zed-industries/zed · error · anyhow::Error

can't reconnect to room: client failed to re-establish conne

Error message

can't reconnect to room: client failed to re-establish connection

What it means

In Zed's collaboration call code, after losing the server connection the room logic waits to re-establish the connection and re-join the room. If that fails (connection never came back, or the re-join was rejected), the code leaves the room via `this.leave(cx)` and bails with this terminal error. The room is deliberately torn down rather than kept half-alive.

Source

Thrown at crates/call/src/call_impl/room.rs:447

                        continue;
                    }
                    Ok(false) => break,
                    Err(Timeout) => {
                        log::info!("room reconnection timeout expired");
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        // The client failed to re-establish a connection to the server
        // or an error occurred while trying to re-join the room. Either way
        // we leave the room and return an error.
        if let Some(this) = this.upgrade() {
            log::info!("reconnection failed, leaving room");
            this.update(cx, |this, cx| this.leave(cx)).await?;
        }
        anyhow::bail!("can't reconnect to room: client failed to re-establish connection");
    }

    fn rejoin(&mut self, cx: &mut Context<Self>) -> Task<Result<()>> {
        let mut projects = HashMap::default();
        let mut reshared_projects = Vec::new();
        let mut rejoined_projects = Vec::new();
        self.shared_projects.retain(|project| {
            if let Some(handle) = project.upgrade() {
                let project = handle.read(cx);
                if let Some(project_id) = project.remote_id() {
                    projects.insert(project_id, handle.clone());
                    reshared_projects.push(proto::UpdateProject {
                        project_id,
                        worktrees: project.worktree_metadata_protos(cx),
                    });
                    return true;
                }
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

Check network connectivity and retry: click the room/share link again to rejoin — the room was left cleanly, so rejoining is safe.
If sign-in expired, re-authenticate to the collab server first, then rejoin.
If the server was restarted, wait for it to come back and rejoin; shared project state re-shares on rejoin.
For code embedding rooms, treat this error as 'room closed' — stop retry loops and update UI state rather than assuming the room still exists.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Before relying on a room after connection loss, check connection health
if !client.is_connected() {
    client.reconnect().await?; // then rejoin
}

Try / catch

match room_task {
    Err(err) if err.to_string().contains("can't reconnect to room") => {
        // room was left cleanly; safe to rejoin after connectivity returns
        wait_for_connectivity().await;
        room.rejoin().await
    }
    result => result,
}

Prevention

Handle this error as 'room closed': reset local room UI state instead of retrying the stale handle.
Rejoin by room id/link after reconnecting; re-share happens automatically in `rejoin`.
Avoid sleep/resume mid-call, or expect to rejoin on wake.

When it happens

Trigger: During an active call, the websocket to the collab server drops; the reconnect/rejoin task completes without successfully rejoining — network still down after the retry window, auth token expired mid-call, room deleted on the server, or the re-join request itself errored.

Common situations: Flaky Wi-Fi/VPN switching during a shared call; laptop sleep/resume while in a room; collab server restart/deploys; signed-out or token expiry during a long call.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/09502035774b0103. Report an issue: GitHub.