element-hq / element-hq/element-web

Answering a video call (from Android!) does not send an SDP answer when there is no camera

Open
#23,119 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
A-VoIP O-Occasional S-Critical T-Defect
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
13.5k
Forks
2.8k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

### Steps to reproduce

1. Start a video call from Element Android to a user using Element Web
2. Answer the call on Element Web

### Outcome

#### What did you expect?

* To see the caller's video feed
* *this is what happens when you initiate a call from Element Web*(!)

#### What happened instead?

* The call remains forever in the 'Connecting' state until it eventually times out (the caller gets a message saying the callee didn't answer)
* Firefox's `about:webrtc` shows that no Local SDP Answer is being sent
* Firefox's console is showing lots of activity. It appears to the naïve eye that Element is stuck in a loop trying to request permission to use the camera, but it's automatically failing.

### Operating system

Linux

### Application version

Element version: 1.11.2 Olm version: 3.2.12

### How did you install the app?

Ubuntu PPA

### Homeserver

librepush.net & other internal use homeserver

### Will you send logs?

Yes

N.B. The logs are from the desktop application reproducing the same effect, but my debugging (where I refer to Firefox) has been on a private internal homeserver

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the call in Firefox and inspect about:webrtc alongside the browser console, focusing on the missing Local SDP Answer and repeated camera-permission failures. The issue is done when a video call answered in Element Web completes connection and displays the caller's video even when the callee has no camera.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
audio-video-rtc, frontend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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