Affinity Photo (+ Designer and Publisher) will not update to 1.10.1 from 1.9.3 unless I turn off my VPN

[PJenkin]

I've been trying to update my versions of Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher from 1.9.3 to 1.10.1 but I kept getting a message saying that the update had failed and to try again later. I "tried again later" several times + restarted my computer on a number of occasions but all to no avail.

I'm not a computer / software expert so I was at a loss to think what I might need to do to complete the updates when I questioned whether the presence of a VPN might make any difference. I turned off my VPN and was able to complete the updates.

I have no idea why turning off my VPN made the difference but it might help others in a similar situation of you'd update the message about update failure to include a suggestion to try turning off any VPN before trying to install the update again.

[WN1X]

Why are you using VPN? For work access or something else?

[Twolane]

I use a VPN for everything.

[WN1X]

The idea that VPN provides security for browsing is false--the only thing it does is to hide your IP address from your destination and provide an encrypted channel for sites that do not use HTTPS. That's it. In a work environment VPN allows access to an internal LAN.

If the Affinity updates are failing when connected with VPN, it is something your VPN provider is doing to block the traffic. I would ask them.

[kenmcd]

1 hour ago, WN1X said:

The idea that VPN provides security for browsing is false--the only thing it does is to hide your IP address from your destination and provide an encrypted channel for sites that do not use HTTPS. That's it. In a work environment VPN allows access to an internal LAN.

And prevent DNS blocks, and prevent protocol blocks, and circumvent government censorship, and prevent ISP spying, and prevent phone company spying, and possibly help someone keep from getting murdered by their communist authoritarian dictator government, or numerous other dictatorships which kill their own citizens. My own phone company has magically sent me free upgrades when I have texted competitors (when the VPN was Off).

1 hour ago, WN1X said:

If the Affinity updates are failing when connected with VPN, it is something your VPN provider is doing to block the traffic. I would ask them.

VPNs are there to provide access, it is highly unlikely they are blocking it. It is more likely being blocked at the source either based on the VPN IP or it simply cannot or will not authenticate the user because of restrictions placed at the source (usually because they have some geolocation required as a safeguard, and with a VPN that check is meaningless).

[R C-R]

On 8/28/2021 at 12:12 PM, LibreTraining said:

It is more likely being blocked at the source either based on the VPN IP or it simply cannot or will not authenticate the user because of restrictions placed at the source (usually because they have some geolocation required as a safeguard, and with a VPN that check is meaningless).

It might help to know which store the OP purchased the apps from, since the update method is different for the different ones.

[Dan C]

Hi @PJenkin,

Apologies for the delayed response here!

On 8/28/2021 at 4:39 PM, PJenkin said:

I've been trying to update my versions of Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher from 1.9.3 to 1.10.1 but I kept getting a message saying that the update had failed and to try again later. I "tried again later" several times + restarted my computer on a number of occasions but all to no avail.

I'm not a computer / software expert so I was at a loss to think what I might need to do to complete the updates when I questioned whether the presence of a VPN might make any difference. I turned off my VPN and was able to complete the updates.

I can confirm that unfortunately this isn't something we have direct control over at Affinity AFAIK, our updates are hosted on AWS (Amazon) servers and I've seen the update fail previously for customers with VPNs enabled.

Of course, this does depend on R C-Rs comment above, as updates from the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store aren't hosted by Affinity and therefore each store may have it's own security protocols for downloading.

On 8/28/2021 at 4:39 PM, PJenkin said:

I have no idea why turning off my VPN made the difference but it might help others in a similar situation of you'd update the message about update failure to include a suggestion to try turning off any VPN before trying to install the update again.

Thank you for the feedback! This is a suggestion we'd offer to the user if they contacted Technical Support, but I certainly see how this could reduce the need for customers to contact us when they have an issue - so I'll be sure to pass this suggestion through to our devs