Solved Whatsapp web says "Whatsapp works with Google Chrome 49+, update google chrome

areider

Vivaldi 3.4.2066.76 (Stable channel) (64-bit)
Revision 676f1a3947f1b01a0276d6bac21dd07f5b09e508

I have been using whatsapp web on Ubuntu 18.04 with mostly no issues. But sometimes, it wont start up, giving the titled error message. Even after getting that message in the past, after some fiddling around it I've gotten past it. But it's stuck here now.

Seems odd that this would be an intermittent error.

whatsapp web starts fine in google chrome, which is at:
Version 86.0.4240.111 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Hadden89

Remove Duckduckgo extension which seems to corrupt the user agent.

Hadden89

@areider Very awkard. Especially as now Vivaldi use a chrome user agent. Start with updating the stable.
What are your extensions? (Some are known to change the user agent, which could be the cause of this).
Try to clear whatsapp cookies.

areider

I have updated to 3.4.2066.94, no luck. also, there are no cookies matching whatsapp.

Looking for a way to disable extensions, i opened a private window, whatsapp works. So maybe some extension. i guess i'll have to pick off the extensions one by one. What would be a good order to check here?

Authenticator 6.2.1
Chrome Remote Desktop 1.5
Cisco Webex Content Sharing 1.0.0.14
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials 2020.10.21
Google Docs offline 1.19.0
Looper for YouTube 5.17.1
Quick Auto Refresh 2.0.1
User-Agent Switcher and Manager 0.4.4 <-- first?

i think adblock+ is also active somehow, since some sites are blocking based on that, but i have long since uninstalled it (in chrome too which seemed to matter for Vivaldi)) yet some websites are still complaining about adblock+

TbGbe · Win: Snapshot Vivaldi 7.4.3670.3

@areider said in Whatsapp web says "Whatsapp works with Google Chrome 49+, update google chrome:

A little off topic but:

i think adblock+ is also active somehow, since some sites are blocking based on that, but i have long since uninstalled it (in chrome too which seemed to matter for Vivaldi)) yet some websites are still complaining about adblock+

Vivaldi has built-in ad/tracker blocking! Maybe that is what those sites are "seeing"!?
https://help.vivaldi.com/article/tracking-and-ad-blocking/
Also could be your DuckDuckGo extension.

The major effect of private/incognito is :
a) No extensions enabled (unless you explicitly enable them)

b) No cookies (from previous accesses)
This could be relevant to e.g. 3rd party cookies?

Hadden89

Remove Duckduckgo extension which seems to corrupt the user agent.

areider

removed DuckDuckGo extension, after restarting vivaldi, whatsapp is not complaining.

re ad tracker, I think the challenges were saying adblock+ specifically, but i'll have to wait to see which sites and what the message is.

Its annoying because there is nothing to disable to make the site work.

thanks Hedden89 and TbGbe.

rafiki

Screenshot (42).png

This just popped up for the first time. I disabled the Duck duck go extension and restarted but no improvement. I went on to disable everything that could be construed as a security extension but no joy. I went to a private window and Whatsapp started. Now working through the remaining extensions to see what's causing it. Nothing installed today at all. Very inconvenient.

UPDATE: Switched off every extension but it didn't help. How does a private window differ from a non-private window that has no extensions and no other tabs?

Vivaldi 3.4.2066.106 (Stable channel) (64-bit)
Revision 9faa7da6e287d30fe3948ac5d9d62aefe7977da5
OS Windows 10 OS Version 2009 (Build 19042.630)
JavaScript V8 8.6.395.25
Flash (Disabled)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/86.0.4240.198 Safari/537.36

rafiki

Done all that with no result unfortunately. I just added User Agent Switcher and set it to default Chrome and Whatsapp is back. I'll leave it like that for the moment.

Hadden89

@rafiki Really awkard as vivaldi already has a vanilla chrome user agent - but I know some extensions can affect the browser even when disabled (why chromium allow that is a mystery).

rafiki

@Hadden89 Yes, this is really confusing. I did a user agent read test with and without UAS and they were identical. However, with the Whatsapp tab open and showing the 'get Chrome' screen with UAS off, then just switching UAS on it changes to the Whatsapp logon screen immediately.
I don't have the time at the moment but i want to remove all extensions and add them back one at a time to see if I can figure out which one it is.
I suppose the question really is: what is UAS doing if the user agents are identical because it is acting like a switch.
With UAS: Your user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/86.0.4240.198 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/3.4.2066.106
NO UAS: Your user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/86.0.4240.198 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/3.4.2066.106

TbGbe · Win: Snapshot Vivaldi 7.4.3670.3

@rafiki Why do those user agents include "Vivaldi/3.4.2066.106" ??
That was removed from Vivaldi some time ago!

Check https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-is-my-user-agent

rafiki

@TbGbe I don't know the answer to that. I just typed into Duckduckgo 'What is my user agent?' and that's what I got. From your link I got:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/86.0.4240.198 Safari/537.36

TbGbe · Win: Snapshot Vivaldi 7.4.3670.3

@rafiki Yes, that is what @Hadden89 referred to as the "vanilla chrome user agent"!
Maybe Duckduckgo uses it's extension to get the Vivaldi version and add it?

Hadden89

@rafiki Try to remove the DDG extension. It seems it works even when disabled (tnx chromium).
And yes, Vivaldi/3.x.xxxx.xxx string was removed by our UAS. Shouldn't present (sadly).

rafiki

Well, another of life's mysteries! Last night before going to bed I checked again and Whatsapp would not start with UAS disabled but then worked again when enabled. This morning UAS is not needed. Whatsapp works with or without it. Laptop is always on but no overnight updates and nothing else changed as far as I can see. Go figure!