Service worker skipWaiting not activating workbox service worker

Library Affected: workbox-sw.

Browser & Platform: All

Issue or Feature Request Description: *I have migrated from SW-Precache to workbox service worker, and during the process, I’ve updated service worker filename from ‘service-worker.js’ to ‘service-worker-mobile.js’ and also added workbox.skipWaiting() in the new service worker file, implying that as soon as new service worker file is downloaded, and installed, it should get activated, but, I can still see my old service worker file running. Any help here? *

[jeffposnick]

By the way, workbox-window v6 has a new helper method, messageSkipWaiting(), that can be used from a web page client and will always use postMessage({type: 'SKIP_WAITING'}) to the correct service, waiting service worker instance.

[cilliemalan]

I see the same thing. Service worker doesn’t update even though skipWaiting is called, no other tabs open, no waitUntil.

If anyone googles this issue 👆 and gets here, this happens when you call self.skipWaiting on the already activated (i.e. old) service worker instead of the installed and waiting (i.e. new) service worker.

AFAIK it is not possible to activate the newly installed service worker from within the old one, but you can send the new service worker a message from the old one like so:

self.registration.waiting.postMessage({type:'SKIP_WAITING'})

However, you probably want to send this message from a client (i.e. a web page) instead. In this case make sure you are sending the correct registartion the message.