Desktop: Seeing white screen after leaving desktop app on standby for a while

[amyblais]

https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-14166

Reported by customers, this issue is for tracking. QA has a related ticket to investigate: https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-10408. Might be network related.

[colchuck]

I get it several times a day - I don't seem get it on Linux - error logs come up with this a lot:

Application: Mattermost 4.1.1
Platform: Windows_NT 6.1.7601 x64
Error: webContents 'crashed' event has been emitted
at WebContents.mainWindow.webContents.on (C:Users\d2\AppData\Local\mattermost\app-4.1.1\resources\app.asar\main_bundle.js:6159:11)
at emitTwo (events.js:130:20)
at WebContents.emit (events.js:213:7)

Toggling GPU acceleration didn't seem to do anything.

[amyblais]

Hi @colchuck! Thank you for reporting this. Do you see any errors in logs or the Console?

[colchuck]

So I can't get to the Javascript console (CTRL SHIFT I) - it just turns the white screen to black. The logs (USER\AppData\Roaming\Mattermost\uncaughtException-*) just repeat the message from the last post over and over.

[amyblais]

@colchuck - Thank you for additional information - a few more questions: does this happen randomly or are there any specific repro steps to take? Is it temporary and do any steps help resolve the issue (e.g. refreshing the app)?

[colchuck]

It happens randomly - particularly when it hasn't been touched in a while - the only thing I can do is restart the App - going View->reload flashes the Mattermost splash logo and then goes back to blank. Closing the window but keeping it in the tray doesn't work - it just comes back blank - you have to completely exit out. I have 3 x64 Windows 7 machines - two with the exact same hardware and one with older hardware. All run as unprivileged users within a domain and all experience the same issue. For whatever reason, the older machine crashes maybe a couple time a week. The two newer ones that get much more use actually crash maybe 4 times a day. I have a fourth machine with older hardware and the same software that hasn't crashed at all.

[amyblais]

@yuya-oc FYI ^ - reporter has error logs here: https://github.com/mattermost/desktop/issues/794#issuecomment-393919550 and toggling GPU setting didn't help.

Is there any other additional information we could help gather to investigate this?

[yuya-oc]

The log Error: webContents 'crashed' event has been emitted was made by our event handler. So actually a process had been dead by some reason. To notice this via a dialog, we had added the event handler. But this prevents other behavior even if the internal chromium has countermeasure against to this kind of problem.

Now I worry about that we should not handle the crashed event. The test build which doesn't use the handler is below.

https://circleci.com/gh/yuya-oc/desktop/909#artifacts

If this doesn't make sense, we might need deep debugging of electron.

[Austin1]

Any updates on this issue? Been driving me crazy for last two versions and makes me reboot mattermost on a daily basis.

[mickaelprogramming]

I have the same issue every time I'm starting windows.

• windows 7
• mattermost client 4.1.2

[colchuck]

Yeah, I never got anywhere with it - my (newer) suspicion was that it was something to do with it being run as an unprivileged user - I installed it as a user on 3 Windows 7 Pro/X64 (domain environment) machines and all 3 ended up crashing randomly. The one machine that was an administrator didn't seem to have any issues - but it's also running virtualized... so that doesn't exactly narrow down possibilities. I was never able to pull anything valuable from the logs... I assumed it was an electron problem and it was a "just me" thing.

[torlenor]

Just some random ideas: What GPU? Does your display go into power save/turn off after being idle for a while?

[holle]

I have seen a similar behaviour on my Linux Box (openSUSE 42.3) w/ KDE 3.5 as well. I am running my Linux with a Nvidia GT 610 and two attached displays configured using Nvidia's technique to have one screen with 3840x1080 pixels.

Behaviour:
Whenever Mattermost (official 4.1.2 release) had been idle for some time and I receive an incoming message the following happens:

1. I get a blank (black) screen and the app is not even responding to "Quit"
2. After approx. a minute or two the client recovers and shows the normal screen and can be used as if nothing had happened

The same version of mattermost-desktop on my mac book connected to the same private mattermost server does not expose this behaviour.

I have now turned off GPU acceleration to try figuring out any relations there.

[weekscharlie]

I'd like to propose you target this issue for the 4.3.0 milestone. We've been waiting a while for the many great fixes already incorporated into 4.2.0 and a Priority 2 issue such as this one shouldn't delay the 4.2.0 release (IMO).

[amyblais]

Jira ticket for tracking: https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-14166

[esethna]

Is this still happening for folks in v4.2.0?

[amyblais]

Closing this as we cannot reproduce this anymore. Please report back if you still see this issue on v4.2.0.

[ravening]

Still seeing the issue in Version 4.2.1 (4.2.1.62)
Mac version 10.13.3 (High Sierra)

The issue happened at least 7 times within an hour and the issue happens to everyone in our team at the same time. Tried disabling the GPU acceleration and still didn't help.

The mac book was not in standby mode and it happened while replying to the message.

[amyblais]

Hi @rakgenius, do you see any log or Console errors?

[ravening]

I have attached the screenshot.

[amyblais]

@rakgenius What Mattermost server version are you on?

[ravening]

@amyblais Sorry for the late response.. Im using the version Version 4.2.1 (4.2.1.62)

[amyblais]

@rakgenius You can find out your server version from Mattermost > Main Menu > About Mattermost.

[lredor]

Hello,

For information, I have the same problem with Desktop App version 4.3.1 (server version is "Mattermost Édition Team 5.16.3).

The log is:

Application: Mattermost 4.3.1
Platform: Windows_NT 10.0.17763 x64
Error: webContents 'crashed' event has been emitted
at WebContents.handleMainWindowWebContentsCrashed (C:Users\userName\AppData\Local\Programs\mattermost-desktop\resources\app.asar\main_bundle.js:887:9)
at WebContents.emit (events.js:194:13)

I noticed that simply maximize the window resolves the problem (the blank screen is replaced by the expected content).

Regards,

Laurent

[ghost]

Same issue here, white screen after upgrading Windows desktop clients from 4.2.x to 4.3.1.

• Only occurs when upgrading, not on clean installs of 4.3.1.
• Deleting appdata\roaming\mattermost solves the problem
• Deleting the 3 cache folders in appdata\roaming\mattermost doesn't solve the problem
• Resizing the window or exiting, then opening Mattermost again fixes the problem
• Closing the window, then opening the window from the tray icon doesn't fix the problem
• Disabling GPU acceleration makes no difference
• Only happens when users first login, happens every time
• Console doesn't list any errors

uncaughtexception file
Application: Mattermost 4.3.1 Platform: Windows_NT 10.0.18362 x64 Error: webContents 'crashed' event has been emitted at WebContents.handleMainWindowWebContentsCrashed (C:\Program Files\Mattermost\Desktop\resources\app.asar\main_bundle.js:887:9) at WebContents.emit (events.js:194:13)

I believe this issue is not the same as the original post, but what @lredor is referring to

Looks like the fix is in 4.3.2: https://github.com/mattermost/desktop/commit/d23c8cf48a4c90b371919f2b367e232dd2c206f1

[T3rm1]

Same issue. Had 4.2.1 for a very long time and no problem at all. Upgraded to 4.3.1 and after a restart of the PC I now have a white screen.

Maximizing the window solves the problem.

[alexei-ciobanu]

Same issue. Had 4.2.1 for a very long time and no problem at all. Upgraded to 4.3.1 and after a restart of the PC I now have a white screen.

Maximizing the window solves the problem.

I can't believe that actually worked for me. Many thanks.

[esethna]

Should be fixed in v4.3.2, and v4.4 is available now, are we okay to close this issue? cc// @amyblais