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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    Synapse follows upstream lifecycles for Python and PostgreSQL, and removes support for versions which are no longer maintained.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 using pip then upgrade to the latest version by running:

    pip install --upgrade matrix-synapse
  • If Synapse was installed from source, then:

    1. Obtain the latest version of the source code. Git users can run git pull to do this.

    2. If you're running Synapse in a virtualenv, make sure to activate it before upgrading. For example, if Synapse is installed in a virtualenv in ~/synapse/env then run:

      source ~/synapse/env/bin/activate
      pip install --upgrade .

      Include any relevant extras between square brackets, e.g. pip install --upgrade ".[postgres,oidc]".

    3. If you're using poetry to manage a Synapse installation, run:

      poetry install

      Include any relevant extras with --extras, e.g. poetry install --extras postgres --extras oidc. It's probably easiest to run poetry install --extras all.

    4. 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

Generally Synapse database schemas are compatible across multiple versions, but once a version of Synapse is deployed you may not be able to roll back automatically. The following table gives the version ranges and the earliest version they can be rolled back to. E.g. Synapse versions v1.58.0 through v1.61.1 can be rolled back safely to v1.57.0, but starting with v1.62.0 it is only safe to roll back to v1.61.0.

Upgrading from a very old version

You need to read all of the upgrade notes for each version between your current version and the latest so that you can update your dependencies, environment, config files, etc. if necessary. But you do not need to perform an upgrade to each individual version that was missed.

We do not have a list of which versions must be installed. Instead, we recommend that you upgrade through each incompatible database schema version, which would give you the ability to roll back the maximum number of versions should anything go wrong. See Rolling back to older versions above.

Additionally, new versions of Synapse will occasionally run database migrations and background updates to update the database. Synapse will not start until database migrations are complete. You should wait until background updates from each upgrade are complete before moving on to the next upgrade, to avoid stacking them up. You can monitor the currently running background updates with the Admin API.

Upgrading to v1.111.0

New worker endpoints for authenticated client and federation media

Media repository workers handling Media APIs can now handle the following endpoint patterns:

^/_matrix/client/v1/media/.*$
^/_matrix/federation/v1/media/.*$

Please update your reverse proxy configuration.

Upgrading to v1.106.0

Minimum supported Rust version

The minimum supported Rust version has been increased from v1.65.0 to v1.66.0. Users building from source will need to ensure their rustc version is up to date.

Upgrading to v1.100.0

Minimum supported Rust version

The minimum supported Rust version has been increased from v1.61.0 to v1.65.0. Users building from source will need to ensure their rustc version is up to date.

Upgrading to v1.93.0

Minimum supported Rust version

The minimum supported Rust version has been increased from v1.60.0 to v1.61.0. Users building from source will need to ensure their rustc version is up to date.

Upgrading to v1.90.0

App service query parameter authorization is now a configuration option

Synapse v1.81.0 deprecated application service authorization via query parameters as this is considered insecure - and from Synapse v1.71.0 forwards the application service token has also been sent via the Authorization header], making the insecure query parameter authorization redundant. Since removing the ability to continue to use query parameters could break backwards compatibility it has now been put behind a configuration option, use_appservice_legacy_authorization. This option defaults to false, but can be activated by adding

use_appservice_legacy_authorization: true

to your configuration.

Upgrading to v1.89.0

Removal of unspecced user property for /register

Application services can no longer call /register with a user property to create new users. The standard username property should be used instead. See the Application Service specification for more information.

Upgrading to v1.88.0

Minimum supported Python version

The minimum supported Python version has been increased from v3.7 to v3.8. You will need Python 3.8 to run Synapse v1.88.0 (due out July 18th, 2023).

If you use current versions of the Matrix.org-distributed Debian packages or Docker images, no action is required.

Removal of worker_replication_* settings

As mentioned previously in Upgrading to v1.84.0, the following deprecated settings are being removed in this release of Synapse:

Please ensure that you have migrated to using main on your shared configuration's instance_map (or create one if necessary). This is required if you have any workers at all; administrators of single-process (monolith) installations don't need to do anything.

For an illustrative example, please see Upgrading to v1.84.0 below.

Upgrading to v1.86.0

Minimum supported Rust version

The minimum supported Rust version has been increased from v1.58.1 to v1.60.0. Users building from source will need to ensure their rustc version is up to date.

Upgrading to v1.85.0

Application service registration with "user" property deprecation

Application services should ensure they call the /register endpoint with a username property. The legacy user property is considered deprecated and should no longer be included.

A future version of Synapse (v1.88.0 or later) will remove support for legacy application service login.

Upgrading to v1.84.0

Deprecation of worker_replication_* configuration settings

When using workers,

  • worker_replication_host
  • worker_replication_http_port
  • worker_replication_http_tls

should now be removed from individual worker YAML configurations and the main process should instead be added to the instance_map in the shared YAML configuration, using the name main.

The old worker_replication_* settings are now considered deprecated and are expected to be removed in Synapse v1.88.0.

Example change

Before:

Shared YAML

instance_map:
  generic_worker1:
    host: localhost
    port: 5678
    tls: false

Worker YAML

worker_app: synapse.app.generic_worker
worker_name: generic_worker1

worker_replication_host: localhost
worker_replication_http_port: 3456
worker_replication_http_tls: false

worker_listeners:
  - type: http
    port: 1234
    resources:
      - names: [client, federation]
  - type: http
    port: 5678
    resources:
      - names: [replication]

worker_log_config: /etc/matrix-synapse/generic-worker-log.yaml

After:

Shared YAML

instance_map:
  main:
    host: localhost
    port: 3456
    tls: false
  generic_worker1:
    host: localhost
    port: 5678
    tls: false

Worker YAML

worker_app: synapse.app.generic_worker
worker_name: generic_worker1

worker_listeners:
  - type: http
    port: 1234
    resources:
      - names: [client, federation]
  - type: http
    port: 5678
    resources:
      - names: [replication]

worker_log_config: /etc/matrix-synapse/generic-worker-log.yaml

Notes:

  • tls is optional but mirrors the functionality of worker_replication_http_tls

Upgrading to v1.81.0

Application service path & authentication deprecations

Synapse now attempts the versioned appservice paths before falling back to the legacy paths. Usage of the legacy routes should be considered deprecated.

Additionally, Synapse has supported sending the application service access token via the Authorization header since v1.70.0. For backwards compatibility it is also sent as the access_token query parameter. This is insecure and should be considered deprecated.

A future version of Synapse (v1.88.0 or later) will remove support for legacy application service routes and query parameter authorization.

Upgrading to v1.80.0

Reporting events error code change

Before this update, the POST /_matrix/client/v3/rooms/{roomId}/report/{eventId} endpoint would return a 403 if a user attempted to report an event that they did not have access to. This endpoint will now return a 404 in this case instead.

Clients that implement event reporting should check that their error handling code will handle this change.

Upgrading to v1.79.0

The on_threepid_bind module callback method has been deprecated

Synapse v1.79.0 deprecates the on_threepid_bind "third-party rules" Synapse module callback method in favour of a new module method, on_add_user_third_party_identifier. on_threepid_bind will be removed in a future version of Synapse. You should check whether any Synapse modules in use in your deployment are making use of on_threepid_bind, and update them where possible.

The arguments and functionality of the new method are the same.

The justification behind the name change is that the old method's name, on_threepid_bind, was misleading. A user is considered to "bind" their third-party ID to their Matrix ID only if they do so via an identity server (so that users on other homeservers may find them). But this method was not called in that case - it was only called when a user added a third-party identifier on the local homeserver.

Module developers may also be interested in the related on_remove_user_third_party_identifier module callback method that was also added in Synapse v1.79.0. This new method is called when a user removes a third-party identifier from their account.

Upgrading to v1.78.0

Deprecate the /_synapse/admin/v1/media/<server_name>/delete admin API

Synapse 1.78.0 replaces the /_synapse/admin/v1/media/<server_name>/delete admin API with an identical endpoint at /_synapse/admin/v1/media/delete. Please update your tooling to use the new endpoint. The deprecated version will be removed in a future release.

Upgrading to v1.76.0

Faster joins are enabled by default

When joining a room for the first time, Synapse 1.76.0 will request a partial join from the other server by default. Previously, server admins had to opt-in to this using an experimental config flag.

Server admins can opt out of this feature for the time being by setting

experimental:
    faster_joins: false

in their server config.

Changes to the account data replication streams

Synapse has changed the format of the account data and devices replication streams (between workers). This is a forwards- and backwards-incompatible change: v1.75 workers cannot process account data replicated by v1.76 workers, and vice versa.

Once all workers are upgraded to v1.76 (or downgraded to v1.75), account data and device replication will resume as normal.

Minimum version of Poetry is now 1.3.2

The minimum supported version of Poetry is now 1.3.2 (previously 1.2.0, since Synapse 1.67). If you have used poetry install to install Synapse from a source checkout, you should upgrade poetry: see its installation instructions. For all other installation methods, no acction is required.

Upgrading to v1.74.0

Unicode support in user search

This version introduces optional support for an improved user search dealing with Unicode characters.

If you want to take advantage of this feature you need to install PyICU, the ICU native dependency and its development headers so that PyICU can build since no prebuilt wheels are available.

You can follow the PyICU documentation to do so, and then do pip install matrix-synapse[user-search] for a PyPI install.

Docker images and Debian packages need nothing specific as they already include or specify ICU as an explicit dependency.

User directory rebuild

Synapse 1.74 queues a background update to rebuild the user directory, in order to fix missing or erroneous entries.

When this update begins, the user directory will be cleared out and rebuilt from scratch. User directory lookups will be incomplete until the rebuild completes. Admins can monitor the rebuild's progress by using the Background update Admin API.

Upgrading to v1.73.0

Legacy Prometheus metric names have now been removed

Synapse v1.69.0 included the deprecation of legacy Prometheus metric names and offered an option to disable them. Synapse v1.71.0 disabled legacy Prometheus metric names by default.

This version, v1.73.0, removes those legacy Prometheus metric names entirely. This also means that the enable_legacy_metrics configuration option has been removed; it will no longer be possible to re-enable the legacy metric names.

If you use metrics and have not yet updated your Grafana dashboard(s), Prometheus console(s) or alerting rule(s), please consider doing so when upgrading to this version. Note that the included Grafana dashboard was updated in v1.72.0 to correct some metric names which were missed when legacy metrics were disabled by default.

See v1.69.0: Deprecation of legacy Prometheus metric names for more context.

Upgrading to v1.72.0

Dropping support for PostgreSQL 10

In line with our deprecation policy, we've dropped support for PostgreSQL 10, as it is no longer supported upstream.

This release of Synapse requires PostgreSQL 11+.

Upgrading to v1.71.0

Removal of the generate_short_term_login_token module API method

As announced with the release of Synapse 1.69.0, the deprecated generate_short_term_login_token module method has been removed.

Modules relying on it can instead use the create_login_token method.

Changes to the events received by application services (interest)

To align with spec (changed in MSC3905), Synapse now only considers local users to be interesting. In other words, the users namespace regex is only be applied against local users of the homeserver.

Please note, this probably doesn't affect the expected behavior of your application service, since an interesting local user in a room still means all messages in the room (from local or remote users) will still be considered interesting. And matching a room with the rooms or aliases namespace regex will still consider all events sent in the room to be interesting to the application service.

If one of your application service's users regex was intending to match a remote user, this will no longer match as you expect. The behavioral mismatch between matching all local users and some remote users is why the spec was changed/clarified and this caveat is no longer supported.

Legacy Prometheus metric names are now disabled by default

Synapse v1.71.0 disables legacy Prometheus metric names by default. For administrators that still rely on them and have not yet had chance to update their uses of the metrics, it's still possible to specify enable_legacy_metrics: true in the configuration to re-enable them temporarily.

Synapse v1.73.0 will remove legacy metric names altogether and at that point, it will no longer be possible to re-enable them.

If you do not use metrics or you have already updated your Grafana dashboard(s), Prometheus console(s) and alerting rule(s), there is no action needed.

See v1.69.0: Deprecation of legacy Prometheus metric names.

Upgrading to v1.69.0

Changes to the receipts replication streams

Synapse now includes information indicating if a receipt applies to a thread when replicating it to other workers. This is a forwards- and backwards-incompatible change: v1.68 and workers cannot process receipts replicated by v1.69 workers, and vice versa.

Once all workers are upgraded to v1.69 (or downgraded to v1.68), receipts replication will resume as normal.

Deprecation of legacy Prometheus metric names

In current versions of Synapse, some Prometheus metrics are emitted under two different names, with one of the names being older but non-compliant with OpenMetrics and Prometheus conventions and one of the names being newer but compliant.

Synapse v1.71.0 will turn the old metric names off by default. For administrators that still rely on them and have not had chance to update their uses of the metrics, it's possible to specify enable_legacy_metrics: true in the configuration to re-enable them temporarily.

Synapse v1.73.0 will remove legacy metric names altogether and it will no longer be possible to re-enable them.

The Grafana dashboard, Prometheus recording rules and Prometheus Consoles included in the contrib directory in the Synapse repository have been updated to no longer rely on the legacy names. These can be used on a current version of Synapse because current versions of Synapse emit both old and new names.

You may need to update your alerting rules or any other rules that depend on the names of Prometheus metrics. If you want to test your changes before legacy names are disabled by default, you may specify enable_legacy_metrics: false in your homeserver configuration.

A list of affected metrics is available on the Metrics How-to page.

Deprecation of the generate_short_term_login_token module API method

The following method of the module API has been deprecated, and is scheduled to be remove in v1.71.0:

def generate_short_term_login_token(
    self,
    user_id: str,
    duration_in_ms: int = (2 * 60 * 1000),
    auth_provider_id: str = "",
    auth_provider_session_id: Optional[str] = None,
) -> str:
    ...

It has been replaced by an asynchronous equivalent:

async def create_login_token(
    self,
    user_id: str,
    duration_in_ms: int = (2 * 60 * 1000),
    auth_provider_id: Optional[str] = None,
    auth_provider_session_id: Optional[str] = None,
) -> str:
    ...

Synapse will log a warning when a module uses the deprecated method, to help administrators find modules using it.

Upgrading to v1.68.0

Two changes announced in the upgrade notes for v1.67.0 have now landed in v1.68.0.

SQLite version requirement

Synapse now requires a SQLite version of 3.27.0 or higher if SQLite is configured as Synapse's database.

Installations using

are not affected.

Rust requirement when building from source.

Building from a source checkout of Synapse now requires a recent Rust compiler (currently Rust 1.58.1, but see also the Platform Dependency Policy).

Installations using

will not be affected.

Upgrading to v1.67.0

Direct TCP replication is no longer supported: migrate to Redis

Redis support was added in v1.13.0 with it becoming the recommended method in v1.18.0. It replaced the old direct TCP connections (which was deprecated as of v1.18.0) to the main process. With Redis, rather than all the workers connecting to the main process, all the workers and the main process connect to Redis, which relays replication commands between processes. This can give a significant CPU saving on the main process and is a prerequisite for upcoming performance improvements.

To migrate to Redis add the redis config, and remove the TCP replication listener from config of the master and worker_replication_port from worker config. Note that a HTTP listener with a replication resource is still required.

Minimum version of Poetry is now v1.2.0

The minimum supported version of poetry is now 1.2. This should only affect those installing from a source checkout.

Rust requirement in the next release

From the next major release (v1.68.0) installing Synapse from a source checkout will require a recent Rust compiler. Those using packages or pip install matrix-synapse will not be affected.

The simplest way of installing Rust is via rustup.rs

SQLite version requirement in the next release

From the next major release (v1.68.0) Synapse will require SQLite 3.27.0 or higher. Synapse v1.67.0 will be the last major release supporting SQLite versions 3.22 to 3.26.

Those using Docker images or Debian packages from Matrix.org will not be affected. If you have installed from source, you should check the version of SQLite used by Python with:

python -c "import sqlite3; print(sqlite3.sqlite_version)"

If this is too old, refer to your distribution for advice on upgrading.

Upgrading to v1.66.0

Delegation of email validation no longer supported

As of this version, Synapse no longer allows the tasks of verifying email address ownership, and password reset confirmation, to be delegated to an identity server. This removal was previously planned for Synapse 1.64.0, but was delayed until now to give homeserver administrators more notice of the change.

To continue to allow users to add email addresses to their homeserver accounts, and perform password resets, make sure that Synapse is configured with a working email server in the email configuration section (including, at a minimum, a notif_from setting.)

Specifying an email setting under account_threepid_delegates will now cause an error at startup.

Upgrading to v1.64.0

Deprecation of the ability to delegate e-mail verification to identity servers

Synapse v1.66.0 will remove the ability to delegate the tasks of verifying email address ownership, and password reset confirmation, to an identity server.

If you require your homeserver to verify e-mail addresses or to support password resets via e-mail, please configure your homeserver with SMTP access so that it can send e-mails on its own behalf. Consult the configuration documentation for more information.

The option that will be removed is account_threepid_delegates.email.

Changes to the event replication streams

Synapse now includes a flag indicating if an event is an outlier when replicating it to other workers. This is a forwards- and backwards-incompatible change: v1.63 and workers cannot process events replicated by v1.64 workers, and vice versa.

Once all workers are upgraded to v1.64 (or downgraded to v1.63), event replication will resume as normal.

frozendict release

frozendict 2.3.3 has recently been released, which fixes a memory leak that occurs during /sync requests. We advise server administrators who installed Synapse via pip to upgrade frozendict with pip install --upgrade frozendict. The Docker image matrixdotorg/synapse and the Debian packages from packages.matrix.org already include the updated library.

Upgrading to v1.62.0

New signatures for spam checker callbacks

As a followup to changes in v1.60.0, the following spam-checker callbacks have changed signature:

  • user_may_join_room
  • user_may_invite
  • user_may_send_3pid_invite
  • user_may_create_room
  • user_may_create_room_alias
  • user_may_publish_room
  • check_media_file_for_spam

For each of these methods, the previous callback signature has been deprecated.

Whereas callbacks used to return bool, they should now return Union["synapse.module_api.NOT_SPAM", "synapse.module_api.errors.Codes"].

For instance, if your module implements user_may_join_room as follows:

async def user_may_join_room(self, user_id: str, room_id: str, is_invited: bool)
    if ...:
        # Request is spam
        return False
    # Request is not spam
    return True

you should rewrite it as follows:

async def user_may_join_room(self, user_id: str, room_id: str, is_invited: bool)
    if ...:
        # Request is spam, mark it as forbidden (you may use some more precise error
        # code if it is useful).
        return synapse.module_api.errors.Codes.FORBIDDEN
    # Request is not spam, mark it as such.
    return synapse.module_api.NOT_SPAM

Upgrading to v1.61.0

Removal of deprecated community/groups

This release of Synapse will remove deprecated community/groups from codebase.

Worker endpoints

For those who have deployed workers, following worker endpoints will no longer exist and they can be removed from the reverse proxy configuration:

  • ^/_matrix/federation/v1/get_groups_publicised$
  • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|v3|unstable)/joined_groups$
  • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|v3|unstable)/publicised_groups$
  • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|v3|unstable)/publicised_groups/
  • ^/_matrix/federation/v1/groups/
  • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|v3|unstable)/groups/

Upgrading to v1.60.0

Adding a new unique index to state_group_edges could fail if your database is corrupted

This release of Synapse will add a unique index to the state_group_edges table, in order to prevent accidentally introducing duplicate information (for example, because a database backup was restored multiple times).

Duplicate rows being present in this table could cause drastic performance problems; see issue 11779 for more details.

If your Synapse database already has had duplicate rows introduced into this table, this could fail, with either of these errors:

On Postgres:

synapse.storage.background_updates - 623 - INFO - background_updates-0 - Adding index state_group_edges_unique_idx to state_group_edges
synapse.storage.background_updates - 282 - ERROR - background_updates-0 - Error doing update
...
psycopg2.errors.UniqueViolation: could not create unique index "state_group_edges_unique_idx"
DETAIL:  Key (state_group, prev_state_group)=(2, 1) is duplicated.

(The numbers may be different.)

On SQLite:

synapse.storage.background_updates - 623 - INFO - background_updates-0 - Adding index state_group_edges_unique_idx to state_group_edges
synapse.storage.background_updates - 282 - ERROR - background_updates-0 - Error doing update
...
sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: state_group_edges.state_group, state_group_edges.prev_state_group
Expand this section for steps to resolve this problem

On Postgres

Connect to your database with psql.

BEGIN;
DELETE FROM state_group_edges WHERE (ctid, state_group, prev_state_group) IN (
  SELECT row_id, state_group, prev_state_group
  FROM (
    SELECT
      ctid AS row_id,
      MIN(ctid) OVER (PARTITION BY state_group, prev_state_group) AS min_row_id,
      state_group,
      prev_state_group
    FROM state_group_edges
  ) AS t1
  WHERE row_id <> min_row_id
);
COMMIT;

On SQLite

At the command-line, use sqlite3 path/to/your-homeserver-database.db:

BEGIN;
DELETE FROM state_group_edges WHERE (rowid, state_group, prev_state_group) IN (
  SELECT row_id, state_group, prev_state_group
  FROM (
    SELECT
      rowid AS row_id,
      MIN(rowid) OVER (PARTITION BY state_group, prev_state_group) AS min_row_id,
      state_group,
      prev_state_group
    FROM state_group_edges
  )
  WHERE row_id <> min_row_id
);
COMMIT;

For more details

This comment on issue 11779 has queries that can be used to check a database for this problem in advance.

New signature for the spam checker callback check_event_for_spam

The previous signature has been deprecated.

Whereas check_event_for_spam callbacks used to return Union[str, bool], they should now return Union["synapse.module_api.NOT_SPAM", "synapse.module_api.errors.Codes"].

This is part of an ongoing refactoring of the SpamChecker API to make it less ambiguous and more powerful.

If your module implements check_event_for_spam as follows:

async def check_event_for_spam(event):
    if ...:
        # Event is spam
        return True
    # Event is not spam
    return False

you should rewrite it as follows:

async def check_event_for_spam(event):
    if ...:
        # Event is spam, mark it as forbidden (you may use some more precise error
        # code if it is useful).
        return synapse.module_api.errors.Codes.FORBIDDEN
    # Event is not spam, mark it as such.
    return synapse.module_api.NOT_SPAM

Upgrading to v1.59.0

Device name lookup over federation has been disabled by default

The names of user devices are no longer visible to users on other homeservers by default. Device IDs are unaffected, as these are necessary to facilitate end-to-end encryption.

To re-enable this functionality, set the allow_device_name_lookup_over_federation homeserver config option to true.

Deprecation of the synapse.app.appservice and synapse.app.user_dir worker application types

The synapse.app.appservice worker application type allowed you to configure a single worker to use to notify application services of new events, as long as this functionality was disabled on the main process with notify_appservices: False. Further, the synapse.app.user_dir worker application type allowed you to configure a single worker to be responsible for updating the user directory, as long as this was disabled on the main process with update_user_directory: False.

To unify Synapse's worker types, the synapse.app.appservice worker application type and the notify_appservices configuration option have been deprecated. The synapse.app.user_dir worker application type and update_user_directory configuration option have also been deprecated.

To get the same functionality as was provided by the deprecated options, it's now recommended that the synapse.app.generic_worker worker application type is used and that the notify_appservices_from_worker and/or update_user_directory_from_worker options are set to the name of a worker.

For the time being, the old options can be used alongside the new options to make it easier to transition between the two configurations, however please note that:

  • the options must not contradict each other (otherwise Synapse won't start); and
  • the notify_appservices and update_user_directory options will be removed in a future release of Synapse.

Please see the Notifying Application Services and Updating the User Directory sections of the worker documentation for more information.

Upgrading to v1.58.0

Groups/communities feature has been disabled by default

The non-standard groups/communities feature in Synapse has been disabled by default and will be removed in Synapse v1.61.0.

Upgrading to v1.57.0

Changes to database schema for application services

Synapse v1.57.0 includes a change to the way transaction IDs are managed for application services. If your deployment uses a dedicated worker for application service traffic, it must be stopped when the database is upgraded (which normally happens when the main process is upgraded), to ensure the change is made safely without any risk of reusing transaction IDs.

Deployments which do not use separate worker processes can be upgraded as normal. Similarly, deployments where no application services are in use can be upgraded as normal.

Recovering from an incorrect upgrade

If the database schema is upgraded without stopping the worker responsible for AS traffic, then the following error may be given when attempting to start a Synapse worker or master process:

**********************************************************************************
 Error during initialisation:

 Postgres sequence 'application_services_txn_id_seq' is inconsistent with associated
 table 'application_services_txns'. This can happen if Synapse has been downgraded and
 then upgraded again, or due to a bad migration.

 To fix this error, shut down Synapse (including any and all workers)
 and run the following SQL:

     SELECT setval('application_services_txn_id_seq', (
         SELECT GREATEST(MAX(txn_id), 0) FROM application_services_txns
     ));

 See docs/postgres.md for more information.

 There may be more information in the logs.
**********************************************************************************

This error may also be seen if Synapse is downgraded to an earlier version, and then upgraded again to v1.57.0 or later.

In either case:

  1. Ensure that the worker responsible for AS traffic is stopped.
  2. Run the SQL command given in the error message via psql.

Synapse should then start correctly.

Upgrading to v1.56.0

Open registration without verification is now disabled by default

Synapse will refuse to start if registration is enabled without email, captcha, or token-based verification unless the new config flag enable_registration_without_verification is set to "true".

Groups/communities feature has been deprecated

The non-standard groups/communities feature in Synapse has been deprecated and will be disabled by default in Synapse v1.58.0.

You can test disabling it by adding the following to your homeserver configuration:

experimental_features:
  groups_enabled: false

Change in behaviour for PostgreSQL databases with unsafe locale

Synapse now refuses to start when using PostgreSQL with non-C values for COLLATE and CTYPE unless the config flag allow_unsafe_locale, found in the database section of the configuration file, is set to true. See the PostgreSQL documentation for more information and instructions on how to fix a database with incorrect values.

Upgrading to v1.55.0

synctl script has been moved

The synctl script has been made an entry point and no longer exists at the root of Synapse's source tree. If you wish to use synctl to manage your homeserver, you should invoke synctl directly, e.g. synctl start instead of ./synctl start or /path/to/synctl start.

You will need to ensure synctl is on your PATH.

  • This is automatically the case when using Debian packages or docker images provided by Matrix.org.
  • When installing from a wheel, sdist, or PyPI, a synctl executable is added to your Python installation's bin. This should be on your PATH automatically, though you might need to activate a virtual environment depending on how you installed Synapse.

Compatibility dropped for Mjolnir 1.3.1 and earlier

Synapse v1.55.0 drops support for Mjolnir 1.3.1 and earlier. If you use the Mjolnir module to moderate your homeserver, please upgrade Mjolnir to version 1.3.2 or later before upgrading Synapse.

Upgrading to v1.54.0

Legacy structured logging configuration removal

This release removes support for the structured: true logging configuration which was deprecated in Synapse v1.23.0. If your logging configuration contains structured: true then it should be modified based on the structured logging documentation.

Upgrading to v1.53.0

Dropping support for webclient listeners and non-HTTP(S) web_client_location

Per the deprecation notice in Synapse v1.51.0, listeners of type webclient are no longer supported and configuring them is a now a configuration error.

Configuring a non-HTTP(S) web_client_location configuration is is now a configuration error. Since the webclient listener is no longer supported, this setting only applies to the root path / of Synapse's web server and no longer the /_matrix/client/ path.

Stablisation of MSC3231

The unstable validity-check endpoint for the Registration Tokens feature has been stabilised and moved from:

/_matrix/client/unstable/org.matrix.msc3231/register/org.matrix.msc3231.login.registration_token/validity

to:

/_matrix/client/v1/register/m.login.registration_token/validity

Please update any relevant reverse proxy or firewall configurations appropriately.

Time-based cache expiry is now enabled by default

Formerly, entries in the cache were not evicted regardless of whether they were accessed after storing. This behavior has now changed. By default entries in the cache are now evicted after 30m of not being accessed. To change the default behavior, go to the caches section of the config and change the expire_caches and cache_entry_ttl flags as necessary. Please note that these flags replace the expiry_time flag in the config. The expiry_time flag will still continue to work, but it has been deprecated and will be removed in the future.

Deprecation of capability org.matrix.msc3283.*

The capabilities of MSC3283 from the REST API /_matrix/client/r0/capabilities becomes stable.

The old capabilities

  • org.matrix.msc3283.set_displayname,
  • org.matrix.msc3283.set_avatar_url and
  • org.matrix.msc3283.3pid_changes

are deprecated and scheduled to be removed in Synapse v1.54.0.

The new capabilities

  • m.set_displayname,
  • m.set_avatar_url and
  • m.3pid_changes

are now active by default.

Removal of user_may_create_room_with_invites

As announced with the release of Synapse 1.47.0, the deprecated user_may_create_room_with_invites module callback has been removed.

Modules relying on it can instead implement user_may_invite and use the get_room_state module API to infer whether the invite is happening while creating a room (see this function as an example). Alternately, modules can also implement on_create_room.

Upgrading to v1.52.0

Twisted security release

Note that Twisted 22.1.0 has recently been released, which fixes a security issue within the Twisted library. We do not believe Synapse is affected by this vulnerability, though we advise server administrators who installed Synapse via pip to upgrade Twisted with pip install --upgrade Twisted treq as a matter of good practice. The Docker image matrixdotorg/synapse and the Debian packages from packages.matrix.org are using the updated library.

Upgrading to v1.51.0

Deprecation of webclient listeners and non-HTTP(S) web_client_location

Listeners of type webclient are deprecated and scheduled to be removed in Synapse v1.53.0.

Similarly, a non-HTTP(S) web_client_location configuration is deprecated and will become a configuration error in Synapse v1.53.0.

Upgrading to v1.50.0

Dropping support for old Python and Postgres versions

In line with our deprecation policy, we've dropped support for Python 3.6 and PostgreSQL 9.6, as they are no longer supported upstream.

This release of Synapse requires Python 3.7+ and PostgreSQL 10+.

Upgrading to v1.47.0

Removal of old Room Admin API

The following admin APIs were deprecated in Synapse 1.34 (released on 2021-05-17) and have now been removed:

  • POST /_synapse/admin/v1/<room_id>/delete

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

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