MQTT Retained Message Not Stored

What is MQTT Retained Message Not Stored

Understanding MQTT and Its Purpose

MQTT, which stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, is a lightweight messaging protocol designed for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. It is widely used in IoT (Internet of Things) applications to enable communication between devices and servers. The protocol is designed to minimize network bandwidth and device resource requirements while ensuring reliability and some degree of assurance of delivery.

Identifying the Symptom: Retained Message Not Stored

In MQTT, a retained message is a special kind of message that the broker stores and delivers to any future subscribers that match the topic. The symptom of this issue is that retained messages are not being stored by the broker, which means new subscribers do not receive the last known message for a topic upon subscription.

Exploring the Issue: Why Retained Messages Might Not Be Stored

The root cause of this issue is often related to the broker's configuration. If the broker is set up not to store retained messages, it will not keep the last message sent to a topic, and as a result, new subscribers will not receive any retained message when they subscribe to that topic.

For more information on MQTT retained messages, you can refer to the official MQTT documentation.

Steps to Fix the Issue

Step 1: Verify Broker Configuration

First, check the broker's configuration file to ensure that it is set to allow retained messages. This setting is typically found in the broker's configuration file, which might be named something like mosquitto.conf for the Mosquitto broker.

Step 2: Enable Retained Messages

If retained messages are disabled, you will need to enable them. For example, in Mosquitto, you would look for a line in the configuration file that might look like:

allow_anonymous true

Ensure that there is no line explicitly disabling retained messages. If necessary, add or modify the configuration to enable retained messages.

Step 3: Restart the Broker

After making changes to the configuration file, restart the broker to apply the changes. For Mosquitto, you can restart the broker using the following command:

sudo systemctl restart mosquitto

Ensure that the broker restarts without errors by checking the service status:

sudo systemctl status mosquitto

Step 4: Test the Configuration

Once the broker is restarted, test the configuration by publishing a retained message to a topic and then subscribing to that topic from a different client. The new subscriber should receive the retained message immediately upon subscription.

For a detailed guide on testing MQTT configurations, you can visit HiveMQ's blog on retained messages.

Conclusion

By ensuring that your MQTT broker is correctly configured to store retained messages, you can ensure that new subscribers receive the last known message for a topic immediately upon subscription. This feature is particularly useful in IoT applications where devices may come online at different times and need to receive the latest state information.