Hello,
I’ve installed the Distill desktop app on a Windows Server 2019 running on an Azure VM. After creating a Distill account, I attempted to log in through the desktop app, but I encountered the following error:
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Could not fetch client
Could not find information for authorizing the app login. Please try again after restarting the app.
E_CLIENT_NOT_FOUND
Contact us if the problem persists
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I’ve already tried reinstalling the app, but the issue persists.
Hello @daisuke_yamagishi! Welcome to Distill Forums,
Thank you for posting your issue here.
Wanted to clear some things out first, when signing in from the Desktop app, is a browser opened which navigates you to the Distill Sign In page or a page with a message Successfully logged in to the desktop app?
Can you also confirm that the VM has an active internet connection?
Thank you,
Jayakrishnan
Hello, Jayakrishnan,
Thank you for your prompt response.
Regarding your questions:
When trying to sign in from the desktop app, a browser opens but immediately shows an error message. Neither the sign-in page nor the successful login message page is displayed.
As for the VM’s internet connection, it is working properly. I can access general websites and other online services without any issues.
Additionally, while the desktop app continues to show the original error message, I occasionally noticed proxy-related errors appearing in red text. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture a screenshot of these error messages.
I appreciate your continued support.
Thank you.
Hello again @daisuke_yamagishi,
Thanks for clearing the previous doubts out of the way.
In some cases this issue can happen if the Desktop app was not able to properly pass its client ID to the browser that is opened.
Could you check if the login link generated by the app has a proper value for clientId in its URL parameters?
The URL will be of the form:
http://accounts.distill.io/service-login?clientType=15&info=Desktop%20App&nonce=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx&clientId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Make sure not to share the client ID or nonce values here. Just need to know if they are available in the link. If it is undefined then we can understand where the issue might be happening.
You can get the link by clicking the button shown below. The link will be copied to your clipboard which you can paste and assess for the params.
Thank you,
Jayakrishnan
Hello Jayakrishnan,
Thank you for your response. I checked the client ID in the URL of the login link generated by the app, and it seems there is no issue with the format. After several attempts, I encountered the following proxy-related error (this error appears intermittently). Could this be related to the current issue?
Hello @daisuke_yamagishi,
Thanks for confirming that the link is valid. One possible scenario that can cause the error (E_CLIENT_NOT_FOUND) is when during the initial startup of the app, it’s client ID could not be registered in Distill’s database.
Is there a chance that this network requests could have been blocked, say because of a proxy or some other internet restrictions?
You could also confirm if the app is allowed internet access in the Windows firewall settings.
Thank you,
Jayakrishnan
Hello @jayakrishnan,
Thank you for the reply.
Could you please provide the communication requirements for Distill?
Since communication from the internet to the internal network goes through a Reverse Proxy, it might be necessary to allow this communication.
Hello @daisuke_yamagishi ,
Sure. Please make sure the Desktop app is able to connect to the internet, more specifically Distill’s domains, i.e. domains of the form *.distill.io. Once it is able to, you can re-launch the app and login.
Here I am assuming the communication requirements you are requesting are for allowing domains through your proxy. If I have misunderstood your query, please free to let me know what is required.
Thank you
Hello @jayakrishnan,
Thank you for your response.
I have confirmed that I can access the distill.io domain from both the browser (Edge) and the terminal (PowerShell). Since it is accessible at the OS level, I believe the Distill desktop app should also be able to access the distill.io domain. However, could you please let me know if there is a way to verify the connection specifically for the desktop app?
Additionally, as a hypothesis, it is possible that our firewall might be blocking communication from Distill’s cloud server. If there are any port numbers that need to be allowed for inbound communication from Distill, could you please provide them?
Hello @daisuke_yamagishi,
The Desktop app uses the default internet ports for connectivity (80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS) and as you are already able to connect to the internet through Chrome and other apps, this indicates that the VM has these ports configured correctly.
Could you confirm that the app is allowed through the firewall in the Windows Firewall settings? You can allow the app by going to the Allow an app through the firewall settings in Windows. You can follow this tutorial if required.
The .exe files of the app is located in: C:\\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\distill_web_monitor\ and C:\\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\distill_web_monitor\app-<VERSION>
For checking the connectivity, you can try to add a monitor without signing in, this should open a browser provided by the Desktop app where you can go to any URL to check.
If you are being taken to the sign in page and not able to go to the page mentioned above, please remove the local data folder of the app (default path is C:\\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\Distill Web Monitor) and then restart the app. This should take you directly to the Watchlist page where you can add a monitor without signing in.
Thank You,
Jayakrishnan
Hello @jayakrishnan
I apologize for the delayed response. Thank you for the detailed explanation. We are currently reviewing it and will inform you of any progress.
Additionally, I have another question and will contact you in a new thread.
Hello @jayakrishnan
After changing the VM where the desktop application is installed, I was able to successfully sign in from the application. Compared to the previous VM, the new VM has the following differences:
Do you have any thoughts on these two points? I would greatly appreciate your insights.
Hello @daisuke_yamagishi,
Thank you for your update. Glad to hear that it’s working now!
About the changes mentioned the only important requirement for the app to log in is an active internet connection. This can be blocked mainly by the firewall. The points mentioned in your reply can also affect the internet connection although it is hard to specify the cause.
We don’t use any AD based authentication for the login process.
As for the point regarding global IP address, it could have lifted some restrictions of the VM which in turn allowed the app to connect to the internet.
Thank you,
Jayakrishnan
