Mastodon forgets "follow-activity" after some time

[imolein]

Hi,

I'm the admin of the postActiv instance social.kokolor.es and since I set up my instance I notice the problem, that after a certain time period I don't get posts from contacts on mastodon instances. I have to do a re-follow, on this contacts and then the messages come in again for a few months and then the same happend again.
This problem doesn't affect only my instance, as you can read here: https://social.bitcast.info/notice/847969.

As lain explained (german) the following happend when someone follow someone: (translated by me)

1. A Websub/PubSubHubBub-subscription is created (this is how the message flow beginns)
2. A follow activity is sent to the followed contact, so the server raises the followcount and list the follower in the contacts profile.

The problem with Mastodon he described as followes:

According to the standard only the first point is required, the second is optional. But Mastodon requires the second one, otherwise it don't push messages. It seems like, Mastodon lost the follow activity from time to time and don't push messages anymore, even though a websub-subscribtion is existing.

It would be create if you can explain to me/us why this is happend and hopefully fix this, because it's really a pain.

---

• I searched or browsed the repo’s other issues to ensure this is not a duplicate.
• This bug happens on a tagged release and not on master (If you're a user, don't worry about this). - It happens since a long time.

[hikerus]

I am running a GnuSocial node and here I see same issue: When following a Mastodon account - after some (some days ?) time this seems to be forgotten on the Mastodon node and posts no longer arrive.

[vinzv]

I am the admin of gnusocial.de and have the same problem.
The only way to fix it is running a resub script which goes through all known subscriptions and - even worse - pulls in older posts. This messes up chronological order of posts and takes a very long time.

Please fix this as I don't want fix federation with Mastodon over and over again.

[imolein]

More posts about this: https://community.highlandarrow.com/notice/1502195

[lambadalambda]

The websub subscriptions are still valid and get renewed fine when this happens, by the way.

[Gargron]

@lambadalambda Valid on whose end? How do you know this?

Mastodon at no point deletes "follow" relations automatically. Only if you get blocked, and then it's for a single user, not an entire domain. What lease_seconds does GNU social specify when subscribing? How often does it renew subscriptions?

The minimum subscription time is 1 day (aka when no lease_seconds value is provided), the maximum is 30 days.

[imolein]

According to a post from MMN https://social.bitcast.info/notice/848707:

Afaik 30 days should be the requested subscription time and if the hub thinks otherwise (in the verification reply) that time is set instead.

I don't know how @lambadalambda validates it. Personally I can tested it over my Mastodon account an social.tchncs.de. When the problem occurs, I can send a normal post from Mastodon, but no request is comming to my instance. Then I resubscribe, make a post on Mastodon and the request comes immediately.
I'm not sure on what I'll tell now, but the last time, I mean posts from all contacts I follow on one instance don't come in from one day to another. I can tell you exactly when it happens next time or @lambadalambda explain it in a more technical way, then I do. :)

[lambadalambda]

I look into the db and see that the websub subscription is still valid and refreshing fine. The user has never been unfollowed because Pleroma doesn't even have unfollows. Sending out a new 'follow' activity without refreshing the websub makes the posts flow again.

[hikerus]

The minimum subscription time is 1 day (aka when no lease_seconds value is provided), the maximum is 30 days.

But it looks like that Mastodon "forgets" the subscription before these default 30 days.

[hikerus]

Sending out a new 'follow' activity without refreshing the websub makes the posts flow again.

And who to send out this new "follow" ? If I re-follow all old posts from this account are re-sent again.

[imolein]

In pA the default expiry is two weeks and it renews immediately when it expires according to maiyannah: https://community.highlandarrow.com/notice/1504182

[imolein]

@Gargron Is there a status on this or can we help you on this with more informations or something like this?

[imolein]

@Gargron Currently running a mastodon test instance. It would be nice if you can tell me where I have to look at, for example in which container/log etc. Thanks

[Gargron]

@imolein Under admin->WebSub you will find a list of outside subscribers to your instance, with callback URLs and expiration time.

[vinzv]

(Slightly off topic)
For anyone interested I use this script as workround ran via cronjob:
https://gitlab.com/snippets/1672940

[imolein]

@Gargron Just for your information, since 3 days I don't get any posts from your account. Maybe you can look if you can see something on your side.

[imolein]

@Gargron 20min after my last post I could see posts from you, but this was only for a short time period, cause now nothing is comming from your account again.

[imolein]

@Gargron After I don't get notices from mastodon accounts again, I asked Thomas from metalhead.club if he can search for my domain in admin->websub and send me a screenshot of this.

What is the meaning of the column "Last Delivered" (Letzte Zustellung in German)? Last renewal of the subscription I guess? What can be the explanation for the expired subscription, because the renewal was delivered am I right?

Conversation: https://social.kokolor.es/conversation/561648

[Gargron]

@imolein Last delivery is last successfuly delivery of a toot from metalhead.club to social.kokolor.es. No deliveries are made after the expiration point. It looks like the software you are using is not renewing PuSH subscriptions at the right interval, or alternatively is requesting a too short subscription period.