`Annotation editor` is altering the file checksum

[keks24]

Describe the bug
Proof of existence is not working, when downloading a page. The SHA256 checksum is also different on each save.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a backup of all profiles: Hamburger menu - Add-ons and themes - Meatball menu of SingleFile - Preferences - Export.
2. Import the following file. It contains the profile test_proof_of_existence; THIS WILL REMOVE ALL OTHER PROFILES: singlefile-settings-2025-06-26T16_54_52.744Z_test_proof_of_existence.json
3. Go to https://www.heise.de/impressum.html
4. Do a right click on the SingleFile icon and navigate to: Save page with profile - test_proof_of_existence.
5. Click on the download icon.
6. There should be a new file in the directory Downloads: Impressum | heise online_<some_sha256_checksum>.html
7. Wait for six hours.
8. Go to https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/singlefile-woleet/index.html
9. Upload the HTML file.
10. See error message: No proof found for this file

Expected behavior
Step 10 should return Proof of existence found in Bitcoin, like on this page.

The SHA256 checksum of the file should be equal to <some_sha256_checksum> ({digest-sha-256}) in the filename.

Screenshots
None.

Environment

• OS: Gentoo Linux, Kernel version: 6.12.31
• Browser: Firefox
• Version: 128.11.0esr (64-bit)

Additional context
Downloaded file from ten days ago. Remove the suffix .txt once downloaded:
Impressum ｜ heise online_2d95f72e43be76ef54cd843a80fdd560700427fcff5418c5da31a4c823b8946d.html.txt

$ sha256sum Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_2d95f72e43be76ef54cd843a80fdd560700427fcff5418c5da31a4c823b8946d.html
e46d512d9861921c717d9af85a83d2b3dc13e562eb57f0c4609bb567b85b14fe  Impressum ｜ heise online_2d95f72e43be76ef54cd843a80fdd560700427fcff5418c5da31a4c823b8946d.html.txt
$ stat Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_2d95f72e43be76ef54cd843a80fdd560700427fcff5418c5da31a4c823b8946d.html
  File: Impressum ｜ heise online_2d95f72e43be76ef54cd843a80fdd560700427fcff5418c5da31a4c823b8946d.html
  Size: 529825          Blocks: 1040       IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 252,1   Inode: 27788927    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1200/   <some_username>)   Gid: ( 1200/   <some_group_name>
Access: 2025-06-26 19:19:22.155447979 +0200
Modify: 2025-06-16 18:22:00.993868618 +0200
Change: 2025-06-26 19:19:02.945449058 +0200
 Birth: 2025-06-16 18:22:00.989868618 +0200

[keks24]

I have tried the above steps with a temporary Firefox profile and only enabled Proof of existence in the default profile, which seems to work:

1. Start firefox with temporary profile:

$ cd "$(mktemp --directory)"
$ firefox --profile "."

2. Install the Extension SingleFile: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/single-file/
3. Go to: https://www.heise.de/impressum.html
4. Do a right click on the SingleFile icon and navigate to: Save page with profile - Default settings.
5. Compare the SHA256 checksums; the one in the filename is identical with the output of sha256sum:

$ sha256sum Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_bc01ceeb036f9558d3992b2ae3427dd9b4983566351997ccd49fd1b9afee15e7.html
bc01ceeb036f9558d3992b2ae3427dd9b4983566351997ccd49fd1b9afee15e7  Impressum ｜ heise online_bc01ceeb036f9558d3992b2ae3427dd9b4983566351997ccd49fd1b9afee15e7.html

6. Go to https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/singlefile-woleet/index.html
7. Upload the HTML file:

$ stat Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_bc01ceeb036f9558d3992b2ae3427dd9b4983566351997ccd49fd1b9afee15e7.html
  File: Impressum ｜ heise online_bc01ceeb036f9558d3992b2ae3427dd9b4983566351997ccd49fd1b9afee15e7.html
  Size: 466513          Blocks: 912        IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 252,1   Inode: 27790363    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/   ramon)   Gid: ( 1000/   ramon)
Access: 2025-07-06 15:01:39.349450514 +0200
Modify: 2025-07-02 16:28:37.144253360 +0200
Change: 2025-07-02 16:30:34.310246781 +0200
 Birth: 2025-07-02 16:28:37.139253360 +0200

9. See success message: Proof of existence found in Bitcoin:

10. Do a right click on the SingleFile icon and navigate to: Save page with profile - test_proof_of_existence.

11. Compare the SHA256 checksums; the one in the filename is not identical with the output of sha256sum:

$ sha256sum Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_5eb8d358ac7eaa0090eb8e5dd99ab87d2474ed4e488d46597d43319b832c8040.html
e4a105339eb60a703ad22190c6e6558362222938308f97bff6b3614db368d2dd  Impressum ｜ heise online_5eb8d358ac7eaa0090eb8e5dd99ab87d2474ed4e488d46597d43319b832c8040.html
$ stat Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_5eb8d358ac7eaa0090eb8e5dd99ab87d2474ed4e488d46597d43319b832c8040.html
  File: Impressum ｜ heise online_5eb8d358ac7eaa0090eb8e5dd99ab87d2474ed4e488d46597d43319b832c8040.html
  Size: 488963          Blocks: 960        IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 252,1   Inode: 27790360    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/   ramon)   Gid: ( 1000/   ramon)
Access: 2025-07-06 15:47:57.997294484 +0200
Modify: 2025-07-02 16:28:18.379254414 +0200
Change: 2025-07-02 16:30:08.389248236 +0200
 Birth: 2025-07-02 16:28:18.374254414 +0200

I suspect, that it may be related to compress CSS content (compressCSS: true) or some other enabled option:

Expand

--- default_configuration.json  2025-07-02 16:27:00.552258784 +0200
+++ singlefile-settings-2025-06-26T16_54_52.744Z_test_proof_of_existence.json   2025-07-02 16:22:10.248275085 +0200
@@ -1,167 +1,174 @@
 {
   "profiles": {
-    "__Default_Settings__": {
+    "test_proof_of_existence": {
       "removeHiddenElements": true,
       "removeUnusedStyles": true,
       "removeUnusedFonts": true,
       "removeFrames": false,
+      "blockScripts": true,
+      "blockVideos": true,
+      "blockAudios": true,
+      "blockFonts": false,
+      "blockStylesheets": false,
+      "blockImages": false,
+      "acceptHeaders": {
+        "document": "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
+        "script": "*/*",
+        "audio": "audio/webm,audio/ogg,audio/wav,audio/*;q=0.9,application/ogg;q=0.7,video/*;q=0.6,*/*;q=0.5",
+        "video": "video/webm,video/ogg,video/*;q=0.9,application/ogg;q=0.7,audio/*;q=0.6,*/*;q=0.5",
+        "font": "application/font-woff2;q=1.0,application/font-woff;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
+        "stylesheet": "text/css,*/*;q=0.1",
+        "image": "image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,image/svg+xml,image/*,*/*;q=0.8"
+      },
+      "saveRawPage": false,
+      "insertMetaCSP": true,
+      "saveToClipboard": false,
+      "addProof": true,
+      "woleetKey": "",
+      "saveToGDrive": false,
+      "saveToDropbox": false,
+      "saveWithWebDAV": false,
+      "webDAVURL": "",
+      "webDAVUser": "",
+      "webDAVPassword": "",
+      "saveToGitHub": false,
+      "githubToken": "",
+      "githubUser": "",
+      "githubRepository": "SingleFile-Archives",
+      "githubBranch": "main",
+      "saveWithCompanion": false,
+      "sharePage": false,
       "compressHTML": true,
-      "compressCSS": false,
+      "insertTextBody": false,
+      "insertEmbeddedImage": false,
+      "insertEmbeddedScreenshotImage": false,
+      "compressCSS": true,
+      "groupDuplicateStylesheets": false,
+      "moveStylesInHead": true,
       "loadDeferredImages": true,
       "loadDeferredImagesMaxIdleTime": 1500,
-      "loadDeferredImagesBlockCookies": false,
-      "loadDeferredImagesBlockStorage": false,
       "loadDeferredImagesKeepZoomLevel": false,
       "loadDeferredImagesDispatchScrollEvent": false,
       "loadDeferredImagesBeforeFrames": false,
-      "filenameTemplate": "%if-empty<{page-title}|No title> ({date-locale} {time-locale}).{filename-extension}",
-      "infobarTemplate": "",
-      "includeInfobar": false,
-      "openInfobar": false,
-      "confirmInfobarContent": false,
-      "autoClose": false,
-      "confirmFilename": false,
-      "filenameConflictAction": "uniquify",
-      "filenameMaxLength": 192,
+      "contextMenuEnabled": true,
+      "filenameTemplate": "{page-title}_{digest-sha-256}.html",
+      "filenameMaxLength": "128",
       "filenameMaxLengthUnit": "bytes",
-      "filenameReplacedCharacters": [
-        "~",
-        "+",
-        "?",
-        "%",
-        "*",
-        ":",
-        "|",
-        "\"",
-        "<",
-        ">",
-        "\\\\",
-        "\u0000-\u001f",
-        ""
-      ],
       "filenameReplacementCharacter": "_",
-      "filenameReplacementCharacters": [
-        "～",
-        "＋",
-        "？",
-        "％",
-        "＊",
-        "：",
-        "｜",
-        "＂",
-        "＜",
-        "＞",
-        "＼"
-      ],
       "replaceEmojisInFilename": false,
       "saveFilenameTemplateData": false,
-      "contextMenuEnabled": true,
-      "tabMenuEnabled": true,
-      "browserActionMenuEnabled": true,
       "shadowEnabled": true,
-      "logsEnabled": true,
-      "progressBarEnabled": true,
       "maxResourceSizeEnabled": false,
       "maxResourceSize": 10,
+      "networkTimeout": 0,
+      "confirmFilename": false,
+      "filenameConflictAction": "uniquify",
       "displayInfobar": true,
       "displayStats": false,
       "backgroundSave": true,
-      "defaultEditorMode": "normal",
-      "applySystemTheme": true,
       "autoSaveDelay": 1,
       "autoSaveLoad": false,
       "autoSaveUnload": false,
-      "autoSaveLoadOrUnload": true,
       "autoSaveDiscard": false,
       "autoSaveRemove": false,
+      "autoSaveLoadOrUnload": true,
       "autoSaveRepeat": false,
       "autoSaveRepeatDelay": 10,
+      "autoSaveExternalSave": false,
       "removeAlternativeFonts": true,
-      "removeAlternativeMedias": true,
       "removeAlternativeImages": true,
-      "groupDuplicateImages": true,
-      "maxSizeDuplicateImages": 524288,
-      "saveRawPage": false,
-      "saveToClipboard": false,
-      "addProof": false,
-      "saveToGDrive": false,
-      "saveToDropbox": false,
-      "saveWithWebDAV": false,
-      "webDAVURL": "",
-      "webDAVUser": "",
-      "webDAVPassword": "",
-      "saveToGitHub": false,
-      "saveToRestFormApi": false,
-      "saveToS3": false,
-      "githubToken": "",
-      "githubUser": "",
-      "githubRepository": "SingleFile-Archives",
-      "githubBranch": "main",
-      "saveWithCompanion": false,
-      "sharePage": false,
-      "forceWebAuthFlow": false,
-      "resolveFragmentIdentifierURLs": false,
-      "userScriptEnabled": false,
-      "openEditor": false,
-      "openSavedPage": false,
-      "autoOpenEditor": false,
+      "removeAlternativeMedias": true,
       "saveCreatedBookmarks": false,
-      "allowedBookmarkFolders": [],
-      "ignoredBookmarkFolders": [],
+      "passReferrerOnError": false,
       "replaceBookmarkURL": true,
-      "saveFavicon": true,
-      "includeBOM": false,
-      "warnUnsavedPage": true,
-      "displayInfobarInEditor": false,
+      "allowedBookmarkFolders": [
+        ""
+      ],
+      "ignoredBookmarkFolders": [
+        ""
+      ],
       "compressContent": false,
       "createRootDirectory": false,
-      "selfExtractingArchive": true,
-      "extractDataFromPage": true,
       "preventAppendedData": false,
-      "insertEmbeddedImage": false,
-      "insertEmbeddedScreenshotImage": false,
-      "insertTextBody": false,
-      "autoSaveExternalSave": false,
-      "insertMetaNoIndex": false,
-      "insertMetaCSP": true,
-      "passReferrerOnError": false,
+      "selfExtractingArchive": false,
+      "extractDataFromPage": false,
       "password": "",
-      "insertSingleFileComment": true,
-      "removeSavedDate": false,
+      "groupDuplicateImages": true,
+      "infobarTemplate": "{url-href} (Save date: {datetime-iso})",
       "blockMixedContent": false,
       "saveOriginalURLs": false,
-      "acceptHeaders": {
-        "font": "application/font-woff2;q=1.0,application/font-woff;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
-        "image": "image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,image/svg+xml,image/*,*/*;q=0.8",
-        "stylesheet": "text/css,*/*;q=0.1",
-        "script": "*/*",
-        "document": "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
-        "video": "video/webm,video/ogg,video/*;q=0.9,application/ogg;q=0.7,audio/*;q=0.6,*/*;q=0.5",
-        "audio": "audio/webm,audio/ogg,audio/wav,audio/*;q=0.9,application/ogg;q=0.7,video/*;q=0.6,*/*;q=0.5"
-      },
-      "moveStylesInHead": false,
-      "networkTimeout": 0,
-      "woleetKey": "",
-      "blockImages": false,
-      "blockAlternativeImages": true,
-      "blockStylesheets": false,
-      "blockFonts": false,
-      "blockScripts": true,
-      "blockVideos": true,
-      "blockAudios": true,
-      "delayBeforeProcessing": 0,
-      "_migratedTemplateFormat": true,
+      "includeInfobar": true,
+      "openInfobar": false,
+      "removeSavedDate": false,
+      "confirmInfobarContent": false,
+      "autoClose": false,
+      "openEditor": true,
+      "openSavedPage": false,
+      "autoOpenEditor": true,
+      "defaultEditorMode": "normal",
+      "applySystemTheme": true,
+      "warnUnsavedPage": true,
+      "displayInfobarInEditor": true,
+      "saveToRestFormApi": false,
       "saveToRestFormApiUrl": "",
+      "saveToRestFormApiToken": "",
       "saveToRestFormApiFileFieldName": "",
       "saveToRestFormApiUrlFieldName": "",
-      "saveToRestFormApiToken": "",
+      "saveToS3": false,
       "S3Domain": "s3.amazonaws.com",
       "S3Region": "",
       "S3Bucket": "",
       "S3AccessKey": "",
       "S3SecretKey": "",
+      "blockFont": false,
+      "browserActionMenuEnabled": true,
+      "extractAuthCode": true,
+      "filenameReplacedCharacters": [
+        "~",
+        "+",
+        "?",
+        "%",
+        "*",
+        ":",
+        "|",
+        "\"",
+        "<",
+        ">",
+        "\\\\",
+        "\u0000-\u001f",
+        ""
+      ],
+      "forceWebAuthFlow": false,
+      "includeBOM": false,
+      "insertMetaNoIndex": false,
+      "insertSingleFileComment": true,
+      "loadDeferredImagesBlockCookies": false,
+      "loadDeferredImagesBlockStorage": false,
+      "logsEnabled": true,
+      "maxSizeDuplicateImages": 524288,
+      "progressBarEnabled": true,
+      "removeImports": true,
+      "resolveFragmentIdentifierURLs": false,
+      "saveFavicon": true,
+      "tabMenuEnabled": true,
+      "userScriptEnabled": false,
+      "_migratedTemplateFormat": true,
+      "delayBeforeProcessing": 0,
+      "blockAlternativeImages": true,
       "resolveLinks": true,
-      "groupDuplicateStylesheets": false,
+      "filenameReplacementCharacters": [
+        "～",
+        "＋",
+        "？",
+        "％",
+        "＊",
+        "：",
+        "｜",
+        "＂",
+        "＜",
+        "＞",
+        "＼"
+      ],
       "infobarPositionAbsolute": false,
       "infobarPositionTop": "16px",
       "infobarPositionRight": "16px",
@@ -169,13 +176,7 @@
       "infobarPositionLeft": ""
     }
   },
-  "rules": [
-    {
-      "url": "file:",
-      "profile": "__Default_Settings__",
-      "autoSaveProfile": "__Disabled_Settings__"
-    }
-  ],
+  "rules": [],
   "maxParallelWorkers": 4,
   "processInForeground": false
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}

I will investigate further.

[keks24]

I found the culprit after a long trial and error session.

It seems to be related to the Annotation editor with the option:

annotate the page before saving

Which is openEditor in the JSON file.

Even, if nothing is annotated, the SHA256 checksum is altered:

Without Annotation editor (openEditor: false):

$ sha256sum Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_d3cdfc68cd79bc991685fdec1f440cd460aaf32ca4be76890458777f5e29d84d.html
d3cdfc68cd79bc991685fdec1f440cd460aaf32ca4be76890458777f5e29d84d  Impressum ｜ heise online_d3cdfc68cd79bc991685fdec1f440cd460aaf32ca4be76890458777f5e29d84d.html

With Annotation editor (openEditor: true):

$ sha256sum Impressum\ ｜\ heise\ online_43c331ef93c01c08882a536f36ec4f11d65c7ecd60378b1da9d0368695e520ce.html
850e9af5984c643c4badd962af40cb6f72492dd10dffd1be6212b74dfa8b1bf7  Impressum ｜ heise online_43c331ef93c01c08882a536f36ec4f11d65c7ecd60378b1da9d0368695e520ce.html

The workaround would be to not use the Annotation editor.

It would be nice to have a warning text, if one is selecting annotate the page before saving or add proof of existence (addProof: true).