Signal desktop randomly unlinked

J1nxy commented 5 years ago

When I opened signal desktop today after a computer restart (had a windows update) I got the message "Relink Signal Desktop to your mobile device to continue messaging." I have not reinstalled either the mobile app or the desktop program. When I looked up info on this issue, I saw posts about people having these issues and a post that asked if anyone got this message to take a debug prior to relinking, so there was more info in the log to work with (#718 #782 #797 #1589), so I'm posting the log before i relink.

-Shauna

[ ] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

Bug Description

Steps to Reproduce

step one
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Actual Result:

Expected Result:

Screenshots

Platform Info

Signal Version:

Operating System:

Linked Device Version:

Link to Debug Log

kenpowers-signal commented 5 years ago

@J1nxy How long has it been since you last launched Signal? I'm also not seeing a debug log in your post. Do you have a debug log available for us to investigate?

somanayr commented 4 years ago

I just experienced this same issue with 30 days of inactivity

https://debuglogs.org/71d094c085b23ea4a7c9ac85a49d0b2339cd8cdb53a3bdd9c752eb8b258e42f7

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 4 years ago

Yes, it is expected that a desktop is unlinked if it isn't used for 30 days. Closing this.

libcg commented 4 years ago

I use my laptop infrequently and I need to relink my app almost every single time because I don't usually open the app when I turn my computer on. Is there any way to configure that threshold @scottnonnenberg-signal?

rcontisplk commented 3 years ago

Agreed, this is a colossal pain in the ass. I use signal on 3 different computers and it seems like virtually every time I open it on desktop, I have to re-link and re-name my machine.

mcs commented 3 years ago

It's the same for me than for @rcontisplk and really annoying. I definitely would prefer another solution, like a monthly digest within the app about unused devices (with a button to unlink it) or so. Just something else that does not unlink the Desktop app without having asked before.

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 3 years ago

This is where we're tracking requests to change the automatic unlink timeframe: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/4730

PaulFWatts commented 2 years ago

I have this VERY annoying problem also.

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 2 years ago

@PaulFWatts Can you tell us about your usage patterns? We just don't have enough information about occasional Desktop users.

WarpQueen commented 2 years ago

@PaulFWatts Can you tell us about your usage patterns? We just don't have enough information about occasional Desktop users.

I can tell you mine, as an occasional desktop user. I have two PC's and one laptop. I most often only use signal on the phone, but when I do use it on the computer, I most often want to send something to myself on another device. Which is super annoying as then I have to do it twice, once I discover it has become unlinked.

So something that could have taken me two seconds, suddenly takes minutes as I have to go find my phone etc. I guess I can understand it on laptops, but on my stationary computers, I'd just like them to never, ever unlink. A setting for that would be great. The risk is worth it. Things also have be easy to use. In this I think you have the balance wrong.

rcontisplk commented 2 years ago

Good news, I've solved the problem.

There were threads on this issue dating back to at least 2018 but they were eventually deleted because, I guess, nobody wanted to address the issue beyond "you're using Signal wrong if this is a problem for you". Of course, this thread was opened in 2019 because the issue was still not fixed. This issue has, of course, been closed, because, again, you're using Signal wrong if you don't like your computers constantly telling you to re-link.

Low adoption is the real root cause; I have too many computers (3 or 4 that I regularly use) and too few contacts using Signal, so every time I get a message I want to reply to, bam, need to re-link.

What's my solution, you ask? Well, my one contact who I regularly communicated with using Signal got tired of his OTHER contacts forgetting to read his messages for days at a time, again, due to low adoption. So he switched away from the platform, so I don't have to use it anymore, so I no longer have to worry about this problem.

It all goes back to the original problem: headaches like this design flaw keep adoption low.

Best of luck to everyone else hoping that, some day, this is actually treated like the impediment it is.

PaulFWatts commented 2 years ago

@scottnonnenberg-signal I have Signal on 2 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 iPads and an iPhone.

Laptops on Windows 11 and MacOS respectively and desktops on Windows 11 and Linux (Ubuntu) respectively.

I don't use all devices every day but do use them all on a regular basis.

As others have said it is VERY annoying to come to a device and have to go an find your phone to relink, and then also lose your history on that device.

I would move away from using Signal and happily keep using Apple Messenger because of this but some members of the family insist on using it because they don't have iPhones

FabianIsensee commented 2 years ago

Same issue here. I thought this was a bug until I found this thread. Having to relink constantly is really, really annoying :-/ Even more so because re-linked devices then have huge gaps in their history that will never be synced. My usage pattern?

I have a private(ish) desktop with 2 operating system: Linux and Windows. I use it mainly for home-office, so Linux is running most of the time. With barely any free time between work and family things I almost never log into my windows OS. But when I do guess what -> relink required :-(
At work nobody prevents us from using private messengers and since I hate typing in the phone I have the desktop app there as well (Ubuntu). Of couse there is this pandemic thing going on and well there might be long gaps between me actually going to the office with lots of home office in between. Uncertain times but what is certain is that I need to re-link the next time I go to the office
and finally there is my office laptop. Same story as my office PC, just had to relink. Again :-(

So really the only PC I don't need to re-link over and over is my home-office (Linux) OS.

I love signal and I am going to keep using it despite this (imo) huge flaw! It would be amazing to see that addressed, either by

making the unlink time customizable
re-linking previously linked devices with the simple click of a button + automatically syncing messages between linked devices

Best, Fabian

bewu-ib commented 2 years ago

Bump, this is not a feature.

cls-nebadje commented 2 years ago

This is super annoying. I have a lot of important discussions and use "note to self" a lot to transfer snippets and ideas. This makes Signal a PITA to use. I work and live in two different geographic locations and every time when I "come home" I have my desktop signal app destroyed. This is one of the situations where I ask myself if anyone at signal uses their stuff. I'm an engineer myself and i usually use the stuff I design. Please give the people at least the option to tweak the timeframe. Then I can determine myself if I see it as a problem to have my stuff to resync every 3 months.

carmanj commented 1 year ago

I would love to see this arbitrary (and unclear) threshold increased as well.

mcs commented 1 year ago

OK, I sadly unsubscribed now. This obviously won't never ever be changed as our concerns are ignored. Sad truth :-(

Imerion commented 1 year ago

I can confirm this is a problem. I want to use Signal on desktop only. I don't want the app on my phone, only on my Linux laptop. (Several reasons for this. I don't want messages to show up on my phone, I only want them when I launch the desktop app, it increases battery usage on my phone a lot, etc). Despite only being a week since I launched the Signal desktop app I again have to connect to my phone, which means installing the phone app again, configuring it, connecting to desktop and then removing the phone app again. Surely there could be an option to at least not have to connect to the phone if the desktop app has been in use withing the last 30 days?

nooxnet commented 1 year ago

I want to use Signal on desktop only.

This won't ever happen. Sadly the times of Desktop-first messaging services seems to be over. I still miss the time when everybody had ICQ. Facebook Messenger was quite OK because you could quickly switch to desktop. But now with mainly WhatsApp and some with Signal it's just so cumbersome when you sit in front of your computer anyways but you have to use your crappy phone keyboard just to write a message because logging in to the desktop app is even more cumbersome.

Could it be that these apps detect a computer as new device if something updates (regular Windows updates, browser, ...)

BlinksTale commented 1 year ago

Still a problem. At least let us change it between 14, 30, 90, and 365 days. I don't think anyone would object to not syncing after a year, but it would still ensure that extreme cases of both...

1) a lost device and 2) someone had modified the settings to increase sync delay

...would still eventually unlink itself in a safe way. It's true that this would reduce security, but as long as it was very informed opt-in then I think the overall risks would be low enough to make up for how much demand there is for flexibility on this feature.

ldaponte commented 1 year ago

I use signal often on iOS but on occasions where I want to use my linked laptop I find the link has "expired" and I can only link it as a new device and then my message history is not available on my laptop anymore. I'd like to see a way to relink that would preserve the message history on the linked device

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 1 year ago

@ldaponte Two things:

Automatic unlink should only happen after it's been 30 days since you last used your Signal Desktop install
When you relink to the same phone, same account, all of your message history should persist

It sounds like both of those things are going wrong for you. Please reach out to signal support: https://support.signal.org

dikleins commented 1 year ago

@scottnonnenberg-signal You say it's a feature. I say it's a flaw and I believe most desktop users will agree.

ldaponte commented 1 year ago

Wow, you break the application every thirty days. Let me know when you stop this practice and I’ll give the app another try

Best

Larry

On Fri, Jun 2, 2023 at 11:57 Scott Nonnenberg @.***> wrote:

@ldaponte https://github.com/ldaponte Two things:

Automatic unlink should only happen after it's been 30 days since you last used your Signal Desktop install

When you relink to the same phone, same account, all of your message history should persist

It sounds like both of those things are going wrong for you. Please reach out to signal support: https://support.signal.org

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/3490#issuecomment-1574177487, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABACY4CTRQLJQVXVUCU7H7DXJIZQHANCNFSM4IJEV24Q . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 1 year ago

@dikleins @ldaponte One thing to consider - when you don't start up desktop for a long time, the Signal server needs to keep all of the messages for that desktop on its servers. That set of messages just builds and builds. That's one of the reasons we've limited it to 30 days.

Can you talk about why you've got such an infrequently-used desktop that this keeps happening? We'd like to understand your situation better!

ldaponte commented 1 year ago

I primarily use my iOS device with Signal and on those occasions where I’m on my Mac or Windows laptop, I might want to refer to an old Signal message or to simply carry on the conversation from the laptop

-Larry

On Tue, Sep 5, 2023 at 11:52 Scott Nonnenberg @.***> wrote:

@dikleins https://github.com/dikleins @ldaponte https://github.com/ldaponte One thing to consider - when you don't start up desktop for a long time, the Signal server needs to keep all of the messages for that desktop on its servers. That set of messages just builds and builds. That's one of the reasons we've limited it to 30 days.

Can you talk about why you've got such an infrequently-used desktop that this keeps happening? We'd like to understand your situation better!

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/3490#issuecomment-1707153044, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABACY4HQKTLID5HSNZTI2RLXY5YGJANCNFSM4IJEV24Q . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

BlinksTale commented 1 year ago

It’s also not a matter of infrequently used Desktop, but less than once a month use of desktop signal app. I use one of my two desktops 5 days a week, the second 1 day a week, and my phone 7 days a week. So it makes the most sense to check signal on my phone mostly.

But if I open my second desktop and need information from signal, if I forget 4 times in a row to open the app (which for distraction reasons, I don’t want opened inherently) then my whole log is wiped.

Can’t you let users opt into a 12mo wipe option instead of 1mo? If it’s opt in then very few people will clog your servers this way, And 12mo ensures the very few that opt in will still have a cutoff so messages aren’t building up forever. These two features combined should not more than double the average storage needed.

Imerion commented 1 year ago

@scottnonnenberg-signal For me, the situation is this: I don't want to have Signal installed on my phone. It drains a lot of battery when running and I get stressed out by knowing there could appear new messages suddenly, anytime. (Since I only use Signal for work, and I don't want work to interfere when I'm free.) Thus I have it installed on my desktop computer, so I can start it up and check for new messages now and then when work requires. Problem is that sometimes it takes over a month for anything new to happen there and when I suddenly need it and start Signal on my desktop I have to go through the entire process of installing it on my phone, connecting to desktop and then removing it from my phone again.

Also, I have no need for messages to stay on a server waiting for me longer than a month or so. I would be completely ok with messages older than a few months just getting erased if I haven't opened the desktop app and downloaded them. That part is no problem, I just want it to always stay connected without involving my phone ever again. :)

cls-nebadje commented 1 year ago

@scottnonnenberg-signal

I have different offices at different locations and visit them approximately every three/four months. Every time I arrive, my whole backlog is wiped. This makes my work much much harder, because even the messages from some days ahead are not synchronized. This is just not bearable. Just imagine the emails from last week were missing in the inbox when you pick up your work.

Regarding the message storage on the server: I usually have my phone connected which receives the messages and another laptop. So no problem here. And I'm pretty sure this is how many use it. Most people nowadays are not statically sitting in one office. Having multiple devices at different locations is nothing special. If you can not take off from where you started the day before: It's just a killer.

Provide a switch in the preferences which allows to set the timeout to half a year or year as someone above mentioned.

cls-nebadje commented 1 year ago

And if the server argument is so important: then at least provide a way to let users synchronize with their phones! This would be acceptable for me. But having huge holes in my conversations is just insane. I'm pretty sure you would address that instantly if you were affected through your work schedule.

mhastu commented 1 year ago

I completely understand the argument of using server resources of a funded FOSS project. But is there really no other solution than to increase the 30 day time-out? E.g. when switching to a new phone one can migrate all the chats. Why can't this be done in case of automatic unlinking?

danielniccoli commented 12 months ago

Yes, it is expected that a desktop is unlinked if it isn't used for 30 days. Closing this.

Relinking would just be annoying if it meant you'd have to re-link again. But the facts that it doesn't sync your history - and you end up with a gap - is a giant pain in the ass.

zlanich commented 10 months ago

I also agree that this is a huge pain, and the reason I rarely use Signal. I always use the desktop variant of my messaging apps, and it's unlinked every time I go to use it. In fact, I just linked it a couple days ago, and it unlinked itself within 48hrs. I also tried to get my parents set up with it, but because they have to go through the linking process constantly, it's too confusing for them.

Also, if you take too long during the linking process (ie. Trying to get my parents to understand how to do it), it appears that the QR code expires, but it doesn't give a meaningful error messages, so it just leaves you confused as to why it failed, rather than saying it timed out and giving you a "Start Over" button.

donlencho commented 10 months ago

+1 for me, having gaps in the chat history after relinking WITHOUT WARNING is just not acceptable. It made me stop using Signal on other devices than my phone because I just don't consider it reliable (as in "I want to see my messages"). Having no clear information from the start, telling in advance the device will be unlinked when you add it is also a major UX problem. I have heard family members and friends complain more than once about not understanding why Signal on the desktop "did not work anymore" and I was confused myself until I found these threads. Really sad it's still not better nor clearer after years of users reporting this big UX issue.

AmARealPerson commented 10 months ago

+1 here too. I created this account just for this issue. I switched my SIM card to a new phone (same number, same OS) and set up my Signal app. I expected to have no message history on the phone but what I didn't expect is that ALL my devices would be unlinked without warning. I use Signal to communicate only with family and had thousands of recent messages on my other non-phone devices. Signal support provided no help except to say yes, this happens when you change your primary device. It would have been helpful to be warned about this ahead of time, but more importantly WHY CAN'T WE MAKE LOCAL BACKUPS??? I didn't realize this has been a requested feature for years until now, but from what I've read there's no software reason why it can't be achieved. If I decide to back up my message history to a flash drive, for example, it absolves Signal of privacy issues or having responsibility for my data on their servers. Then if I decide to get a new phone or computer, or gasp update my OS I won't have to lose everything. Trying to communicate with two elderly parents who aren't tech savvy is hard enough. We finally got set up on something they can use and Signal's poor UX killed the entire endeavor! Sad part is my father even donated to them...smh.

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 10 months ago

@AmARealPerson Is the problem just that Signal Desktop was unlinked? Did you relink the desktop instances? Did Desktop keep your message history when you re-linked?

The reason messages aren't kept around when you re-register on a new device is that we have no idea that it's you, the same person! In the future, when you do this, you should consider doing a device-to-device transfer to keep all of your old messages on all devices, including your phone.

AmARealPerson commented 10 months ago

@scottnonnenberg-signal I posted a very detailed explanation of what the issue was and why it was important to me. Perhaps you missed the part where I lost thousands of messages with my elderly parents. Feel free to re-read my post if you do indeed have an interest in user feedback. This is clearly an issue that frustrates most of us users evidenced by this now-closed thread and many others I've read on multiple platforms—an issue that is years old.

My new device, in this case another Android phone, is a different OS that wouldn't allow a device-to-device transfer. Regardless, the Signal app gave no warning that upon logging in on my new phone with the same identical SIM card as before (same provider) would unlink every other device I own. I haven't re-linked my desktop because I don't trust that I won't lose my message history there too. At least for now I can still view it.

The excuse that you can't identify me as me is a silly one considering how frustratingly often we all have to identify ourselves on every device these days. There are passwords, OTP/2FA via SMS, authenticator apps, or physical, push notifications, etc etc, not to mention Signal repeatedly asking for the PIN to be entered as a reminder. Clearly any or several of the above could be used to identify me and allow me to keep my messages and sanity. If Signal has chosen not to implement any of the above it's not for a lack of choices.

gebeer commented 8 months ago

Gaps in chat history is a no-go for many of us. Very sad that this hasn't been addressed for the last 5 years. Other messenger apps handle that way better.

christianh104 commented 7 months ago

I was surprised to find both of my laptops unlinked from Signal, without even an explanation. Changing things on the user with zero explanation is poor UX. I find it odd that we even have to say that but clearly nobody cares about those of us who use Signal infrequently. Of course that will make us want to use it more!

amoebaz commented 2 months ago

I also suffer this but in my case, since I changed my phone, the windows desktop app keeps unlinking everyday. And of course all messages history are lost. Anyone with this issue?

scottnonnenberg-signal commented 2 months ago

@amoebaz I'm sorry that's happening - we haven't seen that behavior before. Would you consider reaching out to me personally, or to support@signal.org?

signalapp / Signal-Desktop