[Bug]: app.relaunch() fails to restart app - It only exits.

[alex-drocks]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a feature request that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Electron Version

15.3.0

What operating system are you using?

Windows

Operating System Version

Windows 10.0.19043

What arch are you using?

x64

Last Known Working Electron version

15.2.0

Expected Behavior

app.relaunch() should restart the Electron application as expected.

Actual Behavior

The application only quits. It does not relaunch the app as it should.

Testcase Gist URL

https://github.com/alex-drocks/electron-15.3.0-win10-x64-app-relaunch-fails

Additional Information

For documentation I read this: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/app#apprelaunchoptions

I have a production build using Electron v15.2.0 in which the app.relaunch() function still works as expected.
I also tried to use Electron v16 beta to see if it was fixed later in beta releases.

Testcase URL is a copy of the electron-quick-start where I jsut added a button in the renderer process to trigger the app.relaunch() function.

[alex-drocks]

Please note that I tried packaging my electron app and it DOES work when packaged! Wierd.

[baconbrad]

I have cloned and tested your testcase and I am getting the expected behavior on 15.3.0. Does your packaged version still work in the same directory as your Electron dependency dist directory?

[alex-drocks]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the same directory because when packaged it goes into the "out" dir by default with Electron Forge. So I suppose, it is a completely different folder than in dev mode.

Although I can confirm, that it works correctly on my Mac...

I'll do some more testing on my windows machine, but I have already tried deleting the node_modules completely. I'll post back when I have more info. Thank you

[alex-drocks]

So I've tried a clean install of npm dependencies again. Then, messed around in the node_modules/electron/dist folder as I was trying to figure out what you meant. I tried placing my packaged .exe file beside the electron.exe file in the dist folder and tried running that without success. I don't see why it would have been useful.

I can now confirm these things:

• on Mac the app.relaunch works as expected in dev mode and also in production builds.
• on Windows, app.relaunch only works in production builds but not in dev mode.

[alex-drocks]

I found the problem:
It is caused by a third-party electron library named "electron-reloader"

//auto-reload on save
if (isDev) {
    try {
        // You have to pass the module object so we can read the module graph and figure out which files belong to the main process.
        // The try/catch is needed so it doesn't throw Cannot find module 'electron-reloader' in production.
        require('electron-reloader')(module);
    } catch {
        //return
    }
}

If I comment out the previous lines, the app.relaunch works perfectly.

[azwalzaman]

I'm facing the same issue. The app reloads in production but not in development. I'm using Electron 23.2.1 with Electron Forge

[juxnpxblo]

same issue here in electron 22.2.0 with electron-forge. it was working until just recently.

restarting works fine on prod, but in dev the application never comes back (although I can still see some electron processes running on task manager, and I am unable to npm start my app again until I manually close them)

relevant code:

export const restart = () => {
  app.relaunch();
  app.exit();
};

app.on('window-all-closed', () => {
  app.quit();
});

if (require('electron-squirrel-startup')) {
  app.quit();
}

if (!app.requestSingleInstanceLock()) {
  app.exit();
}