Are you trying to update the app as soon as it's first installed? I bet you are :)

I'm not sure what you mean.

AutoUpdater is called when the app starts after the 'ready' event.

Is this the way it should be done?

@paulcbetts the docs don't explain any of this.

https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/api/auto-updater.md

I have a function in my MAIN process that is in charge of setting up autoUpdate.

app.on('ready', ()=>{
    initUpdates()
})

And then:

function initUpdates(){
    let platform = os.platform() + '_' + os.arch();
    let version = app.getVersion();

    autoUpdater.setFeedURL('https://domain.com/' + platform + '/' + version);

    autoUpdater.on('checking-for-update', () => {
        ...
    });

    autoUpdater.on('update-available', () => {
        ...
    });

    autoUpdater.on('update-not-available', () => {
        ...
    });

    autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', () => {
        ...
    });

    autoUpdater.checkForUpdates();
}

Of course this happens every time the app starts.

What am I doing wrong?

What am I doing wrong?

The error message says exactly what's happening - "Couldn't acquire update lock, is another instance running?"

The other instance is the Squirrel.Windows that is just finishing up installing your app - we launch your EXE on First Run, then exit, but if you jump on checking for updates the second you start up, Squirrel is still running.

The fix is to not check for updates when --squirrel-firstrun is in the arguments

Thanks for the clarification.

we launch your EXE on First Run, then exit

Why do you do that?

And how come this isn't explained in any of the autoUpdater docs?

I will try to clarify this on the docs and do a PR.

@PierBover

And how come this isn't explained in any of the autoUpdater docs?

This is in the docs for the windows-installer module

See: https://github.com/electron/windows-installer#handling-squirrel-events

Yes but when reading the autoUpdater docs or the electron-builder docs there is mention about this.

You really can't expect your users to go read all the docs of all the dependencies for something as critical as this.

@PierBover If electron-builder doesn't document it, it shouldn't end up in the Electron docs it should be documented on that repo. This functionality is independent of the autoUpdater module inside Electron 👍

electron-builder wraps / uses the electron-winstaller module (where it is documented correctly)

This functionality is independent of the autoUpdater module inside Electron

Technically you are right, but you do offer links to the servers for example, no?

Since the autoUpdater docs are the first thing a user sees when trying to implement updates at least a mention wouldn't really hurt. Or at least you could offer a guide in your website where all this info is mentioned.

Will you accept a PR if I try to clarify all this?

Will you accept a PR if I try to clarify all this?

Not for me to decide, but IMO this is a very specific use case. In order for a user to implement auto updates they will either have to:

• Read the Squirrel.Windows docs and figure it out themselves
• Read the electron-winstaller docs and implement that module
• Use electron-builder which does everything for you

The first two use cases have their own documentation which explains how everything works. The third one (your use case) does not have documentation or links to the relevant electron-winstaller documentation so personally I think it should be documented there.

Although considering the amount of

Platform Specific Notices

I guess it couldn't hurt to put it here https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/api/auto-updater.md#windows as a small note and a link to the electron-winstaller docs

Done: #7160