App update fails with forbidden (403)

[ArulOSlash]

Facing an issue with the App update

I've been using the Sparkle framework for 6 months, In recent days few of our users facing an issue when they check for updates.
I'm Using SPUUpdater.checkForUpdates() to check for updates. Sparkle framework starts checking for updates but after a couple of seconds, it's throwing an error. Attaching the console log and screenshot for reference. The weird part is that issue not occurring to all people.

2022-11-30 19:35:02.502198+0530 OSlash[2435:56787] [Sparkle] Encountered download feed error: Error Domain=SUSparkleErrorDomain Code=2001 "An error occurred while downloading the update. Please try again later." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred while downloading the update. Please try again later., NSUnderlyingError=0x600002bc9380 {Error Domain=SUSparkleErrorDomain Code=2001 "A network error occurred while downloading the update. forbidden (403)" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=A network error occurred while downloading the update. forbidden (403)}}}
2022-11-30 19:35:03.566336+0530 OSlash[2435:56787] [Sparkle] Error: An error occurred in retrieving update information. Please try again later. (null) (URL (null))
2022-11-30 19:35:03.566393+0530 OSlash[2435:56787] [Sparkle] Error: An error occurred while downloading the update. Please try again later. (null) (URL (null))
2022-11-30 19:35:03.566416+0530 OSlash[2435:56787] [Sparkle] Error: A network error occurred while downloading the update. forbidden (403) (null) (URL (null))

SandboxEnabled: NO

Sparkle.framework version: 2.3.0

[zorgiepoo]

It looks like users are getting HTTP 403 (forbidden) responses when trying to download the update feed / appcast.. You would have to investigate this on your server to see why it's doing that, or it might be something specific to their network with your server.

[ArulOSlash]

@zorgiepoo Tried curl in the same machine's terminal which is working properly and able to get the appcast XML file content. Ideally, Sparkle should be able to read the same right?

[zorgiepoo]

I'd try to replicate the URL request with the same http headers (Sparkle adds a User-Agent header by default) and feed parameters Sparkle uses (feed parameters are only added if you opt into sending of system profile information and that is only done once a week). I'm not sure if NSURLSession / NSURLRequest adds anything else on top of that. We also specify that no caching behavior should be used (via NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData).

Also how do you set your feed URL? (unfortunately this isn't logged). Do you now or did you ever before try to set the feed url programmatically?

[ArulOSlash]

Previously I set feedURL on plist, and recently yes I tried to update the URL programmatically but later switched back to plist. Also, I don’t have any cache on my end. 


Just to mention, Right now I’m referring feedURL from the config file, is it related to this?

[zorgiepoo]

See Setting the feed programmatically notes about setFeedURL:. Unfortunately this API persists in the user's defaults and takes precedence over the SUFeedURL key in your app's Info.plist. So if you set it to some feed URL in the past that is not valid now, and you didn't clear the default via passing nil to setFeedURL, that could cause issues now for instance. (And because of this persistence it's not easy to formally deprecate this API).

[ArulOSlash]

I am not aware of this persistence part and its precedence, this is the issue in my case.
Thanks a lot @zorgiepoo