Signal 5.25.0 crashes upon media playback on Windows 7/8.1 (a bug in Electron)

[rhinoduck]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

• I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

---

Bug Description

There is a bug in Electron which causes crashes upon media playback on Windows 7/8.1 (can confirm on 8.1) and, according to the Electron GitHub issue, on macOS 10.11/10.12 too. The solution is to go back to 15.3.0, or wait for the currently in-progress PR to land and update to the new release then.

See electron/electron#31762 for more details.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Play embedded audio/video or a voice message that is at least several seconds long (as an example, 10 seconds is enough to cause a 100% reproducible crash for me).

Actual Result:

 Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
 Application Name:	Signal.exe
 Application Version:	5.25.0.123
 Application Timestamp:	6192fabb
 Fault Module Name:	Signal.exe
 Fault Module Version:	5.25.0.123
 Fault Module Timestamp:	6192fabb
 Exception Code:	c0000005
 Exception Offset:	00000000004e09e3
 OS Version:	6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
 Locale ID:	1029
 Additional Information 1:	c96e
 Additional Information 2:	c96e747609b988e3022365af7baac6a3
 Additional Information 3:	42f1
 Additional Information 4:	42f19485e6b762b1a35525cc3c9e0094

Platform Info

Signal Version:

5.25.0

Operating System:

Windows 8.1

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Thanks for this report. Sorry that you're seeing crashes.

Can you provide some context for us? Why are you on Windows 8.1?

[rhinoduck]

Sorry for the messed up version number in the title... tired :)

Can you provide some context for us? Why are you on Windows 8.1?

Essentially for two main reasons:

1. older hardware
2. loss of privacy and lack of control over the system that both come with newer versions of Windows

I know Windows 8.1 is old these days, but it seemed worthwhile opening the issue given that it is still officially supported by Signal. It is unlikely to speed up the resolution of the problem itself unless you are willing to temporarily go back to the older version of Electron or build your own (which might both be understandably problematic for its own reasons), but maybe it will trigger a new release of Signal as soon as the fixed version of Electron is out, which will be nice for us folk on older OSes :) In the meantime, at least everyone who experiences the crashes and makes it all the way here can be aware why they are happening and when they might go away.

I am not sure if this is all that you meant by context; if I failed to provide an important piece of information, feel free to ask directly.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@rhinoduck Thanks for the reason behind your windows 8.1 usage - that's all I needed.

We've looked into downgrading, and unfortunately that would bring back some important Electron bugs which affect a lot of people.

We'll need to wait until Electron releases a new 15.x build with a fix for this.

[graphitetx]

I experience same crashes on Apple OS 10.12.6 running 5.25.0 .

Process: Signal [4265]
Path: /Applications/Signal.app/Contents/MacOS/Signal
Identifier: org.whispersystems.signal-desktop
Version: 5.25.0 (1)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible: Signal [4265]
User ID: 506

Date/Time:
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.12.6 (16G2136)
Report Version: 12
Anonymous UUID:

Time Awake Since Boot: 3500 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 CrBrowserMain Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [0]

VM Regions Near 0:
-->
__TEXT 000000010e361000-000000010e3b1000 [ 320K] r-x/r-x SM=COW /Applications/Signal.app/Contents/MacOS/Signal

Thread 0 Crashed:: CrBrowserMain Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 com.github.Electron.framework 0x00000001112d0e33 v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 4708979

[suessbacke]

Is there anything i can do to work around this Bug ? The Version before worked perfect to me. The Desktop version isnt usable to me with this bug. My work around today is to download Video or Audio messages and play them with other tools, but it's timeconsumpting. I would accept any other Bug or Security flaw to have the Desktop Version back. If i could help to fix this bug, i could give you data that you may request.

I work with Windows 7/64 and i dont update to 10 because of out of money error and my 7 runs fine - so i dont change.
(And if some more time goes by, that Windows version isnt supported by virus anymore :-)

[rhinoduck]

@scottnonnenberg-signal

We've looked into downgrading, and unfortunately that would bring back some important Electron bugs which affect a lot of people.

I feared that that might be the case :) Thank you for exploring that option, even if it did not work out.

---

@suessbacke

Is there anything i can do to work around this Bug ? The Version before worked perfect to me.

Luckily, 5.25.0 and 5.25.1 seem to be using the same DB format as 5.24.0, so you might even be able to keep your message history; but still...

WARNING: Doing this theoretically should not, but may lead to irreversible loss of all conversation history in your current Signal Desktop installation; it may also possibly lead to other strange behaviour which I cannot predict. Also, running older and potentially unsupported versions of software can expose you to security vulnerabilities.

If you really need the older version, and have considered the abovementioned tradeoffs, you can do the following:

1. download and install 5.24.0 over the currently installed version (to get the older version, copy the download link from the main site, and change the version number it contains)
2. in the app, go to File -> Preferences and untick Automatically download updates under General -> Updates

PS: Do not forget to turn the updates back on once this issue is fixed.

[hiqua]

You can also install an old beta version and you'll have another instance of Signal-Desktop which shouldn't have this bug, e.g.:

https://updates.signal.org/desktop/signal-desktop-beta-win-5.24.0-beta.2.exe

It's less risky than installing an older version of signal, but you won't have your history there.

Note that according to a pr, the bug should be fixed in Electron by next month, so it will probably be fixed next month in Signal as well.

[ultrajae]

Can confirm this bug on Windows 7 also..

[dentside]

I'm running Windows 8.1 and Signal Desktop version 5.26.0. Videos and voice recordings sent to me were crashing and closing Signal Desktop when running version 5.25.0. Now with version 5.26.0, videos are not playing, but Signal stays open...not crashing.

[RedactedSoftware]

ez fix don't use electron kkthx

[rhinoduck]

As of now, 5.24.0 is no longer an option if you want to be able to send messages. Ironically, but fortunately, the beta still works.

EDIT: Beta no longer works either.

[rhinoduck]

Media playback functionality restored in Signal 5.27.0 after an update to electron 16.0.6 which no longer crashes.