Signiant App Troubleshooting Guide - macOS

For Windows troubleshooting information, see the Signiant App Troubleshooting Guide - Windows.

Before troubleshooting issues with older versions of the Signiant App, it is recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of the application.

To enable application logging, set the log level in the SigniantClient.json file.

Troubleshooting Signiant App Installation

You can identify possible problems with the installation of the Signiant App using three methods:

Check for the Signiant App in the Applications folder

If the application is correctly installed, Signiant App will appear in the Applications folder.

Check for messages that indicate installation

If the Signiant App is correctly installed the browser console displays messages confirming a connection to the Signiant App. If some of these messages are missing, it could indicate that the browser is not successfully connecting to the Signiant App.

To check for typical messages in the browser console:

Reload/refresh the portal.
Look for messages that typically appear in the browser console:
- Set up App communication - This message is a section heading that can be expanded to show details of the connection attempts and errors. The Signiant App tries to connect using four ports and only keeps the first port that responds. The other three ports log a failed WebSocket connection error.
Note: On Firefox, these WebSocket errors may appear outside the collapsed Set up App communication section.
- Received Session Read from App (via websocket/pubnub) - If your version of Signiant App was released before March 2018, it will try to connect via PubNub. Newer versions can use a more robust local communication method, via WebSockets.

Media Shuttle and the Web Transfer API (TAPI) set a cookie in your browser once they successfully connect to the Signiant App. The cookie is used by Media Shuttle to adjust behavior, such as wait intervals, when connecting to the App for the first time.

You can prompt Media Shuttle to detect the installation of the Signiant App by deleting the SigniantAppInstalled cookie from the mediashuttle.com domain in your browser. For those using the Web Transfer API, the domain will vary. When the portal is refreshed, the user should see the I have the App/Download the App message.

Note: See your browser documentation for the location of cookies.

Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Signiant App

If you determine that the Signiant App is not successfully installed, uninstall and reinstall the application using the latest version of the Signiant App.

To uninstall and reinstall the Signiant App:

Close all browser pages and applications that use the Signiant App.
Click the Signiant App icon and click Quit.
In Finder, navigate to Applications.
Select Signiant App, drag it into the Trash and empty your Trash to make sure that the app is completely gone.
In the Activity Monitor, verify that all Signiant App processes are stopped.
If the SigniantClient, SigniantUser, or SigniantApp processes are still running, terminate them.

When you visit the portal again you will be prompted to download and install the latest version of the Signiant App.

Checking Protocol Handler Function

Both Media Shuttle and the Web Transfer API request that the computer launch the Signiant App via a protocol handler call. When a browser receives a protocol handler call, it typically prompts a user to confirm that the computer should launch a specified application. Browsers often give users the option to remember the setting so that they do not have to answer the prompt each time the browser issues a protocol handler call.

To determine if the browser is sending a request to connect with and/or launch the Signiant App, you can temporarily remove the Signiant App from the protocol handler, requiring that the end user confirm the application launch each time.

To remove the Signiant App from the protocol handler:

Google Chrome

Close Chrome. The browser holds these settings in memory while running and will overwrite any changes to this file with the values in memory.
In Finder, navigate to the Preferences file.
Note: You can also navigate to /Users/<user_name>/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences in your terminal.
Make a copy of the file. This allows you to quickly revert to the unmodified version.
Open the Preferences file in a text editor.
Locate and delete "sigclient":false, and save the file.
Restart Chrome.
When next prompted to launch the Signiant App, select Launch Application.
Once you determine whether the protocol handler is the likely source of the problem, revert the browser setting to no longer require confirmation of Signiant App launch.

Mozilla Firefox

Navigate to Preferences > General.
Click Applications and select sigclient as the content type.
Toggle the Action drop-down menu to display Always ask. This forces the Signiant App to prompt the user to choose the application.
Once you determine whether the protocol handler is the likely source of the problem, revert to the Use Signiant App setting so that the end user no longer has to confirm the launch of the Signiant App each time.

Safari

Safari does not offer the option of launching the application without a prompt. Safari is not recommended for long-running transfers because of possible network disconnection issues when communicating via PubNub.

Checking Network Permissions

Administrator rights are not required to install the Signiant App but your network may have restrictions.

To verify network permissions:

In Settings > Security & Privacy, ensure that Allow apps downloaded from is set to Anywhere or Mac App Store and identified developers.

Disabling a Proxy

If you have a proxy enabled on the workstation, disable it and run the installer again.

Note: Disabling the proxy may only be possible if it is not required for a firewall.

To learn more, see Using the Signiant App with Proxy Servers.

Addressing Installation and Updating Issue on Parallels

Because the Signiant App and Updater use an .EXE extension that is commonly associated with Windows operating systems, Parallels virtual machines running on macOS may attempt to launch the Signiant App using the Windows VM instead of the macOS system.

To prevent this error, disable Coherence Mode application sharing and ensure that Share Mac applications with Windows is not enabled.

Addressing Constant Prompts for Installation

The end user may repeatedly see prompts to download the Signiant App, even when the application is installed. This problem may occur if:

The outbound connectivity over TCP 443 is blocked
The end user has multiple browser windows or tabs open, causing communication issues that the Signiant App cannot resolve
The user has multiple versions of the Signiant App installed
The messaging service failed to initialize

If multiple versions are installed, uninstall all versions and reinstall the latest version of the Signiant App.

The Failure to initialize messaging service error may appear when you open the Developer Console if the Signiant Client process cannot communicate with the Signiant User process. The error may occur if the Signiant User process did not update, or if there is improper formatting of the loopback address in the hosts file.

This issue may prompt specific errors in the SigniantClient.log:

Connection refused from invalid IP address: 127.0.0.1
asio: error in WS handler: invalid state

Note: The Signiant App saves logs for the previous seven days. The application appends older log files with a number, e.g. SigniantClient.log.1.

If either of these errors appear in the log, change the loopback address in the hosts file.

To change the loopback address:

In the /etc/hosts file, change 0.0.0.0 localhost to 127.0.0.1 localhost.
In the Activity Monitor, terminate the signiantclient and signiantuser processes.
Refresh your Media Shuttle portal.

Troubleshooting Signiant App Transfers

Before proceeding with troubleshooting, ensure that the portal has been refreshed/reloaded.

Verifying that Required Ports and External Domains are Available

Signiant App transfers may fail if the ports needed for inbound and outbound traffic, as well as the external domains the Signiant App uses, are not accessible. For a list of required ports and domains, see Media Shuttle System Requirements.

Example Errors:

#### PubNub cannot be reached

Ensure that \*.pubnub.com and \*.pndsn.com are allowed through company firewalls.

#### Websocket ports are all busy

Look for errors in the SigniantUser.log file. The errors should appear even at the default log level.

e.g. [WSBrowserListener-WARN] Failed to listen to all WebSocket ports in the configured range: [10004, 10005, 20004, 20005]

The Signiant App needs only one of the ports to establish a WebSocket connection. At least one of these ports can be made available by closing another application that is using it.

Verifying that a Local Port is Available for Communication

The Signiant App may be unable to connect to its components if installed software uses the same local port as the Signiant App for communication.

To change the local port number:

Navigate to /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.signiant.SigniantClient.json.
Open the SigniantClient.json file in a text editor.
Change the api-port from 10001 to another available port, e.g. 12345.
Note: You can check if a port is being used with the netstat -an | grep <port_number> command.

Checking Network Connections

If an end user's network is disconnected or frozen, the end user may see a spinning Signiant logo that does not allow uploading or downloading of content.

To check network connections:

Check that the user's Internet access has not been disconnected by refreshing the page.
If refreshing the page does not solve the problem, terminate the frozen SigniantClient and SigniantUser processes in the Activity Monitor.

Collecting Details on a Failed Transfer

If the required ports and external domains are accessible but transfers are still failing, additional information should be collected and analyzed.

There are three methods of collecting details on a failed transfer:

Contact Admin Prompt

When a transfer fails, the user is prompted to contact the operations administrator. When the user clicks on the Contact Admin link, they can enter additional detail about the transfer before the message is sent.

Developer Console Inspection

You can troubleshoot the Javascript code in your Developer Console. The location of the Developer Console will vary depending on your browser.

Transfer events and errors can also be found in the Developer Console if a transfer was done on that tab. This information is cleared when the web page is refreshed.

With the newest versions of the Signiant App and the Web Transfer API, there may be websocket errors caused by the way the application and the API communicate. If the Received Session Ready from App (via websocket) or Received Session Ready from App (via pubnub) message appears, the Signiant App & the Web Transfer API should be connected successfully.

Locating the File Picker

The file picker can occasionally end up behind other windows. If clicking on Add File or Download has no effect, but the Signiant icon does not indicate that the page is having issues, look for the file picker behind other open windows.

Note: You can view all open windows using Mission Control.