checkForUpdates() with dev-app-update.yml returns null result instead of expected object

• Electron-Builder Version: 22.14.13

• Node Version: 14.17.6

• Electron Version: 17.4.0
• Electron Type (current, beta, nightly): current

• Target: Unpackaged/DEV (but running on Windows)

We have a code like below and I’ve confirmed the path is correct and that the dev-app-update.yml points to our S3 bucket, but the updateCheckResult is always null. Shouldn’t we be receiving the proper versionInfo and updateInfo in an object?

I’ve already confirmed that the updater works outside of DEV, so why null result in DEV? This did not used to be the behavior but I don’t know when it changed. We haven’t touched our code or changed our update bucket path in ages.

autoUpdater.updateConfigPath = path.join(
    __dirname,
    'dev-app-update.yml'
);

autoUpdater
    .checkForUpdates()
    .then(updateCheckResult => {
        handleUpdateCheckResult(updateCheckResult);
    })

[mmaietta]

Yes, I see that behavior specified here: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/blob/db0754805b4d6c5d8a4d86af7cb107db87bda303/packages/electron-updater/src/AppUpdater.ts#L252-L255

I wasn’t aware that previously it could still be used locally without packaging the app. The isUpdaterActive check was moved into checkForUpdates due to users reporting error logs that it was checking for a non-existent update file. This was most notable for any distributable that doesn’t support auto-update

Not sure what we should do. Seems like the warning log message needs to be updated, and it seems reasonable that we allow dev-app-update.yml to be usable. Can we use a different flag, or add an arg to checkForUpdates(forceDev = false) { ... } with default false?

[DogFoxX]

I also get Skip checkForUpdatesAndNotify because application is not packed although I’m calling autoUpdater.checkForUpdates(). I have dev-app-update.yml in root, and running

function isDev() {
   return !app.isPackaged;
};

if (isDev()) {
   autoUpdater.checkForUpdates();
};

doesn’t change a thing.

Currently on v5.0.1, didn’t have this issue previously on v4.6.5. I really don’t want to package my app every time just to test updates.