Unable to check for updates

Hi,

When I visit the Admin > Updates tab, I receive a message saying:
Sorry, we were unable to check for updates at this time.

Any idea how I can fix this?

Diagnostic Information:

{
  "browser-info": {
    "language": "en-us",
    "platform": "MacIntel",
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_14_6) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1 Safari/605.1.15",
    "vendor": "Apple Computer, Inc."
  },
  "system-info": {
    "file.encoding": "ANSI_X3.4-1968",
    "java.runtime.name": "OpenJDK Runtime Environment",
    "java.runtime.version": "1.8.0_242-b08",
    "java.vendor": "Oracle Corporation",
    "java.vendor.url": "http://java.oracle.com/",
    "java.version": "1.8.0_242",
    "java.vm.name": "OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM",
    "java.vm.version": "25.242-b08",
    "os.name": "Linux",
    "os.version": "3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64",
    "user.language": "en",
    "user.timezone": "Asia/Dubai"
  },
  "metabase-info": {
    "databases": [
      "h2"
    ],
    "hosting-env": "unknown",
    "application-database": "h2",
    "application-database-details": {
      "database": {
        "name": "H2",
        "version": "1.4.197 (2018-03-18)"
      },
      "jdbc-driver": {
        "name": "H2 JDBC Driver",
        "version": "1.4.197 (2018-03-18)"
      }
    },
    "run-mode": "prod",
    "version": {
      "tag": "v0.35.2",
      "date": "2020-04-10",
      "branch": "release-0.35.x",
      "hash": "f3b2857"
    },
    "settings": {
      "report-timezone": null
    }
  }
}

Hi @arjun27
I guess a firewall might be blocking Metabase from accessing it’s check, or a regular network issue. Metabase needs to access this location:

http://static.metabase.com/version-info.json

Latest release is 0.35.3

Hi @flamber

Thanks for the reply.
For some context, I am running the latest Metabase release 0.35.3 as a Systemd service on my CentOS server. On this instance of Metabase, Settings > Updates clearly says that I am running 0.35.3 which is the latest and greatest.

However, for the sake of some testing, I stopped this service systemctl stop metabase and decided to run the 0.35.2 release using the JAR with the command: java -jar metabase.jar. This is where I am facing the trouble.

The server is able to access and download the content of http://static.metabase.com/version-info.json

@arjun27
So you’re using the same application database, when you downgraded to 0.35.2? If you wait 12 hours, then it will likely tell you there’s an update.
You’re probably seeing some version of this issue:
https://github.com/metabase/metabase/issues/11336 - upvote by clicking :+1: on the first post

@flamber
Done. I will check again in 12 hours.
However, I believe I am not using the same H2 databases for both the versions.

For the 0.35.3 version (/var/metabase.jar), the database path is /metabase.db.mv.db
Whereas, for the 0.35.2 (/root/metabase.jar), the database path is /root/metabase.db.mv.db

@arjun27
Okay, you’re providing information after the fact, which would be helpful upfront.
I have a feeling that it might have something to do with your strange charset ANSI_X3.4-1968 - try starting with:
java -file.encoding=UTF-8 -jar metabase.jar

But I would list this as a minor inconvenience - at least it’s not telling you that you’re up-to-date, while running an older version.
I’ve updated the issue to reflect that this error can also be shown - for some unknown reason.
For reference:
https://github.com/metabase/metabase/blob/cd1ceddd95841c327387a6ffb74468ebeb60a652/frontend/src/metabase/admin/settings/components/SettingsUpdatesForm.jsx#L12-L60

By the way, if you’re running Metabase in production, then migrate away from H2:
https://www.metabase.com/docs/latest/operations-guide/migrating-from-h2.html

1 Like

@flamber
Sorry about that. I really thought this was some straightforward issue but looks like it’s more serious than that :slight_smile: I should have provided all the details when I created the topic.

Anyways, I ran java -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -jar metabase.jar (-file.encoding did not work) and it still shows the same “Sorry, we were unable to check for updates at this time” error.

This is only a development environment. I will definitely migrate to MySQL or PostgreSQL when running in production.