# update-electron-app

> A drop-in module that adds autoUpdating capabilities to Electron apps

Latest version **3.3.0** (published 2026-06-28) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install update-electron-app
pnpm add update-electron-app
yarn add update-electron-app
bun add update-electron-app
```

## Health

**Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active.

Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score; high quality score.

Warnings: low downloads; no esm support.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 3.3.0 |
| Published | 2026-06-28 |
| First published | 2018-04-18 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 2 |
| Unpacked size | 2.9 MB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) |
| GitHub stars | 825 |
| Maintainers | electron-cfa |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/update-electron-app
- Repository: https://github.com/electron/update-electron-app
- Homepage: https://github.com/electron/update-electron-app#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/electron/update-electron-app/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/update-electron-app

## Dependencies (2)

- [ms](https://npm.io/package/ms.md) ^2.1.1
- [github-url-to-object](https://npm.io/package/github-url-to-object.md) ^4.0.4

## Recent versions

- 3.3.0 (latest) — 2026-06-28
- 3.2.0 — 2026-05-01
- 3.1.2 — 2025-12-07
- 3.1.1 — 2025-01-30
- 3.1.0 — 2024-12-13
- 3.0.0 — 2023-10-22
- 2.0.1 — 2020-09-28
- 1.5.0 — 2019-07-10
- 1.4.2 — 2019-06-07
- 1.3.0 — 2018-06-11
- 1.2.0 — 2018-05-22
- 1.1.2 — 2018-05-01
- 1.1.1 — 2018-04-26
- 1.1.0 — 2018-04-19
- 1.0.1 — 2018-04-18
- … 1 more at https://npm.io/package/update-electron-app/versions

## README

# update-electron-app

> A drop-in module that adds autoUpdating capabilities to Electron apps

[![Test](https://github.com/electron/update-electron-app/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/electron/update-electron-app/actions/workflows/test.yml)
[![npm version](http://img.shields.io/npm/v/update-electron-app.svg)](https://npmjs.org/package/update-electron-app)

Supports multiple update sources:
* The free and open-source [update.electronjs.org](https://update.electronjs.org) service.
* Static file storage E.g. S3, Google Cloud Storage, etc.

![screenshot](screenshot.png)

## Requirements

Before using this module, make sure your Electron app meets these criteria:

- Your app runs on macOS or Windows
- Your builds are [code signed] **(macOS only)**
- **If** using `update.electronjs.org`
  - Your app has a public GitHub repository
  - Your builds are published to GitHub Releases
- **If** using static file storage
  - Your builds are published to S3 or other similar static file host using a tool like `@electron-forge/publisher-s3`

## Installation

```sh
npm i update-electron-app
```

## Usage

### With `update.electronjs.org`

Drop this anywhere in your main process:

```js
const { updateElectronApp } = require('update-electron-app')
updateElectronApp()
```

By default your repository URL is found in [your app's `package.json` file](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v9/configuring-npm/package-json#repository).

You can also specify custom options:

```js
const { updateElectronApp, UpdateSourceType } = require('update-electron-app')
updateElectronApp({
  updateSource: {
    type: UpdateSourceType.ElectronPublicUpdateService,
    repo: 'github-user/repo'
  },
  updateInterval: '1 hour',
  logger: require('electron-log')
})
```

### With static file storage

```js
const { updateElectronApp, UpdateSourceType } = require('update-electron-app')
updateElectronApp({
  updateSource: {
    type: UpdateSourceType.StaticStorage,
    baseUrl: `https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/my-app-updates/${process.platform}/${process.arch}`
  }
})
```

## What happens?

Once you've called `updateElectronApp` as documented above, that's it! Here's what happens by default:

- Your app will check for updates at startup, then every ten minutes. This interval is [configurable](#API).
- No need to wait for your app's `ready` event; the module figures that out.
- If an update is found, it will automatically be downloaded in the background.
- When an update is finished downloading, a dialog is displayed allowing the user to restart the app now or later.

## API

### `update(options)`

Additional Options:

- `updateInterval` String (optional) - How frequently to check for updates. Defaults to `10 minutes`. Minimum allowed interval is `5 minutes`. This is a human readable interval supported by the [`ms`](https://github.com/vercel/ms#readme) module
- `logger` Object (optional) - A custom logger object that defines a `log` function. Defaults to `console`. See [electron-log](https://github.com/megahertz/electron-log), a module that aggregates logs from main and renderer processes into a single file.
- `notifyUser` Boolean (optional) - Defaults to `true`.  When enabled the user will be
  prompted to apply the update immediately after download.

#### Return value

`updateElectronApp` returns an object with a `stopUpdates` function that stops the
periodic update checks:

```js
const { updateElectronApp } = require('update-electron-app')
const { stopUpdates } = updateElectronApp()

// Later, when you no longer want to check for updates:
stopUpdates()
```

`stopUpdates` is safe to call at any time, including before the app is ready or on
platforms where updates aren't supported. Calling it more than once has no
additional effect.

## FAQ

### What kinds of assets do I need to build?

For macOS, you'll need to build a `.zip` file.
Use [electron-forge] or [electron-installer-zip] to package your app as a zip.

For Windows, you'll need to build a `.exe` and `.nupkg` files with [electron-forge] or [electron-winstaller].

### Why is my app launching multiple times?

On Windows, extra app launches indicate that your app isn't handling the Squirrel.Windows
startup events (such as install, update, and uninstall) that fire during these operations.
You can use the [electron-squirrel-startup](https://github.com/mongodb-js/electron-squirrel-startup) module to handle
these events and avoid the unwanted launches.

### Can I use this module by uploading my private app's builds to a public GitHub repository?

Yes :)

### I want to manually upload my builds to a static storage solution, where do I put them?

If you publish your builds manually ensure the file structure is:
* `**/{platform}/{arch}/{artifact}`

For example that means that these files should exist:
* `**/win32/x64/RELEASES`
* `**/darwin/arm64/RELEASES.json`
* `**/darwin/arm64/My App v1.0.0.zip` (or something similar)
* ...

### How does this module handle GitHub release states?

If using the public update service, the https://update.electronjs.org server handles release fetching logic.
Only releases that have valid SemVer tags and are _not_ marked as draft or pre-release will be collected by
the update service.

The latest release returned by the [`repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases`](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/releases/releases?apiVersion=2022-11-28#list-releases)
GitHub API containing all requisite binaries will be the update target.

## License

MIT

[electron-forge]: https://github.com/electron/forge
[electron-installer-zip]: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-zip
[electron-winstaller]: https://github.com/electron/windows-installer
[code signed]: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/code-signing

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/update-electron-app · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._