Ghost connection: After an idle period, the socket is stuck in the ON state with wsReadyState: null. It's not performing actions like sending messages.

[izofis]

Issue Description

After a period of inactivity, the client appears connected but cannot send or receive messages. No disconnected event is emitted. The socket is internally frozen in a ghost [OPENING] state where the underlying WebSocket no longer exists (wsReadyState: null).

Inspecting the connection state reveals:
{ "socketState": "OPENING", "socketStream": "DISCONNECTED", "wsReadyState": null, "hasSynced": true, "connWid": null }

The only way to recover is to close and reopen the browser. This behavior does not occur in versions prior to 1.34.7.

Reproduction Steps

Initialize a client and wait for the ready event
Leave the session idle for a while (especially in Docker or behind a NAT/firewall)
Attempt to send a message — it silently fails with no error or disconnect event
Check the connection state

const info = await client.pupPage.evaluate(() => { const socket = window.require('WAWebSocketModel').Socket; const ws = socket.socket; return { socketState: socket.state, socketStream: socket.stream, wsReadyState: ws ? ws.readyState : null, hasSynced: socket.hasSynced, connWid: socket.wid ?? null, }; }); console.log(info);

Observe: socketState: "OPENING", socketStream: "DISCONNECTED", wsReadyState: null
Closing and reopening the browser resolves the issue

Environment:
whatsapp-web.js version: 1.34.7
Node.js: v20.x
Platform: Docker / Linux / NAT network

Code Sample

User Setup

WhatsApp	Type
Account Type	Standard
Authentication Strategy	RemoteAuth
WhatsApp Web Version	0000000000
whatsapp-web.js Version	1.34.7

Environment	Version
Browser Type	chrome
Browser Version	0000
Phone OS Version	android
Running OS Version	ubuntu
Node.js Version	20x

Checklist

• I use the latest released version of whatsapp-web.js.
• I have searched existing issues and confirmed this is not a duplicate.
• I have verified this is a library issue, not a problem with my code.

[KamilTahirli]

Hello, I’m using LocalAuth as the auth strategy. I built the message-sending and session/login flow through an API using Express.js.

The Node server is always running with PM2, but after 2–3 hours, when the send-message API is triggered again, session-related issues occur. Is there a better, uninterrupted way to manage the session, possibly with Chrome?

[izofis]

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? It seems like a big issue (in version 1.34.7). It appears to be connected, but it also affects message sending; it writes the message to the database but doesn't actually send it.

[izofis]

Do you have any ideas about this problem? @BenyFilho

[never00miss]

so still dont have solution yet yea? @izofis
its keeping zombile connection so far. so i need to do re-init again to make its works.

[izofis]

I still have the same problem, but my issue isn't zombies, it's more like ghosts—meaning the connection appears, the message seems to be sent, it even gives a return ID, but the message doesn't actually go through. The term "zombie" is more often used for processes that aren't actually performing any operations (processes that remain open in the CPU).