Can’t perform a React state update on an unmounted component

Here is a React Hooks specific solution for

Error

Warning: Can’t perform a React state update on an unmounted component.

Solution

You can declare let isMounted = true inside useEffect, which will be changed in the cleanup callback, as soon as the component is unmounted. Before state updates, you now check this variable conditionally:

useEffect(() => {
  let isMounted = true;               // note mutable flag
  someAsyncOperation().then(data => {
    if (isMounted) setState(data);    // add conditional check
  })
  return () => { isMounted = false }; // cleanup toggles value, if unmounted
}, []);                               // adjust dependencies to your needs

const Parent = () => {
  const [mounted, setMounted] = useState(true);
  return (
    <div>
      Parent:
      <button onClick={() => setMounted(!mounted)}>
        {mounted ? "Unmount" : "Mount"} Child
      </button>
      {mounted && <Child />}
      <p>
        Unmount Child, while it is still loading. It won't set state later on,
        so no error is triggered.
      </p>
    </div>
  );
};

const Child = () => {
  const [state, setState] = useState("loading (4 sec)...");
  useEffect(() => {
    let isMounted = true;
    fetchData();
    return () => {
      isMounted = false;
    };

    // simulate some Web API fetching
    function fetchData() {
      setTimeout(() => {
        // drop "if (isMounted)" to trigger error again 
        // (take IDE, doesn't work with stack snippet)
        if (isMounted) setState("data fetched")
        else console.log("aborted setState on unmounted component")
      }, 4000);
    }
  }, []);

  return <div>Child: {state}</div>;
};

ReactDOM.render(<Parent />, document.getElementById("root"));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.13.0/umd/react.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-32Gmw5rBDXyMjg/73FgpukoTZdMrxuYW7tj8adbN8z4=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.13.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-bjQ42ac3EN0GqK40pC9gGi/YixvKyZ24qMP/9HiGW7w=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<div id="root"></div>
<script>var { useReducer, useEffect, useState, useRef } = React</script>

Extension: Custom useAsync Hook

We can encapsulate all the boilerplate into a custom Hook, that automatically aborts async functions in case the component unmounts or dependency values have changed before:

function useAsync(asyncFn, onSuccess) {
  useEffect(() => {
    let isActive = true;
    asyncFn().then(data => {
      if (isActive) onSuccess(data);
    });
    return () => { isActive = false };
  }, [asyncFn, onSuccess]);
}

// custom Hook for automatic abortion on unmount or dependency change
// You might add onFailure for promise errors as well.
function useAsync(asyncFn, onSuccess) {
  useEffect(() => {
    let isActive = true;
    asyncFn().then(data => {
      if (isActive) onSuccess(data)
      else console.log("aborted setState on unmounted component")
    });
    return () => {
      isActive = false;
    };
  }, [asyncFn, onSuccess]);
}

const Child = () => {
  const [state, setState] = useState("loading (4 sec)...");
  useAsync(simulateFetchData, setState);
  return <div>Child: {state}</div>;
};

const Parent = () => {
  const [mounted, setMounted] = useState(true);
  return (
    <div>
      Parent:
      <button onClick={() => setMounted(!mounted)}>
        {mounted ? "Unmount" : "Mount"} Child
      </button>
      {mounted && <Child />}
      <p>
        Unmount Child, while it is still loading. It won't set state later on,
        so no error is triggered.
      </p>
    </div>
  );
};

const simulateFetchData = () => new Promise(
  resolve => setTimeout(() => resolve("data fetched"), 4000));

ReactDOM.render(<Parent />, document.getElementById("root"));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.13.0/umd/react.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-32Gmw5rBDXyMjg/73FgpukoTZdMrxuYW7tj8adbN8z4=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.13.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-bjQ42ac3EN0GqK40pC9gGi/YixvKyZ24qMP/9HiGW7w=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<div id="root"></div>
<script>var { useReducer, useEffect, useState, useRef } = React</script>

More on effect cleanups: Overreacted: A Complete Guide to useEffect

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