Element iOS fails to load some images

[williamkray]

Steps to reproduce

Multiple users have reported being unable to view some images in the iOS app. Images are sent by several other members, there is no specific pattern (senders are using either element-android or element-web). images are PNG or JPEG. cases have only been seen in the case of encrypted rooms. Recipients of the image who are using element-android or element-web have no difficulty viewing the images. Images are of various filesize (70KB to 800+MB).

When the user clicks on the image thumbnail to view the image full-size, they see a blank screen as the image does not load.

What happened?

What the user expects to see: the uploaded image

What the user sees: the image loading icon.

Your phone model

No response

Operating system version

No response

Application version

No response

Homeserver

mssj.me

Will you send logs?

Yes

[williamkray]

i have also confirmed that, from the server-side, matrix-media-repo is successfully sending the image to the client. this log snippet is from the user's IP address that was trying to view the image:

matrix-media-repo_1  | time="2021-11-13 17:45:26.631 Z" level=info msg="Received request" contentLength=0 contentType="" host=mssj.me method=GET queryString="" remoteAddr=redacted requestId=REQ-24195 resource=/_matrix/media/r0/download/mssj.me/7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab usingForwardedHost=true
matrix-media-repo_1  | time="2021-11-13 17:45:26.631 Z" level=info msg="Host is valid - processing request" contentLength=0 contentType="" host=mssj.me method=GET queryString="" remoteAddr=redacted requestId=REQ-24195 resource=/_matrix/media/r0/download/mssj.me/7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab usingForwardedHost=true
matrix-media-repo_1  | time="2021-11-13 17:45:26.631 Z" level=info msg="Getting media record from database" allowRemote=true contentLength=0 contentType="" filename="" host=mssj.me mediaId=7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab method=GET queryString="" remoteAddr=redacted requestId=REQ-24195 resource=/_matrix/media/r0/download/mssj.me/7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab server=mssj.me usingForwardedHost=true
matrix-media-repo_1  | time="2021-11-13 17:45:26.633 Z" level=info msg="Returning minimal media record with a viable stream" allowRemote=true contentLength=0 contentType="" filename="" host=mssj.me mediaId=7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab method=GET queryString="" remoteAddr=redacted requestId=REQ-24195 resource=/_matrix/media/r0/download/mssj.me/7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab server=mssj.me usingForwardedHost=tr
ue
matrix-media-repo_1  | time="2021-11-13 17:45:26.633 Z" level=info msg="Replying with result: *r0.DownloadMediaResponse &{ContentType:application/octet-stream Filename:. SizeBytes:18854 Data:0xc01734c028 TargetDisposition:infer}" contentLength=0 contentType="" host=mssj.me method=GET queryString="" remoteAddr=redacted requestId=REQ-24195 resource=/_matrix/media/r0/download/mssj.me/7c7d1f48d2f71f82172949d541723809ef062aab usingForwardedHost=true

[pixlwave]

Hi thanks for the report @williamkray. A couple of questions to help us understand this issue a little bit:

1. Is this reproducible for the same image for all of the users who see this, or is it fairly random?
2. Would you be able to request for one or two of the users to send us a rageshake with a link to this issue the next time they see it occur?

Thanks very much.

[williamkray]

i haven't been able to test with the same image sent from different users... i only hear about these issues through other people and have to go try to hunt down the people affected to get them to tell me what's going on. having them troubleshoot is difficult. i have requested that the next time they experience it though, they should shake their phone and send logs here. we'll see if any of them do that. i will continue to try to get more information from them and add it here as i do.

one user did report that after updating her app, the images in question loaded... but considering how long this problem has been going on, it could be that something is either already fixed, or that installing the update cleared some sort of local cache of bad image data.

[pixlwave]

Thanks @williamkray. It may be useful for you to know that in 1.6.8 you can now forward an image to another room and it will forward the original mxc:// URL. So if someone can forward an image that they're having issues with, you may then be able to see it happen.

[kittykat]

I get this issue in the file preview in the thread panel

[matoro]

Hi, I have a user who is reporting running into this issue. As stated in the report, they cannot see images that they send or receive, regardless of what client the images were sent from (only Android and web tested).

This issue is appearing in an unencrypted room though, so that does not seem to be the cause.

They have used the app for 2+ years before encountering this issue recently.

Videos display and play fine, it's just images that are affected.

They are able to see images on other clients, just iOS is affected.

Are there any logs that would be useful?