Signal-desktop: Signal windows keeps all the instalation .exe files

[santiagopuentep]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug description

The installation files for every version is kept in the hard drive quickly accumulating space. (60MB a piece).

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Signal on Windows
2. Wait for updates
3. Check AppData/Roaming/Signal folder.

Actual result:

The installation files are kept forever.

Expected result:

The installation files get deleted after installing the newest version.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

I just checked this on my VM, and it didn't happen. Is there anything interesting on your setup, or in your usage patterns that might cause this? I suspect that it has something to do with file locking.

[santiagopuentep]

I don't have any special setup. Simply Windows 10.

Here is a screenshot of the exe files. I erased about 15 adding up to 1.6 GB, but I kept those 3 just in case.

[minnmann]

I can confirm this behavior for both my Windows 10 machines.
In either case, the setup is a regular Windows 10 installation, both users have administrator privileges.
I can not think of any special usage pattern - just using Signal (beta) and updating via the auto updater.

I can delete the files without being asked for admin rights or any other issues.

In that case I also have deleted already about 15 installation files:

[pureandclear]

Can confirm that I also have this on Win 10.

[Dyras]

Windows 10 user here. I have 527 megabytes of installers :)

I have no idea what could be relevant to solving this but here are some key points from my usage:

• I keep Signal running in the background more or less all day long
• Screensaver/lock screen kicks in after 10 minutes of no usage
• The computer is locked large portions of the day, when I'm playing Outside or at work or whatever

[ian-wat]

I opened #2710 but realized that's a duplicate of this issue.

My installers go all the way back to 1.6.1 and are using up almost 1.4GB of disk space. Windows 10 current version. I've used Signal Desktop's updater normally each time it prompts for an update.

Out of curiosity, why is this marked "Upstream Change Needed"?

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@ian-wat It means that we use a third-party dependency to manage our installs. The fix for this will have to be upstream.

[santiagopuentep]

@scottnonnenberg Hi Scott, sorry I don't mean to be rude and maybe this is not the place to say this but I'm trying to give you guys usefull feedback.

We are seriously thinking about changing to an other app due to the bad quality of many features: the audio recording sometimes sound like Max Headroom on my Windows machine, the videos are sometimes not viewable unless we download them, the messages appear one after the other when I change devices (instead of showing the last one sent first so we don't have to wait to start typing), and scrolling through the conversation too much to the past makes the app run slower and slower.

We like Signal's values, that's why we are using it, but I think you must be losing thousands of users due to some very fixable things. With the competition there is in the space I think that quality is king. We really want to stay, but it's impacting our productivity...

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@santiagopuentep I don't recognized your username, welcome to the community. When you run into these issues, please consider filing bugs or adding to existing bugs with your full repro steps and logs. That's the only way things will get better.

[kermit-frog]

Hello. Same issue here on my windows 7 machine. I recently switched to the beta version and always use the installer after receiving the update notification.

[stonecrusher]

Just to complete the "can confirm" answers... same goes for Win8.1 (accumulated over 1GB installer files so far)

[alexgenaud]

I can confirm. Also, maybe a related issue (or not), but every time I have opened Signal on Windows 10, it goes through the installation process. My local conversation history was deleted at each real new installation since 1.7.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@alexgenaud Your conversation history was deleted on each update? Does that mean you needed to re-link it with your phone every time?