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.

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. — singrium, Nov 20 '19 at 09:41
@singrium this is true for me with Chrome as default browser, with Firefox the issue persists even if Firefox is already opened. — Rich Steinmetz, Oct 16 '20 at 15:22
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_. — Alex Jasmin, Jul 23 '21 at 17:23

score 137 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 10 '20 at 11:20

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Firefox users have this workaround:

In Slack, click on a web link
In the new Firefox browser instance opened by Slack, go to "about:profiles"
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

edited Jun 10 '20 at 11:20

Lucas

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answered Feb 10 '20 at 14:52

bltcrew

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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 Feb 14 '20 at 01:49
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Cleanest solutions, work like a charme! – Kevin Wittek Mar 13 '20 at 08:31
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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. – Vassilis Barzokas May 04 '20 at 08:05
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. – Chemary May 07 '20 at 08:12
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Because that's a firefox url. I'm also looking for a chrome fix. . – Kaigo May 07 '20 at 16:55
Brilliant! This issue has been bugging me for the longest time. This fix works like a charm! – Kerry Hatcher May 17 '20 at 19:54
This should be the accepted answer! – Sunit Gautam Jun 09 '20 at 15:43
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Chrome users see this gnome-shell bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1766230 – Lucas Jun 10 '20 at 07:58
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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. – Nic Wortel Aug 05 '20 at 07:09
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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 – BlueMoon93 Oct 08 '20 at 08:26
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Works, but on Ubuntu 20.04, I still need to open Firefox first, otherwise the in-app browser is used again. – Rich Steinmetz Oct 22 '20 at 05:38
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 :) – luke Nov 02 '20 at 12:22
type `about:profiles` in the URL and click go. – Anoop Thiruonam Nov 19 '20 at 12:43

score 41 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 21 '20 at 17:10

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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.

edited Jan 21 '20 at 17:10

black_puppydog

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answered Jul 09 '19 at 20:31

Nicolas M. Pardo

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Thanks Nicolas, this answer saved me a lot of frustration! – pjcdawkins Aug 02 '19 at 14:28
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It looks like a big disadvantage of snap packages compared to classic packages. – Attila Fulop Sep 20 '19 at 10:11
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Damn... So hard to find this! Thanks a lot – fiskolin Nov 14 '19 at 14:55
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Unless you have other reasons for avoiding Snap apps, the best solution is bitcrew's: https://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. – Lambart Feb 14 '20 at 01:52
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This didn't work for me, but the profile change answer did. – Catskul Mar 19 '20 at 16:31
I had to apply both fixes. The profile part and installing the .deb package part. – Muhammad Gelbana Nov 09 '20 at 20:55
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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. – Nadine Nov 17 '20 at 08:23
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Thanks man, it works for me – Adriano de Azevedo Feb 01 '21 at 13:32

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 20 '19 at 09:58

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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

edited Nov 20 '19 at 09:58

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Nov 20 '19 at 09:36

0_o

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This references a specific version which is now out of date – Tom Jan 14 '20 at 10:38

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

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