Axolotl - All messages & contacts gone after "Your registration is faulty. Please consider to register again."

Fla · 15 Jan 2021, 21:42

@gt This isn't related with Axolotl, Signal servers were overloaded this afternoon, situation is back to normal now. However, the message is misleading, we should probably reword it.

GT · 15 Jan 2021, 21:49

@fla Okay, does this mean that I should have waited and it was wrong to re-register? But what shall I do to get my messages and contacts back?

Is it maybe possible to copy the old registration/key files from the old December back-up on the device? The idea would be to copy over the files from the Dec2020 back-up of the folder "local/share/.storage/identity" folder, or anything similar. Do you think this could work to get back to the situation before re-registration?

Alter · 15 Jan 2021, 22:04

@Fla : I also saw this message 'your registration is faulty' today. Afterwards, I was unable to send messages. A red triangle with exclamation mark appeared. The previous time I had this error message, a secure session reset solved it. However, not this time. Also a red triangle next to secure session reset. I also restarted app, switched network off and on, restarted device. Any ideas what I can do?
EDIT: I managed to reset encryption for all contacts. Sometimes needed to try several times because at first red triangle appeared again. Still have trouble to send. Are you sure the server overload is not happening anymore?

Alter · 15 Jan 2021, 22:13

@gt : I did the same thing a few months ago when I experienced the error for the first time. Lost all my messages also. I posted my experience here on this forum under tag Axolotl. @Fla : Perhaps a Q&A on website that is linked to in Axolotl could provide info for users?

Alter · 15 Jan 2021, 22:16

@gt : Could you tag this thread with Axolotl please? This way it will be searchable under this tag for other users. Thanks!

GT · 15 Jan 2021, 22:42

@alter said in Axolotl - All messages & contacts gone after "Your registration is faulty. Please consider to register again.":

Lost all my messages also.

Were you able to get your mesages back?

Alter · 16 Jan 2021, 08:48

@gt : No. When you re-register on Axolotl/ Signal, the key used for decryption of your old messages is lost as it gets replaced. This makes your old messages inaccessible (I believe they're still on the device). A while ago I opened a request on Axolotl Github for a kind a backup or restore feature. Ideally, re-registering would not mean losing your old messages. It would be nice if, at re-registering, the old key is kept and users had the option to import in Axolotl the old messages with this old key. A backup feature would also be good when one changes phone.

GT · 16 Jan 2021, 08:52

@alter Thanks, that's pretty bad. In my case, I have the key in a back-up from end of December. Can I wrangle the old (=correct) key somehow into the current Axolotl file tree?

Alter · 16 Jan 2021, 09:11

@gt : I don't know. I imagine Axolotl only allows 1 key as this is normally what is needed. In this case, there are 2 batches of messages that each have their own decryption key. Perhaps manually the old messages could be decrypted with the old key, and the new key added. I'm just a regular user. This is a question for developers.

Alter · 16 Jan 2021, 12:56

Apparently, Signal servers are still experiencing problems. According to Signal's Twitter (see Signal.org for link) due to huge influx of new customers, and capacity needed for that. People may experience problems sending messages.
There's also a message on status.signal.org
@Fla : perhaps a link to the status page could be added in Axolotl, e.g. ”Server status: [link]”?
EDIT: yesterday evening, I was able to send messages again. No red triangle with exclamation mark.

nogoogle · 16 Jan 2021, 20:30

Since installing the latest version of Axolotl on FP2 yesterday, the program crashes immediately after opening (when showing the chat screen). Tried a clean reinstall and problem persists. Is this a problem related to Signal server overload, is it a FP2 problem, a UT problem or a bug in the recent Axolotl version ?

Fla · 16 Jan 2021, 21:55

@nogoogle said in Axolotl - All messages & contacts gone after "Your registration is faulty. Please consider to register again.":

Since installing the latest version of Axolotl on FP2 yesterday, the program crashes immediately after opening (when showing the chat screen). Tried a clean reinstall and problem persists. Is this a problem related to Signal server overload, is it a FP2 problem, a UT problem or a bug in the recent Axolotl version ?

Can you please send me your logs in PM?

nogoogle · 16 Jan 2021, 22:41

@fla sorry for the stupid question but in which directory do I find the logfile ?

Fla · 17 Jan 2021, 13:43

@nogoogle this isn't a stupid question, the easiest way is to use the loggerviewer application. Then search for textsecure.

GT · 23 Jan 2021, 15:58

@gt I did some experimentation how to get my old messages and contacts back. Here is the solution, which works (with a little draw-back):

I used the new re-registered Axolotl profile (all files in .config/textsecure.nanuc and .local/share/textsecure.nanuc) as basis.
Then I replaced the database db.sql file with the old db.sql from my December back-up. (Apparently, Axolotl deletes all old messages from the db.sql after re-registration. On the other hand, attachments remain in the profile).
Then I copied the contacts.yml from the back-up to the config folder of the new profile.

This works fine, I see all my messages and all contacts. The only draw-back is that I can only write a message to a contact AFTER this contact has written a new message to me. Apparently, the other person has to re-initiate the secure connection. I can live with this draw-back, as it is a matter of time that all (relevant) contacts will be working again.