Site breaks when trying to choose existing media

[openbayou]

Screen.Recording.2026-06-01.at.11.00.39.PM.mov

Describe the Bug

I have a problem with the image field. I have beforechanges in my media collection to move images to YYYY/MM/filename so there's no duplicate images to deal with. The problem I'm having is when I clicking on "choose from existing" the media panel popups and then disappears. The image field disappears and you can't click on anything on the site. Enclosed is a screen capture of the problem and zip of my src to look around

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/igqb4axn4v46llnkd4803/Screen-Recording-2026-05-27-at-1.20.50-AM.mov?rlkey=txg3wyyjn4kuv1q8mk7qqbaqn&st=6c78q5mn&dl=1

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ukkdxvlaklqbw80ue1vec/src.zip?rlkey=9odkr4veenhuudclnywh5r5cc&st=bgf6pe20&dl=0

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

none

Reproduction Steps

Click on choose from existing and then close the media picker. Usually the second click is when the admin crashes.

Which area(s) are affected?

Not sure

Environment Info

Binaries:
  Node: 24.15.0
  npm: 11.16.0
  Yarn: N/A
  pnpm: N/A
Relevant Packages:
  payload: 3.85.0
  next: 16.2.6
  @payloadcms/db-mongodb: 3.85.0
  @payloadcms/graphql: 3.85.0
  @payloadcms/next/utilities: 3.85.0
  @payloadcms/richtext-lexical: 3.85.0
  @payloadcms/translations: 3.85.0
  @payloadcms/ui/shared: 3.85.0
  react: 19.2.6
  react-dom: 19.2.6
Operating System:
  Platform: linux
  Arch: arm64
  Version: #22-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon May 25 15:37:49 UTC 2026
  Available memory (MB): 15433
  Available CPU cores: 4

[github-actions]

Please add a reproduction in order for us to be able to investigate.

Depending on the quality of reproduction steps, this issue may be closed if no reproduction is provided.

Why was this issue marked with the invalid-reproduction label?

To be able to investigate, we need access to a reproduction to identify what triggered the issue. We prefer a link to a public GitHub repository created with create-payload-app@latest -t blank or a forked/branched version of this repository with tests added (more info in the reproduction-guide).

To make sure the issue is resolved as quickly as possible, please make sure that the reproduction is as minimal as possible. This means that you should remove unnecessary code, files, and dependencies that do not contribute to the issue. Ensure your reproduction does not depend on secrets, 3rd party registries, private dependencies, or any other data that cannot be made public. Avoid a reproduction including a whole monorepo (unless relevant to the issue). The easier it is to reproduce the issue, the quicker we can help.

Please test your reproduction against the latest version of Payload to make sure your issue has not already been fixed.

I added a link, why was it still marked?

Ensure the link is pointing to a codebase that is accessible (e.g. not a private repository). "example.com", "n/a", "will add later", etc. are not acceptable links -- we need to see a public codebase. See the above section for accepted links.

Useful Resources

• Reproduction Guide
• Contributing to Payload

[zubricks]

Please add any screen recordings and a link to a GitHub repo and then we can look into this.

[openbayou]

https://github.com/openbayou/Payload-CMS-error-image-block.git

Untitled.Project.1.mov

[theNkennaAmadi]

Had a similar issue, fixed it by setting reactStrictMode: false. In dev, Strict Mode was causing Payload’s media list drawer to fire the render-list action twice; after the second response, the modal exited and returned to the collection page.

Right now, the media picker drawer does this:

• Drawer opens.
• ListDrawerContent mounts.
• useEffect() calls refresh().
• refresh() calls Payload’s render-list server action.
• React Strict Mode in dev intentionally runs mount effects twice.

Payload does not dedupe that drawer refresh, so the same render-list fires twice and the drawer state gets knocked out.