Desktop Application Install Guides

Mattermost desktop applications are available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. They support all the features of the web experience, plus:

  • Connect to multiple Mattermost servers from a single interface, and switch with shortcut keys
  • Auto-start Mattermost when a user logs into their machine
  • (Windows) Add Mattermost to Start menu, taskbar and system tray
  • (Windows/Mac) Deep link to the desktop app via mattermost:// protocol if app is already installed
  • (Mac) Add Mattermost to the applications Dock
  • (Linux) Desktop Entry for the application to more easily integrate into a desktop environment

Below is a list of additional resources:

You can download the apps directly from our downloads page. You may also use the following installation guides for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Windows 10+, Windows 8.1+, Windows 7+

  1. Download latest version of the Mattermost desktop app:
  2. From the \Downloads directory right-click on the file mattermost-desktop-setup-4.4.1-win.exe and select Open.

This will start an installer for the app. Once finished, the Mattermost desktop app will open automatically.

MSI Installer and Group Policies (Beta)

Download latest version of the Mattermost desktop app MSI installer (Beta):

See here for instructions on installing the Mattermost desktop app via an MSI installer and configuring supported Group Policies.

The following Group Policies are available:

Group Policy Description Required Version
Enable Server Management If disabled, management of servers in the app settings are disabled. 4.3 or later
Default Server List Define one or more default, permanent servers. 4.3 or later

macOS 10.9+

  1. Download latest version of the Mattermost desktop app.
  2. Double-click the download to open the disk image.
  3. Drag the Mattermost application to the Applications folder.

Homebrew users can install with brew cask install mattermost.

Linux

Generic Linux package

  1. Download latest version of the Mattermost desktop app:
  1. Extract the archive to a convenient location. You can then execute mattermost-desktop, which is located inside the extracted directory.
  2. To create a Desktop launcher, open the file README.md and follow the instructions in the Desktop launcher section.

Ubuntu and Debian-based systems

Unofficial, community-driven .deb packages are available.

  1. Download the latest version of the Mattermost desktop app:
  1. At the command line, execute one of the following commands depending on the package that you downloaded:
64-bit systems
sudo dpkg -i mattermost-desktop-4.4.1-linux-amd64.deb
32-bit systems
sudo dpkg -i mattermost-desktop-4.4.1-linux-i386.deb
  1. To run Mattermost, open Dash (located at top left corner) and input mattermost, then click the Mattermost icon.

Arch Linux-based systems

To install the desktop client on Arch Linux, see the Mattermost page on the Arch Linux wiki.

Snapcraft package

A snap is available for systems that have Snapcraft installed. Snapcraft is installed by default on Ubuntu 16.04 and later, but for most other Linux distributions you can install it manually. To install Snapcraft, see Install snapd on the Snapcraft website.

  1. At the command line, execute the following command:
sudo snap install mattermost-desktop --beta
  1. To run Mattermost, open Dash (located at top left corner) and input mattermost, then click the Mattermost icon.

Troubleshooting

“Installation has failed” dialog

The app data might be corrupted - remove all the files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\mattermost, then try re-installing the app.

Desktop App window is black and doesn’t load the page

  1. First, make sure you have installed the latest Desktop App version from our website. Check your app version from Help > Version.
  2. Try to clear cache and reload the app from View > Clear Cache and Reload or by pressing CTRL/CMD+SHIFT+R.
  3. Quit the app and restart it to see if the issue clears.
  4. Disable GPU hardware acceleration from File > Settings on Windows and Linux, Mattermost > Settings on macOS, by deselecting Use GPU hardware acceleration.
  5. If you are using a special video driver such as Optimus, try disabling it to see if the problem is resolved.

If none of the above steps resolve the issue, please open a new ticket in the Mattermost Troubleshooting Forum.

Desktop App is not visible, but you can see the Mattermost icon in the Task Bar

This issue can occur on Windows in a multiple-monitor setup. When you disconnect the monitor that Mattermost is displayed on, Mattermost continues to display at screen coordinates that no longer exist.

To resolve this issue, you can reset the Desktop App screen location by deleting the screen location file. When the file is not present, the Desktop App displays on the primary monitor by default.

To reset the Desktop App screen location:
  1. If the Desktop App is running, right-click the Mattermost icon in the task bar and click Close Window.
  2. Open Windows File Explorer, and navigate to the %APPDATA%\Mattermost folder.
  3. Delete the file bounds-info.json

Desktop App constantly refreshes the page

This issue can occur when localStorage has an unexpected state. To resolve the issue:

  • Windows: Open Windows File Explorer, and navigate to the %APPDATA%\Mattermost folder, then delete the Local Storage folder.
  • Mac: Open Finder, and navigate to the ~/Library/Application Support/Mattermost folder, then delete the Local Storage folder.
  • Linux: Open the file manager, and navigate to the ~/.config/Mattermost folder, then delete the Local Storage folder.

Desktop App constantly asks to log in to Mattermost server

This issue can occur after a crash or unexpected shutdown of the Desktop app that causes the app data to be corrupted. To resolve the issue:

  • Windows: Open Windows File Explorer, and navigate to the %APPDATA%\Mattermost folder, then delete the IndexedDB folder and the Cookies and Cookies-journal files.
  • Mac: Open Finder, and navigate to the ~/Library/Application Support/Mattermost folder, then delete the IndexedDB folder and the Cookies and Cookies-journal files.
  • Linux: Open the file manager, and navigate to the ~/.config/Mattermost folder, then delete the IndexedDB folder and the Cookies and Cookies-journal files.

Internal error: BrowserWindow ‘unresponsive’ event has been emitted

Clicking “Show Details” on the dialog provides logs. Ways to resolve the issue:

  1. Clear the cache via CTRL+SHIFT+R (or View > Clear Cache and Reload).
  2. Go to App Settings (via CTRL+COMMA or File > Settings) and unselect hardware acceleration.

Desktop App not responsive within Citrix Virtual Apps or Desktop Environment

Append Mattermost.exe; to the Registry Key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CtxUvi\UviProcessExcludes and reboot the system.

For additional troubleshooting tips, see the troubleshooting guide.

Reporting Issues

When reporting bugs found in the Mattermost Desktop app, it is helpful to include the contents of the Developer Tools Console along with the information on this page. To access the Developer Tools Console, follow these instructions:

  1. In the menu bar, go to View > Toggle Developer Tools.
  2. Select the Console tab.
  3. Right-click the log window and select Save As.
  4. Save the file and then send it along with a description of your issue.
  5. Go to View > Toggle Developer Tools to disable the Developer Tools.

You can open an additional set of developer tools for each server you have added to the desktop app. The tools can be opened by pasting this command in the developer console you opened with the steps described above: document.getElementsByTagName("webview")[0].openDevTools();

Note that if you have more than one server added to the desktop client, you need to change the 0 to the number corresponding to the server you want to open in the developer tools, starting with 0 from the left.

macOS

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