, 2026

   Contributor

   More actions

   Hi, we followed up through another channel of conversation, but no SDK changes should affect what you are seeing since 5.2.14 so we would like to figure out what is happening for you app.
9. bundleberk commented on Jun 1, 2026

   

   bundleberk

   on Jun 1, 2026

   Last edited by bundleberk

   Author

   More actions

   It is unfortunately not reproducible, cannot provide you logs because it seems random
10. linear-code

    added

    Bug

    and removed

    Bug_old

    on Jun 10, 2026
11. nan-li commented on Sep 17, 2026

    

    nan-li

    on Sep 17, 2026

    Contributor

    More actions

    Closing this out as we have been in direct conversation. Upgrading to 5.5.4 appears to fix it
12. nan-li

    closed this as completedon Sep 17, 2026