Signal won't open after last update

[fnetX]

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

---

Bug Description

Signal won't open but show some messages. I don't get rid of them by restarting the app.

Steps to Reproduce

1. upgrade signal from 5.26.1 to 5.28.0
2. quit running signal, restart it
3. blue window appears (twice actually, on top of each other), but shortly after the error message logged below.
4. after seven restarts, the issue seems to be gone

Actual Result:

signal doesn't open with an error message

Expected Result:

signal opens.

Screenshots

couldn't screenshot error messages, because issue is gone after seven restarts

Platform Info

Signal Version: 5.28

Operating System:

Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 // Debian GNU/Linux 10

Link to Debug Log

Not applicable, since the app doesn't start.

Database startup error:

Error: SqliteError: database is locked
    at Database.exec ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:539:14)
    at [REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:26460:12
    at sqliteTransaction ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:509:24)
    at updateToSchemaVersion45 ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:26569:7)
    at updateSchema ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:28451:9)
    at Object.initialize ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:22703:39)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> ([REDACTED].unpacked/ts/sql/mainWorker.bundle.js:25698:36)
    at MessagePort.[nodejs.internal.kHybridDispatch] (node:internal/event_target:559:20)
    at MessagePort.exports.emitMessage (node:internal/per_context/messageport:23:28)
    at Worker.<anonymous> ([REDACTED]/ts/sql/main.js:44:34)
    at Worker.emit (node:events:394:28)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> (node:internal/worker:236:53)
    at MessagePort.[nodejs.internal.kHybridDispatch] (node:internal/event_target:559:20)
    at MessagePort.exports.emitMessage (node:internal/per_context/messageport:23:28)

and another window where "copy error and quit" does not copy the error but quit.

[fnetX]

I mostly fear what the "Remove all data and restart" button does, and that people accidentally click it. The user experience in the error handling was really not great, seeing a bunch of text on the screen and some equally looking buttons ... people might click the "remove" button at the right.

Also, if it's just a thing like a still-running process, an error message like Firefox' "Firefox is already running but not responding" would be more helpful than this gibberish to end users.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Can you provide the exact steps you took within these bullet points?

1. upgrade signal from 5.26.1 to 5.28.0
2. quit running signal, restart it

How exactly did you upgrade it? How did you quit it and restart it?

after seven restarts, the issue seems to be gone

What happened after the first restart? I really wouldn't expect this kind of locking to last past one restart!

[InteractionEngineer]

I had the same problem. A (Mac) restart did the trick for me. Before it would try to "optimize" Signal for hours.

[fnetX]

How exactly did you upgrade it?

with apt from the official Signal package sources. During the installation, not sure when exactly, I quit the Signal app.

BTW I just noticed today that Signal takes quite a while, up to a few minutes, to close all processes after the window disappears for me.

What happened after the first restart? I

It showed the error in exactly the same way up to several restarts.

[freed00m]

I also cannot start signal-desktop on both Archlinux stable and manjaro testing. Running wlroot wayland

Version is 5.28.0-1.

Segmentation fault (core dumped)
 ~ $ [36907:0100/000000.302167:ERROR:gpu_init.cc(457)] Passthrough is not supported, GL is egl, ANGLE is
[36907:0100/000000.310360:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(376)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.

It might be related to wayland maybe?

[Tmpod]

I mostly fear what the "Remove all data and restart" button does, and that people accidentally click it. The user experience in the error handling was really not great, seeing a bunch of text on the screen and some equally looking buttons ... people might click the "remove" button at the right.

I just got #5474 again after updating the app, and I find this dialog completely unacceptable. Closing the window or clicking Esc ends up silently wiping your entire database. The only safe way to exit out of there is clicking the copy error button. That issue was opened 6 months ago and multiple people have reported similar issues (I, for instance, know two other people irl who have had the same problem). Such an issue should be top priority, and not making a new onboarding screen, which was perfectly alright...
Anyways, I'm just annoyed that I'll have to yet again lose messages due to this, I apologise if that sounded too "bitchy" :/

[kojid0]

Cannot start the app either. Nothing happens (no window opened). ZorinOS 16 (based on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS)

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@freed00m You appear to be running into Electron's Wayland problems, documented here: #5719

@Tmpod For most users, when the database is broken like that the only way forward is to erase everything. Now about your situation - can we get a debug log and anything else that might help us track down the core 'file is not a database' issue?

@kojid0 We need more information! To start, any output on the command-line, Signal logs from disk ~/.config/Signal/logs might help us figure out why the application won't start. You might also consider including system-level logs if anything interesting comes up.

...

Just to set expectations - once we've worked through these last few reports, I'm going to close this bug. Generic bugs like this with no specifics attract various disparate issues without full issue template information. Wayland, a Database error, and Unknown/Linux just in these last three.

[Tmpod]

For most users, when the database is broken like that the only way forward is to erase everything. Now about your situation - can we get a debug log and anything else that might help us track down the core 'file is not a database' issue?

Thanks for the reply!
I've provided more info at #5467, and I suppose it's better to keep discussing it there. As you have said, this is a very broad issue. Let me know over there if I should provide any more info!

[kojid0]

Update: I have reinstalled the app from software store and now it works again. Kept the old database, so I still see old messages on desktop.

[fullet-tortuga]

I'm getting the "SqliteError: file is not a database" error when clean installing the PC Windows version 5.30. I see many bugs concerning upgrades, is there a specific on for clean installs?

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@fullet-tortuga It's likely not a clean install if you're seeing that error. Based on that error you appear to have some old SIgnal data hanging around. Please provide the debug log from C:\Users\<Your Name>\AppData\Roaming\Signal\logs and we can try to track down exactly what happened. Please also consider moving the the discussion to #4513

[fullet-tortuga]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I'm coming across more problems that make me turn away from Signal at least for another couple of years.

First the mobile app says it's outdated and it won't work anymore, so it forces me to update because the version compatibility is broken.

I click on the update button and it says it can't find itself, so the update is impossible to perform.

Then on the Signal website I can't find the .apk file.

In Google Play website I click on download but then it will force me to create a user in order to log in.

I give up at this point. I will try again in a couple of years when/if this gets more user friendly. Thank you anyway. I will keep the link you gave to me to follow this issue there.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale]

This issue has been closed due to inactivity.