Desktop app won't sync with Android

[brianm71]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicate

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Bug Description

When I link the Windows Desktop app to my Android Signal account (latest updates), I see no contacts in the desktop app and therefore cannot send any messages. Also, new messages do not sync with the desktop app after linking. I even tried dozens of times to go in and manually import the contacts. I also tried several times resetting the Desktop app and relinking with the same result.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Link accounts
2. Scan QR Code

Alternative steps:

1. Preferences...
2. Contacts
3. Import Now

Actual Result:

Contacts do not sync from Android. New messages do not sync from android

Expected Result:

Desktop app should be populated with Android contacts. New messages should sync with the desktop app

Screenshots

n/a

Platform Info

Signal Version: Android 5.15.6
Signal DT Version: 5.7.1

Operating System: Win 10

Linked Device Version: Android 11

Link to Debug Log

https://debuglogs.org/30dc99801907ee6bafa8893256ceef3e55347abbc42db6743df64add0cd53528.gz

[EvanHahn-Signal]

From your logs, it looks like your contacts are being successfully synchronized. A few possible things that could be happening here:

1. Contacts don't show up in the left pane until you have a conversation with them. However, you can find them by clicking the Compose icon (the little pencil) or searching for them. Maybe they're present but missing?
2. Desktop doesn't support SMS conversations at all, so if you have Android SMS conversations, we won't know about those.
3. We think the contacts are being synced, but we have a bug and they are not.

Is it possible that it's one of the first two things happening? I think not—I think there's something wrong here—but I want to double-check.

Also: have you tried going to Signal Desktop's settings and deleting all of the app's data? That might be the clean slate you need to get things working.

[brianm71]

For #1, there are no contacts when I search using the "pencil".
For #2 I'm not sure about this. Are you saying that the desktop version only supports signal to signal messages? If so, that may explain the lack of messages sync as I am the only one I know using signal. Most others I text are on ios messages. But wouldn't the contacts still sync?

And as far as deleted all the app data and starting over, yes I've done this multiple times with the same result.

[EvanHahn-Signal]

For #2 I'm not sure about this. Are you saying that the desktop version only supports signal to signal messages? If so, that may explain the lack of messages sync as I am the only one I know using signal. Most others I text are on ios messages. But wouldn't the contacts still sync?

@brianm71 Signal Desktop only supports Signal-to-Signal conversations and contacts. In other words, you won't see contacts that don't have Signal installed.

It is possible that explains your issue?

[brianm71]

Ok yeah that probably explains it. I wasn't aware of that limitation.

[EvanHahn-Signal]

I'm going to close this issue because I believe the problem has been resolved, but we'll keep this in mind as we try to make this stuff more clear in the future.