From 1c4160526256927f6d94f812e2e680d3e96a623a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Iago Velasco <iagovelasco@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:29:07 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] fix: do not resend an empty message when a retry receipt
 cannot be answered

`getMessage` returned `{ conversation: '' }` whenever the message row was not
found or the lookup threw. Baileys only skips a retry resend when `getMessage`
resolves to a falsy value, so returning that object makes `sendMessagesAgain`
relay an EMPTY message reusing the original message id. Group members then see
a bubble with a timestamp and no content, repeated on every retry attempt
(maxMsgRetryCount per requesting participant).

It is easy to hit in groups: any member that fails to decrypt asks for a retry,
and by then the original message may be gone from the DB (retention, instance
recreated, or a message this instance never persisted).

Measured on a 11-cell deployment before the fix: ~17.7k empty bubbles in 24h.
After returning `undefined` instead, 10 of 11 cells dropped to zero, with the
remainder coming from a third-party sender outside the deployment. No change in
delivery of real messages.

Also guards `webMessageInfo[0]` with optional chaining, so an empty result set no
longer throws on `.message`, and reuses the local `message` variable in the poll
branch. The poll and event decrypt callers in Baileys already guard with
`if (msg)`, so they behave correctly with `undefined` too.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .../whatsapp/whatsapp.baileys.service.ts      | 26 ++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/api/integrations/channel/whatsapp/whatsapp.baileys.service.ts b/src/api/integrations/channel/whatsapp/whatsapp.baileys.service.ts
index 22839fd45..6596470fb 100644
--- a/src/api/integrations/channel/whatsapp/whatsapp.baileys.service.ts
+++ b/src/api/integrations/channel/whatsapp/whatsapp.baileys.service.ts
@@ -656,24 +656,38 @@ export class BaileysStartupService extends ChannelStartupService {
       if (full) {
         return webMessageInfo[0];
       }
-      if (webMessageInfo[0].message?.pollCreationMessage) {
-        const messageSecretBase64 = webMessageInfo[0].message?.messageContextInfo?.messageSecret;
+
+      // Baileys only skips a retry resend when getMessage resolves to a falsy value. Returning an
+      // object here (for example `{ conversation: '' }`) makes it relay an EMPTY message reusing the
+      // original message id, which shows up in the chat as a bubble with a timestamp and no content.
+      const message = webMessageInfo[0]?.message;
+
+      if (!message) {
+        this.logger.debug(`getMessage: message ${key.id} not found, skipping retry resend`);
+
+        return undefined;
+      }
+
+      if (message.pollCreationMessage) {
+        const messageSecretBase64 = message.messageContextInfo?.messageSecret;
 
         if (typeof messageSecretBase64 === 'string') {
           const messageSecret = Buffer.from(messageSecretBase64, 'base64');
 
           const msg = {
             messageContextInfo: { messageSecret },
-            pollCreationMessage: webMessageInfo[0].message?.pollCreationMessage,
+            pollCreationMessage: message.pollCreationMessage,
           };
 
           return msg;
         }
       }
 
-      return webMessageInfo[0].message;
-    } catch {
-      return { conversation: '' };
+      return message;
+    } catch (error) {
+      this.logger.debug(`getMessage: lookup for ${key.id} failed, skipping retry resend: ${error?.toString()}`);
+
+      return undefined;
     }
   }