Element tries to use the deprecated media endpoints on a server enacting the freeze

[HarHarLinks]

Steps to reproduce

i tried out setting enable_authenticated_media: true in a localhost synapse yesterday and logged in with app.element.io. element could not receive any media and watching the browser devtools network log i could see the requests using the old endpoints (and 404ing as i'd expect per synapse docs). checking synapse's versions there is v1.11 support and using curl i could also GET the media from the new endpoints. does someone know what's wrong? i have peers telling me it's working for them on their prod deployments that already enacted the "freeze".

Outcome

What did you expect?

authenticated media

What happened instead?

unauthenticated media 404ing, no media

Operating system

arch

Browser information

Firefox 128

URL for webapp

app.element.io

Application version

Element version: 1.11.76 Crypto version: Rust SDK 0.7.1 (c8c9d15), Vodozemac 0.6.0

Homeserver

matrixdotorg/synapse:latest

Will you send logs?

Yes

[mkoppmann]

I have the same issue. It does work with Element Desktop and the mobile apps, but my self-hosted Element Web instance fails due to the usage of the old API:

It uses: https://matrix.example.org/_matrix/media/v3/download/example.org/MHM%E2%80%A6XZurja?allow_redirect=true while Element Desktop is using: blob:vector://vector/df31…918e4 and https://matrix.example.org/_matrix/client/v1/media/thumbnail/example.org/ODgJqxkZ…Bgm?width=28&height=28&method=crop&allow_redirect=true for things like profile images.

[richvdh]

and watching the browser devtools network log i could see the requests using the old endpoint

One thing to note is that the browser devtools cannot be trusted here: there is a serviceworker which is supposed to rewrite the request, but that happens after the devtools that record the request.

I'd suggest checking the server-side logs to verify which endpoint is actually being used

[mkoppmann]

From my Synapse logs:

synapse.http.server: [GET-382] <XForwardedForRequest at 0x7f6704810910 method='GET' uri='/_matrix/media/v3/download/example.org/yxwwqx…NkQ?allow_redirect=true' clientproto='HTTP/1.1' site='8008'> SynapseError: 404 - Not found

[dbkr]

This might be that the service worker hasn't registered, which can happen sometimes especially as we previously did have a service worker that didn't do anything and wasn't really registered properly. A hard reload or three would be worth a try.

[mkoppmann]

I tried it in browsers where Element Web was never loaded before and also unregistered the service worker in my regular browser. The problem still occured.

Then I tried https://app.element.io and the pictures loaded on that instance. I compared https://app.element.io/sw.js with the service worker on my instance and the source code on my server was several times larger. I was running v1.11.75 from NixOS 24.05.

Then I realized that v1.11.76 was pushed to stable. I upgraded my instance, now the authenticated images are loading and the sw.js file is identical to the one on app.element.io again.

[HarHarLinks]

🤷 started working sometime between then and now

[chmeeedalf]

I see this problem on Safari, but it works fine from Brave, both on the same macOS device, with the latest element-web (logging into app.element.io). I checked the sw.js downloaded from both browsers, and diff shows them identical.

[turt2live]

The downloaded sw.js may be different than the one the browser is using. Excessive page reloads generally fixes it.

[czeidler]

Not sure if its the same issue but since about two days I can't open new images (old image are loading fine). I am getting "Error downloading image". All involved parties are at matrix.org. We are seeing it on Android + desktop. Clients haven't been updated recently.

[t3chguy]

Clients haven't been updated recently.

That'll be why then, authenticated media is relatively new, so you need to be up to date if you are using a server which requires this.

@HarHarLinks has stated it has started working for them so closing this issue. It seems to be one of using outdated clients or having a stuck serviceworker registration cached in their browser.

[jxu]

I had the same issue. I just reinstalled element-desktop from Ubuntu apt repos and I had to pkill to get it to update.