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Upgrading Synapse

Before upgrading check if any special steps are required to upgrade from the version you currently have installed to the current version of Synapse. The extra instructions that may be required are listed later in this document.

  • Check that your versions of Python and PostgreSQL are still supported.

    Synapse follows upstream lifecycles for Python and PostgreSQL, and removes support for versions which are no longer maintained.

    The website https://endoflife.date also offers convenient summaries.

  • If Synapse was installed using prebuilt packages, you will need to follow the normal process for upgrading those packages.

  • If Synapse was installed from source, then:

    1. Activate the virtualenv before upgrading. For example, if Synapse is installed in a virtualenv in ~/synapse/env then run:

      source ~/synapse/env/bin/activate

    2. If Synapse was installed using pip then upgrade to the latest version by running:

      pip install --upgrade matrix-synapse

      If Synapse was installed using git then upgrade to the latest version by running:

      git pull
pip install --upgrade .

    3. Restart Synapse:

      ./synctl restart

To check whether your update was successful, you can check the running server version with:

# you may need to replace 'localhost:8008' if synapse is not configured
# to listen on port 8008.

curl http://localhost:8008/_synapse/admin/v1/server_version

Rolling back to older versions

Rolling back to previous releases can be difficult, due to database schema changes between releases. Where we have been able to test the rollback process, this will be noted below.

In general, you will need to undo any changes made during the upgrade process, for example:

  • pip:

    source env/bin/activate
# replace `1.3.0` accordingly:
pip install matrix-synapse==1.3.0

  • Debian:

    # replace `1.3.0` and `stretch` accordingly:
wget https://packages.matrix.org/debian/pool/main/m/matrix-synapse-py3/matrix-synapse-py3_1.3.0+stretch1_amd64.deb
dpkg -i matrix-synapse-py3_1.3.0+stretch1_amd64.deb

Upgrading to v1.47.0

Deprecation of the user_may_create_room_with_invites module callback

The user_may_create_room_with_invites is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Synapse. Modules implementing this callback can instead implement user_may_invite and use the get_room_state module API method to infer whether the invite is happening in the context of creating a room.

We plan to remove this callback in January 2022.

Upgrading to v1.45.0

Changes required to media storage provider modules when reading from the Synapse configuration object

Media storage provider modules that read from the Synapse configuration object (i.e. that read the value of hs.config.[...]) now need to specify the configuration section they're reading from. This means that if a module reads the value of e.g. hs.config.media_store_path, it needs to replace it with hs.config.media.media_store_path.

Upgrading to v1.44.0

The URL preview cache is no longer mirrored to storage providers

The url_cache/ and url_cache_thumbnails/ directories in the media store are no longer mirrored to storage providers. These two directories can be safely deleted from any configured storage providers to reclaim space.

Upgrading to v1.43.0

The spaces summary APIs can now be handled by workers

The available worker applications documentation has been updated to reflect that calls to the /spaces, /hierarchy, and /summary endpoints can now be routed to workers for both client API and federation requests.

Upgrading to v1.42.0

Removal of old Room Admin API

The following admin APIs were deprecated in Synapse 1.25 (released on 2021-01-13) and have now been removed:

  • POST /_synapse/admin/v1/purge_room
  • POST /_synapse/admin/v1/shutdown_room/<room_id>

Any scripts still using the above APIs should be converted to use the Delete Room API.

User-interactive authentication fallback templates can now display errors

This may affect you if you make use of custom HTML templates for the reCAPTCHA or terms fallback pages.

The template is now provided an error variable if the authentication process failed. See the default templates linked above for an example.

Removal of out-of-date email pushers

Users will stop receiving message updates via email for addresses that were once, but not still, linked to their account.

Upgrading to v1.41.0

Add support for routing outbound HTTP requests via a proxy for federation

Since Synapse 1.6.0 (2019-11-26) you can set a proxy for outbound HTTP requests via http_proxy/https_proxy environment variables. This proxy was set for:

  • push
  • url previews
  • phone-home stats
  • recaptcha validation
  • CAS auth validation
  • OpenID Connect
  • Federation (checking public key revocation)

In this version we have added support for outbound requests for:

  • Outbound federation
  • Downloading remote media
  • Fetching public keys of other servers

These requests use the same proxy configuration. If you have a proxy configuration we recommend to verify the configuration. It may be necessary to adjust the no_proxy environment variable.

See using a forward proxy with Synapse documentation for details.

Deprecation of template_dir

The template_dir settings in the sso, account_validity and email sections of the configuration file are now deprecated. Server admins should use the new templates.custom_template_directory setting in the configuration file and use one single custom template directory for all aforementioned features. Template file names remain unchanged. See the related documentation for more information and examples.

We plan to remove support for these settings in October 2021.

/_synapse/admin/v1/users/{userId}/media must be handled by media workers

The media repository worker documentation has been updated to reflect that calls to /_synapse/admin/v1/users/{userId}/media must now be handled by media repository workers. This is due to the new DELETE method of this endpoint modifying the media store.

Upgrading to v1.39.0

Deprecation of the current third-party rules module interface

The current third-party rules module interface is deprecated in favour of the new generic modules system introduced in Synapse v1.37.0. Authors of third-party rules modules can refer to this documentation to update their modules. Synapse administrators can refer to this documentation to update their configuration once the modules they are using have been updated.

We plan to remove support for the current third-party rules interface in September 2021.

Upgrading to v1.38.0

Re-indexing of events table on Postgres databases

This release includes a database schema update which requires re-indexing one of the larger tables in the database, events. This could result in increased disk I/O for several hours or days after upgrading while the migration completes. Furthermore, because we have to keep the old indexes until the new indexes are ready, it could result in a significant, temporary, increase in disk space.

To get a rough idea of the disk space required, check the current size of one of the indexes. For example, from a psql shell, run the following sql:

SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_relation_size('events_order_room'));

We need to rebuild four indexes, so you will need to multiply this result by four to give an estimate of the disk space required. For example, on one particular server:

synapse=# select pg_size_pretty(pg_relation_size('events_order_room'));
 pg_size_pretty
----------------
 288 MB
(1 row)

On this server, it would be wise to ensure that at least 1152MB are free.

The additional disk space will be freed once the migration completes.

SQLite databases are unaffected by this change.

Upgrading to v1.37.0

Deprecation of the current spam checker interface

The current spam checker interface is deprecated in favour of a new generic modules system. Authors of spam checker modules can refer to [this documentation](modules/porting_legacy_module.md to update their modules. Synapse administrators can refer to this documentation to update their configuration once the modules they are using have been updated.

We plan to remove support for the current spam checker interface in August 2021.

More module interfaces will be ported over to this new generic system in future versions of Synapse.

Upgrading to v1.34.0

room_invite_state_types configuration setting

The room_invite_state_types configuration setting has been deprecated and replaced with room_prejoin_state. See the sample configuration file.

If you have set room_invite_state_types to the default value you should simply remove it from your configuration file. The default value used to be:

room_invite_state_types:
   - "m.room.join_rules"
   - "m.room.canonical_alias"
   - "m.room.avatar"
   - "m.room.encryption"
   - "m.room.name"

If you have customised this value, you should remove room_invite_state_types and configure room_prejoin_state instead.

Upgrading to v1.33.0

Account Validity HTML templates can now display a user's expiration date

This may affect you if you have enabled the account validity feature, and have made use of a custom HTML template specified by the account_validity.template_dir or account_validity.account_renewed_html_path Synapse config options.

The template can now accept an expiration_ts variable, which represents the unix timestamp in milliseconds for the future date of which their account has been renewed until. See the default template for an example of usage.

ALso note that a new HTML template, account_previously_renewed.html, has been added. This is is shown to users when they attempt to renew their account with a valid renewal token that has already been used before. The default template contents can been found here, and can also accept an expiration_ts variable. This template replaces the error message users would previously see upon attempting to use a valid renewal token more than once.

Upgrading to v1.32.0

Regression causing connected Prometheus instances to become overwhelmed

This release introduces a regression that can overwhelm connected Prometheus instances. This issue is not present in Synapse v1.32.0rc1.

If you have been affected, please downgrade to 1.31.0. You then may need to remove excess writeahead logs in order for Prometheus to recover. Instructions for doing so are provided here.

Dropping support for old Python, Postgres and SQLite versions

In line with our deprecation policy, we've dropped support for Python 3.5 and PostgreSQL 9.5, as they are no longer supported upstream.

This release of Synapse requires Python 3.6+ and PostgresSQL 9.6+ or SQLite 3.22+.

Removal of old List Accounts Admin API

The deprecated v1 "list accounts" admin API (GET /_synapse/admin/v1/users/<user_id>) has been removed in this version.

The v2 list accounts API has been available since Synapse 1.7.0 (2019-12-13), and is accessible under GET /_synapse/admin/v2/users.

The deprecation of the old endpoint was announced with Synapse 1.28.0 (released on 2021-02-25).

Application Services must use type m.login.application_service when registering users

In compliance with the Application Service spec, Application Services are now required to use the m.login.application_service type when registering users via the /_matrix/client/r0/register endpoint. This behaviour was deprecated in Synapse v1.30.0.

Please ensure your Application Services are up to date.

Upgrading to v1.29.0

Requirement for X-Forwarded-Proto header

When using Synapse with a reverse proxy (in particular, when using the x_forwarded option on an HTTP listener), Synapse now expects to receive an X-Forwarded-Proto header on incoming HTTP requests. If it is not set, Synapse will log a warning on each received request.

To avoid the warning, administrators using a reverse proxy should ensure that the reverse proxy sets X-Forwarded-Proto header to https or http to indicate the protocol used by the client.

Synapse also requires the Host header to be preserved.

See the reverse proxy documentation, where the example configurations have been updated to show how to set these headers.

(Users of Caddy are unaffected, since we believe it sets X-Forwarded-Proto by default.)

Upgrading to v1.27.0

Changes to callback URI for OAuth2 / OpenID Connect and SAML2

This version changes the URI used for callbacks from OAuth2 and SAML2 identity providers:

  • If your server is configured for single sign-on via an OpenID Connect or OAuth2 identity provider, you will need to add [synapse public baseurl]/_synapse/client/oidc/callback to the list of permitted "redirect URIs" at the identity provider.

    See the OpenID docs for more information on setting up OpenID Connect.

  • If your server is configured for single sign-on via a SAML2 identity provider, you will need to add [synapse public baseurl]/_synapse/client/saml2/authn_response as a permitted "ACS location" (also known as "allowed callback URLs") at the identity provider.

    The "Issuer" in the "AuthnRequest" to the SAML2 identity provider is also updated to [synapse public baseurl]/_synapse/client/saml2/metadata.xml. If your SAML2 identity provider uses this property to validate or otherwise identify Synapse, its configuration will need to be updated to use the new URL. Alternatively you could create a new, separate "EntityDescriptor" in your SAML2 identity provider with the new URLs and leave the URLs in the existing "EntityDescriptor" as they were.

Changes to HTML templates

The HTML templates for SSO and email notifications now have Jinja2's autoescape enabled for files ending in .html, .htm, and .xml. If you have customised these templates and see issues when viewing them you might need to update them. It is expected that most configurations will need no changes.

If you have customised the templates names for these templates, it is recommended to verify they end in .html to ensure autoescape is enabled.

The above applies to the following templates:

  • add_threepid.html
  • add_threepid_failure.html
  • add_threepid_success.html
  • notice_expiry.html
  • notice_expiry.html
  • notif_mail.html (which, by default, includes room.html and notif.html)
  • password_reset.html
  • password_reset_confirmation.html
  • password_reset_failure.html
  • password_reset_success.html
  • registration.html
  • registration_failure.html
  • registration_success.html
  • sso_account_deactivated.html
  • sso_auth_bad_user.html
  • sso_auth_confirm.html
  • sso_auth_success.html
  • sso_error.html
  • sso_login_idp_picker.html
  • sso_redirect_confirm.html

Upgrading to v1.26.0

Rolling back to v1.25.0 after a failed upgrade

v1.26.0 includes a lot of large changes. If something problematic occurs, you may want to roll-back to a previous version of Synapse. Because v1.26.0 also includes a new database schema version, reverting that version is also required alongside the generic rollback instructions mentioned above. In short, to roll back to v1.25.0 you need to:

  1. Stop the server

  2. Decrease the schema version in the database:

    UPDATE schema_version SET version = 58;

  3. Delete the ignored users & chain cover data:

    DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ignored_users;
UPDATE rooms SET has_auth_chain_index = false;

    For PostgreSQL run:

    TRUNCATE event_auth_chain_links;
TRUNCATE event_auth_chains;

    For SQLite run:

    DELETE FROM event_auth_chain_links;
DELETE FROM event_auth_chains;

  4. Mark the deltas as not run (so they will re-run on upgrade).

    DELETE FROM applied_schema_deltas WHERE version = 59 AND file = "59/01ignored_user.py";
DELETE FROM applied_schema_deltas WHERE version = 59 AND file = "59/06chain_cover_index.sql";

  5. Downgrade Synapse by following the instructions for your installation method in the "Rolling back to older versions" section above.

Upgrading to v1.25.0

Last release supporting Python 3.5

This is the last release of Synapse which guarantees support with Python 3.5, which passed its upstream End of Life date several months ago.

We will attempt to maintain support through March 2021, but without guarantees.

In the future, Synapse will follow upstream schedules for ending support of older versions of Python and PostgreSQL. Please upgrade to at least Python 3.6 and PostgreSQL 9.6 as soon as possible.

Blacklisting IP ranges

Synapse v1.25.0 includes new settings, ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist, for controlling outgoing requests from Synapse for federation, identity servers, push, and for checking key validity for third-party invite events. The previous setting, federation_ip_range_blacklist, is deprecated. The new ip_range_blacklist defaults to private IP ranges if it is not defined.

If you have never customised federation_ip_range_blacklist it is recommended that you remove that setting.

If you have customised federation_ip_range_blacklist you should update the setting name to ip_range_blacklist.

If you have a custom push server that is reached via private IP space you may need to customise ip_range_blacklist or ip_range_whitelist.

Upgrading to v1.24.0

Custom OpenID Connect mapping provider breaking change

This release allows the OpenID Connect mapping provider to perform normalisation of the localpart of the Matrix ID. This allows for the mapping provider to specify different algorithms, instead of the default way.

If your Synapse configuration uses a custom mapping provider (oidc_config.user_mapping_provider.module is specified and not equal to synapse.handlers.oidc_handler.JinjaOidcMappingProvider) then you must ensure that map_user_attributes of the mapping provider performs some normalisation of the localpart returned. To match previous behaviour you can use the map_username_to_mxid_localpart function provided by Synapse. An example is shown below:

from synapse.types import map_username_to_mxid_localpart

class MyMappingProvider:
    def map_user_attributes(self, userinfo, token):
        # ... your custom logic ...
        sso_user_id = ...
        localpart = map_username_to_mxid_localpart(sso_user_id)

        return {"localpart": localpart}

Removal historical Synapse Admin API

Historically, the Synapse Admin API has been accessible under:

  • /_matrix/client/api/v1/admin
  • /_matrix/client/unstable/admin
  • /_matrix/client/r0/admin
  • /_synapse/admin/v1

The endpoints with /_matrix/client/* prefixes have been removed as of v1.24.0. The Admin API is now only accessible under:

  • /_synapse/admin/v1

The only exception is the /admin/whois endpoint, which is also available via the client-server API.

The deprecation of the old endpoints was announced with Synapse 1.20.0 (released on 2020-09-22) and makes it easier for homeserver admins to lock down external access to the Admin API endpoints.

Upgrading to v1.23.0

Structured logging configuration breaking changes

This release deprecates use of the structured: true logging configuration for structured logging. If your logging configuration contains structured: true then it should be modified based on the structured logging documentation.

The structured and drains logging options are now deprecated and should be replaced by standard logging configuration of handlers and formatters.

A future will release of Synapse will make using structured: true an error.

Upgrading to v1.22.0

ThirdPartyEventRules breaking changes

This release introduces a backwards-incompatible change to modules making use of ThirdPartyEventRules in Synapse. If you make use of a module defined under the third_party_event_rules config option, please make sure it is updated to handle the below change:

The http_client argument is no longer passed to modules as they are initialised. Instead, modules are expected to make use of the http_client property on the ModuleApi class. Modules are now passed a module_api argument during initialisation, which is an instance of ModuleApi. ModuleApi instances have a http_client property which acts the same as the http_client argument previously passed to ThirdPartyEventRules modules.

Upgrading to v1.21.0

Forwarding /_synapse/client through your reverse proxy

The reverse proxy documentation has been updated to include reverse proxy directives for /_synapse/client/* endpoints. As the user password reset flow now uses endpoints under this prefix, you must update your reverse proxy configurations for user password reset to work.

Additionally, note that the Synapse worker documentation has been updated to

state that the /_synapse/client/password_reset/email/submit_token endpoint can be handled

by all workers. If you make use of Synapse's worker feature, please update your reverse proxy configuration to reflect this change.

New HTML templates

A new HTML template, password_reset_confirmation.html, has been added to the synapse/res/templates directory. If you are using a custom template directory, you may want to copy the template over and modify it.

Note that as of v1.20.0, templates do not need to be included in custom template directories for Synapse to start. The default templates will be used if a custom template cannot be found.

This page will appear to the user after clicking a password reset link that has been emailed to them.

To complete password reset, the page must include a way to make a POST request to /_synapse/client/password_reset/{medium}/submit_token with the query parameters from the original link, presented as a URL-encoded form. See the file itself for more details.

Updated Single Sign-on HTML Templates

The saml_error.html template was removed from Synapse and replaced with the sso_error.html template. If your Synapse is configured to use SAML and a custom sso_redirect_confirm_template_dir configuration then any customisations of the saml_error.html template will need to be merged into the sso_error.html template. These templates are similar, but the parameters are slightly different:

  • The msg parameter should be renamed to error_description.
  • There is no longer a code parameter for the response code.
  • A string error parameter is available that includes a short hint of why a user is seeing the error page.

Upgrading to v1.18.0

Docker -py3 suffix will be removed in future versions

From 10th August 2020, we will no longer publish Docker images with the -py3 tag suffix. The images tagged with the -py3 suffix have been identical to the non-suffixed tags since release 0.99.0, and the suffix is obsolete.

On 10th August, we will remove the latest-py3 tag. Existing per-release tags (such as v1.18.0-py3 will not be removed, but no new -py3 tags will be added.

Scripts relying on the -py3 suffix will need to be updated.

Redis replication is now recommended in lieu of TCP replication

When setting up worker processes, we now recommend the use of a Redis server for replication. The old direct TCP connection method is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. See workers for more details.

Upgrading to v1.14.0

This version includes a database update which is run as part of the upgrade, and which may take a couple of minutes in the case of a large server. Synapse will not respond to HTTP requests while this update is taking place.

Upgrading to v1.13.0

Incorrect database migration in old synapse versions

A bug was introduced in Synapse 1.4.0 which could cause the room directory to be incomplete or empty if Synapse was upgraded directly from v1.2.1 or earlier, to versions between v1.4.0 and v1.12.x.

This will not be a problem for Synapse installations which were:
  • created at v1.4.0 or later,
  • upgraded via v1.3.x, or
  • upgraded straight from v1.2.1 or earlier to v1.13.0 or later.

If completeness of the room directory is a concern, installations which are affected can be repaired as follows:

  1. Run the following sql from a psql or sqlite3 console:

    INSERT INTO background_updates (update_name, progress_json, depends_on) VALUES
   ('populate_stats_process_rooms', '{}', 'current_state_events_membership');

INSERT INTO background_updates (update_name, progress_json, depends_on) VALUES
   ('populate_stats_process_users', '{}', 'populate_stats_process_rooms');

  2. Restart synapse.

New Single Sign-on HTML Templates

New templates (sso_auth_confirm.html, sso_auth_success.html, and sso_account_deactivated.html) were added to Synapse. If your Synapse is configured to use SSO and a custom sso_redirect_confirm_template_dir configuration then these templates will need to be copied from synapse/res/templates into that directory.

Synapse SSO Plugins Method Deprecation

Plugins using the complete_sso_login method of synapse.module_api.ModuleApi should update to using the async/await version complete_sso_login_async which includes additional checks. The non-async version is considered deprecated.

Rolling back to v1.12.4 after a failed upgrade

v1.13.0 includes a lot of large changes. If something problematic occurs, you may want to roll-back to a previous version of Synapse. Because v1.13.0 also includes a new database schema version, reverting that version is also required alongside the generic rollback instructions mentioned above. In short, to roll back to v1.12.4 you need to:

  1. Stop the server

  2. Decrease the schema version in the database:

    UPDATE schema_version SET version = 57;

  3. Downgrade Synapse by following the instructions for your installation method in the "Rolling back to older versions" section above.

Upgrading to v1.12.0

This version includes a database update which is run as part of the upgrade, and which may take some time (several hours in the case of a large server). Synapse will not respond to HTTP requests while this update is taking place.

This is only likely to be a problem in the case of a server which is participating in many rooms.

  1. As with all upgrades, it is recommended that you have a recent backup of your database which can be used for recovery in the event of any problems.

  2. As an initial check to see if you will be affected, you can try running the following query from the psql or sqlite3 console. It is safe to run it while Synapse is still running.

    SELECT MAX(q.v) FROM (
  SELECT (
    SELECT ej.json AS v
    FROM state_events se INNER JOIN event_json ej USING (event_id)
    WHERE se.room_id=rooms.room_id AND se.type='m.room.create' AND se.state_key=''
    LIMIT 1
  ) FROM rooms WHERE rooms.room_version IS NULL
) q;

    This query will take about the same amount of time as the upgrade process: ie, if it takes 5 minutes, then it is likely that Synapse will be unresponsive for 5 minutes during the upgrade.

    If you consider an outage of this duration to be acceptable, no further action is necessary and you can simply start Synapse 1.12.0.

    If you would prefer to reduce the downtime, continue with the steps below.

  3. The easiest workaround for this issue is to manually create a new index before upgrading. On PostgreSQL, his can be done as follows:

    CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY tmp_upgrade_1_12_0_index
ON state_events(room_id) WHERE type = 'm.room.create';

    The above query may take some time, but is also safe to run while Synapse is running.

    We assume that no SQLite users have databases large enough to be affected. If you are affected, you can run a similar query, omitting the CONCURRENTLY keyword. Note however that this operation may in itself cause Synapse to stop running for some time. Synapse admins are reminded that SQLite is not recommended for use outside a test environment.

  4. Once the index has been created, the SELECT query in step 1 above should complete quickly. It is therefore safe to upgrade to Synapse 1.12.0.

  5. Once Synapse 1.12.0 has successfully started and is responding to HTTP requests, the temporary index can be removed:

    DROP INDEX tmp_upgrade_1_12_0_index;

Upgrading to v1.10.0

Synapse will now log a warning on start up if used with a PostgreSQL database that has a non-recommended locale set.

See Postgres for details.

Upgrading to v1.8.0

Specifying a log_file config option will now cause Synapse to refuse to start, and should be replaced by with the log_config option. Support for the log_file option was removed in v1.3.0 and has since had no effect.

Upgrading to v1.7.0

In an attempt to configure Synapse in a privacy preserving way, the default behaviours of allow_public_rooms_without_auth and allow_public_rooms_over_federation have been inverted. This means that by default, only authenticated users querying the Client/Server API will be able to query the room directory, and relatedly that the server will not share room directory information with other servers over federation.

If your installation does not explicitly set these settings one way or the other and you want either setting to be true then it will necessary to update your homeserver configuration file accordingly.

For more details on the surrounding context see our explainer.

Upgrading to v1.5.0

This release includes a database migration which may take several minutes to complete if there are a large number (more than a million or so) of entries in the devices table. This is only likely to a be a problem on very large installations.

Upgrading to v1.4.0

New custom templates

If you have configured a custom template directory with the email.template_dir option, be aware that there are new templates regarding registration and threepid management (see below) that must be included.

  • registration.html and registration.txt
  • registration_success.html and registration_failure.html
  • add_threepid.html and add_threepid.txt
  • add_threepid_failure.html and add_threepid_success.html

Synapse will expect these files to exist inside the configured template directory, and will fail to start if they are absent. To view the default templates, see synapse/res/templates.

3pid verification changes

Note: As of this release, users will be unable to add phone numbers or email addresses to their accounts, without changes to the Synapse configuration. This includes adding an email address during registration.

It is possible for a user to associate an email address or phone number with their account, for a number of reasons:

  • for use when logging in, as an alternative to the user id.
  • in the case of email, as an alternative contact to help with account recovery.
  • in the case of email, to receive notifications of missed messages.

Before an email address or phone number can be added to a user's account, or before such an address is used to carry out a password-reset, Synapse must confirm the operation with the owner of the email address or phone number. It does this by sending an email or text giving the user a link or token to confirm receipt. This process is known as '3pid verification'. ('3pid', or 'threepid', stands for third-party identifier, and we use it to refer to external identifiers such as email addresses and phone numbers.)

Previous versions of Synapse delegated the task of 3pid verification to an identity server by default. In most cases this server is vector.im or matrix.org.

In Synapse 1.4.0, for security and privacy reasons, the homeserver will no longer delegate this task to an identity server by default. Instead, the server administrator will need to explicitly decide how they would like the verification messages to be sent.

In the medium term, the vector.im and matrix.org identity servers will disable support for delegated 3pid verification entirely. However, in order to ease the transition, they will retain the capability for a limited period. Delegated email verification will be disabled on Monday 2nd December 2019 (giving roughly 2 months notice). Disabling delegated SMS verification will follow some time after that once SMS verification support lands in Synapse.

Once delegated 3pid verification support has been disabled in the vector.im and matrix.org identity servers, all Synapse versions that depend on those instances will be unable to verify email and phone numbers through them. There are no imminent plans to remove delegated 3pid verification from Sydent generally. (Sydent is the identity server project that backs the vector.im and matrix.org instances).

Email

Following upgrade, to continue verifying email (e.g. as part of the registration process), admins can either:-

  • Configure Synapse to use an email server.
  • Run or choose an identity server which allows delegated email verification and delegate to it.

Configure SMTP in Synapse

To configure an SMTP server for Synapse, modify the configuration section headed email, and be sure to have at least the smtp_host, smtp_port and notif_from fields filled out.

You may also need to set smtp_user, smtp_pass, and require_transport_security.

See the sample configuration file for more details on these settings.

Delegate email to an identity server

Some admins will wish to continue using email verification as part of the registration process, but will not immediately have an appropriate SMTP server at hand.

To this end, we will continue to support email verification delegation via the vector.im and matrix.org identity servers for two months. Support for delegated email verification will be disabled on Monday 2nd December.

The account_threepid_delegates dictionary defines whether the homeserver should delegate an external server (typically an identity server) to handle sending confirmation messages via email and SMS.

So to delegate email verification, in homeserver.yaml, set account_threepid_delegates.email to the base URL of an identity server. For example:

account_threepid_delegates:
    email: https://example.com     # Delegate email sending to example.com

Note that account_threepid_delegates.email replaces the deprecated email.trust_identity_server_for_password_resets: if email.trust_identity_server_for_password_resets is set to true, and account_threepid_delegates.email is not set, then the first entry in trusted_third_party_id_servers will be used as the account_threepid_delegate for email. This is to ensure compatibility with existing Synapse installs that set up external server handling for these tasks before v1.4.0. If email.trust_identity_server_for_password_resets is true and no trusted identity server domains are configured, Synapse will report an error and refuse to start.

If email.trust_identity_server_for_password_resets is false or absent and no email delegate is configured in account_threepid_delegates, then Synapse will send email verification messages itself, using the configured SMTP server (see above). that type.

Phone numbers

Synapse does not support phone-number verification itself, so the only way to maintain the ability for users to add phone numbers to their accounts will be by continuing to delegate phone number verification to the matrix.org and vector.im identity servers (or another identity server that supports SMS sending).

The account_threepid_delegates dictionary defines whether the homeserver should delegate an external server (typically an identity server) to handle sending confirmation messages via email and SMS.

So to delegate phone number verification, in homeserver.yaml, set account_threepid_delegates.msisdn to the base URL of an identity server. For example:

account_threepid_delegates:
    msisdn: https://example.com     # Delegate sms sending to example.com

The matrix.org and vector.im identity servers will continue to support delegated phone number verification via SMS until such time as it is possible for admins to configure their servers to perform phone number verification directly. More details will follow in a future release.

Rolling back to v1.3.1

If you encounter problems with v1.4.0, it should be possible to roll back to v1.3.1, subject to the following:

  • The 'room statistics' engine was heavily reworked in this release (see #5971), including significant changes to the database schema, which are not easily reverted. This will cause the room statistics engine to stop updating when you downgrade.

    The room statistics are essentially unused in v1.3.1 (in future versions of Synapse, they will be used to populate the room directory), so there should be no loss of functionality. However, the statistics engine will write errors to the logs, which can be avoided by setting the following in homeserver.yaml:

    stats:
  enabled: false

    Don't forget to re-enable it when you upgrade again, in preparation for its use in the room directory!

Upgrading to v1.2.0

Some counter metrics have been renamed, with the old names deprecated. See the metrics documentation for details.

Upgrading to v1.1.0

Synapse v1.1.0 removes support for older Python and PostgreSQL versions, as outlined in our deprecation notice.

Minimum Python Version

Synapse v1.1.0 has a minimum Python requirement of Python 3.5. Python 3.6 or Python 3.7 are recommended as they have improved internal string handling, significantly reducing memory usage.

If you use current versions of the Matrix.org-distributed Debian packages or Docker images, action is not required.

If you install Synapse in a Python virtual environment, please see "Upgrading to v0.34.0" for notes on setting up a new virtualenv under Python 3.

Minimum PostgreSQL Version

If using PostgreSQL under Synapse, you will need to use PostgreSQL 9.5 or above. Please see the PostgreSQL documentation for more details on upgrading your database.

Upgrading to v1.0

Validation of TLS certificates

Synapse v1.0 is the first release to enforce validation of TLS certificates for the federation API. It is therefore essential that your certificates are correctly configured. See the FAQ for more information.

Note, v1.0 installations will also no longer be able to federate with servers that have not correctly configured their certificates.

In rare cases, it may be desirable to disable certificate checking: for example, it might be essential to be able to federate with a given legacy server in a closed federation. This can be done in one of two ways:-

  • Configure the global switch federation_verify_certificates to false.
  • Configure a whitelist of server domains to trust via federation_certificate_verification_whitelist.

See the sample configuration file for more details on these settings.

Email

When a user requests a password reset, Synapse will send an email to the user to confirm the request.

Previous versions of Synapse delegated the job of sending this email to an identity server. If the identity server was somehow malicious or became compromised, it would be theoretically possible to hijack an account through this means.

Therefore, by default, Synapse v1.0 will send the confirmation email itself. If Synapse is not configured with an SMTP server, password reset via email will be disabled.

To configure an SMTP server for Synapse, modify the configuration section headed email, and be sure to have at least the smtp_host, smtp_port and notif_from fields filled out. You may also need to set smtp_user, smtp_pass, and require_transport_security.

If you are absolutely certain that you wish to continue using an identity server for password resets, set trust_identity_server_for_password_resets to true.

See the sample configuration file for more details on these settings.

New email templates

Some new templates have been added to the default template directory for the purpose of the homeserver sending its own password reset emails. If you have configured a custom template_dir in your Synapse config, these files will need to be added.

password_reset.html and password_reset.txt are HTML and plain text templates respectively that contain the contents of what will be emailed to the user upon attempting to reset their password via email. password_reset_success.html and password_reset_failure.html are HTML files that the content of which (assuming no redirect URL is set) will be shown to the user after they attempt to click the link in the email sent to them.

Upgrading to v0.99.0

Please be aware that, before Synapse v1.0 is released around March 2019, you will need to replace any self-signed certificates with those verified by a root CA. Information on how to do so can be found at the ACME docs.

For more information on configuring TLS certificates see the FAQ.

Upgrading to v0.34.0

  1. This release is the first to fully support Python 3. Synapse will now run on Python versions 3.5, or 3.6 (as well as 2.7). We recommend switching to Python 3, as it has been shown to give performance improvements.

    For users who have installed Synapse into a virtualenv, we recommend doing this by creating a new virtualenv. For example:

    virtualenv -p python3 ~/synapse/env3
source ~/synapse/env3/bin/activate
pip install matrix-synapse

    You can then start synapse as normal, having activated the new virtualenv:

    cd ~/synapse
source env3/bin/activate
synctl start

    Users who have installed from distribution packages should see the relevant package documentation. See below for notes on Debian packages.

    • When upgrading to Python 3, you must make sure that your log files are configured as UTF-8, by adding encoding: utf8 to the RotatingFileHandler configuration (if you have one) in your <server>.log.config file. For example, if your log.config file contains:

      handlers:
  file:
    class: logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler
    formatter: precise
    filename: homeserver.log
    maxBytes: 104857600
    backupCount: 10
    filters: [context]
  console:
    class: logging.StreamHandler
    formatter: precise
    filters: [context]

      Then you should update this to be:

      handlers:
  file:
    class: logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler
    formatter: precise
    filename: homeserver.log
    maxBytes: 104857600
    backupCount: 10
    filters: [context]
    encoding: utf8
  console:
    class: logging.StreamHandler
    formatter: precise
    filters: [context]

      There is no need to revert this change if downgrading to Python 2.

    We are also making available Debian packages which will run Synapse on Python 3. You can switch to these packages with apt-get install matrix-synapse-py3, however, please read debian/NEWS before doing so. The existing matrix-synapse packages will continue to use Python 2 for the time being.

  2. This release removes the riot.im from the default list of trusted identity servers.

    If riot.im is in your homeserver's list of trusted_third_party_id_servers, you should remove it. It was added in case a hypothetical future identity server was put there. If you don't remove it, users may be unable to deactivate their accounts.

  3. This release no longer installs the (unmaintained) Matrix Console web client as part of the default installation. It is possible to re-enable it by installing it separately and setting the web_client_location config option, but please consider switching to another client.

Upgrading to v0.33.7

This release removes the example email notification templates from res/templates (they are now internal to the python package). This should only affect you if you (a) deploy your Synapse instance from a git checkout or a github snapshot URL, and (b) have email notifications enabled.

If you have email notifications enabled, you should ensure that email.template_dir is either configured to point at a directory where you have installed customised templates, or leave it unset to use the default templates.

Upgrading to v0.27.3

This release expands the anonymous usage stats sent if the opt-in report_stats configuration is set to true. We now capture RSS memory and cpu use at a very coarse level. This requires administrators to install the optional psutil python module.

We would appreciate it if you could assist by ensuring this module is available and report_stats is enabled. This will let us see if performance changes to synapse are having an impact to the general community.

Upgrading to v0.15.0

If you want to use the new URL previewing API (/_matrix/media/r0/preview_url) then you have to explicitly enable it in the config and update your dependencies dependencies. See README.rst for details.

Upgrading to v0.11.0

This release includes the option to send anonymous usage stats to matrix.org, and requires that administrators explictly opt in or out by setting the report_stats option to either true or false.

We would really appreciate it if you could help our project out by reporting anonymized usage statistics from your homeserver. Only very basic aggregate data (e.g. number of users) will be reported, but it helps us to track the growth of the Matrix community, and helps us to make Matrix a success, as well as to convince other networks that they should peer with us.

Upgrading to v0.9.0

Application services have had a breaking API change in this version.

They can no longer register themselves with a home server using the AS HTTP API. This decision was made because a compromised application service with free reign to register any regex in effect grants full read/write access to the home server if a regex of .* is used. An attack where a compromised AS re-registers itself with .* was deemed too big of a security risk to ignore, and so the ability to register with the HS remotely has been removed.

It has been replaced by specifying a list of application service registrations in homeserver.yaml:

app_service_config_files: ["registration-01.yaml", "registration-02.yaml"]

Where registration-01.yaml looks like:

url: <String>  # e.g. "https://my.application.service.com"
as_token: <String>
hs_token: <String>
sender_localpart: <String>  # This is a new field which denotes the user_id localpart when using the AS token
namespaces:
  users:
    - exclusive: <Boolean>
      regex: <String>  # e.g. "@prefix_.*"
  aliases:
    - exclusive: <Boolean>
      regex: <String>
  rooms:
    - exclusive: <Boolean>
      regex: <String>

Upgrading to v0.8.0

Servers which use captchas will need to add their public key to:

static/client/register/register_config.js

  window.matrixRegistrationConfig = {
      recaptcha_public_key: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY"
  };

This is required in order to support registration fallback (typically used on mobile devices).

Upgrading to v0.7.0

New dependencies are:

  • pydenticon
  • simplejson
  • syutil
  • matrix-angular-sdk

To pull in these dependencies in a virtual env, run:

python synapse/python_dependencies.py | xargs -n 1 pip install

Upgrading to v0.6.0

To pull in new dependencies, run:

python setup.py develop --user

This update includes a change to the database schema. To upgrade you first need to upgrade the database by running:

python scripts/upgrade_db_to_v0.6.0.py <db> <server_name> <signing_key>

Where <db> is the location of the database, <server_name> is the server name as specified in the synapse configuration, and <signing_key> is the location of the signing key as specified in the synapse configuration.

This may take some time to complete. Failures of signatures and content hashes can safely be ignored.

Upgrading to v0.5.1

Depending on precisely when you installed v0.5.0 you may have ended up with a stale release of the reference matrix webclient installed as a python module. To uninstall it and ensure you are depending on the latest module, please run:

$ pip uninstall syweb

Upgrading to v0.5.0

The webclient has been split out into a seperate repository/pacakage in this release. Before you restart your homeserver you will need to pull in the webclient package by running:

python setup.py develop --user

This release completely changes the database schema and so requires upgrading it before starting the new version of the homeserver.

The script "database-prepare-for-0.5.0.sh" should be used to upgrade the database. This will save all user information, such as logins and profiles, but will otherwise purge the database. This includes messages, which rooms the home server was a member of and room alias mappings.

If you would like to keep your history, please take a copy of your database file and ask for help in #matrix:matrix.org. The upgrade process is, unfortunately, non trivial and requires human intervention to resolve any resulting conflicts during the upgrade process.

Before running the command the homeserver should be first completely shutdown. To run it, simply specify the location of the database, e.g.:

./scripts/database-prepare-for-0.5.0.sh "homeserver.db"

Once this has successfully completed it will be safe to restart the homeserver. You may notice that the homeserver takes a few seconds longer to restart than usual as it reinitializes the database.

On startup of the new version, users can either rejoin remote rooms using room aliases or by being reinvited. Alternatively, if any other homeserver sends a message to a room that the homeserver was previously in the local HS will automatically rejoin the room.

Upgrading to v0.4.0

This release needs an updated syutil version. Run:

python setup.py develop

You will also need to upgrade your configuration as the signing key format has changed. Run:

python -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path <CONFIG> --generate-config

Upgrading to v0.3.0

This registration API now closely matches the login API. This introduces a bit more backwards and forwards between the HS and the client, but this improves the overall flexibility of the API. You can now GET on /register to retrieve a list of valid registration flows. Upon choosing one, they are submitted in the same way as login, e.g:

{
  type: m.login.password,
  user: foo,
  password: bar
}

The default HS supports 2 flows, with and without Identity Server email authentication. Enabling captcha on the HS will add in an extra step to all flows: m.login.recaptcha which must be completed before you can transition to the next stage. There is a new login type: m.login.email.identity which contains the threepidCreds key which were previously sent in the original register request. For more information on this, see the specification.

Web Client

The VoIP specification has changed between v0.2.0 and v0.3.0. Users should refresh any browser tabs to get the latest web client code. Users on v0.2.0 of the web client will not be able to call those on v0.3.0 and vice versa.

Upgrading to v0.2.0

The home server now requires setting up of SSL config before it can run. To automatically generate default config use:

$ python synapse/app/homeserver.py \
    --server-name machine.my.domain.name \
    --bind-port 8448 \
    --config-path homeserver.config \
    --generate-config

This config can be edited if desired, for example to specify a different SSL certificate to use. Once done you can run the home server using:

$ python synapse/app/homeserver.py --config-path homeserver.config

See the README.rst for more information.

Also note that some config options have been renamed, including:

  • "host" to "server-name"
  • "database" to "database-path"
  • "port" to "bind-port" and "unsecure-port"

Upgrading to v0.0.1

This release completely changes the database schema and so requires upgrading it before starting the new version of the homeserver.

The script "database-prepare-for-0.0.1.sh" should be used to upgrade the database. This will save all user information, such as logins and profiles, but will otherwise purge the database. This includes messages, which rooms the home server was a member of and room alias mappings.

Before running the command the homeserver should be first completely shutdown. To run it, simply specify the location of the database, e.g.:

./scripts/database-prepare-for-0.0.1.sh "homeserver.db"

Once this has successfully completed it will be safe to restart the homeserver. You may notice that the homeserver takes a few seconds longer to restart than usual as it reinitializes the database.

On startup of the new version, users can either rejoin remote rooms using room aliases or by being reinvited. Alternatively, if any other homeserver sends a message to a room that the homeserver was previously in the local HS will automatically rejoin the room.