Signal-desktop: Problems sending video file attachments / limits for sending video files way too low

[Drag0nFly]

Quite often when I try to send a video larger than a few seconds in Signal – I get a "send failed."

This despite the fact that the video has been shrunk (significantly) using HandBrake or ffmpeg, and typically takes a few seconds to transfer to a cloud provider.

It appears that I am hitting a size-limit, although I am not being informed of such. However, the file is only 195mb. When using the Android client, it informs of a size limit, which the Desktop client also should do.

If the attachment limit actually is this low, please consider increasing it. I've submitted a separate request for this, and I am mentioning it here for completeness. Videos captured directly on a phone are typically larger than 100mb, and many now record in 4k resolution.

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

Comment - only found old issues (mostly from 2015) and a case from 2018 relating to re-encoding the video while sending.

• [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

Bug description

Sending video files results in "SEND FAILED" from the Signal desktop application. If there is a size limit in place it should inform of such.

Steps to reproduce

• Capture video on camera or cellphone
• Reduce its filesize to around 1/10th of the original using ffmpeg or handbrake, resulting in a file of less than 200mb
• Try to upload resulting (.mp4) file as an attachment

Actual result: Describe here what happens after you run the steps above (i.e. the buggy behaviour)
Expected result: The video should upload or the interface should inform the user that the video is too large. However, 195mb is not by any means large by today's standards, IMHO.

Screenshots

n/a

Device info

Signal version: 1.25.1, running on Linux

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/ee36b67cce0100c974d3ae7ff6a564c2997de964a802b6f90cf61e64bf2685bc

[five-c-d]

This issue was originally filed here, https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/8907#issuecomment-509420806 as a combo feature-request (increase the size-cap) and bug-report (signal4desktop just says SEND FAILED when it should specify

• Not accepted: file exceeds 100 MiB ...

and ideally, it would also say

• ... perhaps you should try https://send.firefox.com ?

But only if the file in question is smaller than 999 MiB, so endusers can avoid needing to signup for a Mozilla-ID

p.s. Attempting to do this operation in signal4android says "file too large" but does NOT specify the size-cap, which methinks would be a nice enhancement. In particular, if the size of the video-clip is 195 MiB, then having signal4desktop say that the size-cap is 100 MiB means that the tech-savvy enduser can decide to split the clip into two files and upload them via signalapp, rather than falling back on an external service like firefoxSend / cryptomator / etc for the upload (and sending the downlink-URL to Bob via signalapp)

Forum discussion == https://community.signalusers.org/t/increase-attachment-size-limits-in-order-to-send-short-1080-videos/8376 if anybody has further commentary on this topic, please post it over there (you can utilize your github-credentials if you like)

[foliovision]

It is very weird that I have to come to GitHub issues to learn something concrete about video size limits. I'm still not sure why the iPhone video uploads fail or come out horribly low res, while I was able to upload a very nice 1080p file from desktop (15.7 MB). Still more surprised that documentation doesn't offer detailed and explicit limits and per platform explanations about how video sharing works.

Other surprise: on desktop, the video is only available to download (standard .mov for upload to YouTube). On iOS it can be played back.

PS. Otherwise, great work on Signal App and service. I've managed to bring my family across and at least there's somewhere reasonably private (there are other paths into a Signal chat than hacking Signal communication directly) in which to share photos (and maybe videos, if I can figure out what works by trial and error).