electron: [Bug]: `desktopCapturer.getSources` does not return the Electron window (on Windows)

Preflight Checklist

I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
I have searched the issue tracker for a bug report that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Electron Version

21.1.1

What operating system are you using?

Windows

Operating System Version

Windows 11 Home 10.0.22000

What arch are you using?

x64

Last Known Working Electron version

18.0.0-alpha.5

Expected Behavior

This code:

const sources = await desktopCapturer.getSources({ types:['window'] })
console.log('sources:', sources.map(s => s.name))

Should print the names of all the windows you have open, including the window for the Electron application. We were using this functionality to allow users to record their screen while using our application.

Actual Behavior

getSources returns all of the windows except the window of the Electron application. This issue affects Windows. macOS is not affected. Have not tested on Linux.

Testcase Gist URL

https://gist.github.com/srmagura/b0725ae0d9488e97d665a78daf768729

Additional Information

I did a bisection through Electron Fiddle and found that this broke between 18.0.0-alpha.5 and 18.0.0-beta.1. Here is the range of commits that Electron Fiddle produced when the bisection was completed.

About this issue

Original URL
State: open
Created 2 years ago
Reactions: 3
Comments: 16 (2 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

find a workaround for this issue:

const wcs = webContents.getAllWebContents();
const selfWindws = await Promise.all(
  wcs
    .filter((item) => {
      const win = BrowserWindow.fromWebContents(item);
      return win && win.isVisible();
    })
    .map(async (item) => {
      const win = BrowserWindow.fromWebContents(item);
      item.incrementCapturerCount();
      const thumbnailString = (await win.capturePage()).toDataURL();
      item.decrementCapturerCount();

      return {
        id: win.getMediaSourceId(),
        name: win.getTitle(),
        thumbnailString
      };
    }),
);

Markyeahjr on Jan 9, 2023

Why hasn’t there been an official fix for this problem?

buynao on Mar 31, 2024

Still have this issue on Electron 26 under Windows. Anyone know how to accomplish this when using webContents.session.setDisplayMediaRequestHandler() ? The main issue is I can’t use the media source id since the callback looks like this:

callback({ video: source, audio: mainBrowser.webContents.mainFrame, enableLocalEcho: true });

Edit:

The following seems to have worked for me:

const source = {
  id: mainBrowser.getMediaSourceId(),
  name: mainBrowser.getTitle(),
};

return callback({ video: source, audio: mainBrowser.webContents.mainFrame, enableLocalEcho: true });

theogravity on Jan 2, 2024

@frank-niu-github I do not have a fix for it. Waiting for the Electron team to fix it. 🤞

srmagura on Nov 7, 2022