Reproduction

Visit this StackBlitz link and click the Go to "not-found" page (404 not found) link. This navigates to a 404 page displaying the message 404 - The requested page could not be found., with the page title set to My title.

The page title My title is provided by the root server loader. This works correctly when navigating client-side to /not-found.

However, if you refresh the /not-found page (triggering a full document reload), the following server error is thrown:

Unexpected Server Error

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'meta')

This occurs because the root loader is not invoked during document load when no routes match. As a result, the meta function attempts to access data which is undefined.

System Info

System:
  OS: Linux 5.0 undefined
  CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz
  Memory: 0 Bytes / 0 Bytes
  Shell: 1.0 - /bin/jsh
Binaries:
  Node: 20.19.1 - /usr/local/bin/node
  Yarn: 1.22.19 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
  npm: 10.8.2 - /usr/local/bin/npm
  pnpm: 8.15.6 - /usr/local/bin/pnpm
npmPackages:
  @react-router/dev: ^7.5.3 => 7.5.3 
  @react-router/node: 7.5.3 => 7.5.3 
  @react-router/serve: ^7.5.3 => 7.5.3 
  react-router: ^7.5.3 => 7.5.3 
  vite: ^6.3.3 => 6.3.5

Used Package Manager

npm

Expected Behavior

• When visiting a non-existent route like /not-found, the root loader should run and provide default data (e.g., title).
• The page should render with the 404 message and retain the correct title (My title), regardless of whether the navigation is client-side or a full page reload.

Actual Behavior

• On client-side navigation to /not-found, everything works as expected.

• On full page reload at /not-found, a server error occurs:

  • The root loader does not run because no routes match.
  • The meta function receives undefined data, leading to a TypeError.