Please improve doc and diagnostics on `api_id` and `api_hash` to prevent login rejection with misleading "User is already connected!"

[DDvO]

Trying to login to my Telegram account via my newly installed bridge, I got on the client side just a pretty generic message: Unhandled exception while requesting code. Check console for more details.

The telegrambot console contained User is already connected! This sounds like my Matrix user address is not accepted because I had connected it before to some other telegram bridge bot?

Does Telegram not like users being connected to more than one bridge? If so, I am stuck because the bridge that I had been using is defunct and I cannot even logout there.

Exception details from the console:

[2025-02-16 19:38:43,034] [ERROR@telethon.7956688466768944615.network.mtprotosender] Request caused struct.error: 'i' format requires -2147483648 <= number <= 2147483647: InvokeWithLayerRequest(layer=183, query=InitConnectionRequest(api_id=8073176532, device_model='mautrix-telegram', system_version='1.37.0a1', app_version='0.15.2', system_lang_code='en', lang_pack='', lang_code='en', query=GetConfigRequest(), proxy=None, params=None))
[2025-02-16 19:38:43,035] [ERROR@mau.user.@....] Exception connecting to Telegram, retrying in 5s...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/mautrix_telegram/abstract_user.py", line 331, in start
    await self.client.connect()
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/client/telegrambaseclient.py", line 584, in connect
    await self._sender.send(functions.InvokeWithLayerRequest(
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/network/mtprotosender.py", line 183, in send
    state = RequestState(request)
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/network/requeststate.py", line 17, in __init__
    self.data = bytes(request)
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/tl/tlobject.py", line 194, in __bytes__
    return self._bytes()
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/tl/functions/__init__.py", line 357, in _bytes
    self.query._bytes(),
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/tl/functions/__init__.py", line 127, in _bytes
    struct.pack('<i', self.api_id),
struct.error: 'i' format requires -2147483648 <= number <= 2147483647
[2025-02-16 19:38:48,044] [INFO@telethon.7956688466768944615.network.mtprotosender] User is already connected!
[2025-02-16 19:38:48,044] [DEBUG@mau.user.@....] @... connected: True
[2025-02-16 19:38:48,180] [ERROR@mau.user.@.....] Unknown RPC error in start(): <class 'telethon.errors.rpcerrorlist.ConnectionNotInitedError'>: Connection not initialized (caused by GetStateRequest)
[2025-02-16 19:38:48,269] [ERROR@mau.commands] Error requesting phone code
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/mautrix_telegram/commands/telegram/auth.py", line 234, in _request_code
    await evt.sender.client.sign_in(phone_number)
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/client/auth.py", line 328, in sign_in
    me = await self.get_me()
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/client/users.py", line 175, in get_me
    me = (await self(
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/client/users.py", line 30, in __call__
    return await self._call(self._sender, request, ordered=ordered)
  File "/opt/mautrix-telegram/lib/python3.10/site-packages/telethon/client/users.py", line 91, in _call
    result = await future
telethon.errors.rpcerrorlist.ConnectionNotInitedError: Connection not initialized (caused by GetUsersRequest)

[tulir]

The error seems to be saying the api_id is misconfigured

[DDvO]

Thanks for the immediate response. If the api_id is misconfigured, the error message should be clear on that.

At first, I had tried getting that api_id as documented from https://my.telegram.org/apps but that wonderful page just gives ERROR. Then I tried using https://t.me/BotFather as suggested elsewhere, and this way I got:

Use this token to access the HTTP API:
8073...:AAHd...

I inserted this in config.yaml as follows:

telegram:
    # Get your own API keys at https://my.telegram.org/apps                                                             
    api_id: 8073...
    api_hash: AAHd...
    # (Optional) Create your own bot at https://t.me/BotFather                                                          
    bot_token: disabled

Is this fine, or how to adapt?

[tulir]

BotFather is for creating bots, it can't be used to get api keys

[DDvO]

So I tried again using https://my.telegram.org/apps this time choosing the 'iOS' option (rather than 'Android' or 'Web' as I tried before). This time, I got no ERROR but correct api_id and api_hash which worked fine! So, problem solved for me - thank you 👍

[DDvO]

Still,

• user guidance on https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/general/initial-config.html how to obtain the api_id and api_hash from Telegram should be improved (see PR), and
• the poor and even misleading diagnostic output of the telegram bridge that I quoted in my OP should be fixed.