Signal-android: After upgrading Signal from 4.15.5 to 4.17.5, past conversations are not visible anymore nor I can receive texts.

[n1m1]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

Past conversations are not visibile anymore after update from 4.15 to 4.17.5. Also, after the update I can't receive texts.

Steps to reproduce

• Update Signal
• Start Signal

Actual result: After update the update I am experiencing two problems. 1) my conversations list is empty 2) I can't receive texts. When I receive a text, the following notification appears on my screen: "New locked message Unlock to view pending messages". If I click on it, the empty conversations list appears.

Expected result: My conversations should be listed on the screen and I should be able to receive texts.

Device info

Device: Nexus 5X
Android version: 8.1.0
Signal version: 4.17.5

Link to debug log

Debug log before unlocking Signal

https://debuglogs.org/3a8889c9046dda7aac82ec41cbf1e0cd89c893bd575b98bd227b38f6bf62092b

Debug log after unlocking Signal

https://debuglogs.org/4be5a343e1c83406c3f33017e2654bd3cd92043706d9db614f2050f7978246ef

(I am not sure there is actually any difference between them).

App state

Signal messages and calls registered, SMS enabled, passhphrase enabled, GCM disabled.

General notes

I report here some notes which could possibly provide more useful information in order to debug this issue.

• I've been using Signal for ages. The database of my conversations is old (3 years at least, even though I do not remeber exactly when I installed it for the first time) and big (thousand of texts, pics, video and documents).
• I've deleted the cache - data are still there - but nothing has changed.
• I've deleted my passphrase and locked Signal with my fingerprint but nothing has changed.
• My phone is synchronized with a couple of devices where I can regularly see received texts.
• According to Android all my data are still there.

Possible related bugs

It seems that my bug could be related to this one.

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/7386

In the case I've opened a duplicate, I do apologize in advance. If so, could you please address me to the open bug where this issue is already tracked?

Any help is really appreciated. Thanks for your great job.

[FacetteUser]

+1 I have the exact same issue.

[moxie0]

Hey @n1m1 I'm sorry but it looks like you've got the wrong issue tracker. It seems that you're running a different application called "Noise." We can't support someone else's application, you'll have to contact the people distributing "Noise" for support. Thanks and good luck.

[n1m1]

Hey @moxie0 ! Thanks for your answer.

For what I know - and I might be wrong (as you have probably already understood I am not a coder, hence I can't read Noise source) - Noise is just a re-branded version of Signal that does not make any change to the Signal source code. This is the reason because I've posted the bug report here: I am just reporting a problem affecting Signal code and I thought that it could have been helpful also for other people experiencing the same issue (like @FacetteUser ). I mean... some years ago, if I had a problem with Iceweasel I would have posted a bug report on the Firefox bug tracker :)

Cheers

[tuxayo]

Noise is just a re-branded version of Signal that does not make any change to the Signal source code.

It's re-branded due to some complicated past issue so it's understandable to not do support here. It also adds technical issues.

It's not the same app which means you can't use some tools, like in the procedure (the cleaning apk)
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/7687#issuecomment-381573866
because it has a signature and app id compatible with Signal but not Noise. (because only the respective devs can produce such APKs that can install in place of the app to access it's data)

And the updates of Noise have some latency.

@n1m1 Is a plain text backup a viable solution for you? It's doesnt't export voice messages, photos and session keys Your contacts will see a message that indicate that the security number has changed so you might want to reverify them. These are important cryptographic worries but if you are not already aware of them then that not the moment to learn about that ^^
As it's won't prevent the app from working.

@FacetteUser If you use Signal and not Noise, then you can legitimately open a new issue.

• search existing issues first. And read carefully #7467 and #7687 to have reasons to thinks it's different

[n1m1]

Hello @tuxayo ! First of all thanks for your explanation and suggestions. They are both greatly appreciated.

t's re-branded due to some complicated past issue so it's understandable to not do support here. It also adds technical issues.

Just let me be clear about this. It was not my intention to question the way the Signal team manages its development cycle, its issue tracker or the complexity entailed in a communication infrastructure working on a such huge scale . I do not have the knowledge nor the experience - and actually neither the interest :) - in order to do it. Actually, I just followed this page which points to this issue tracker.

@n1m1 Is a plain text backup a viable solution for you? It's doesnt't export voice messages, photos and session keys

This would be a problem since I've spent lot of time in order to authenticate many of my contacts with the safety numbers. Mmmh... On the other hand, in this moment the app is not working. However, I have another problem as well. I do not have a plain text backup - Signal has always worked perfectly so I never bothered to do one (GENIUS!) - and in the version 4.17.5 the plain text backup option seems to be gone. Do you think that it would be possible to downgrade the app to the 4.15 version and do it? (I am just asking an opinion, nothing of binding: there is no need to say that I won't bother you nor @moxie0 if everything mess up :) )

@FacetteUser If you use Signal and not Noise, then you can legitimately open a new issue.

Yes @FacetteUser , if you could this that would be great. However, as @tuxayo correctly pointed out, there might be no need of it, since #7467 seems to be very similar to the issue that I regrettably opened.

Thanks to everyone!

P.s: I just upgraded to Noise 4.18.3 and the issue persists.

[thestinger]

@n1m1 As @moxie0 stated, if you want to file issues here you need to run the official Signal builds because he doesn't want issues filed from unofficial builds. Various issues about the database migration have already been filed here and your issue probably isn't something new.

@tuxayo

It's re-branded due to some complicated past issue so it's understandable to not do support here. It also adds technical issues.

It's literally the same code ever since support for running without Google Play Services landed upstream. It doesn't add technical issues: it's the same code.

It still exists because Signal isn't available to CopperheadOS users without enabling installing from third party sources for the browser and then Signal. Automatic updates can't work with that setup and device managers often disable installing from third party sources.

You can see the Signal website builds are linked to by the CopperheadOS usage guide and it's up to users to choose which they want to install.

If there was an official Signal F-Droid repository and Signal supported full export / import to have a migration path, it would have been dropped a long time ago.

And the updates of Noise have some latency.

It intentionally stayed on 4.15.5 for as long as possible to wait for the database migration issues to be resolved, but some of the issues are still present and it wasn't possible to wait any longer. The same thing has applied to some other updates.

[thestinger]

The encrypted backup implementation might work as a migration path away from Noise to the Signal website releases, so perhaps we can finally drop it if we decide to give up on not needing to enable third party installation sources for installing it.