Matrix FAQ¶

If your question isn’t listed here, please contact us.
Have a look at How-tos.

What does “guest” mean in a Helmholtz.cloud Matrix ID?¶

When the Matrix ID is created, the person’s status as recorded by their home center is checked. If the person is not classified as an employee (e. g. guests, students, service providers, …), the suffix -guest is automatically added to the Helmholtz Cloud Matrix ID. This suffix is assigned by the system and cannot be changed.

How long are chat histories stored?¶

Messages and shared files are stored for 3 years and then deleted. This means you can scroll back 3 years in your chat history. Messages and shared files older than that are no longer saved.

Why can’t new members read older messages in encrypted rooms?¶

Whether a new member can read messages sent before they entered a room depends on two things:

The room’s history visibility setting (Room Settings > Security & Privacy > Who can read history?). Only the option Members (full history) allows new members to read messages sent before they entered the room.
In encrypted rooms, the new member additionally needs the decryption keys for the older messages. These keys are currently only handed over when the member is invited: the inviter’s client securely shares the keys for past messages with the invitee (see MSC4268).

This leads to the following behaviour in encrypted rooms, even with Members (full history) selected:

How the member entered the room	Can read older messages?
Invited to the room	Yes
Joined on their own (e.g. public room, or room visible to a space)	No

Members who join an encrypted room on their own do not receive the keys for older messages and therefore cannot decrypt them. This is a known limitation of the Matrix protocol, not a bug.

Invite instead of letting people join

If it is important that new members can read the room history of an encrypted room, invite them (see Invite People) instead of letting them join on their own.

In unencrypted rooms, the history visibility setting alone determines who can read the history.

The reset of my cryptographic identity is stuck at “Reset in progress…”¶

When you reset your cryptographic identity (All settings > Encryption > Reset cryptographic identity, or via Can’t confirm? after login), the dialog may show “Reset in progress…” together with the warning not to close the window, and stay that way forever. No error message ever appears. This is a known bug in Element (element-web#34642).

To get out of this state:

Open the developer tools of your browser or of the Element desktop app and switch to the Console tab:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+I (macOS: Cmd+Option+I)
Paste the following line into the console and confirm with Enter:
```
mxMatrixClientPeg.get().setAccountData("m.secret_storage.default_key", { key: "dummy" })
```
Browser asks you to type something first

For security reasons, some browsers block pasting into the console until you have confirmed once. They asks you to type allow pasting ( Einfügen erlauben) Do that, then paste the line again.
Reload Element (F5, resp. Ctrl+R / Cmd+R).
Start the reset of the cryptographic identity again. It should now run through and ask you for the usual confirmation.
Save the new recovery key immediately in a safe place, e.g. in your password manager. See also Save your recovery key at once!.

Still stuck?

If the reset still does not complete, please contact us and describe at which step it hangs.

Does Matrix offer a board feature?¶

Matrix do not include a board feature. So, you have to move to another service. With Codebase Gitlab by HZDR and (upcoming) Open Project by HZB Helmholtz Cloud offers two alternatives. Check HIFIS Tip How-to Setup Boards in Gitlab.

How can other people find me? Why can’t my colleague and I find each other in search?¶

Whether someone shows up when you search for people depends on how Matrix handles user search. You appear in another person’s search results when one of these conditions is met:

You already share a common room with the person searching, or
You are a member of a public room.

If you and a colleague have never been in a common room together and neither of you is in a public room, you will not (yet) find each other via search. Simply being registered on the server is not enough for this. This is a deliberate privacy setting.

Only for accounts on the same homeserver

The search lists accounts on the same homeserver (helmholtz.cloud). Members of centers with their own homeserver (e.g. CISPA, KIT, FZJ, GFZ) do not appear - reach them via their full Matrix ID.

So, to make the first contact, you have to either:

send an invitation link to your room (see Invite People), or
enter the person’s full Matrix ID directly (e.g. @name-xxxxx:helmholtz.cloud, or the respective domain for other centers).

Once you share a room, you will be able to find each other via search afterwards.

Make yourself easier to find

Join a public room such as the Helmholtz Matrix Community room (#helmholtz-matrix:helmholtz.cloud). This satisfies condition 2 above, so others can find you.

Is there an identity server?

There is currently no Matrix identity server for Helmholtz. This means you cannot look up a person’s Matrix account by their email address or phone number - the search works by display name and Matrix ID only.

Why can’t users from other homeservers find our public rooms?¶

The helmholtz.cloud homeserver deliberately does not publish its list of public rooms to other homeservers. Users on other servers (e.g. other Helmholtz centers with their own homeserver, or matrix.org) therefore cannot browse or search our public rooms via their client’s Explore rooms function. This is a privacy setting: which rooms exist on our server is not exposed to the outside world.

Public rooms can still be joined from other homeservers - the other person just needs to know the room address. To make your public room reachable for external users:

Share the full room address, e.g. #helmholtz-matrix:helmholtz.cloud. The other person can enter it in their client.
Share a room link, e.g. https://to.matrix.helmholtz.cloud/#/#helmholtz-matrix:helmholtz.cloud (see Invite People).
Or simply invite the person directly via their Matrix ID.

Where can I change my display name?¶

Follow these steps to customize the displayed username with the Matrix Element Client:

Click on your profile picture at the top left.
Go to All settings > Account > Manage account.
Click on the pencil icon behind your name.
Adjust your display name and click Save.

How can I set a custom status message?¶

You can set a status consisting of an emoji and a short text (e.g. ☕️ “Be right back” or 🌴 “On leave until 15.06.”). Other users see it next to your name.

Click on your profile picture at the top left.
Click on What’s your status?. This takes you to All settings > Account.
There, click on What’s your status? again.
Pick one of the presets (In a meeting, Focus Time, On the road, Be right back, Away) or choose Custom… to select your own emoji and enter your own text.

You can change or remove your status at any later time in the same place.

Using the element desktop app?

In the browser version at https://matrix.helmholtz.cloud the status field is available right away, because we enable it in our default configuration.

Desktop apps use their own local configuration. There, the field only appears after you have applied our default configuration once, see Further Configuration. Alternatively, you can enable it manually under All settings > Labs by switching on User status in the Profile section.

What do the user status colors mean?¶

State	Icon	Meaning
Online	🟢	User is active (or was active very recently)
Away/Idle	⚪/🟡	User has been inactive for a while (>3 min)
Offline	⃝	No active (connected) session
Busy	🔴	“Do not disturb”. Set via bridges/bots, can’t be set via Element

You can see a few more details on the right side pane, by clicking on any user’s symbol in a chat. This also works to review your own status.

What does space, room, etc. mean?¶

Have a look at our little “dictionary”:

Matrix	Meaning
Space	Top level structure: Voluntary and allowing multi-assignments of secondary structures
Room (Gruppe)	Secondary structure: May be unassigned or belong to one or more Spaces
People	Individual users