Account/hosting troubleshooting help: failed account move, unable to follow?

[kkremitzki]

Hello all, I had previously been using Mastodon on a server hosted by someone else, with the account @kkremitzki@linuxrocks.online. I decided to start running my own server, and attempted to do an account move to @kurt@mastodon.kwk.systems, but the move seems to have failed and my new account seems broken. Note that I have temporarily disabled the forwarding on the old account, although I did set up the move in the preferences of both accounts.

Just for reference, I followed the “Installing from source” setup instructions for my new install and I’m using a reverse proxy setup with HTTPS (i.e. both the Mastodon server itself and the reverse proxy are using HTTPS.) I don’t see anything in the nginx error logs on either server to help.

In particular, by “broken”, I mean that it seems impossible to follow my new account. You’ll note I have 0 followers, and that’s not for lack of trying, both from my old account, someone else helping me troubleshoot, and from what should have been added by the migration process.

It’s been long enough that I can re-try the migration from the old account, but I don’t want to do it just yet in case there is some problem I need to troubleshoot and fix.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to check next?

[Claire]

Is the sidekiq process running correctly? Check journalctl -u mastodon-sidekiq.

Alternatively, it might be your server having trouble querying other servers. What happens if you paste a remote account’s URL in the search box on your instance?

[kkremitzki]

Hello and thanks for the tips. The sidekiq process is running and has been without error–a grep shows only a warning from Feb 23rd with a message referencing an error:

WARN: HTTP::Redirector::EndlessRedirectError: HTTP::Redirector::EndlessRedirectError on https://social.librem.one/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:purism@social.librem.one

So I am assuming that is a transient problem I have since fixed.

Querying other servers from my own also seems to be working. I was able to enter the URL of my original account, hit enter and see the search result, click on the result, and click follow for that account. I checked my original account and I see the notification that kurt@mastodon.kwk.systems is following. By the way, on my original account when I view my @mastodon.kwk.systems account, it shows “Cancel follow request”, but I don’t see any option to approve it back on my own server.

[Claire]

What happens if you cancel the follow request and try again?

[kkremitzki]

I canceled the request on one side and unfollowed on the other to get back to a blank slate. I will write what I did afterwards in steps to make it easier to follow.

1. I went to https://mastodon.kwk.systems and searched for Kurt Kremitzki (@kkremitzki@linuxrocks.online) - LinuxRocks.Online. I clicked follow.
2. On https://linuxrocks.online, I got a notification saying I was being followed. I clicked the ‘follow back’ button in the notification and clicked on the profile to get a similar view as in 1, but on the other end.
3. I refreshed the page from step 1 on https://mastodon.kwk.systems. The follow button went from a red ‘Unfollow’ to a blue ‘Cancel follow request’.
4. I refreshed the page from step 2 on https://linuxrocks.online. In the top left I see ‘FOLLOWS YOU’, and I see a blue ‘Cancel follow request’ button as well.
5. Double checking, I refresh as in step 3 the page I’m viewing on https://mastodon.kwk.systems. I still see a blue ‘Cancel follow request’ button in spite of the other account showing the follow has occurred.

[Claire]

So it seems that messages from mastodon.kwk.systems are correctly received by linuxrocks.online, but the opposite isn’t true. I am not sure why that would be the case.

Did you per chance mess with WEB_DOMAIN and LOCAL_DOMAIN in the past?

Also of note, linuxrocks.online is a bit outdated and may miss some important fixes.