25
votes
Matrix.org homeserver experienced database problems on September 2nd, apps were unable to connect for ~24hrs
Link information
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- Title
- The Matrix.org Foundation (@matrix.org)
- Authors
- The Matrix.org Foundation (@matrix.org)
- Published
- Sep 2 2025
- Word count
- 96 words
Matrix is one of those platforms that I groan inwardly if a community moves its support / discussions there. I always have nothing but trouble. Apps and security keys not working, ending up with multiple keys, scanning QR codes hardly ever leads to success, and it's always so darn slow for me, when I can get it to work.
I basically gave up on Graphene OS support channels due to Matrix. Maybe that was their goal all along
It is my IM service of choice for a few reasons. I had a phone with true Linux at a time which limited my choice so I jumped in on Element (official Matrix client). Then I learned more about Matrix as the protocol/service behind it and liked the idea (open-source, you can run your own server, no big corporation leading it, no need to share your personal info if you don't want etc.). And I even liked that I can run it without phone number and also on computer.
That said, I have to acknowledge what you listed in your comment. There are problems with images between Android and iPhone users (which is probably due to different dev teams on different platforms causing incompatibility sometimes?), there is a need to store your main security key (or losing all your encrypted chat history), there are problems adding/authenticating new devices sometimes... And it is slow because it is encrypting everything including images and videos.
But once again, having said that - The encrypted stuff seems to be really encrypted by your personal key that is in your possession. If you lose it, then bye bye data. If I compare to ie. WhatsApp - if you nuke your phone and then install WA again, it somehow manages to decode all your chats without you doing anything else then authenticating your phone number - this raises question in my mind "Where did it get the encryption key if I nuked the phone?"
Well, at least everyone can choose what they want and don't want to use :-) I'm long time Linux user on desktop, so I'm used to dealing with various stuff, so Matrix/Element doesn't bother me that much. But this outage truly is something!
I moved a small group chat (3 people) to matrix like..... 4 or 5 years ago. We definitely had problems like what you describe at first, but for the last few years my experience has been rock solid.
That said, I did move to my own homeserver, and I could imagine many of those issues could be related to load (of which my server has nearly 0)
We use it with friends as a voice chat when we play multiplayer coop games.
We use Vector.im/Matrix.org official server. I could run my own Matrix server but I rather not (add another thing to aet up and supervise).
I haven't touched their voice chat whatsoever; Discord has a stranglehold on that for my friend group. It's been a good experience for you?
Well, I don't use Discord and we had troubles with Steam voice chat (laggy), so I brought Element (which we already used for text) to the table and we tried that and it worked fine. I just launched a conference call (it is in fact videoconference, but since we don't have/use webcams, it is audio only - you can disable video if you have webcam) in the chat room and everyone just joins in once they are ready to play. As it is just another app like WhatsApp, Viber (or likely Signal and maybe Telegram?), it has voice calls, video calls, conference calls, chat rooms and all that stuff.
The great thing is that you can run Element on your desktop PC either as standalone client or in a browser, so you can have the voice chat running right on the PC, not on your phone (which would suck when playing games).
It may not suit you if you are used on something else.
Matrix.org database server got a database incident that drives the service unoperable. This happened yesterday and since is awaiting resolution. People hosting their own Matrix servers are unaffected.
Just as info for anyone wondering or maybe not even knowing.
Matrix is once again up and running.
If you feel like it, could you @cfabbro or @mycketforvirrad update the title? The outage lasted around 24 hours.
Sure. Updated. Let me know if the new title is acceptable.
Not that it matters at this point, but it might be worthwhile to clarify that the matrix .org homeserver experienced problems. The underlying protocol was totally unaffected. I run my own homeserver and had 0 downtime as a result of this.
Updated title.
Perfect. Thank you!