Invalid access token leads to "Connectivity to the server has been lost" with no way to gracefully recover - need to manually logout and re-login

Steps to reproduce

1. Lost connection to server, probably because of a internet connection issue from Server side.
2. Checked that the Server is back up.
3. Tried to send messages etc., but Client still insists that the Server is not available.
4. Searched in the server logs, found error SynapseError: 401 - Invalid Authorization header.
5. Searched the internet and found this: https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/14529#issuecomment-879849922
6. After Logout and Re-login everything was working normal, just as suggested by the user.

Outcome

What did you expect?

Client should be able to reconnect to a server by itself without a logout being necessary. Client should at least show a useful error message.

What happened instead?

Client insisted that a connection is not possible without any explanation.

Operating system

Manjaro Linux

Application version

Element v1.11.2

By the way, this problem also occurs with the Android App.

How did you install the app?

Manjaro Repos

Homeserver

Synapse 1.64.0

Will you send logs?

No

[MadLittleMods]

It sounds like your access token is no longer valid so you can’t authenticate and communicate with the homeserver anymore. Your token could have been invalidated in a number of different ways. Is there anything special about your homeserver setup (SAML, SSO, CAS)?

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The client should handle this situation automatically either by refreshing the token, or by showing login form again (worse, but still less frustrating than just permanent disconnect).

– @skobkin, https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/14529#issuecomment-879849922

As the other person suggested, when the client sees a 401 - Invalid Authorization header response from the homeserver, it should ask you to sign in again. Maybe this means completely signing you out but it seems a bit more friendly if we just update the RoomStatusBar to take this situation into account and explain that you need to sign in again since your token is no longer valid.

It seems like soft-logout is a concept in the app so we could probably adapt some of that. Or maybe we’re just missing a case to trigger that.

If it’s possible use the refresh token to get a new access token, we should also be doing that. I see code for refreshToken but I don’t see any usage of this. So this is also something we might need to look at and improve.

[toby63]

@toby63 From another device, is it possible that you cleaned up your devices/sessions yourself? Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Where you’re signed in -> and signed out some devices

No. This problem occured with multiple accounts, also with other users on my server.