Lost access to all messages after restoring from security key

[RalfJung]

Steps to reproduce

1. Backup the security key from the element web UI
2. Delete all storage in the browser
3. Log back in to element, and when prompted to restore the key, select the previously created backup

Outcome

What did you expect?

I am back exactly where I left the session before deleting the browser storage.

What happened instead?

I seem to have lost access to all my messages. It just says "Unable to decrypt message" everywhere. This is a disaster. I will have to switch to a different chat system (one that doesn't eat all my data despite creating a backup) if there is no way to solve this problem.

Operating system

Debian Linux

Browser information

Firefox 118.0.1

URL for webapp

No response

Application version

Riot version: 1.11.43 Olm version: 3.2.14

Homeserver

No response

Will you send logs?

No

[weeman1337]

@RalfJung Thank you for opening an issue. There is another known issue that decryption only works after reload.

• Do the messages show up if you reload the app?
• Do the messages show up if you click „Restore from backup“ in security settings?

Also can you send logs after you entered the passphrase when the messages are not readable?

[RalfJung]

I have reloaded the page many times since restoring the backup, but the old messages remain lost.

[RalfJung]

Do the messages show up if you click „Restore from backup“ in security settings?

There is no "Restore from Backup" in that screen:

I have no idea what that "connecting a session to a key backup" means. I created a backup early on when Element said there was something to backup, I don't think I have ever been in the security settings menu before. Is there more than one kind of backup? I did the one that Element guided me towards using, obviously assuming that that is all I have to backup.

[PascalinDe]

Hello (and thank you for all your great work!),

I'm experiencing a similar issue on our instance (Element version: 1.11.47, Olm version: 3.2.14).

Steps to reproduce

1. set up both security phrase and security key
2. log in, send some messages, receive some messages
3. log out, clear browser data
4. log back in
5. verify session w/ either security phrase or security key (both seem to show the same behaviour)
6. reload several times as proposed

Expected outcome

• all messages from both me and other users are readable

Actual outcome

• my messages are readable ✔️
• messages that I received while I was still connected are readable ✔️
• only some of the messages that I received while disconnected are readable, others cannot be decrypted, with seemingly no pattern ❌

We will be looking into this issue on our side, and I'll post any updates on what we find here - do you have any pointers where would be a good place to start looking? Thank you in advance!

[richvdh]

Backup the security key from the element web UI

I don't really know what this means. Could you provide a screenshot?

Log back in to element, and when prompted to restore the key, select the previously created backup

Nor this. Again, please provide a screenshot if possible,

There is no "Restore from Backup" in that screen:

It sounds like your new session has not been verified, or if it has, the backup key is not stored in secret storage. This is a bit odd.

[RalfJung]

Sorry, I've stopped using element-web (and matrix altogether) so I can't provide screenshots.

[richvdh]

Ok, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.

[hackysphere]

This is happening with a friend of mine, he had to delete backup completely, and is now seeing if that fixed the issue. He had to delete two backups, though.