Signal desktop app says "Disconnected" with active Internet connection #6393
Comments
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Sorry about this. I took a look at your log and I see that the Electron reports to us that your online status changes all the time. It might help us to isolate this to just Electron specifically. In order to so, could you install Electron Fiddle and load and run this gist with it https://gist.github.com/indutny-signal/28067d3147e7348ac713530dbd103cd1 ? It should display something like: 
but if you'll keep running it for longer time - it should display "offline"/"online" status changes as well. Thanks! |
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We're back from vacation and no longer dealing with the T-Mobile hot spot, so unfortunately I can't test this. Most other applications on the MBP were working fine. My VPN app wouldn't connect, which makes me think there was some kind of ISP-level filtering happening. I'll try running this status app if the issue happens again. |
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Having the same problem when connecting via USB to my phone (USB tethering) |
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Problem started for me immediatly after auto-updating 6.18.1 -> 6.19.0 on Windows. I was able to use the client fully 10 seconds before applying the update. Now it will not connect. Exitting Signal is leaving 3-4 processes running. Attempting to downgrade back to 6.18.1 throws an SQL version error. |
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I'm having a similar problem and it seems to be IPv6-related. On my Mac: $ curl -4 -k https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/ And turning off IPv6 on the Mac makes the problem the the Signal app go away. However, if I run those curl commands on my router (pfsense), they both work just fine, which suggests it's a problem with my Mac or my network, though most (at least) sites work fine with IPv6. I suggest others who encounter this problem try disabling IPv6 to see if it works for them. |
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same problem on my Mac since the last update couple hours ago. IPv4 works fine. I also use a pfSense router (sg-2100). |
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I have the same problem and my ipv6 works, only signal seems to have an issue since the update to 6.19.0 |
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For me this problem occurs when using USB tethering (Android<->Linux Laptop). When unplugging the USB cable and switching to a Wifi hotspot instead it works (no other network or wifi networks are active. Both time
so for me it does not matter that IPv6 is active. |
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For Linux users, this might be related:
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All, thanks for your investigations. We aren't able to reproduce this, so we need more information - we need as much information as you can tell us about your network setup. And direct curls like what @ebcdic did are extremely useful too - in that case, we know it's not specific to Signal Desktop - it's a computer/network or even Signal Server problem. All of this data helps us narrow things down. Otherwise, we're just waiting for an Electron upgrade. But I just did a scan across Electron bugs, and didn't see anything like this. So we may need to raise this with them, and we need a lot of very specific detail to do that. |
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I've raised this on the pfsense forum but not had any response yet. The only thing I can think of that might affect IPv6 in this way is an MTU discovery problem, but it seems like it may not be the same problem for everyone. @BOFH90 - are you in the UK? If so what ISP are you using? |
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What do you see when you going directly to signal servers? This is what I see: There may be a problem with ipv6 connectivity, at the routing layer. |
Same as with textsecure-service.whispersystems.org. IPv4 gets 404, IPv6 hangs. Both get 404 when run from the router.
That's odd, it's what you'd get if you didn't have IPv6 enabled on your computer. |
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Reducing the MTU on my Mac to 1492 fixes the problem (on the Mac - but my phone has the same problem when connected to my home wi-fi. @BOFH90 does it fix it for you? |
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Not working with Windows 10, |
Yes, just tested and seems to be the case. Its working fine with 1492 and IPv6 atm. |
I´m in Germany and using a small ISP called GreenFiber. I already had a bad experience with them setting up my own pfSense-Box and not their provided one. |
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I reverted my router to the previous version, and it still doesn't work - so presumably the update was a red herring. |
@scottnonnenberg-signal this issue is most likely caused by a change in the default behavior of Node 17 when resolving DNS. Some workarounds and more info can be found here: nodejs/node#40537. Problem manifests itself because ipv6 connectivity is still far from perfect and Happy Eyeballs is not enabled by default in Node 18. |
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Hi, folks! I'm Jon from Signal's server engineering team, and I wanted to let you all know that we're looking into this. @ebcdic @BOFH90 the path MTU discovery angle seems very interesting, and I'm asking folks in some other threads to try the same to see if it's universal. I'm wondering if there's some common piece of network hardware filtering out ICMP somewhere, though the geographic distribution of people reporting this problem is surprising. More data will help narrow things down. With that in mind, for those of you for whom an MTU adjustment helps, I have a few follow-up questions:
I recognize some of this stuff can be more revealing than you may want to share publicly; you can also share this information with me directly at my-first-name at signal dot org. Thank you for your patience and all the debugging so far! |
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My network Hardware is a Netgate SG-2100 and some Mikrotik-Switches running SwOS. On the SG-2100 i created a "allow all" rule for ICMP v4 and v6 to and from all with the highest priority. For IPv6 i use SLAAC with "Router Advertisment" on pfSense enabled and Assisted Router mode (RA Flags | manged, other stateful|, Prefix flags | onlink, auto, router)
traceroute IPv4:
Thank you for your help. |
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Issue was Pv6 ISP-related. 6.19.0 is connecting as expected now.
This could explain why the issue surfaced immediately after updating. Thanks! |
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Issue is at better_sqlite3.node |
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same prob windows 10 after upgrading 6.19 QR code won't charge either if i reinstall the app. |
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Seems to be a problem with MTU Path Discovery and pfSense. |
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@BOFH90 radvd should broadcast the MTU of the interface, so setting the MTU of your LAN interface in the pfsense graphical interface should have the same effect without having to patch anything. |
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Sorry, but it looks like the original issue is back. I'll keep you posted on our progress in resolving it. |
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I am experiencing this same issue on Windows 10 running the Signal desktop app version 6.26.0 |
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Hi, I run my own network and I have a short ipv6 path to amazon, so I might be of some use debugging this issue. From my debugging I think it is likely something on amazon's end is droping ICMPv6 packet too big messages, breaking PMTUD. My route to I have a 1400 MTU link between hop 1 and 2 on this link. I have verified that ICMPv6 packet too big messages are being sent back from another machine: When I don't have TCP MSS clamping enabled on my router ( Here is a tcpdump of connections. The first dump is with MSS clamping enabled (working), and the second is without MSS clamping, relying on PMTUD and ICMP delivery: Notice how the connection hangs in the broken connection around the time the first large packet is sent by the working connection. Also notice the hole in the sequence numbers in the broken connection, and the subsequent ACK with selective ack sent due to the missing packet. The packet which should be retransmitted is still not delivered after 10 seconds, implying a MTU issue. Due to this, I can only conclude there is a firewall dropping ICMPv6 packet too big on the path. I believe that firewall to be on amazon's side, since the other hops on the path are pure transit providers and are unlikely to be running firewalls in the forwarding path. |
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Thanks, @RX14. We've come to the same conclusion and are already working with Amazon to resolve the issue. This additional testing is very helpful, and we really appreciate the detailed investigation! |
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This just started to happen to me.....random, frequent yellow box: "Disconnected. Check your network connection. Click to reconnect." Seems to also happen with desktop WhatsApp... |
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We're tracking this connectivity issue here: #6476 |
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Hello, I found this page because Signal app on my Macbook air was cycling the disconnected message on and off. It occurred as I set up a new computer. I checked the old computer - also happening for the first time. Shut down Signal on the old machine and the problem vanished. Thought that observation might help. |
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@AndrewBendigo You'll probably see some decryption errors as well. You had two Signal Desktops conflicting with each other, each trying to connect and booting the other. You should probably unlink that Desktop, and link them again from your phone - if you re-link to the same account, you won't lose any old messages. |
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Just for the record I had the Disconnected message appearing and disappearing forever, also loosing messages. The reason was that I migrated my Mac to a new one. So the Signal app on the new machine inherited the same id from the one on the old machine. Unlinking the machine and linking them separately fixed the problem. |
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The same issue is with me on Windows 11, with ipv4/6 connectivity providet by Telenet in Belgium. If I enable F-Secure Freedome VPN terminating to Finland, the problem goes away. |
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I just got this behavior on my Signal running on Windows 10. It is happening with all network connections; mobile hotspot, wifi's, everything. The proof that I have internet despite what Signal says is this very comment. |
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@grammophone Signal had a short outage in the last hour, sorry for the inconvenience. The good news is that you weren't seeing a Desktop bug there! |
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Thank you for looking after the issue, @scottnonnenberg-signal ! |
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Manjaro user here Not connecting when USB tethering with Azilink on the phone (abd based tethering). Firefox or Chromium are working fine. Here is the ovpn file content used on the laptop: dev tun remote 127.0.0.1 41927 tcp-client Tests: $ curl -6 -k https://chat.signal.org/ |
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@landsolar Could we get a debuglog? |
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@landsolar Thank you for the log! Did you save this log right after turning on the tether mode? The connection to our server appears to be healthy at glance. |
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The log show only tether connection. I did not use other connection type since 2 weeks. I use azylink on android on usb Signal Desktop connect fine if I use my phone Hotspot on the same line |
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Ah, I see it now. Thanks! We will take a look. |
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On an Apple M3 MacBook Pro running Sonoma 14.3 
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Hi @Apikorus, sorry this is happening for you.
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Thanks. Here is link for debug log:
https://debuglogs.org/desktop/6.45.1/ddcde0e96a14cb5504d131e33178d1fbbc756daac14f466beb98f99691b7bdea.gz
ddcde0e96a14cb5504d131e33178d1fbbc756daac14f466beb98f99691b7bdea
Archive · 3.5 MB
I’m not sure what you mean by copying my data directory between multiple computers, but I do use Signal on multiple computers. If that is a problem, what can I do?
…-Daniel
On Jan 29, 2024, at 1:03 PM, ayumi-signal ***@***.***> wrote:
Hi @Apikorus <https://github.com/Apikorus>, sorry this is happening for you.
Can you please share a debug log when this situation is happening?
Regarding your app/computers setup -- is there a chance you've copied your data directory between multiple computers? We've seen periodic disconnections happen in that case as the multiple installs try to simultaneously connect.
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Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6393 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFU2WYFN5KCOWGS7UUIBNKTYQ7QAZAVCNFSM6AAAAAAXRATHZSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMJVGI4DGMJQGA>.
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
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@Apikorus Thanks for the logs! It looks like the same desktop linked instance is trying to connect: This can happen when you copy Signal data folders between computers to install, such as with MacOS Migration Assistant or just copying folders around. You can resolve this by relinking the computers. This would preserve your existing messages on the computers.
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Thanks, but I’m still not sure what to do here. I am on sabbatical leave away from my home institution. I was running Signal on four machines:
1. Office iMac
2. Home iMac
3. MacBook (no longer being used)
4. new MacBook
I only have access to #4 for the next several months. I am not even sure what my “primary device” is.
When I open my Signal settings on machine #4, I see the following:

I don’t see anything about “instances.”
…-Daniel
On Jan 29, 2024, at 2:24 PM, ayumi-signal ***@***.***> wrote:
@Apikorus <https://github.com/Apikorus> Thanks for the logs!
It looks like the same desktop linked instance is trying to connect:
WARN 2024-01-29T19:05:53.149Z SocketManager: authenticated socket closed with code=4409 and reason=Connected elsewhere
This can happen when you copy Signal data folders between computers to install, such as with MacOS Migration Assistant or just copying folders around.
You can resolve this by relinking the computers. This would preserve your existing messages on the computers.
Use your primary device to unlink the Desktop instances. On your primary Signal iOS or Android go to Settings -> Linked Devices and unlink the Desktop instance(s).
On each computer, the app will prompt the banner "Unlinked; relink to continue". Proceed with the relink and that computer will be fixed.
Repeat for other computers. (Note there's a max of 5 linked devices.)
—
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6393 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFU2WYAPY5HP3ECQID3WQVLYQ7ZNZAVCNFSM6AAAAAAXRATHZSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMJVGQYDOMRQG4>.
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
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@Apikorus The first (primary) device is always an iOS or Android device, so you need to find the original mobile phone you used to first install Signal. On the mobile app, access Settings -> Linked Devices to unlink the desktop instances. |
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I really appreciate your patience. Signal is installed on my iPhone 13. I suppose I had it installed on my previous iPhone 8 but I no longer have that device. Here’s what the linked devices page says on my current iPhone:

I don’t see how to unlink anything here.
… On Jan 29, 2024, at 4:05 PM, ayumi-signal ***@***.***> wrote:
@Apikorus <https://github.com/Apikorus> The first device is always an iOS or Android device, so you need to find the original mobile phone you used to first install Signal. On the mobile app, access Settings -> Linked Devices to unlink the desktop instances.
—
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6393 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFU2WYACNAU7RFG4ZZHNZKLYRAFH3AVCNFSM6AAAAAAXRATHZSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMJVGU3DIMBZG4>.
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
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@Apikorus I cannot see any picture you may posted, but on the iOS Linked Devices page there's a top right Edit text button, when pressed it will reveal the delete buttons next to each linked device. |
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Thanks that seems to have worked.
… On Jan 29, 2024, at 4:26 PM, ayumi-signal ***@***.***> wrote:
@Apikorus <https://github.com/Apikorus> I cannot see any picture you may posted, but on the iOS Linked Devices page there's a top right Edit text button, when pressed it will reveal the delete buttons next to each linked device.
—
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6393 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFU2WYFL5CYNN27MLADFH4LYRAHY3AVCNFSM6AAAAAAXRATHZSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMJVGYYDAOBWGI>.
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
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and others
Bug Description
Signal desktop app says "Disconnected" on a machine with an active Internet connection.
Steps to Reproduce
This is the first time I've had this problem. Perhaps not coincidentally, we're staying at a place with T-Mobile 5G Internet service. Oddly, the Signal app on my WiFi-only iPad is not experiencing this problem and sends/receives Signal messages just fine. It's only my MBP that the app can't connect.
Screenshots
Platform Info
Signal Version:
Signal 6.16.0 production (Apple silicon)
Operating System:
MacOS 13.3.1 (22E261)
Linked Device Version:
Link to Debug Log
debuglog.txt
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