Did a bit more digging and it's not self.exposeAside() issue. I checked v1.0.0-beta.14-nightly-1000
and the difference between RC nightly is that checkAsideExpose() is being called all the time, which then closes the side menu since the if clause fails to be true.

This bug is also in v1.0.0-rc.0, and in nightlies after the version 1.0.0-beta.14-nightly-1042.

same over here

+1. Just updated from beta 14 to rc.0 and now the side menu is broken because of expose-aside-when="large". If I remove it, then the side menu is working properly.

+1, would love to see this feature working as planned.

+1!

I saw this as well in rc0. I just added the following line for now

 self.exposeAside = function(shouldExposeAside) {
    if (!(self.left && self.left.isEnabled) && !(self.right && self.right.isEnabled)) return;
    # do not close when the side-menu was opened by toggle()
    if (angular.element($ionicBody.get()).hasClass('menu-open')) return

+1. This line seems to be the problem, as said in this issue

+1

@mixersoft's line fixes the problem I'm having.

My problem:
I've got expose-aside-when="large" and, on a small screen, if I have focus on an input with the virtual keyboard opened, and then I tap to toggle the left menu, the left menu autocloses just after blur happens on the input and the virtual keyboard closes.

What I gathered is that every time the keyboard appears/disappears, the size of the view changes, and an evaluation is made whether the side menu should be opened or closed because of the expose-aside-when directive.

You can replicate this problem by:
-creating a new sidemenu project,
-putting an input on playlists.html,
-putting expose-aside-when="large" on the ion-side-menu inside menu.html,
-running the app, activating the keyboard by tapping the input and then toggling the side menu. It should open and close automatically.

I can't seem to find any other good way of dealing with this. I've tried doing a timeout to delay the menu toggle, and it kinda works, but the time it takes for the keyboard to close varies and depends on how much content I have on my view. Also, this isn't the ideal solution, as it would feel sluggish for the user to tap and have to wait 2 seconds or so for the side menu to open.

Duplicate of #2328 which is now fixed and will be in 1.2