Inconsistent room joining behavior (in comparison with Element Web)

[aine-etke]

Steps to reproduce

1. Use matrixrooms.info as directory server
2. Try to join any room
3. Element Android sends GET /_matrix/federation/v1/make_join/ROOM_ID/MATRIX_USER_ID?ver=1&ver=2&ver=3&ver=4&ver=5&ver=6&ver=7&ver=8&ver=9&ver=10&ver=11 HTTP/1.1 request to the directory server, ignoring the fact the ROOM_ID is from another server

Outcome

What did you expect?

Identical behavior with Element Web, i.e. make_join is sent to the room's resident server

What happened instead?

Element Android sends make_join to the directory server, even when room is located on a different server.

Your phone model

N/A

Operating system version

N/A

Application version and app store

Element 1.6.6.sc73 (F-Droid), Matrix SDK 1.6.6, Crypto Rust SDK 0.6.0, Crypto Vodozemac 0.4.0

Homeserver

matrixrooms.info (MRS latest)

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[julioromano]

Does Element Android succeed in joining the room ?

[aine-etke]

No, MRS doesn't have make_join endpoint - it's a directory server, and it expects clients to join the resident server of the room in question, not MRS instance itself.

So, Element Android just shows "retry" red text instead of "join" button

[julioromano]

I've just succeeded joining a room from matrixrooms.info by both opening the directory server from a web browser and clicking a room's matrix.to link and also by using matrixrooms.info as directory in element android.

Though I've used element from the Play Store.
Can you please double check with that as well to try to ascertain if it's an F-droid distro issue?

If you still see the issue then can you post a video that can show us the exact steps you take to repro?

[aine-etke]

Element Android:

• matrix.to link works
• direct join from search results (directory results in the client app, ref) doesn't work

Element Web:

• matrix.to link works
• direct join from search results (directory results in the client app, ref) works

Unfortunately, I can't provide test results using the Play Store version at this moment

[akdk7]

Just tried to join a room on frei.chat using my frei.chat account via the matrixrooms.info list. Unfortunately it didn't work. On Element Android it shows the little check mark, but the room does not appear in the list of joined rooms.

[julioromano]

I've tested right now with the latest f-droid apk and it's working: I can join rooms after looking them up form the matrixrooms.info directory.
Please if you still encounter this issue record a video that shows the exact steps you're taking to reproduce it.

[akdk7]

Interesting, 4 days later it works now. Cannot tell why Element (Android 14) didn't want to join channels. Thanks though :)