Signiant App Troubleshooting Guide - Windows

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

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 messages that indicate installation

When the Signiant App is correctly installed, certain messages are logged in the browser’s console panel when a user opens portal pages. If some of these messages are missing, it could indicate that the browser has not successfully made a connection to the Signiant App.

To check for typical browser messages:

Reload/refresh the portal.
Open your browser console and look for messages that typically appear:
- 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 the Signiant App version was released before March 2018, it will only connect via PubNub. Newer versions can communicate via WebSockets.

Check for Signiant App in installation directory

If the application is correctly installed, its components will appear in the installation directory.

To check that the Signiant App is located in the installation directory:

In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Signiant.
If the installation folder and its contents are not displayed, indicating that the installation has failed, reinstall the Signiant App.

Prompt detection of Signiant App installation

Media Shuttle and the Web Transfer API (TAPI) set a cookie in your browser once it has successfully connected to the Signiant App. The cookie is used by TAPI to adjust behaviour, 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 TAPI, 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 on the end user's machine, 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 (e.g. Media Shuttle, Media Exchange, Web Transfer API).
In the Control Panel, locate the list of applications. Depending on your version of Windows, the list of applications may appear on a page named Uninstall or change a program, Programs and features or Apps & Features.
Select Signiant App from the list and click Uninstall.
Note: If there are multiple versions the application installed, select and uninstall each one.
Download and install the latest version of the Signiant App.

Note: Reinstalling the application will revert the Signiant App configuration file to its default settings. Any modified debug settings will have to be re-applied.

Checking Protocol Handler Function

The Web Transfer API requests 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, in this case SigniantApp.exe. 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:

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.
Navigate to C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences.
Make a copy of the file. This allows you to quickly revert to the unmodified version.
Open the Preferences file in a text editor.
Delete "sigclient":false, and save the file.
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 to the original browser setting so that confirmation of Signiant App launch is no longer required.

Firefox

From the Settings menu, select Options.
In the Applications section on the General tab, select the sigclient 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 original setting so that the end user no longer has to confirm the launch of the Signiant App each time.

Internet Explorer/Edge

Using Regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\<browser name>\ProtocolExecute\sigclient.
Set WarnOnOpen to a value of 1.
Note: A value of 0 disables the prompt to launch the Signiant App.

Checking Network Permissions

The Signiant App is installed in an end user’s own AppData folder, for which they have all necessary write permissions. In some tightly-controlled networks, users may be restricted from installing any program.

The Local Security Policy editor allows network administrators to review and edit policies for a wide range of security permissions for your Windows machine. Rules defined here control who can install programs and the locations from which installers and programs can be run.

To check group policies, navigate to Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker.

Checking Registry Settings

Ensure that the User Shell Folders in your machine's Windows registry are set to use %USERPROFILE% instead of a network location. The end user may not have access to the network location.

To change the user shell folders setting:

Using Regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/User Shell Folders.
Change \\Network\Location\folder\Desktop to %USERPROFILE%\Desktop.

Other Data locations set to a network may cause application installation problems, particularly if the Personal key and Appdata key are on a network location. These should also use %USERPROFILE%.

The protocol handler setting is also stored in the registry.

To check the protocol handler setting in the registry key:

Using Regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\sigclient\shell\open\command.
Verify that the default value is "%APPDATA%\Signiant\SigniantApp.exe" %1.

Disabling a Proxy

If you have a proxy enabled in the Internet Properties on your machine, disable it and run the installer again.

Note: It may only be possible to disable a proxy if it is not required for a firewall.

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

Enabling Debug Logs for Signiant App Installation

If the Signiant App will not install with the EXE, you can download the MSI version of the installer and capture detailed installation logs.

To capture installation logs:

Download the Windows MSI Installer.
In your terminal, run msiexec /package SigniantApp_Installer.msi /l*v install.log.

Troubleshooting Signiant App Transfers

Before proceeding with troubleshooting, ensure that the portal is 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.

Checking Network Connections

If an end user's network is disconnected or frozen, you or the 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 frozen SigniantClient.exe and SigniantUser.exe processes in the Task Manager.
Refresh the browser.

Verifying that a Local Port is Available for Communication

A grey task bar icon indicates that the Signiant App is properly installed but unable to connect to its components. This may occur if installed software uses the same local port as the Signiant App for communication.

To change the local port number:

In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\.
In the AppData folder, open Roaming > Signiant.
In a text editor, open the SigniantClient.json file.
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 | findstr <port_number> command.

Addressing Failure to Initialize Messaging Service

This 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 failure may also be indicated by a grey taskbar icon or a spinning Signiant icon during a portal upload or download.

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. Older log files have names appended with a number, e.g. SigniantClient.log.1.

If your machine has redefined the IP address for localhost, change the loopback address so that localhost routes to its default IP address (127.0.0.1). Admin privileges are required to modify Windows system files.

To change the loopback address:

In the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file, change 0.0.0.0 localhost to 127.0.0.1 localhost.
Stop the SigniantClient.exe and SigniantUser.exe processes on the Processes tab in the Task Manager.
Refresh your Media Shuttle portal.

Collecting Details on a Failed Transfer

If the required ports allow traffic 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. To open the Developer Console, press the F12 key on your keyboard and select the Console tab to view the Javascript code.

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

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.

Note: In Internet Explorer, reload the page again to see log messages from a page load.

File Picker Does Not Appear

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. Alternatively, click Alt-Tab to toggle through the open applications and look for the one titled FileSelectDialog.