Slack shows opened links to browser as another slack instance in task bar

Question

If I open a link sent to me on Slack, the new browser window opened shows up as 'another' Slack window. Is there any way to have it correctly group the new browser window with the existing browser windows? I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 running gnome.

Solution 1

Firefox users have this workaround:

1. In Slack, click on a web link
2. In the new Firefox browser instance opened by Slack, go to "about:profiles"
3. Change the profile used as default to your regular profile

Thanks to Michev for the comment on the snapd bugtracker: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1835024/comments/13

Solution 2

I had the same problem, I uninstalled the app via Ubuntu Software, then downloaded the latest .deb package in https://slack.com/downloads/linux

And installed the package with sudo dpkg -i slack-desktop-*.deb

And it worked all fine

The problem seems to be with the snap packaging of slack, not the app itself.

Solution 3

After removing Slack via the Software Center, open your terminal and run:

$ wget https://downloads.slack-edge.com/linux_releases/slack-desktop-4.0.2-amd64.deb
$ sudo apt --fix-broken install ./slack-desktop-*.deb
$ sudo apt install ./slack-desktop-*.deb

Comments

[singrium]

I have the same problem too, but it only happens when my default browser is not already opened. If my default browser is already launched, the link from slack will be opened using the browser without 'another' Slack window is opened.

[Rich Steinmetz]

@singrium this is true for me with Chrome as default browser, with Firefox the issue persists even if Firefox is already opened.

[Mike Gledhill]

On Ubuntu 21.04 we're facing a new issue. If Firefox isn't already running, clicking a link in Slack will cause the Firefox crash reporter to open.

[pjcdawkins]

Thanks Nicolas, this answer saved me a lot of frustration!

[Attila Fulop]

It looks like a big disadvantage of snap packages compared to classic packages.

[fiskolin]

Damn... So hard to find this! Thanks a lot

[Tom]

This references a specific version which is now out of date

[Lambart]

THIS is the best solution. It fixes the issue with all Snap apps at once, and doesn't ask you to manually install a single version (which won't then be updated) from the command line.

[Lambart]

Unless you have other reasons for avoiding Snap apps, the best solution is bitcrew's: askubuntu.com/a/1209485/54675 ...as it fixes the problem without asking you to install a single version of Slack (etc.), which will then never be automatically updated. It will fix this issue in all your Snap apps.

[Kevin Wittek]

Cleanest solutions, work like a charme!

[Catskul]

This didn't work for me, but the profile change answer did.

[Vassilis Barzokas]

I cannot make any changes there, since the profile shown inside my Slack's instance of Firefox is named "default", but the same is the name of the profile of my normal Firefox instance outside of Slack.

[Chemary]

This is redirecting me to "chrome://profiles/" that gives ERR_INVALID_URL. Loking at "chrome://about/" there is a list of Chrome URLs and "profile" is not here.

[Kaigo]

Because that's a firefox url. I'm also looking for a chrome fix. .

[Kerry Hatcher]

Brilliant! This issue has been bugging me for the longest time. This fix works like a charm!

[Sunit Gautam]

This should be the accepted answer!

[Lucas]

Chrome users see this gnome-shell bug: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1766230

[Nic Wortel]

This worked for me. In my case I had to select the "default-release" profile instead of the "default" profile, which caused me some confusion.

[BlueMoon93]

This doesn't work for me. I only have a single default profile, and both Firefox and the Slack app have it set as default. I already tried adding new profiles, renaming, etc, and Slack still has the same behavior

[Rich Steinmetz]

Works, but on Ubuntu 20.04, I still need to open Firefox first, otherwise the in-app browser is used again.

[luke]

I did it and I even deleted this second profile. It worked for some time, but then suddenly stopped to work (but there was still only one profile to choose). I had to delete slack snap and install .deb from slack downloads using dpkg (as mentioned in another answer). Now it works as at it should, but we will see how long :)

[Muhammad Gelbana]

I had to apply both fixes. The profile part and installing the .deb package part.

[Nadine]

I originally did the about:profiles fix in the top rated answer, but after 6 months, the problem came back. This time, the fix in this answer is what worked.

[Anoop Thiruonam]

type about:profiles in the URL and click go.

[Adriano de Azevedo]

Thanks man, it works for me