Signal-desktop: Link Previews don't work

[nunoperalta]

Bug Description

Steps to Reproduce

Paste this link to the textarea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

(or ANY link)

Actual Result:

First, this appears:

Then, the "Loading Preview" just disappears:

Expected Result:

Platform Info

Signal Version:

v1.36.3

Operating System:

Windows 10 Pro

Linked Device Version:

Android 10

Debug Log

After a few attempts:

INFO 2020-09-26T15:34:59.100Z SQL channel job 1313 (updateConversations) succeeded in 33ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.031Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.033Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.127Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.127Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.257Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.257Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.346Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.346Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.436Z ensureContactIds: e164-only match found (have UUID: false)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.437Z ensureContactIds: e164-only match found (have UUID: false)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.438Z ensureContactIds: e164-only match found (have UUID: false)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.475Z GET [REDACTED_URL]
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.703Z GET [REDACTED_URL] 429 Error
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.766Z SQL channel job 1314 (createOrUpdateSessions) succeeded in 15ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:00.985Z SQL channel job 1315 (updateConversations) succeeded in 15ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:01.524Z SQL channel job 1318 (updateConversations) succeeded in 34ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:05.405Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:05.406Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:05.500Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:05.503Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:05.923Z SQL channel job 1319 (createOrUpdateSessions) succeeded in 18ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:07.114Z Removing notification
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:08.134Z SQL channel job 1322 (updateConversations) succeeded in 15ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:28.455Z Sending a keepalive message
INFO 2020-09-26T15:35:59.637Z Removing notification
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.274Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.275Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 (unauth)
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.364Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.364Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 200 Success
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.657Z SQL channel job 1326 (updateConversations) succeeded in 13ms
INFO 2020-09-26T15:36:00.782Z SQL channel job 1327 (createOrUpdateSessions) succeeded in 14ms

[LockMan007]

I have the same problem. I guess Signal is an old program that doesn't support modern features.

[chiraag-nataraj]

@LockMan007 That's simply not true. What happened is that the Signal servers got blocked from pulling link previews from YouTube, which is why on the iOS and Android clients, they switched to client-generated previews (aka the client makes the connection itself), the reason being that you're probably already visited the site and thus there isn't any additional loss of privacy if you connect again to retrieve a preview.

This hasn't yet been ported to the desktop client, which is why previews are broken. Also, previews were previously only supported for a handful of sites (Reddit, YouTube, and maybe one or two more), but the new system allows the client to generate previews for pretty much any website. The old system nominally provided a slight increase in privacy, since all link preview generations would look the same (since they went through the Signal server instead of directly from the client). But for the reasons explained earlier, this was switched relatively recently on the iOS and Android apps.

For what it's worth, WhatsApp (at least) has followed the client-generated preview model for a while now (they never pulled previews from their servers). Again, this provides a slight decrease in privacy, since different clients will probably look slightly different (certainly in terms of IP address, though I'm not sure what steps are taken to mask metadata), but I think the reasoning holds and allows Signal to scale up in users without overwhelming the link preview feature through too many requests (which is what happened under the old system, certainly with YouTube and probably with other sites as well).

[EvanHahn-Signal]

Thanks for reporting, and thanks @chiraag-nataraj for your thoughtful response.

We'll look into this.

[dino-]

In my case, Linux v1.35.1, I'm seeing link preview spinning progress indicators that never stop. I understand from the post above the new client load behavior hasn't been ported to desktop yet. But it would also be helpful to be able to turn link previews completely off on the desktop. Even when it does get ported, I may not want it at all, or not for specific contacts.

[EvanHahn-Signal]

@dino- That "endless load" problem should be fixed for new link previews in the latest version of Signal Desktop. (This was discussed in #4495, too, for anyone reading both issues.)

As for turning off link previews, you can disable them on your primary mobile device in the Privacy settings.

Hope this helps!

[LoveIsGrief]

Is there work being done on removing the proxy from link previews or do you need contributors? I know JS and wouldn't mind having a stab at this if nobody's working on it yet.

[orenmagen100]

Same as @LoveIsGrief
Correct me if I'm wrong but I got the impression that a decision haven't been made regarding this on the Desktop apps...?

[KeronCyst]

I'm having problems with this as well on desktop 1.36.3, and haven't disabled any link previews on anything.

[josh-signal]

Please install the latest beta where this may have been fixed: 1.37.1-beta.1

[LoveIsGrief]

While writing #4576 I ran the development version and it wasn't fixed there. Additionally, Beta isn't available on OpenSuse.

[josh-signal]

This is now in production so I'm closing this issue

[KeronCyst]

I'm having problems with this as well on desktop 1.36.3, and haven't disabled any link previews on anything.

They're now working as of v1.37.1! 😄

[nunoperalta]

I'm on 1.37.1, and still not working for me...
I'm still having the exact same issue.

Example URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:40.702Z SQL channel job 976 (updateConversations) succeeded in 42ms
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:40.791Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 (unauth)
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:40.794Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 (unauth)
WARN 2020-10-16T23:58:41.112Z fetchLinkPreviewMetadata: got a 429 status code; bailing
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.112Z addLinkPreview: failed to load preview (not necessarily a problem)
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.174Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]e27 200 Success
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.175Z PUT https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/messages/[REDACTED]f81 200 Success
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.319Z SQL channel job 977 (createOrUpdateSessions) succeeded in 35ms
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.526Z SQL channel job 978 (updateConversations) succeeded in 35ms
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:41.528Z SQL channel job 979 (getMessageById) succeeded in 24ms
INFO 2020-10-16T23:58:42.067Z SQL channel job 981 (updateConversations) succeeded in 31ms

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@nunoperalta I just tried that exact link, and it worked fine for me. The 429 response suggests that you or your organization is hitting YouTube too much.

[nunoperalta]

@scottnonnenberg-signal Strange... seems to be working now. I had also tested with other non-YouTube links before, and it wasn't working either. Definitely don't hit YouTube that much, myself :)

Anyway - good that it's working now!
Thanks!!

[dino-]

My distro updated me to v1.37.1 and this is working great. Thanks to everyone for the fix!

[yaomtc]

This has stopped working for me recently. I'm using Signal Desktop 1.38.2 on Arch Linux.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@yaomtc Please provide a debug log and a little bit more information about your scenario. What sites are you trying to preview, for example?

[yaomtc]

When I pasted a link into Signal Desktop, it used to generate a preview before I hit send. Now it doesn't do anything.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIThVGxDnW9/ - doesn't work
https://www.reddit.com/r/casualnintendo/comments/k5cl3s/charmander_kanji_spray_painting_i_made/ - doesn't work
https://twitter.com/N_Fenik/status/1334180073105186820 - doesn't work
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86055360 - doesn't work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Houston - doesn't work

Nothing works.

As for the debug log, I can't copy the text from it for some reason. So I had to submit it. Here's the link. https://debuglogs.org/dc2eaca557eab9cf6acd5a4395887b75b19eb56813371da4e129a6be3b7c9295

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@yaomtc I was just able to get those links to work, pasting into my beta install, and into a test production install. It looks like perhaps your phone state didn't transfer your link previews setting from your phone as expected. I see that you recently re-linked. The strange thing is that you did get a configuration sync message after link:

INFO  2020-11-29T20:01:04.947Z registration done
...
INFO  2020-11-29T20:01:24.232Z got configuration sync message

Maybe go into your phone and toggle the link preview option off, and then toggle it back on again?

[yaomtc]

My mistake, I had reinstalled Signal on my phone recently and didn't realize off is the default, and that Signal Desktop relies on the phone's settings. Thank you!