JSF 2 walks the tree in the RestoreView phase, whereas JSF 1 does not. The timing causes a problem if you have a value expression bound to a conversation-scoped bean. The solution is to use a ComponentEventListener to restore the conversation rather than a phase listener. The listener should observe the PostRestoreStateEvent on UIViewRoot. Component listeners can be registered programmatically. WebBeans should detect which version of JSF is in use and act accordingly.