Nexus 5 RC 2020-W35 problems: Rotation lock & Axolotl crash

[Alter]

Hello,

Does anyone experience these problems on a Nexus 5 on RC 2020-W35:

• Rotation lock icon changed to gear icon without any way to use rotation lock
• Crashes of Axolotl (Signal) app: when e.g. opening app or getting notifications
  I must add that I accidentally left Wifi on and in the morning noticed the update.
  I might have upgraded when Axolotl app was open, which I think is not good to do.
  I switched from RC > Stable > RC but problem persists.
  I think I might have to re-install Axolotl, but I'm not sure if the messages are kept.
  Anyone has the same issue, or know how to solve?

Kind regards, Alter

[AppLee]

@Alter
Hi, I had the issue you mentioned with the rotation lock. But it was on stable and just a one time issue.
Fixed after a reboot.

About Axolotl I think the message will stay, but I won't bet on it. Either way, I think reinstalling is probably the best. Because error during update are persistent when you switch from channel.

[kugiigi]

If any of the indicators becomes a gear icon, that means it crashed or failed to start. Most of the time a reboot or Lomiri restart will fix them. If not, then most likely it's broken. As for the signal app, reinstalling will not remove your data however, it might also have no effect with the crash issue. You can clear app data with UTTT but I think Signal only stores your data locally so that would mean you chat messages will also be gone. Maybe you can try clearing the cache first before the config and data.

[AppLee]

@kugiigi said in Nexus 5 RC 2020-W35 problems: Rotation lock & Axolotl crash:

If any of the indicators becomes a gear icon, that means it crashed or failed to start

That's good to know, thanks !

Signal stores messages on their server too, so might be possible to get them back if you don't loose the private key.
Don't know if it's possible to back it up and restore it later...

[Alter]

Thanks, both, for the help!
I will try the things suggested.

[Alter]

After a restart the rotation lock reappeared again. I also installed 2 RC system updates since then. The rotation lock stayed.

Axolotl crashes/ close issue was more difficult. I installed UT Tweak Tool and there you can delete Cache, Data & Config. I first deleted Cache only, but this didn't have effect. Then I deleted Axolotl Config, assuming my messages were still stored in Data (I still think they are). However, deleting Config also caused the messages to become unreachable. Reinstalling Axolotl doesn't help. Probably because the encryption key was in Config. My fault.
After reinstall, adding contacts because those were gone, resetting encryption for them, and with the latest RC updates, it is working stable again, but messages are lost.

This incident did bring to light an important feature which seems to be missing in Axolotl, and that is a messages (and perhaps contacts) backup. I've read that Android has an option to create an encrypted local backup, which has its own passphrase. I think you can even export the (copy of) file to another (storage)device for cases where your phone dies.

Or does this feature exist? If so, I would like to know where (even if it's via Terminal)? If not, I will ask in Axolotl Github.

[Fla]

@Alter for information, we have an Axolotl dev channel on telegram, I could respond there more quickly than here.

Your Axolotl crash has nothing to do with your install or your configuration and there is nothing from your side you could do, OpenWishperSystem (who builds Signal) changed their API and it broke Axolotl. A new version of Axolotl has now been released which fixes the problem.

To be more specific, it was the way attachments were handled which changed. So deleting your account you removed the message with an attachment so you fixed the crash.

Next time reach us before dropping all your data, that wasn't necessary

[Alter]

@Fla

Thanks for letting me know the issue was caused by API, and not my config. I guess I could have kept my messages, if I just had waited for the update? Next time, I'll be more careful. Axolotl works again, thanks for the update!

Would it be possible for you to add a status page on the Axolotl website (Axolotl.chat), in case things like this happen again?
For regular users like me, it would be great to be able to check on a page if there are problems.

I guess there is no way yet to backup messages, do you want me to ask for this feature on Github, or is this already on your radar/ to-do list?
I don't use Telegram/Teleports app yet, but it's good to know that that's the fastest way to contact you.

Thanks for your reply.

Kind regards, Alter

[Fla]

@Alter pinging @nanu-c there as he is the maintainer of the website.

[Alter]

Okay, I will contact @nanu-c about website.
I will mark this question as solved. Thanks!