Deep linking is not working when app is closed/killed

Explanation of the problem

When the app is in the background, a specific screen is opened as expected through a deep link. However, when the app is closed or not in the background, it only shows the first screen through the deep link. Various workarounds found on Stack Overflow were tried, but none of them resolved the issue. The app is built using React Native version 0.64.2.

Code:

The linking.js file contains a config object that defines two screens, Home and Profile. The prefixes property defines the URL scheme used for the app, which is demo://app. This file exports the linking object.

The App.js file contains the main component that uses NavigationContainer from @react-navigation/native. It also imports the linking object and defines a Stack navigator that has three screens: SplashScreen, Home, and Profile. The initial route is set to SplashScreen, and the screenOptions are set to use the slide from right iOS transition preset. The Home and Profile screens are not enabled for gestures and do not show the header.

The _handleOpenUrl function is used to handle opening a URL in the app. It logs the event URL to the console. The Linking.getInitialURL() method is called to check if the app was launched through a deep link. If a URL is found, the _handleOpenUrl function is called with the URL. The useEffect hook is used to add an event listener for the url event and remove it on unmount.

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Problem solution for Deep linking is not working when app is closed/killed

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}