[iOS] CodePush update lost after restarting the App

[vssalcedo]

Hello there.
I’m experiencing a strange behavior when pushing updates with CodePush on iOS Platform.

My binary has the version 2.0. When I make a CodePush update targeting the 2.0 version, the update gets successfully installed on device. But when I restart the app (close and open again), it returns to the original binary bundle.

This issue is happening only on iOS, Android is working fine.

Expected Behavior

After restarting the app, keep the installed codePush version

Actual Behavior

After restarting the app, i get the old bundle version.

Scenario

• Using release mode to take the updates from Codepush server instead of the local package server.

• Already replaced this line on AppDelegate.m as the documentation points out:

jsCodeLocation = [CodePush bundleURL];

I’m using the JS wrapper this way:

let codePushOptions = {
    checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_START
};

export default UpdatesHandler = codePush(codePushOptions)(UpdatesHandler);

And I sync with the codePush server calling the proper method on componentDidMount:

componentDidMount() {
codePush.sync({
            updateDialog: false,
            installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
 });
}

I also tried calling codePush.notifyAppReady() before the sync call but no luck.

I've already checked on mscenter and there are not rollbacks registered. And as you can see here I’m targeting the 2.0 version in all releases:

Environment

• react-native-code-push version: 6.2.1
• react-native version: 0.60.5
• iOS/Android/Windows version: iOS 13.3.1
• Does this reproduce on a debug build or release build? Release build
• Does this reproduce on a simulator, or only on a physical device? physical device, haven't tried on simulator yet

[joshua-davis-rose]

We experienced the same issue:
react-native-code-push: 6.2.0
react-native: 0.62.2
iOS: 13.5.1

[ankitsolanki]

Any updaye on this - same issue on droid.

[Krasavinigor]

Hi @vssalcedo!
Thanks for reporting!

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce this issue. Could you please provide a demo app with reproducing issue and reprosteps? I would like to reproduce and investigate this issue.

[iqfantasysports]

We experienced the same issue:
react-native-code-push: 6.2.0
react-native: 0.62.2
iOS: 13.5.1

We're experiencing this same issue. Update is downloaded and applied immediately. Code changes are reflected as expected. On next app start, codepush reverts to running bundle shipped with binary. Please help.

[iqfantasysports]

@joshua-davis-rose @vssalcedo Were you able to figure out a solution to this problem? I've had an app running the same manual code sync logic for a couple of years now without issues until recently. Any help is appreciated.

[vssalcedo]

Hi @iqfantasysports i've been a little bit busy these days. I tried again but i was not able to solve this problem. I'll try to create a reproducible demo during this week so they can help us with this issue. (If someone could provide his own demo, do it aswell so we can get more feedback).

Btw are u experiencing this issue on both iOS and Android or just iOS?

[iqfantasysports]

Hi @iqfantasysports i've been a little bit busy these days. I tried again but i was not able to solve this problem. I'll try to create a reproducible demo during this week so they can help us with this issue. (If someone could provide his own demo, do it aswell so we can get more feedback).

Btw are u experiencing this issue on both iOS and Android or just iOS?

@vssalcedo Only on iOS. Android is fine.

[vssalcedo]

I tried to create a reproducible demo with the same steps but it works. I ship the new bundle with codepush and after restarting the app i get the updated bundle.

But when i try the same on my personal project it does not work, idk what is going on. Could someone provide a non-working demo with his own issue?

[luskin]

Same issue here! We've tried everything. Everything works as expected until app restarts, then the update gets flagged as a failed install and rolls back. I've confirmed that the app delegate is in fact using the [CodePush bundleURL]. We have also tried all variations of notifying codepush that the update was successful and no luck on our end. Hopefully the maintainers will have more information soon.

[luskin]

One interesting point to note is that if you simply just wrap your entire application with codepush, it does not roll back:

let codePushOptions = {
  checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_RESUME,
  installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE,
  mandatoryInstallMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE,
}
export default codePush(codePushOptions)(App)

I'm not sure why this works but calling sync() when an update is available rolls back but for now this is... "unblocking" us...

UPDATE & RESOLUTION:
We were able to get our custom sync flow working without rollbacks by simply adding the following the root of the application:

let codePushOptions = {
  checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.MANUAL,
}
export default codePush(codePushOptions)(App)

To anyone else having this problem, first, check to make sure you are actually using the [CodePush bundleURL]; in your AppDelegate.m, then, make sure you root app is wrapped like a posted above. This is the code we use on RN0.63.0 to have a super clean update experience.

export const checkForUpdate = async (): Promise<boolean> => {
  try {
    const remotePackage = await codePush.checkForUpdate()
    console.log('I received the remote package: ', remotePackage)
    if (remotePackage && !remotePackage?.failedInstall) {
      return true
    }
  } catch (e) {
    // TODO - log error
  }
  return false
}

export const restartAppAndInstall = async () => {
  RNBootSplash.show({ duration: 250 })
  await timeout(300)
  codePush.restartApp()
}

export const installUpdateIfAvailable = () => {
  const TimeoutMS = 10000
  const checkAndUpdatePromise = new Promise(async (resolve: Function) => {
    const updateAvailable = await checkForUpdate()
    if (updateAvailable) {
      const syncStatus = (status: codePush.SyncStatus) => {
        console.log('SyncStatus = ', status)
        switch (status) {
          case codePush.SyncStatus.UP_TO_DATE:
          case codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_IGNORED:
            console.log('App is up to date...')
            resolve()
            break
          case codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_INSTALLED:
            console.log('Update installed successfully!')
            // DO NOT RESOLVE AS THE APP WILL REBOOT ITSELF HERE
            break
          case codePush.SyncStatus.UNKNOWN_ERROR:
            console.log('Update received an unknown error...')
            resolve()
            break
          default:
            break
        }
      }

      // Install the update
      codePush.sync(
        {
          installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE,
          mandatoryInstallMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE,
        },
        syncStatus,
      )
    } else {
      resolve()
    }
  })
  return Promise.race([checkAndUpdatePromise, timeout(TimeoutMS)])
}

This can be invoked in two ways, 1, when application is first launched:

  useEffect(() => {
    console.log('Launching app and checking for codepush update....')
    installUpdateIfAvailable().finally(() => {
      timeout(300).finally(() => {
        RNBootSplash.hide({ duration: 350 })
      })
    })
  }, [])

Or when the application comes back from an inactive state (we force check all the time currently but will move this to a periodic check). On resume active state, we call checkForUpdate, if that returns true we display a screen in the app telling them it's time to update. When they click that button it calls restartAppAndInstall - which simply actually just restarts the application and flow #1 takes over. We use react-native-bootsplash to make this a clean seamless experience without any flashing. I hope this helps the next person.

[vssalcedo]

Hi @luskin Thank you so much for your reply. After hours and hours of researching i finally got this working.

In my case it was not the code structure itself but a misconfiguration due to incompatibility with other libraries.

For those who are using React Native Navigation by Wix. Make sure that you are using the proper bundle URL inside the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method on AppDelegate.m:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  
  //NSURL *jsCodeLocation = [[RCTBundleURLProvider sharedSettings] jsBundleURLForBundleRoot:@"index" fallbackResource:nil];  
//This was the original setup. So it was grabbing the original bundle instead of the update of the codepush server
  
  NSURL *jsCodeLocation = [CodePush bundleURL]; // Use this when you make the release build
  
  [ReactNativeNavigation bootstrap:jsCodeLocation launchOptions:launchOptions];
  
  [RNSplashScreen show];
  return YES;
}

After this change, i was able to successfully download the last update from the Codepush server.

I hope this can help.

[Krasavinigor]

Hi @vssalcedo!

I'm going to close this issue for now as It was resolved.
Please feel free to reopen it if you have any questions.