Ipfs-desktop: error: [ipfsd] start daemon Error: multiaddr " " must start with a "/"

[tkeriduN]

This just happened to me on Windows 10. Well, actually it didn't _just start_ happening now, I see in the error logs that it's been happening for three months.

error.log

_Originally posted by @tkeriduN in https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-desktop/issues/1316#issuecomment-743568051_

[jessicaschilling]

Thank you - we will have a closer look in our next weekly triage.

[jessicaschilling]

@tkeriduN - are these happening in conjunction with your machine sleeping/hibernating?

[tkeriduN]

@jessicaschilling Answer negative. These errors are always. I remember updating, or trying to update, the ipfs desktop app and ever since I get this error. It doesn't matter if the computer is freshly rebooted or been running for days. I can't get it running ever since that update attempt (I can't remember if it completed fully, or which version it was). I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling the app and see if it occurs again.

It's a Lenovo ThinkPad L570 from ~2015-2017 btw.

[jessicaschilling]

Thanks, @tkeriduN - a fresh reinstall would be a great extra data point.

[tkeriduN]

@jessicaschilling I got to reinstalling today. Unfortunately the error persists.. The logs seem to have stuck around too. This is my error.log now, and the last entry is from after reinstalling ipfs desktop completely.
error.log

[jessicaschilling]

@lidel can you please investigate? He's totally blocked on using Desktop by this issue.

[lidel]

Hm.. as per usual, Windows was hiding some special characters (^@ is just a representation of non-ASCII codes in vim):

2020-09-21T08:02:22.468Z error: [ipfsd] start daemon Error: multiaddr "^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@" must start with a "/" 

turns out multiaddr is just a bunch of zeroes:

000001f0: 2065 7272 6f72 3a20 5b69 7066 7364 5d20   error: [ipfsd] 
00000200: 7374 6172 7420 6461 656d 6f6e 2045 7272  start daemon Err
00000210: 6f72 3a20 6d75 6c74 6961 6464 7220 2200  or: multiaddr ".
00000220: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000230: 0000 0000 0000 2220 6d75 7374 2073 7461  ......" must sta
00000240: 7274 2077 6974 6820 6120 222f 220a 2020  rt with a "/".  

For some reason IPFS Desktop is trying to connect to invalid multiaddr, most likely the value is broken in the configuration file.
This could be due to manual edition (copying&pasting something from the web, with additional invisible characters) or a file corruption (logical or hardware issue with your disk).

@tkeriduN did you manually edit any config files? If not, I think it is safe to assume there is something wrong with configs.
A quick test would be to:

1. Uninstall IPFS Desktop
2. Manually remove remaining datastore and configuration which might be persisted between reinstalls for your convenience.
   Try to remove below directories (if you want to try to recover data you can also move them to some other location):
   
   
   
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/.ipfs/
   
   
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/.ipfs-desktop/
   
   
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/AppData/Roaming/IPFS Desktop/
   
   
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/AppData/Local/Programs/IPFS Desktop/ (if you installed for single user)
   
   
   • C:/Program Files/IPFS Desktop/ (if you installed for all users)
   
   
   • note: replace $user with your Windows username
   
   
3. Restart Windows and install the latest IPFS Desktop from .exe here
4. IPFS Desktop should detect lack of previous config and create a new one for you, hopefully solving the problem.

Give it a try and let us know.
FYSA we will be slow to respond during the holidays, but we will be back on January to follow-up.

[jessicaschilling]

@tkeriduN Just checking in on @lidel's question above?

[jessicaschilling]

Closing due to inactivity, but feel free to re-open if necessary.

[tkeriduN]

Hm.. as per usual, Windows was hiding some special characters (^@ is just a representation of non-ASCII codes in vim):

2020-09-21T08:02:22.468Z error: [ipfsd] start daemon Error: multiaddr "^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@" must start with a "/" 

turns out multiaddr is just a bunch of zeroes:

000001f0: 2065 7272 6f72 3a20 5b69 7066 7364 5d20   error: [ipfsd] 
00000200: 7374 6172 7420 6461 656d 6f6e 2045 7272  start daemon Err
00000210: 6f72 3a20 6d75 6c74 6961 6464 7220 2200  or: multiaddr ".
00000220: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000230: 0000 0000 0000 2220 6d75 7374 2073 7461  ......" must sta
00000240: 7274 2077 6974 6820 6120 222f 220a 2020  rt with a "/".  

For some reason IPFS Desktop is trying to connect to invalid multiaddr, most likely the value is broken in the configuration file.
This could be due to manual edition (copying&pasting something from the web, with additional invisible characters) or a file corruption (logical or hardware issue with your disk).

@tkeriduN did you manually edit any config files? If not, I think it is safe to assume there is something wrong with configs.
A quick test would be to:

1. Uninstall IPFS Desktop

2. Manually remove remaining datastore and configuration which might be persisted between reinstalls for your convenience.
   Try to remove below directories (if you want to try to recover data you can also move them to some other location):

   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/.ipfs/
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/.ipfs-desktop/
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/AppData/Roaming/IPFS Desktop/
   • C:/Windows/Users/$user/AppData/Local/Programs/IPFS Desktop/ (if you installed for single user)
   • C:/Program Files/IPFS Desktop/ (if you installed for all users)
   • note: replace $user with your Windows username
3. Restart Windows and install the latest IPFS Desktop from .exe here
4. IPFS Desktop should detect lack of previous config and create a new one for you, hopefully solving the problem.

Give it a try and let us know.
FYSA we will be slow to respond during the holidays, but we will be back on January to follow-up.

Sorry I've been so slow to try this. I did it now and it works! Let's hope it stays working. If not I'll try this again :)

Here's the proof

[jessicaschilling]

@tkeriduN Thanks for the detailed info! This will be helpful for future reference. Glad that you are back up and running!