[Bug]: Creating of sessions stucked at "authenticating" state/status after scanning qr code

[pcontact]

Pre-flight

• I searched existing issues and this isn't a duplicate
• I'm on the latest released version (or noted my version below)

OpenWA version

0.2.10

Deployment

Docker Compose

Database

SQLite (default)

WhatsApp engine

whatsapp-web.js

What happened?

After starting a session and scanning the qr code the status is stucked at authenticating with my device showing "last active at - [time is just scanned]".
I tried reconnecting but it wont resolve it.

Steps to reproduce

• clone repo,
• install deps via sudo docker comopse -f docker-compose.dev.yml up
• create a session
• start session
• scan qr code

Expected behavior

No response

Relevant logs

Environment / additional context

No response

[gp381]

+1

[gp381]

in side OpenWA folder, create an empty .env file, and put the following config

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then run this command to recreate containers docker compose up -d --force-recreate

it worked for me

[Janeirohurley]

[+] up 12/12king to docker.io/library/openwa-openwa-api:latest 0.1s ✔ Image tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy Pulled 33.1s ✔ Image openwa-openwa-api Built 35.0s network openwa-network was found but has incorrect label com.docker.compose.network set to "default" (expected: "openwa-network") janeirohurley@janeirohurley /h/p/w/OpenWA (main) [1]>
me also i have the same bug the sasion stay in connecting

[rmyndharis]

Thanks for the report — and thanks @gp381 for posting the workaround above.

This is the same root cause as #251 and #273: on whatsapp-web.js 1.34.x, the auto-selected WhatsApp Web version is sometimes incompatible, so the post-link sync never completes and the session hangs at authenticating (your phone shows it as linked, but Web never finishes syncing). It isn't specific to your setup — it's the upstream auto-version behavior, and 1.34.7 is currently the latest whatsapp-web.js release, so pinning a known-good version is the recommended remedy.

Fix — in your .env (same folder as the compose file):

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then recreate the container:

docker compose up -d --force-recreate

That's the value @gp381 confirmed and the one in our troubleshooting guide. To restore auto-selection later, set WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=latest or remove the line.

Full details (including self-hosting the version HTML via WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION_REMOTE_PATH) are in docs/12-troubleshooting-faq.md → "Session stuck at authenticating, never reaches ready".

Could you confirm whether setting WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION resolves it for you? If so we'll close this out.

[pcontact]

in side OpenWA folder, create an empty .env file, and put the following config

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then run this command to recreate containers docker compose up -d --force-recreate

it worked for me

It works. Thanks.

[pcontact]

Thanks for the report — and thanks @gp381 for posting the workaround above.

This is the same root cause as #251 and #273: on whatsapp-web.js 1.34.x, the auto-selected WhatsApp Web version is sometimes incompatible, so the post-link sync never completes and the session hangs at authenticating (your phone shows it as linked, but Web never finishes syncing). It isn't specific to your setup — it's the upstream auto-version behavior, and 1.34.7 is currently the latest whatsapp-web.js release, so pinning a known-good version is the recommended remedy.

Fix — in your .env (same folder as the compose file):

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then recreate the container:

docker compose up -d --force-recreate

That's the value @gp381 confirmed and the one in our troubleshooting guide. To restore auto-selection later, set WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=latest or remove the line.

Full details (including self-hosting the version HTML via WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION_REMOTE_PATH) are in docs/12-troubleshooting-faq.md → "Session stuck at authenticating, never reaches ready".

Could you confirm whether setting WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION resolves it for you? If so we'll close this out.

Thanks. I resolved the issue by using the steps mentioned by @gp381 as below.

in side OpenWA folder, create an empty .env file, and put the following config

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then run this command to recreate containers docker compose up -d --force-recreate

it worked for me

[pcontact]

I resolved the issue by using the steps mentioned by @gp381 as below.

in side OpenWA folder, create an empty .env file, and put the following config

WWEBJS_WEB_VERSION=2.3000.1023204257

then run this command to recreate containers docker compose up -d --force-recreate

it worked for me

[Janeirohurley]

thx its worked