Signal Desktop keeps locking up and crashing

[juddweiss]

Using a supported version?

• I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

Signal Desktop keeps locking up after about 10 minutes. Then it becomes completely unresponsive. Can't click anything or change chat, and nothing updates further. Just locked in the same state, unresponsive.
My Signal App on my Android phone continues to work fine.
I'll then open Windows 11 Task Manager to End Task.
Task Manager shows Signal (4) as if there are 4 states.
I'll End Task. The Signal Desktop window disappears.
I'll open Signal Desktop and everything works again, for about 10 minutes, then everything locks up again.
I've stuck in this cycle for the last 24 hours.
I've restarted my entire computer twice, but it's not fixing the matter.
I'm not running into issues with other apps.
I think I did click the Update Signal Desktop banner yesterday.
I'm on Signal Desktop 7.77.1

Steps to reproduce

Signal Desktop keeps locking up after about 10 minutes. Then it becomes completely unresponsive. Can't click anything or change chat, and nothing updates further. Just locked in the same state, unresponsive.

Expected result

Not lock up

Actual result

Signal Desktop locks up after about 10 minutes

Screenshots

Signal version

Signal Desktop 7.77.1

Operating system

Windows 11

Version of Signal on your phone

No response

Link to debug log

No response

[indutny-signal]

Sorry about this! Could you provide debuglogs, please?

[juddweiss]

Sorry about this! Could you provide debuglogs, please?

Sure, here you go. Thank you!

debuglog.txt

[Heryger]

I would like to second this! I'm having the exact same freezing issue, only difference being that it happens as soon as I get a message. I think it started happening around the release of the newest update (7.77.1).

[juddweiss]

Heyger is right, this is happening right when a message comes in. The desktop app is working fine for several minutes, and receives messages fine, and then randomly locks up when a new message comes in.
Android app is working fine, and unaffected.
This started happening after I updated to 7.77.1

[juddweiss]

I'm cautiously optimistic I found a fix!!

I'm hoping.
Last night I upgraded my computer to Windows 11 Version 25H2 update.
So far there haven't been any lockups since!
Hasn't been 24 hours yet, but before I updated, Signal Desktop app wasn't lasting 30 minutes.
20 hours in and no lockups!

I'm a power user, I live on Signal, I was trying everything I could.
Updated to Windows 11 Version 25H2 appears to have done the trick.
Strange that Signal Desktop 7.77.1 caused lockups in the first place.
Thank god 25H2 was just released.

[juddweiss]

Follow up... looks like upgrading to Windows 11 Version 25H2 fixed this problem.
Signal has not locked up in the last couple days since doing this.
Not sure what created the problem in the first place (debuglog.txt is attached in a previous message), but glad Signal is working for me now!

[Heryger]

I would like to add that this also seems to be the case for me. The problem did reoccur shortly yesterday, but after downloading the newest windows update (which I think was released 1-2 days ago) it was fixed again.

It would seem as though you need the newest Windows updates as soon as they arrive, otherwise the current version of Signal PC stops working properly.

[indutny-signal]

I see. I'm not entirely sure what has happened, but happy to know that the issue is resolved for the both of you!

FWIW, from the logs it looks like we are losing the communication with the database and all queries are becoming slow to the point that we never get the results back. This is what manifests as a freeze in the app!

[derekpurdy]

I'm seeing the same issue, latest Signal desktop updates and currently on Windows 11 25H2.

[Heryger]

Yeah, it's back on for me.
I have heard that it might be a potential issue with windows update and apps using system notifications, so perhaps turning off notifications for the time being could help.

[indutny-signal]

@Heryger could you provide debuglogs, please?

[DBAMal]

Yes i'm seeing the same issue and I would like to add that i believe this is a GPU issue. This exact same issue is affecting my Discord app as well. It will freeze and I have to end task. On my laptop I haven't updated the GPU drivers and both applications are working fine. Its only on the machine I updated the GPU drivers on. I have a 4090 and running driver version 581.80 which was just released on the 4th. I thought that this new update would fix the issue but it did not. I would recommend downgrading a few versions back if possible. I will give this a try on my machine this week.

[Heryger]

@Heryger could you provide debuglogs, please?

Sure, here it is!

debuglog Signal.txt

However, @DBAMal is right that this issue is also present on Discord. I have the same symptoms as he does, and I have recently updated my NVIDIA drivers to 581.57 (released Oct 14).

[indutny-signal]

Got it. Thank you!