Crash on Launch (Launch Failure)

radix007 commented 2 years ago

[x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
[x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
[x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

Bug description

Whenever I am opening Signal iOS app it is showing me Couldn't Open Signal. Signal had a problem while trying to open. Please send a debug log to support@signal.org to help troubleshoot this issue.

Steps to reproduce

Open Signal App
Small Prompt in the bottom shows the message "Couldn't Open Signal"
Two options shown at this point: Submit Debug Log or Open Signal Instead
When I click on Open Signal instead app crashes and I return back to home screen
When I click on submit debug log, it creates the log and gives various options to share the log like: Email Support, Copy Link, Open a Bug Report, Share and Cancel
After clicking on either of these options in no case does the app open. It is only crashing and then we repeat the whole process again
I also tried to uninstall the app and install again. It was working then but after 5-6 hours the bug started to show up again.

Actual result: The app does not open and crashes every time

Expected result: The app should open when I click on use signal app instead or after I close it. Not really sure why this is happening.

Screenshot

Signal App Launch Crash

Device info

Device: iPhone 6

iOS version: 12.5.5 (16H62)

Signal version: 5.42.0.12

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/ios/5.42.0/1827923fba28c363a2d491730d8b11ef55524d521220bf4d98cfefdf3b85f94f.zip

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

It looks like your database is getting corrupted. This is something we're trying to figure out but haven't been able to.

Have you been hard-resetting your device or doing anything unusual with it?

radix007 commented 2 years ago

Hi @EvanHahn-Signal, I did hard-reset my phone but it was like 1.5-2 months ago. And no I am not doing anything unusual other than use signal regularly. I will reset my Iphone again if that helps resolve the problem. Will let you know.

cgoutaland commented 2 years ago

Hi, I’ve been having the exact same issue since late June on my iPhone 11 Pro iOS 15.5. I had not done anything special before this started, other than using Signal with more people. Please help! This is taking way too long to fix. Don’t want to abandon signal but it’s literally unusable on iOS. :(

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

Sorry to everyone running into this. This is a top priority for us, but it's difficult to diagnose which is why it's taking a long time.

I did hard-reset my phone but it was like 1.5-2 months ago. And no I am not doing anything unusual other than use signal regularly. I will reset my Iphone again if that helps resolve the problem. Will let you know.

@radix007 We think that hard resets might be the cause of database corruption problems, which might cause the issues you're seeing. If you experience this again, please include a crash file and debug logs so we can take a look.

Hi, I’ve been having the exact same issue since late June on my iPhone 11 Pro iOS 15.5. I had not done anything special before this started, other than using Signal with more people. Please help! This is taking way too long to fix. Don’t want to abandon signal but it’s literally unusable on iOS. :(

@cgoutaland Could you please send us debug logs so we can figure out the problem?

foxtongue commented 2 years ago

I'm having the same issue. Got a new phone last week, a Motorola motorola one 5G ace. Signal was fine on install, then as of yesterday will not open. I don't have an option to send logs, that I'm aware of, as there's no error pop-up.

radix007 commented 2 years ago

@EvanHahn-Signal Please find attached the crash file and the new debug logs :

Crash File

Debug Logs

Please let me know if you want the updated version of the logs again or if you want to perform some specific tests with the app. I can also get on a call and work on this with you.

pvernon1 commented 2 years ago

Same issue. I did a hard reset today for something unrelated after which the app doesn’t want to open.

logs

radix007 commented 2 years ago

I am now sure that this issue is related to the database, because when you go to the photos app, you can share photos and then it opens the signal app, then you can select the contact, but when you click on send, it crashes. So accessing the database is causing it to crash maybe. @EvanHahn-Signal

rocodes commented 2 years ago

Have run into the same issue. STR: on iOS 15.5, I attempted to reset all settings (without wiping app data), but did not complete the reset because I was prompted for the screentime password. I think Signal may have been open in the background.

Logs are below (locale info redacted)--the database is indeed corrupted, the application cannot be opened and I see the same error as @radix007 indicated in the screenshot. @EvanHahn-Signal I'm happy to help troubleshoot if I can.

signal_logs.zip

radix007 commented 2 years ago

@EvanHahn-Signal I uninstalled the app and tried to open it again and it has now been working fine for almost a week now.

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

Thanks for these logs, everyone. This is still a top priority for us and these logs will be helpful.

inspektorBear commented 2 years ago

I have the same issue. After I did a hard-reset because of an unrelated problem, Signal fails to open. The logs say the database is corrupted.

Logs: 0e546b7143c94df9dc239eac2a6d67899e2fced316b3618c98ff5f6a61f94f16.zip

Is it possible that my messages can be recovered by a new signal version? I just want to know my chances if I can get my messages back.

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

@Dakotaw0lf Yes, it's possible. We're working hard to solve these issues. Please stay updated—hopefully a new version will help.

pixel2920 commented 2 years ago

Count me in who has recently experienced this on 5.47. Upgraded to 5.48 and no dice. Hoping a new version will fix the database issue. I submitted debuglogs already.

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

I am in the same boat. I did hard reset the device (after iOS 16 upgrade) right as a message came in (just my luck). I have tried completely uninstalling the app and reinstalling (with data deleting warning) and as soon as I reinstall the app, it still shows as having 2GB of usage and immediately complains of a corrupted database on launch. Can you please add an option to completely clear or reset the database if it's corrupted because reinstalling the app is not fixing it and I cannot use Signal at all.

Losing all of my messages will suck, but at least I will be able to use the app again. It is worth noting that the linked desktop is still working fine.

To reproduce the issue, I would have a bot spam the crap out of a test iPhone and continuously hard reset it.

senlamy commented 2 years ago

I have the same issue. It happend after Signal hard froze my iPhone after trying to send a picture in a chat, I had to hard reset it and now it is stuck at this screen all the time. I'm on Iphone 10, latest iOS

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

I really hope this gets prioritized. I’m dead in the water from this, and I’d honestly be happy to lose all my messages and everything in Signal to get it working again. A simple “wipe database” button on the “Database corrupted” dialog would be easy to implement until Apple can fix the storage bug. If I can’t get Signal working soon, I’m gonna have to switch my remote teams over to Threema.On Sep 21, 2022, at 08:08, Petr Pinkas @.***> wrote: I have the same issue. It happend after Signal hard froze my iPhone after trying to send a picture in a chat, I had to hard reset it and now it is stuck at this screen all the time. I'm on Iphone 10, latest iOS

—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

superschlundi commented 2 years ago

I am in the same boat. I did hard reset the device (after iOS 16 upgrade) right as a message came in (just my luck). I have tried completely uninstalling the app and reinstalling (with data deleting warning) and as soon as I reinstall the app, it still shows as having 2GB of usage and immediately complains of a corrupted database on launch. Can you please add an option to completely clear or reset the database if it's corrupted because reinstalling the app is not fixing it and I cannot use Signal at all.

Losing all of my messages will suck, but at least I will be able to use the app again. It is worth noting that the linked desktop is still working fine.

To reproduce the issue, I would have a bot spam the crap out of a test iPhone and continuously hard reset it.

Same issue here. I had an Signal Audio Call with some weird hung up (iOS said microphone was still in use by unknown app) until restart. Hard reset the iPhone, signal stopped working completely. Crashes every time at startup, reinstalling doesn't change anything. Same behavior like yours.

iOS 16.0, iPhone XS.

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

@EvanHahn-Signal @max-signal This issue has been present for several months. As a developer myself, I can completely understand how hard it is to fix unreproducible bugs.

As such, can we please have a workaround such as a database reset option on the corrupted database dialog?

The Signal app clearly has access to the corrupted files, so it should be able to delete them rather trivially. Signal is completely unusable despite reinstalls, and this problem is starting to creep up for others on my team as well. If a solution is not on the horizon, I'd happily accept a nuclear workaround and throw away my messages. I'm desperate to get this running again.

Thank you!!

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

@vcrtech Yes. Actively working on it as of last week and today.

senlamy commented 2 years ago

@vcrtech Yes. Actively working on it as of last week and today.

any progress?

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

@vcrtech Yes. Actively working on it as of last week and today.

any progress?

I just noticed an update through TestFlight which has a different notification about the corrupted data. It said it will attempt to recover, but then crashes :( But hey, it looks like they're going in the right direction!! :) Been without Signal for weeks; I'm ready to be back in the game! Thanks to all the developers working this.

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

The latest beta will attempt to recover corrupted databases.

@vcrtech and anyone else using this: are you able to get debug logs from your crash? I also want to hear from people who have different experiences—e.g., people who successfully have their data recovered.

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

The latest beta will attempt to recover corrupted databases.

@vcrtech and anyone else using this: are you able to get debug logs from your crash? I also want to hear from people who have different experiences—e.g., people who successfully have their data recovered.

Edit: I linked in the following message as well; thanks!

I submitted the crash logs through the Apple feedback prompt that pops up at ~2100CST from my username as the email. Please let me know if these don't make it through and I'll do whatever it takes to collect the logs an alternative way.

Thanks again!!

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

@EvanHahn-Signal I am linking two crashlogs: One from the very first launch/recovery attempt with the latest beta, and another more recent attempt. I have these set to expire after a week but can collect more if needed. Thanks!

https://pastebin.com/pHQCBx0t https://pastebin.com/0ryCwzXT

stegmannt commented 2 years ago

I'm also affected by this issue.

Plus uninstalling Signal for iOS via app drawer oder device storage ui doesn't delete the app data. So I can't even reset Signal to a new database. There is no debug log available. Any ideas?

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

I'm also affected by this issue.

Plus uninstalling Signal for iOS via app drawer oder device storage ui doesn't delete the app data. So I can't even reset Signal to a new database. There is no debug log available. Any ideas?

Try signing up for the Signal beta/TestFlight and see if it can recover your data. Evan Hahn is currently working this issue and the beta version may work for you (didn't for me, but hey it's progress).

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in the fact that reinstalling doesn't delete the app data. I'd also recommend reporting the bug to Apple since it's partially their fault too for not wiping the data on uninstall.

stegmannt commented 2 years ago

I tried newer and older versions but nothing worked. 5.54 didn't crash but reported and unsupported database.

The only way to reset the data was to delete Signal, take an itunes backup, hard reset the phone and reload the backup. After that the data was gone and Signal installable again.

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

Slightly off-topic to Signal (but relatable considering the nuclear option), but in general, do you know if 2FA/MFA apps backed up as part of an iTunes backup will work after reloading or will they all need setting up again? I think that's my biggest hesitation to this; IRS 2FA, Twilio, BitWarden, work 2FA, Microsoft Authenticaor, etc etc... I can't imagine having to set all those up again :O

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 11:24 PM Tobias Stegmann @.***> wrote:

I tried newer and older versions but nothing worked. 5.54 didn't crash but reported and unsupported database.

The only way to reset the data was to delete Signal, take an itunes backup, hard reset the phone and reload the backup. After that the data was gone and Signal installable again.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/5395#issuecomment-1272771339, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AEEF42K47IAYCL2YSCT5OI3WCOK7BANCNFSM52VM34RQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

stegmannt commented 2 years ago

Slightly off-topic to Signal (but relatable considering the nuclear option), but in general, do you know if 2FA/MFA apps backed up as part of an iTunes backup will work after reloading or will they all need setting up again? I think that's my biggest hesitation to this; IRS 2FA, Twilio, BitWarden, work 2FA, Microsoft Authenticaor, etc etc... I can't imagine having to set all those up again :O

Depends on the app. Banking 2FA apps are usually not backed up by an iTunes/iCloud backup, but e.g. Google Authenticator will be restored. I used a second phone to transfer all 2FA apps to be sure. Some banks also allow to register multiple phones at the same time. That's always a good idea, if your phone gets lost or breaks.

EvanHahn-Signal commented 2 years ago

I am linking two crashlogs: One from the very first launch/recovery attempt with the latest beta, and another more recent attempt. I have these set to expire after a week but can collect more if needed. Thanks!

https://pastebin.com/pHQCBx0t https://pastebin.com/0ryCwzXT

@vcrtech Thanks for these. We'll collect a few more reports from users and see if we can find something that'll fix this problem.

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

I am linking two crashlogs: One from the very first launch/recovery attempt with the latest beta, and another more recent attempt. I have these set to expire after a week but can collect more if needed. Thanks!

https://pastebin.com/pHQCBx0t https://pastebin.com/0ryCwzXT

@vcrtech Thanks for these. We'll collect a few more reports from users and see if we can find something that'll fix this problem.

Thank you @EvanHahn-Signal!

vcrtech commented 2 years ago

@EvanHahn-Signal

SUCCESS!!

I swore I tried 5.58.0.7 yesterday with the usual crashing issue, but (I dunno if this made any difference at all) I happened to have Signal open on my desktop machine where I've been using it, and I've probably sent about 30+ messages to the contact I was speaking with when it was initially corrupted about a month ago. Either way, I tried opening it just to try/see if it made a difference, and it ACTUALLY RECOVERED THE DATA and worked!! I doubt this had much to do with it, but maybe it did? It was 100% the same contact that sent a message to me RIGHT when I hard-reset the phone and the corruption started happening.

Either way,

THANK YOU so much to you and everyone who played a part in this effort and putting up with my groaning and moaning about this issue. If there is anything else I need to do to help with testing/logs, please let me know.

signalde commented 2 years ago

Here's another debug log from my wife's phone. Updated Signal and iOS but still crashing right when opening the app (like the screenshot in the original post above) https://debuglogs.org/ios/5.57.0/0fbb8c8a4a3aa89494d04fec68578d037b64b51131827ec57bf9440d94d8556e.zip

S-Sudarsan commented 2 years ago

Attaching logs from my mobile, have been facing this issue for more than 2 months now. https://debuglogs.org/ios/5.57.0/7ecca629ed894e92baa4fadc1227996b1ef22a5642341cd87cdeeec7b2f83931.zip

senlamy commented 2 years ago

This is getting ridiculous, can someone fix this? Can't use Signal for over 2 months now

EvanHahn-Signal commented 1 year ago

@signalde @S-Sudarsan Both of these look like crashes we've seen before. It's on our list to fix them.

Really sorry it's taken so long to address these, but we're a small non-profit team. Trust that we're doing our best.

inspektorBear commented 1 year ago

After installing the beta version 6.1.0 through Testflight I was able to recover my database! 🥳

Then I went back to latest release (6.0.0). When i open Signal now it just says, that the database version is unknown and won’t let me proceed. So I’ll just stay on the Testflight version 6.1.0 (18) until it is released.

Thank you!

signalde commented 1 year ago

@signalde @S-Sudarsan Both of these look like crashes we've seen before. It's on our list to fix them.

Really sorry it's taken so long to address these, but we're a small non-profit team. Trust that we're doing our best.

No worries, thanks for your great work!

EvanHahn-Signal commented 1 year ago

Then I went back to latest release (6.0.0). When i open Signal now it just says, that the database version is unknown and won’t let me proceed. So I’ll just stay on the Testflight version 6.1.0 (18) until it is released.

This is expected. You can't usually downgrade versions safely (e.g., go backwards from 6.1 to 6.0).

vcrtech commented 1 year ago

I’m glad anything above 5.58 crashes immediately before attempting to upgrade the database or I would be stuck 🫣 I’ve got 63 days before 5.58.0 (13) expires, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Not sure if it helps with debugging, but I deleted all of my messages in 5.58, removed my picture/badge and name, disabled stories, and the latest one still crashes (in my case).

I’m not sure if there is a way to bring the verification data/key pairs forward while wiping the rest of the data (to prevent others having to re-verify), but that would be amazing if there was a way, or even the nuclear delete everything as even uninstalling the app leaves the data behind for some reason.

Thanks for everything you all do!

vcrtech commented 1 year ago

6.2.2 fixed the crashing for me. Thanks!

S-Sudarsan commented 1 year ago

Unfortunately, it is still crashing for me with 6.2.2

fedorukol commented 1 year ago

Facing same problem on iPhone 6 with IOS 12.5.2 and Signal 6.2.2. Several reinstalls didn't help 🥲

lindsaybloom commented 1 year ago

Facing the same problem on iPhone 14 Pro iOS 16.0.3 and Signal 6.2.2.

Debug info: Filter: Signal - iOS Debug Log - LaunchFailure_LastAppLaunchCrashed Hardware: iPhone HID: 15,3 iOS Version: 16.0.3 (20A392) Signal Version: 6.2.2.0 Log URL: https://debuglogs.org/ios/6.2.2/0b88c45cd4e703aeb627c7fe7fe24581111f8713b4e946dd6db9466e20f8456f.zip Locale: en_CA

EvanHahn-Signal commented 1 year ago

To anyone experiencing a crash on launch: could you please include debug logs and crash reports? We need both to investigate the issue.

Instructions are here.

senlamy commented 1 year ago

To anyone experiencing a crash on launch: could you please include debug logs and crash reports? We need both to investigate the issue.

Instructions are here.

Thanks, just sent it both form the crash report upon happening and from iOS Privacy settings.. fingers crossed

gabrc52 commented 1 year ago

2023.01.01 03.48.16 DDD06166-EC0B-4149-85EE-F854787889B8.zip

Here's some newer (2023) logs

Possible duplicates: #5375, #5395, #5481, #5475

fracture-point commented 1 year ago

Same issue for me…completely dead in the water. I tried to launch the camera in the app earlier to send a picture to someone, then the app hard locked and after a minute or two of waiting, the phone rebooted.

I’m now unable to open the app, even after deleting the app, rebooting, and reinstalling.

gabrc52 commented 1 year ago

Try installing the latest beta. See #5481

signalapp / Signal-iOS