Custom notifications keep reverting to default, and switch themselves off

[umbellipher]

• [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

---

Bug description

Custom notifications keep reverting to default, and switch themselves off.

Steps to reproduce

• open conversation settings
• set custom notifications to 'on'
• wait a time
• custom notifications switch themselves off again.

Actual result: Custom notifications switch themselves off again. Expected result: Custom notifications should remain as user-set.

Device info

Device: moto g30 (XT2129-2) Android version: 11 Signal version: 5.24.14 (beta)

[fourmajor]

Also experiencing this: Device: Pixel 6 Android version: 12 Signal version: 5.27.2

[geoffro10]

Same here. Pixel 5 Android 12 Signal version: 5.27.13

[cody-signal]

Debuglogs would greatly aid in investigating this issue, especially if taken right after noticing the change.

[geoffro10]

It just happened again so I grabbed the debug log.

https://debuglogs.org/217d7146fddce3b6387928d70db68e2e9ddf109404c863123a6bd3e61dd8b37c

[cody-signal]

Okay, definitely something going on when restarting the app and it performs the channel consistency check. Are you doing only what OP reported or something else?

Mainly, need to know if you are making notification channel changes in the app settings for things like sound/vibrate/priority/bubble or only doing notification changes in the app via the settings screens.

[geoffro10]

I just tried to duplicate it and here's what I did.

Open the app Open message for specific person Open conversation settings Open Sounds and notifications.... confirmed that custom notifications says "on" Open custom notifications and confirmed the sound is "Fairydust sound" Backed out to main screen and repeated from step two and now the notification sound says "default" Immediately pulled a debug log.

https://debuglogs.org/94e06fcb0b9986730533b6d2c65154c979e669ba07645507d4a30f8c229ebb3e

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help track this down.

BTW, no other changes were made during this.

[cody-signal]

@geoffro10 Can you do the following:

Open the app Goto convo settings for custom notifications Enable custom notifications and set a sound Open Android System settings for Signal and go to notifications See if there are more than 1 channel for the chat you just set a sound for

[geoffro10]

I didn't see more than one for the one I just added. However, I see multiple entries for those contacts that I keep seeing it revert. I turned off custom notifications for one, exited out, came back and the custom notification was back on again. Looked in Android System and the duplicate for that person was gone.

Another thing I noticed, when I added a custom notification for someone who didn't have it before, it created one in the Android System but the sound listed was still default. When I went back to Signal, it still showed custom notifications on and the specific sound still showed.

Looks to me that the duplicates are causing an issue.

[geoffro10]

Here's another update... I'm able to remove the duplicate entries by going back in to Signal and turning off custom notifications again. All seems to work when there's only one entry. I don't know how they got duplicated so I hope you do and can fix it.

[cody-signal]

I don't know why they are being duplicated, but good to see that you saw the same thing, so that is def the issue. Gives me something to focus on. Thanks for confirming.

[geoffro10]

Glad I could help. Let me know if you need any other help with it from my limited ability. LOL

[cody-signal]

There will be a hopeful fix in 5.29 to make it harder to create duplicate channels.

Did you happen to do anything with bubbles/priorities with some of these contacts that have been problematic?

[geoffro10]

Nope, the only thing I did was restore from a backup on to a new phone.

[major-mayer]

I have the problem, that when I disable vibration in the notification settings and open/close the window, it keeps re-enabling all the time. Is this bug related or do I need to create a separate issue for that?

I am using 5.28.7

[stale[bot]]

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[major-mayer]

At least the vibration resetting thing seems to be still present in Signal 5.32.14

[youngestdj]

I am also facing this issue. If you switch off vibration in notification settings then hit back and open notification settings again you'll see it enabled again. Basically you can't switch off vibration in notifications. v5.34.10 Android 12

[CurtisTheGreat]

I'm running into this issue as well.

OnePlus 8T+5G, Signal 5.35.3, Android 11

[kouc52]

I am also having this issue... Custom notifications will stay on and randomly turn off... Reverting to system default notification sound. Highly annoying. Signal worked fine up until 2 weeks ago. Has anyone found a fix or do we have to wait for a Signal app update?

[cody-signal]

@kouc52 what version of signal and os version are you running?

[kouc52]

@cody-signal version 5.39.3 on a One+ 8T Pro Android 11

[cody-signal]

Thanks, @kouc52 can you submit a debuglog after noticing the switch.

[Kuladeep1996]

facing similar issue, custom notifications not working, only default works Device: Realme 7 Android version: 11 Signal version: v5.42.7

[strugee]

@Kuladeep1996 please submit a debug log after noticing the switch, otherwise there's no way to diagnose what's going wrong

[major-mayer]

I am using 5.44.2 and wasn't able to reproduce neither the bug with the custom notifications nor the thing with the (global) vibration settings that i reported above. Everything else should deserve a new issue I guess.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[fleapower]

I just noticed the switch this morning. I'm linking the debug log, but I have no idea when the switch/error occurred (last 24 hours?).

https://debuglogs.org/android/5.50.4/6e39368221c863a6620c5bef93fb269272bcaac19bf0095bb383ae52315680f8

[cody-signal]

@fleapower was this for just a single contact? I see a log line indicating we couldn't find a channel configured in app in the system list of channels but it's only for a single contact, not the general channel used for messages

[fleapower]

I'm going to plead ignorance on that one...I'm not sure how to differentiate between a general channel used for messages and any other channels. I noticed the change for one contact, but it happens to any/all contacts when I set custom notifications - they eventually revert back to non-customized notifications.

I only have three contacts with custom notifications. I will periodically check throughout the day to see if they revert back to non-customized. When I notice it, I will submit a new debug log - might capture some additional info.

[cody-signal]

Thanks, sorry for the jargon, but you got to what I was curious about. Knowing if your custom notification was configured for a single contact/conversation vs for all conversations. What I see in the logs suggests that we have a custom notification channel configured for a single conversation in app, but when we ask the OS if that channel still exists, it says no, so we disassociate it as we assume something was changed in the device's system settings for the app.