Custom notifications spontaneously reset back to default settings

[ChimeraCoder]

• [X] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [X] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [X] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [X] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

Custom Notifications for group conversations periodically reset to default settings

Steps to reproduce

This has been a bug for a while (over a year), across multiple installations of Signal on different phones. I've tried to figure ot an exact trigger for it, though to no avail. At first I thought it was related to when the app updated, but I've noticed it happens even when there hasn't been a recent update to the app. Some info that may help to narrow it down:

• It does not happen to all group conversations simultaneously, though it does happen to most group conversations I am in.
• I observe it more in the very-active group conversations, though I strongly suspect that is observation bias.
• I have observed this behavior on multiple installations of Signal on separate phones, for over a year, so it is not a recent regression
• I only set custom notifications for group chats, so this may be a bug for 1-1 conversations as well, but I haven't observed it there because it's not applicable to me.
• It always resets the sound to the default sound, never to a different sound altogether.
• I have not observed this on the group conversations where I disable vibration but set the sound to an audible non-default sound. I have only observed it when I set the sound to "None". (However, I only have a few group conversations where I use an audible non-default sound, so this may simply be a coincidence).
• The last time it happened (an hour ago), my phone screen was turned off and Signal was not open (ie, it doesn't only happen when I am currently viewing the conversation in question).

Actual result: If I set custom notifications for a group conversation (e.g. "disable vibration, use a custom sound"), it works as expected for a while, but then at some point I start to get the default notification settings for that conversation. When I go back to the settings for that conversation, it says "Custom notifications: off", and I have to re-configure it. Expected result: If I set custom notifications for a group conversation (e.g. "disable vibration, use a custom sound"), it should stay that way permanently unless I manually set it back.

Device info

Device: Pixel 6 Pro ("raven"), although this happens on another device as well Android version: 13.0.0, but this did happen on 12.x as well. Signal version: 6.25.5 and earlier

Link to debug log

I don't know when the settings actually get reset; I only notice when I receive the next message in that group chat, so I can't easily grab a debug log immediately after it happens.

[alex-signal]

Debug logs should be good for a few days so if it's happened recently you can go ahead and ship one over :-)

[ChimeraCoder]

By coincidence, it just happened again now, which is at least the second time in 2-3 days that this has happened.

The notification settings for this particular group chat were correct (and working) on Saturday with a non-default sound and no vibration.Just now I received a message in the chat with the default notification sound & vibration. I checked, and sure enough, the notification settings are now Custom notifications: Off.

Here's a debug log I captured immediately after I checked the custom notification settings: https://debuglogs.org/android/6.25.5/0425ff68d07112c8c7de0e244270262b062a84fe49d416a81defcd04effda26b

[ChimeraCoder]

One piece of info that may be helpful: when I went to re-enable the non-default sound now, it looks like the sound was still correctly set to the non-default sound in the Android settings. I believe the "Use custom notifications" toggle within Signal is what's getting flipped somehow, because the OS-level settings for the sound were correct.

[cody-signal]

Are you archiving or deleting these groups chats at all?

[ChimeraCoder]

No, I'm not archiving or deleting them

[cody-signal]

🤔 Hrm. I'm at a lost. We aren't getting tons of reports of this happening, but something minor must be going on that's different for you.

Can you think of anything you do in Signal that other folks may not be doing often? Also, do you have any apps that doing odd things with notifications like Tasker etc?

[ChimeraCoder]

Just had it happen again. I confirmed that the in-app toggle "Use custom notifications" had been disabled. I'm not using Tasker, or anything else that I can think of that would be interacting with notifications.

[cody-signal]

Thanks @ChimeraCoder Unfortunately, I don't know what else to look into here. It's not something I've been able to reproduce

[jayb-g]

Found this and turns out to be true that MOST custom/notifications related issues are due to bubbling feature in Android. Turn it off and auto-resetting of custom notifications goes away.

[ChimeraCoder]

That's interesting. I don't use bubbles, though, and it looks like that was already disabled for me.

[jayb-g]

@ChimeraCoder yes you're right. It might be off now but it may have been enabled in the past and then disabled. I encountered something similar, I had clicked on bubble from pop up notification accidentally for one contact and the said issue appears to be only with the same contact. All other notifications work fine. Even when I disabled bubbles completely afterwards.

Although now when I changed the sound/vibration etc for the same contact to same as default for signal contact, expected behavior is same(ie same sound for all signal messages) but the contact in question still gets changed to custom notifications on inside signal only when a new message is received.

The issue seems to be related to Android's conversations and bubble settings somehow. Haven't confirmed exactly what settings are affecting it. Have to try on fresh setup again to figure out.

So my best guess is its not completely random in what contacts it affects. Its definitely related to conversations/bubbles inside Android.

[ChimeraCoder]

This has happened to me twice now in the last few days with the same group chat. (A few days ago, I noticed all my chats with custom notifications were reset; I fixed them, and then just now I noticed one of them was reset again, although the others weren't).

It's only the in-Signal configuration that's set - that is, I go to (triple dot) -> Group Settings -> Sounds & notifications -> Custom Notifications and then re-enable the switch that says "Use custom notifications". I don't need to go to the Android settings and actually change the sound or vibration back since those have been saved correctly; it's just the toggle within the Signal app that is being reset.