Workaround for WhatsApp Web no longer working correctly

[neumond]

Hello,

first sorry for bad English

Update June 3 2016:

Important - This workaround only works with WhatApp versions up to 2.16.57 - not with the current version from Google Play Center! Here you can download older versions for Android as .apk. I have installed WhatsApp 2.16.53 on my smartphone. It seems every third day comes a minor update...

Since about a few days WhatsApp Web (https://web.whatsapp.com) invites no more photos and videos in the newest Pale Moon. This is probably connected with an update of the smartphone app. In Firefox 45 ESR the site works properly, but in an older version of Firefox 31 ESR it doesn't.

For home PC WhatsApp Web is a practical matter in my opinion. However, the support is recommended to install either the current Firefox, Chrome or Opera. Had fine if one could adjust Pale Moon.

I had to play on holidays a backup image to my hard drive. At the first start of Pale Moon suddenly WhatsApp Web works correct, but unfortunately only once. Now the searching went off, which finally led me to the offline cache. Here's a workaround that works with a batch file and a VBScript. But it takes the old offline cache files, which I provide here to download. At first glance it looks complicated, but it is not.

The batch file:

Code: Select all

@echo off
cd C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Moonchild Productions\Pale Moon\Profiles\profilname.default

xcopy /s /y OfflineCache2 OfflineCache

cd \program files\Pale Moon

palemoon.exe

Copy the above lines and paste it into an editor, save it under palemoon.bat. Place the file for example into C:\Users\Admin\Documents. But important: Each profile has its own name that consists of lowercase letters and numbers. You can find the folder under C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Moonchild Productions\Pale Moon\Profiles\profilname.default. The "profilename" string replace in the batch file by your own special combination - for example: az4f5egb.

Now the VBScript - it only serves to hide a pop up CMD window:

Code: Select all

WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" ).Run "palemoon.bat",0,0

Also copy and paste this line into your editor, save it as palemoon.vbs. Put the file also in C:\Users\Admin\Documents. Make a shortcut from it on the desktop, this is now the executing file for Pale Moon. The script icon you can simply replace by the Pale Moon icon in the Palemoon.exe (right click on it -> Properties -> Change Icon).

Now jump into the folder C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Moonchild Productions\Pale Moon\Profiles\profilname.default and copy the following, unzipped folder in there:

OfflineCache2.zip

(1.06 MiB) Downloaded 68 times

In the same directory delete all the sub directories from the folder "OfflineCache", but don't delete the directory itself. Don't worry, there's nothing broken.

If Pale Moon starts now, the offline cache files are automatically overwritten. Log in on the WhatsApp Web site as usual by scanning the QR code, all pictures and videos from the various chats are back. In some cases you must restart Pale Moon to take effect.

I wish you success!

[leomate]

Thank you so much, it works!
Confirmed after second restart of browser

I think this bug can be fixed

Yeah, whatsapp web is really useful and so practical in my favourite browser

[rianna]

Worked for me too, thanks!
Discover all Brett Eldredge tour dates 2016 and find the date which fir your working schedule!

[leomate]

Only think that doesn't work is uploading documents from whatsapp web with this cache. Still no big problem

[Moonchild]

Made this a sticky since this workaround seems to work well for people.

[back2themoon]

Off-topic:
For the life of me, I can't understand what's the usefulness of WhatsApp Web (and the new PC version they recently relased, it seems) when in order for it to work, it requires an active smartphone right next to your desktop PC.

[half-moon]

Off-topic:
For the life of me, I can't understand what's the usefulness of WhatsApp Web (and the new PC version they recently relased, it seems) when in order for it to work, it requires an active smartphone right next to your desktop PC.

Off-topic:
Agreed, I don't own a smartphone, and I'm not sure if I ever will.

[dark_moon]

Off-topic:
For the life of me, I can't understand what's the usefulness of WhatsApp Web (and the new PC version they recently relased, it seems) when in order for it to work, it requires an active smartphone right next to your desktop PC.

Off-topic:
Agreed, I don't own a smartphone, and I'm not sure if I ever will.

Off-topic:
Agree. Thats why i love Telegram.
You doesn't need a smartphone to use that. Only a mobile phone number is required.
With that you can talk to other guys from your pc to other guys on their smartphone.

[neumond]

Off-topic:
Here in Germany WhatsApp is unfortunately very widespread. The best solution would, of course, a standalone version of the PC to which does not need a smartphone. But I guess that WhatsApp has no interest in such a solution.

[dr_st]

I'm trying to understand something, as this workaround did not seem to work for me so far.

My issue is that the images on WhatsApp Web (both old and newly sent) seemingly try to load, but never finish loading. The circle spins forever, and never stops, and the image stays blurry. Is it the same issue, or a different one?

It's a great discovery, and it's very nice that it works for some, but for practical purposes, the idea of restoring some obscure random copy of old offline cache everytime one starts the browser seems to be a bad idea, which is bound to backfire / block something else sooner or later. Wouldn't it be better to try to understand what's actually wrong with the WhatsApp - Pale Moon interoperability and get it fixed?

I understand that the developers do not use WhatsApp so it cannot be tested directly. What information can I collect / provide to help debug this issue?

Off-topic:
WhatsApp Web is useful if you want to type a lot of information. It's much easier to type on a normal keyboard than on a crappy cellphone touchscreen. At the same time it is a convenient way of transmitting images / light documents and having them always stored on your phone. Of course it's the popularity of WhatsApp itself, where it exists, that makes it useful, otherwise you would just use Google talk / Skype / whatever is more popular in your circle of interaction.

[neumond]

I'm trying to understand something, as this workaround did not seem to work for me so far.
My issue is that the images on WhatsApp Web (both old and newly sent) seemingly try to load, but never finish loading. The circle spins forever, and never stops, and the image stays blurry. Is it the same issue, or a different one?

Well, it is the same issue. Please check to be sure that all paths in the batch file are correct, especially the profile name. Then please start the batch file to control without the VBScript, so you'll see errors in the CMD window.

Of course, the workaround is just a crutch. It would be better to eliminate the issue in Pale Moon.

[half-moon]

The "issue" is mainly that Pale Moon doesn't include WebRTC, which is actually good thing that they avoid it. WebRTC is a security risk, and Pale Moon is more focused on being secure. If I'm wrong on the cause of incompatibility, I'm sorry then.

[dr_st]

Well, it is the same issue. Please check to be sure that all paths in the batch file are correct, especially the profile name. Then please start the batch file to control without the VBScript, so you'll see errors in the CMD window.

I didn't use the batch files at all, I copied the folder over manually.

Does the workaround actually allow you to send and receive new images as well, or just see what was already there (and may have been cached prior to the change that broke WhatsApp in Pale Moon)?

The "issue" is mainly that Pale Moon doesn't include WebRTC, which is actually good thing that they avoid it. WebRTC is a security risk, and Pale Moon is more focused on being secure. If I'm wrong on the cause of incompatibility, I'm sorry then.

You may be right, but how did you deduce it? Is it documented somewhere that WhatsApp started using WebRTC for sending/receiving attachments in the latest update?

The behavior I noticed is that I can actually send images just fine from WhatsApp Web. The uploaded image is shown clearly in the chat, and the other party receives it just fine. However, as soon as I close the chat window, and re-open it, WhatsApp Web tries to reload the image, and at that point it fails and never completes.

[half-moon]

You may be right, but how did you deduce it? Is it documented somewhere that WhatsApp started using WebRTC for sending/receiving attachments in the latest update?

The behavior I noticed is that I can actually send images just fine from WhatsApp Web. The uploaded image is shown clearly in the chat, and the other party receives it just fine. However, as soon as I close the chat window, and re-open it, WhatsApp Web tries to reload the image, and at that point it fails and never completes.

I didn't really deduce that, I just thought I saw that someplace else before. Like I said before, I could be wrong on if WA uses WebRTC.

[neumond]

Does the workaround actually allow you to send and receive new images as well, or just see what was already there (and may have been cached prior to the change that broke WhatsApp in Pale Moon)?

Yes, you can send and receive pictures or videos as usual. However, if you close the WhatsApp tab in the current session, you must restart Pale Moon, the offline cache must be overwritten again. I leave so the WhatsApp tab open in the event that still come new messages.

[leomate]

The "issue" is mainly that Pale Moon doesn't include WebRTC, which is actually good thing that they avoid it. WebRTC is a security risk, and Pale Moon is more focused on being secure. If I'm wrong on the cause of incompatibility, I'm sorry then.

About WebRTC i just thinking about safari in Mac OSX still can receive image correctly even without WebRTC support. So i take the safari user agent to apply in web.whatsapp.com ua override in about:config

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Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_4) AppleWebKit/601.5.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.1 Safari/601.5.17

But i think WebRTC isn't problem as WebRTC only needed for voice record and take a pictures

[neumond]

I'm trying to understand something, as this workaround did not seem to work for me so far.

Which WhatsApp version do you use? The cache trick works unfortunately only up to version 2.16.57. The current version of the Play Store does not work anymore. You can download an older version, but please not under 2.16.53 (not tested from me). Here's the link:

https://whatsapp-messenger.de.uptodown.com/android/old

Hint for all: If you have a working WhatsApp version in Pale Moon, disable the automatic update in Google Play Store for WhatsApp immediately! If you make a downgrade with an older WhatsApp version as .apk, you'll annoyed with an upgrade popup on every start in smartphone.

[dr_st]

Which WhatsApp version do you use? The cache trick works unfortunately only up to version 2.16.57.

I use 2.16.95. So this explains it.

In any case, as I said before, it's nice to have a workaround, even such a weird one, but it is not a viable long-term solution. It's better to try to figure out the issue and fix it.

WhatsApp support naturally won't do anything about it right now (yes, I asked), since they don't officially support Pale Moon. So we are on our own.

[elraro]

Where is the OfflineCache in linux?

i look in ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/myprofile.default and nothing

[Nigaikaze]

Where is the OfflineCache in linux?

i look in ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/myprofile.default and nothing

Try under ~/.cache/moonchild productions/pale moon/myprofile.default.