Database error after upgrade to 6.30

[rafiifar]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

• [x] I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Bug Description

After upgrading to version 6.30 signal-desktop on Windows 11, the application does not want to start. It started performing application optimization and then returned errors:

1. First one:

Database startup error:

Error: TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'type')
    at getPeerIdFromConversation ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\migrations\89-call-history.js:68:20)
    at [REDACTED]\ts\sql\migrations\89-call-history.js:211:22
    at sqliteTransaction ([REDACTED]\node_modules\@signalapp\better-sqlite3\lib\methods\transaction.js:65:24)
    at updateToSchemaVersion89 ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\migrations\89-call-history.js:301:5)
    at updateSchema ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\migrations\index.js:1755:5)
    at Object.initialize ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\Server.js:413:40)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\mainWorker.js:73:35)
    at [nodejs.internal.kHybridDispatch] (node:internal/event_target:735:20)
    at exports.emitMessage (node:internal/per_context/messageport:23:28)
    at Worker.<anonymous> ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\main.js:62:26)
    at Worker.emit (node:events:513:28)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> (node:internal/worker:234:53)
    at [nodejs.internal.kHybridDispatch] (node:internal/event_target:735:20)
    at exports.emitMessage (node:internal/per_context/messageport:23:28)

2. Second one:

   
   Unhandled Promise Rejection

Error: Not initialized at MainSQL.close ([REDACTED]\ts\sql\main.js:103:13) at BrowserWindow. ([REDACTED]\app\main.js:674:15)

### Steps to Reproduce

1.  Upgrade application to newest version through the UI prompt about new version
2.  Try to run application

Actual Result:

Errors like mentioned above.

Expected Result:

The application should start

### Platform Info

Signal Version:
Actually it is in 6.30

Operating System:
Windows 11 Pro 22H2

Linked Device Version:
iOS 16.6

### Link to Debug Log
Unable to get debug logs. Application does not start

[indutny-signal]

Sorry about this. We are working on a fix.

[DerErnie]

Had the same problem. Unfortunately after a reboot and another start of the app my whole message database got erased while asked for a new sync with mobile phone. Please stop the auto-update until this is fixed!

PC: Windows 10, Version 22H2, Build 19045.2728, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0 Phone: iOS 15.7.8

[itkfm]

Furthermore, “Copy error and quit” doesn’t even do the first half of its job…

[itkfm]

Furthermore, “Copy error and quit” doesn’t even do the first half of its job…

Errata: Sorry, it fails the 2nd half as well. Better rename it to “Go to background and burn one CPU core at 100%”

[Vzaa]

I think I have the same problem on Ubuntu 22.04 after the update. I don't know if there's way to change log levels to gather more info, but this is what I see when I run signal-desktop which ends in a SIGTRAP:

$ signal-desktop 
Set Windows Application User Model ID (AUMID) { AUMID: 'org.whispersystems.signal-desktop' }
NODE_ENV production
NODE_CONFIG_DIR /opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/config
NODE_CONFIG {}
ALLOW_CONFIG_MUTATIONS undefined
HOSTNAME undefined
NODE_APP_INSTANCE undefined
SUPPRESS_NO_CONFIG_WARNING undefined
SIGNAL_ENABLE_HTTP undefined
userData: /home/*/.config/Signal
config/get: Successfully read user config file
config/get: Successfully read ephemeral config file
making app single instance
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.586Z","msg":"app.ready: hour cycle preference: UnknownPreference"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.587Z","msg":"app.ready: preferred system locales: en-US, en"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.587Z","msg":"locale: Supported locales: af-ZA, ar, az-AZ, bg-BG, bn-BD, bs-BA, ca, cs, da, de, el, en, es, et-EE, eu, fa-IR, fi, fr, ga-IE, gl-ES, gu-IN, he, hi-IN, hr-HR, hu, id, it, ja, ka-GE, kk-KZ, km-KH, kn-IN, ko, ky-KG, lt-LT, lv-LV, mk-MK, ml-IN, mr-IN, ms, my, nb, nl, pa-IN, pl, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro-RO, ru, sk-SK, sl-SI, sq-AL, sr, sv, sw, ta-IN, te-IN, th, tl-PH, tr, ug, uk-UA, ur, vi, yue, zh-CN, zh-HK, zh-Hant"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.587Z","msg":"locale: Preferred locales:  en-US, en"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.588Z","msg":"locale: Matched locale: en"}
{"level":40,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.602Z","msg":"intl.onWarn [@formatjs/intl] \"defaultRichTextElements\" was specified but \"message\" was not pre-compiled. \nPlease consider using \"@formatjs/cli\" to pre-compile your messages for performance.\nFor more details see https://formatjs.io/docs/getting-started/message-distribution"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.603Z","msg":"locale: Text info direction for en: ltr"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.603Z","msg":"app ready"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.604Z","msg":"starting version 6.30.0"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.604Z","msg":"media access status [object Undefined] [object Undefined]"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.605Z","msg":"got fast theme-setting value dark"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.606Z","msg":"got fast theme-setting value dark"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.606Z","msg":"got fast spellcheck setting true"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.606Z","msg":"getSystemTraySetting had no flags and did no DB lookups. Returning DoNotUseSystemTray"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.606Z","msg":"Initializing BrowserWindow config: {\"show\":false,\"width\":954,\"height\":1057,\"minWidth\":300,\"minHeight\":200,\"autoHideMenuBar\":true,\"titleBarStyle\":\"default\",\"titleBarOverlay\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"#121212\",\"webPreferences\":{\"devTools\":false,\"spellcheck\":true,\"enableBlinkFeatures\":\"CSSPseudoDir,CSSLogical\",\"nodeIntegration\":false,\"nodeIntegrationInWorker\":false,\"sandbox\":false,\"contextIsolation\":true,\"preload\":\"[REDACTED]/preload.bundle.js\",\"backgroundThrottling\":true,\"enablePreferredSizeMode\":true,\"disableBlinkFeatures\":\"Accelerated2dCanvas,AcceleratedSmallCanvases\"},\"icon\":\"[REDACTED]/images/signal-logo-desktop-linux.png\",\"x\":3,\"y\":19}"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.619Z","msg":"spellcheck: user locales: [\"en-US\",\"en\"]"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.619Z","msg":"spellcheck: available spellchecker languages: [\"af\",\"bg\",\"ca\",\"cs\",\"cy\",\"da\",\"de\",\"de-DE\",\"el\",\"en\",\"en-AU\",\"en-CA\",\"en-GB\",\"en-GB-oxendict\",\"en-US\",\"es\",\"es-419\",\"es-AR\",\"es-ES\",\"es-MX\",\"es-US\",\"et\",\"fa\",\"fo\",\"fr\",\"fr-FR\",\"he\",\"hi\",\"hr\",\"hu\",\"hy\",\"id\",\"it\",\"it-IT\",\"ko\",\"lt\",\"lv\",\"nb\",\"nl\",\"pl\",\"pt\",\"pt-BR\",\"pt-PT\",\"ro\",\"ru\",\"sh\",\"sk\",\"sl\",\"sq\",\"sr\",\"sv\",\"ta\",\"tg\",\"tr\",\"uk\",\"vi\"]"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.619Z","msg":"spellcheck: setting languages to: [\"en-US\",\"en\"]"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.624Z","msg":"MainSQL: updateSchema:\n  Current user_version: 91;\n  Most recent db schema: 920;\n  SQLite version: 3.39.4;\n  SQLCipher version: 4.5.3 community;\n  (deprecated) schema_version: 437;\n"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.624Z","msg":"MainSQL: updateToSchemaVersion920(kyberPreKeys): Found 198 total keys"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.624Z","msg":"MainSQL: updateToSchemaVersion920(signedPreKeys): Found 12 total keys"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.624Z","msg":"MainSQL: updateToSchemaVersion920: Done with deletions"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.624Z","msg":"MainSQL: updateToSchemaVersion920: Starting vacuum..."}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:05.871Z","msg":"got fast theme-setting value dark"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:06.321Z","msg":"main window is ready-to-show"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:08.606Z","msg":"sql.initialize is taking more than three seconds; showing loading dialog"}
{"level":30,"time":"2023-09-07T15:46:08.629Z","msg":"got fast theme-setting value dark"}
[1]    5743 trace trap (core dumped)  signal-desktop

[trevor-signal]

@Vzaa did you receive the same Database Error as others?

We'll have a fix for the error others are reporting released shortly.

[Vzaa]

@Vzaa did you receive the same Database Error as others?

It pretty much crashed silently for me. IIRC it crashed sometime after the "optimizing..." banner appeared while I was away. Between that and now I did try to downgrade to the previous version and it prompted me to reset data or exit saying it detected a newer version of the config files, I picked not to reset not wanting to lose my data :) I then upgraded back to 6.30 where I get the output from my previous message. I hope I did not damage my files while trying to downgrade.

Is there a way for me to gather additional info that might help at this point? For me It is doing the same thing every time :thinking:

[trevor-signal]

@Vzaa yours looks like a different issue: the process is crashing while the vacuum operation is ongoing 🤔 . Can you share the size of your database on disk (/home/*/.config/Signal/sql/db.sqlite), and RAM and free disk space on your computer? Sometimes vacuums can take a lot of additional space on disk during the operation.

[Vzaa]

@trevor-signal my ~/.config/Signal/sql/db.sqlite is 1.1G (1089478656), The system has 16 GB of system RAM and 22 GB of free space. I'm not seeing it running out of either RAM or storage when I run it :thinking:

[Vzaa]

@Vzaa yours looks like a different issue

It's the same on v6.30.1 so I guess it is indeed something else...

Edit: Checking strace I do see ENOMEM from an mprotect syscall:

[pid  3583] mprotect(0x27b862fbc000, 40960, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
[pid  3583] mprotect(0x27b862fbc000, 40960, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
[pid  3583] --- SIGTRAP {si_signo=SIGTRAP, si_code=SI_KERNEL} ---

[trevor-signal]

@rafiifar , @DerErnie , @itkfm and others who got the "cannot read properties of null" error when starting v6.30.0, please download v6.30.1 from https://signal.org/download and let us know if the issue is resolved. Thanks!

[rafiifar]

@trevor-signal Thank you very much. In my case, the new version solved the problem.

[qtpies]

Flathub stable is now on 6.30.1, solved the problem for me. Thanks! (somehow flatpak search org.signal.Signal shows the version as 6.30.0 but the actual installed version is 6.30.1)

[Vzaa]

Sorry to bug you @trevor-signal, but do you think I should create a new issue for the vacuum related crash?

I'll see if I can run vacuum on the db file using a separate sqlite client somehow :thinking:

[DerErnie]

@trevor-signal the new update works, but after losing my database on PC1 i try to not be one of the first adopters of 6.30.1 on my other pc (PC2) ;) The database of the affected pc (PC1) is gone and i synced it to my phone again because i needed Signal immediately :/ On PC1 the update to 6.30.1 works as expected :)

Is there a chance to import the database of PC2 into the affected PC1? A restore tool restored the old config.json and a big part of the attachment, but not the sqlite file.

Thanks in advance!

[SoapGentoo]

I'm also still seeing the same core dumped issue with 6.30.1 on Linux.

[itkfm]

@trevor-signal v6.30.1 resolved it, thx

[Vzaa]

I'll see if I can run vacuum on the db file using a separate sqlite client somehow 🤔

I managed to get it working using a build of sqlcipher 4.5.3 to modify my db.sqlite file.

If anybody reading this wants to try my method, please make sure to back up a copy of your db.sqlite first. There is a risk involved in manually modifying your files

I first ran vacuum from sqlcipher 4.5.3 (which doesn't crash, unlike signal-desktop) and then I replaced the db file. I re-ran signal-desktop with the updated db file and it crashed again at the vacuum step. Afterwards, I ran PRAGMA user_version = 920; which I looked up from https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/blob/v6.30.1/ts/sql/migrations/920-clean-more-keys.ts#L175

So in summary doing this helped me:

$ sqlcipher db.sqlite
SQLite version 3.39.4 2022-09-29 15:55:41 (SQLCipher 4.5.3 community)
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> PRAGMA key="x'key from config.json'";
ok
sqlite> vacuum;
sqlite> PRAGMA user_version = 920;

Maybe some one from the signal-desktop team can confirm this "fix" :thinking:

Edit: fixed a few typos and wording

[literal-0x4e]

At least in my case, with the 6.30.2 release the problem went away and signal-desktop is working again.

[chirayudesai]

At least in my case, with the 6.30.2 release the problem went away and signal-desktop is working again.

Same here. 6.30.1 wouldn't work, Trace/breakpoint trap Downgrading to 6.29.1 and restoring old data from backup worked. Upgrading to 6.30.2 also worked.

[Vzaa]

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/commit/893906eb6c90e79fdf430d423c3ed18c723f52ed moved the vacuum step to the end. So if it is going to crash, it is going to crash only once probably :)

[indutny-signal]

Alright, sounds like it is fixed now. Thanks everyone!

[SoapGentoo]

I assume if you didnt have a backup then your history is hosed?

[indutny-signal]

@SoapGentoo If you install 6.30.2 over without uninstalling the old version - it should work unless you already erased your database manually! Let me know if it doesn't!

[SoapGentoo]

I could have sworn I tried 6.30.2 earlier and it still crashed. Just tried again, and it all works now, thanks!