What causes "Window management not available on this platform" in spacedriveapp/spacedrive?

Inspect the value: SELECT id, sync_mode FROM sync_conduit WHERE id = .

Window management not available on this platform

Error message

Window management not available on this platform

What it means

Returned by sync_now when sync_conduit::SyncMode::from_str(&conduit.sync_mode) returns None. The conduit's sync_mode column stores a string ('mirror', 'bidirectional', 'selective' per the SyncMode enum used in resolver.rs), and any other value fails to parse. Note this happens after calculate_operations has already run, which parses the same string itself.

Source

Thrown at packages/interface/src/windows/DemoWindow.tsx:45

	const { data: librariesRaw, isLoading, error, refetch } = useLibraries(true);
	const libraries = librariesRaw as LibraryInfo[] | undefined;
	const [lastEvent, setLastEvent] = useState<any>(null);
	const [eventCount, setEventCount] = useState(0);
	const [windowError, setWindowError] = useState<string | null>(null);

	const platform = usePlatform();

	// Listen to all core events
	useAllEvents((event) => {
		setLastEvent(event);
		setEventCount((c) => c + 1);
	});

	async function openWindow(windowType: string, params?: any) {
		try {
			setWindowError(null);
			if (!platform.showWindow) {
				throw new Error(
					"Window management not available on this platform",
				);
			}

			const windowDef =
				windowType === "Settings"
					? { type: "Settings", page: params }
					: { type: windowType, ...params };

			await platform.showWindow(windowDef);
			setLastEvent({ success: "Window opened", type: windowType });
		} catch (err) {
			const errMsg = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
			setWindowError(errMsg);
			setLastEvent({ error: "Window open failed", message: errMsg });
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6dfeccf211)

Solutions

Inspect the value: SELECT id, sync_mode FROM sync_conduit WHERE id = <id>.
Correct it to a value SyncMode::from_str accepts (check the enum's from_str in the sync_conduit entity module for exact accepted strings).
Constrain mode input at the API boundary (enum-typed input, not String) so invalid values can never be persisted.

Example fix

-- before
SELECT sync_mode FROM sync_conduit WHERE id = 7; -- 'Mirrer' (typo)

-- after
UPDATE sync_conduit SET sync_mode = 'mirror' WHERE id = 7;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate the stored mode before syncing.
fn sync_mode_is_valid(s: &str) -> bool {
    sync_conduit::SyncMode::from_str(s).is_some()
}

Try / catch

match svc.sync_now(id).await {
    Ok(h) => Ok(h),
    Err(e) if e.to_string() == "Invalid sync mode" => {
        // data problem: surface for manual fix, do not silently default
        Err(anyhow::anyhow!("conduit {} has invalid sync_mode in DB; fix the row", id))
    }
    Err(e) => Err(e),
}

Prevention

Pass SyncMode as a typed enum through the API; never accept free-text mode strings.
Add a CHECK constraint on sync_conduit.sync_mode for the known variants.
Run a data audit after version upgrades that rename enum variants.

When it happens

Trigger: A sync_conduit row whose sync_mode string is not one of the recognized variants — written by an older/newer version with different variant names, a manual UPDATE typo, or a from_str implementation with strict matching receiving e.g. 'Mirror' with wrong casing.

Common situations: Schema/enum drift across versions (variant renamed); hand-edited rows; a client submitting a free-text mode that was stored verbatim.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of spacedriveapp/spacedrive@6dfeccf211 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/14546714e8cdb842. Report an issue: GitHub.