No Notification and New Message Count on Signal Desktop (Windows 10) since version 7.18

[vyncere]

Using a supported version?

• [X] I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• [X] I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

• Bug : No notification popup, no « New Message count » on "Tray Icon" and "Buddy List"
• Bug not present on Signal 7.17, appears on 7.18, still on 7.19.

Steps to reproduce

Signal Desktop Notification Preferences (never changed) :

• Enable notifications (checked)
• Show notifications for calls (checked)

** Test 1 : (Signal minimized)

1. Launch Signal.
2. Minimize Signal to Notification Area (Tray Icon), so no Signal icon on taskbar.
3. Asked buddy to send a « Test » message.

** Test 2 : (Signal maximized)

1. Launch Signal.
2. Keep Signal maximized, no buddy selected, Signal icon on taskbar.
3. Asked buddy to send a « Test » message.

Expected result

When message is received, either Signal minimized or maximized, normal behavior until 7.17 was :

• Notification pops up.
• « New message » red counter updated on Tray Icon.
• « New message » counter updated on Buddy.

It's very difficult to see that new messages have been received.

Actual result

** Result 1 : (Signal minimized)

• No notifications pops up.
• No « new message » red counter updated.
• When clicking on Signal to raise window, buddy not selected, welcome page : Message has been received but no « new message » count on the buddy.
• When clicking on the buddy to display the chat page : « 1 Unread Message » with separator line is displayed, with « Test » message.

** Result 2 : (Signal maximized)

• No notifications pops out.
• No « new massage » red counter updated.
• Signal Icon on Taskbar is highlighted.
• When clicking on Signal to raise window, buddy not selected, welcome page : Message has been received but no « new message » count on the buddy.
• When clicking on the buddy to display the chat page : « 1 Unread Message » with separator line is displayed, with « Test » message.

Screenshots

No response

Signal version

7.18, 7.19

Operating system

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045

Version of Signal on your phone

7.12.3

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.18.0/c5a31b33ac2029501869a21da9a6c2bbd51bf3566e8dc0ef4c7fc0988b6cbf03.gz

[jamiebuilds-signal]

Looks like it's erroring out trying to put files into your user data directory. Are you doing anything interesting with your signal data folder? Maybe linking it to another location, using it with a backup tool, or something along those lines?

[vyncere]

Looks like it's erroring out trying to put files into your user data directory. Are you doing anything interesting with your signal data folder? Maybe linking it to another location, using it with a backup tool, or something along those lines?

Hello Jamie,

Thank you very much for your investigation, thank you for your time.

I see in the Log this line : « ERROR 2024-08-06T09:19:02.082Z Top-level unhandled promise rejection: Error: 'sourcePath' must be relative to the user config directory. » which could be the cause.

To answer your question honestly, yes I do -- « something interesting with my Signal Data ».

Accurately, I use Signal Desktop as a Portable Installation, inside a VeraCrypt container, which allows me to keep the same Context (Chats, Messages, etc) between my different Laptops. It also allows me to make backups of the whole installation, each encrypted container can be viewed as a fully backup.

I have a mount point folder « C:\Mount\Software », which is in fact a Junction which points to the real folder inside the VeryCrypt Drive (S:). Inside there is Signal folder installation, which can be accessed to « C:\Mount\Software\Portable\Signal » or directly to « S:\Portable\Signal ».

• The Signal tree is :

Signal ├── CHANGELOG.md ├── README.md ├── app ├── data ├── log ├── portapp-prev.json ├── portapp.json ├── signal-portable.exe └── signal-portable.sample.yml

• The « app » directory is simply the « app64.7z » which is extracted from the original Signal Setup.exe (https://updates.signal.org/desktop/signal-desktop-win-x.xx.x.exe) from « $PLUGINSDIR » folder. Each time I upgrade, a bash script extracts this folder and replace the old one, without any alteration, application is still « as provided by Signal Team ».
• The « data » directory contains the Signal Context, and never moves elsewhere.
• The « signal-portable.exe » wrapper knows where to look for the directories, it is defined in the « portapp-prev.json » :

"root_path": "C:\\Mount\\Software\\Portable\\Signal", "app_path": "C:\\Mount\\Software\\Portable\\Signal\\app", "data_path": "C:\\Mount\\Software\\Portable\\Signal\\data"

and the following switch is passed to the Signal process :

--user-data-dir=<data_path>

I use this setup before Signal 5.38 (maybe since 5.00, ~2021) and it has worked flawlessly until Signal 7.18 -- I suppose there is some internal changes which make this last release not compatible with this « portable installation », and may causing some reading / writing errors which is necessary for the notifications service.

I would be very grateful, if you could do something to make Signal compatible as before (7.17), or tell me if I can fix myself the « sourcePath » or what ever it is, to keep my installation as it is.

Kind regards ! :)

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Hey there, @vyncere. It does look as if your customizations are no longer working. But it's not clear why. You might be interested to look at Electron's release notes to see if any changes have been made on their side.

For now, I'm going to close this since it's not a scenario we support. We'd certainly like to hear more about what you discover!

ERROR 2024-08-06T09:07:04.226Z Top-level unhandled promise rejection: Error: 'sourcePath' must be relative to the user config directory
    at [REDACTED]\resources\app.asar\preload.bundle.js:101:89644
    at rte.getTemporaryAvatarPath ([REDACTED]\resources\app.asar\preload.bundle.js:126:228073)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async rte.getAvatarOrIdenticon ([REDACTED]\resources\app.asar\preload.bundle.js:126:227574)
    at async rte.notify ([REDACTED]\resources\app.asar\preload.bundle.js:126:226914)
    at async ske.saveAndNotify ([REDACTED]\resources\app.asar\preload.bundle.js:126:143208)