Matrix:FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Matrix pesky red shield / account stuck / cannot verify a second "device"

tl;dr: Logout old sessions in Matrix; reset Matrix key backup; locally backup your Matrix E2EE keys; Reset Cross signing See How to fix it below for full details.

Steps to reproduce

1. You login into chat.mozilla.org with a "device", let's call it "device 1" e.g. Firefox release on your Mozilla work laptop (where a device is every app where you login to Matrix. So the Element app on iOS is a "device". chat.mozilla.org on Firefox release on your desktop is another device, chat.mozilla.org on Firefox nightly is yet another device, chat.mozilla.org on Safari on your iPad is yet another device, etc). And you save your Matrix security key. All is good :-)
2. You login to chat.mozilla.org with another device, let's call it "device 2" e.g. Firefox Release on your personal laptop. You see a dialogue to verify your session:
3. 
4. You then click Later instead of verifying your session. Or, for some reason you can't verify your session using emojis or you have lost your Matrix security key.
5. At this point, all of your Matrix messages that you send from device 2 will have the red shield
6. So you do what you do with other websites when you run into a problem with the website, you clear the cache and cookies on device 2 (e.g. Firefox hamburger menu i.e. ☰ > Settings > Clear Data ...)

Expected results

1. Clearing the cookies for Firefox will allow you to verify device 2

Actual Results

1. You are never be able to verify device 2. Messages from device 2 always have a red shield.

How to fix it

1. From device 1, logout of device 2 i.e.Log out all old inactive sessions (Gear icon at the bottom left of chat.mozilla.org > All Settings > Sessions tab > select the session for Device 2 and click Sign out
2. Reset key backup (Gear icon at the bottom left of chat.mozilla.org > All Settings > Security & Privacy > under Secure Backup, click Reset) to reset the backup passphrase
3. Locally back up E2E keys just in case (Gear icon at the bottom left of chat.mozilla.org > All Settings > Security & Privacy > under Cryptography click Export E2E rom keys ) - shouldn't be necessary (verification keys aren't decryption keys) but you can never be sure with Element's crypto UX
4. Reset Cross Signing

I cannot connect to Matrix after changing my Mozilla Account primary email address

When you connect to Mozilla Matrix with your Mozilla Account, your primary email address is permanently tied up to the Matrix account. If you change your Mozilla Account primary email address, you will be asked to create a new Matrix user.

To get your Matrix access back, you can revert to your old email address in your Mozilla Account. At the moment, there's no solution to fix this problem.