Auto update doesn't work: `app-update.yml` is missing

[thisismydesign]

• Version: ^20.44.4

• electron-updater Version: ^4.0.14

• Target: --win --x64 NSIS

We noticed that auto-update doesn't work on our newly released app. In our entry point we have:

import { autoUpdater } from "electron-updater";

// ...

autoUpdater.setFeedURL({
  provider: "github",
  owner: "org",
  repo: "repo",
});

• No publish config in package.json
• No GH_TOKEN
• built on GitLab's CI
• the initial release didn't have a latest.yml file

We don't have logs about what the actual error might be. We did many tests before and after with the same and similar setups and it seems to work for the most part (even without publish config). Nevertheless, we managed to probably reproduce the issue by setting up dummy projects in the same environment and we got:

An update is available.
Error in auto-updater. Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\Programs\electron-updater-example\resources\app-update.yml'

The main difference being the environment, and in this particular environment if the publish config is initially unset, app-update.yml was not found in the installed app. Most interestingly, after removing the publish config app-update.yml is still there.

To reproduce:

• release repo on github: https://github.com/gomorizsolt/electron-updater-releases/releases
• build repo on gitlab: https://gitlab.com/gomori.zsolt1995/electron-updater-test-project
• install 3.0.0, note that auto-update doesn't work and app-update.yml is missing(build repo at 3.0.0: https://gitlab.com/gomori.zsolt1995/electron-updater-test-project/tree/f66d0bcd5b8912d3a9aa436cc74c4e546fe1bba4)
• install 3.0.1, note that auto-update works and app-update.yml is present (build repo at 3.0.1: https://gitlab.com/gomori.zsolt1995/electron-updater-test-project/tree/c0d81fd3f10512eff5bb88bb7ba2a0117bc56ad3)
• install 3.0.4 (which is supposed to revert the fixing change), note that auto-update works and app-update.yml is present (build repo at 3.0.4: https://gitlab.com/gomori.zsolt1995/electron-updater-test-project/tree/522cd15f0dd110d62705b99c9e019723a13628d4)

Found a few mentions about app-update.yml not being found, most notably: #2736 (comment)

But it's never clear anywhere whether this is a known bug or what's causing it and why this behavior seemingly isn't idempotent.

I'd like to understand how to fix it and whether we have any recourse for resurrecting auto-updates for existing users (in case there could be other reasons for this behavior).

[danlester]

In case it helps anyone, I ran into this issue when my package.json's build:win contained "target": [ "zip", "msi" ].
When I changed this to "nsis" instead of "msi" I found that app-update.yml started to be generated correctly. (Perhaps just try all three zip, msi, nsis if it's msi you're after...)

[stale]

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[thisismydesign]

Still relevant

[migliorinie]

I have the same problem.

- Version: ^22.2.0
- electron-updater Version: ^4.2.0
- target: win x64 portable

The autoupdater is created as const { autoUpdater } = require("electron-updater")
The application is packed with electron-builder -w --publish always
The relevant lines in package.json are

"build": {
    "appId": "com.app.id",
    "productName": "prodName",
    "copyright": "Copyright © 2019 ${author}",
    "win": {
      "target": "portable",
      "icon": "assets/icon4.png",
      "publish": {
        "provider": "generic",
        "url": "http://updateurl.com/"
    }
  }
}

And the error I get in the log is

[2019-12-03 11:49:33.109] [info] Checking for update
[2019-12-03 11:49:33.209] [error] Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\Temp\1UTA56tjgEk9mjIZSBjQlkSgllh\resources\app-update.yml'

The .yml file and latest.yml are properly generated if I build with "nsis" target.

[pablocar80]

I ran into this problem when the publish key is defined at the appImage level and not at the linux level. In that case, the app-update.yml file is not generated.

[stale]

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[thisismydesign]

Is this still relevant?

Very

[AzeemMichael]

Is there any progress on this? It's April 14, 2020, and, this issue is still not resolved. I tried to manually add my own app-update.yml file. But, doing so causes mac security to think the app was modified after being notarized.

[AzeemMichael]

Since there is no fix on this yet. I added "afterPack": "./afterPackHook.js", in the build part of package.json. afterPackHook.js file contains the code below. It generates the missing app-update.yml, however, after the new version is downloaded I get an error.

Error after new version is downloaded

New version 1.3.2 has been downloaded to /Users/amichael/Library/Application Support/Caches/demoapp-updater/pending/Demo App-1.3.2-mac.zip
/ requested
/1587329652828-8531.zip requested
/1587329652828-8531.zip requested by Squirrel.Mac, pipe /Users/amichael/Library/Application Support/Caches/demoapp-updater/pending/Demo App-1.3.2-mac.zip
Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, rename '/Users/amichael/Library/Application Support/Caches/demoapp-updater/pending/temp-Demo App-1.3.2-mac.zip' -> '/Users/amichael/Library/Application Support/Caches/demoapp-updater/pending/Demo App-1.3.2-mac.zip'

afterPackHook.js

'use strict'
const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')
const yaml = require('js-yaml')
exports.default = async context => {
    let data = {
        provider: 'spaces',
        name: 'demoapp',
        region: 'nyc3',
        path: '/test/'
    }
    switch (process.platform) {
        case "win32":
            data.updaterCacheDirName = 'demo-app-updater'
            data.publisherName = ['Company Name LLC']
            fs.writeFileSync(
                path.join(__dirname, 'dist','win-unpacked','resources','app-update.yml')
                , yaml.safeDump(data)
                , 'utf8'
            )
            break
        default: // unix
            data.updaterCacheDirName = 'demoapp-updater'
            fs.writeFileSync(
                path.join(__dirname, 'dist','mac','Demo App.app','Contents','Resources','app-update.yml')
                , yaml.safeDump(data)
                , 'utf8'
            )
            break
    }
    fs.writeFileSync(
        path.join(__dirname, 'dev-app-update.yml')
        , yaml.safeDump(data)
        , 'utf8'
    )
}