Comment 1 by jteh on 2013-09-05 04:54
A more descriptive error is logged to the log file. We don't output the error directly because it may not be translated, may contain technical details that don't make sense to most users, etc.

The check is possibly failing because you are behind some sort of proxy that NVDA can't use for some reason. You can't install updates if you don't have administrator privileges, but you won't hit that problem until NVDA has actually downloaded the update and is trying to install it.

Leaving open in case there's a specific issue here that needs addressing. Please provide the relevant content from the log file (or attach the entire log file if you're not certain).

Comment 2 by srippon (in reply to comment 1) on 2013-09-06 00:14
Where is the log file located?

Do all the 'Check for update...' errors give the same error message? If so I think we could really improve the usability/user experience of this by providing the user some simple details about why the update didn't work.

Replying to jteh:

A more descriptive error is logged to the log file. We don't output the error directly because it may not be translated, may contain technical details that don't make sense to most users, etc.

The check is possibly failing because you are behind some sort of proxy that NVDA can't use for some reason. You can't install updates if you don't have administrator privileges, but you won't hit that problem until NVDA has actually downloaded the update and is trying to install it.

Leaving open in case there's a specific issue here that needs addressing. Please provide the relevant content from the log file (or attach the entire log file if you're not certain).

Comment 3 by jteh (in reply to comment 2) on 2013-09-06 00:42
Replying to srippon:

Where is the log file located?

The simplest way to access it is via NVDA menu -> Tools -> View log.

Do all the 'Check for update...' errors give the same error message?

Yes.

If so I think we could really improve the usability/user experience of this by providing the user some simple details about why the update didn't work.

Generally, any errors are connection related, but there could be many connection related errors, most of which have rather technical (and possibly not localised) error messages.

Comment 4 by srippon (in reply to comment 3) on 2013-09-10 06:01
Replying to jteh:

The simplest way to access it is via NVDA menu -> Tools -> View log.

Thanks for letting me know where the log is located.
When I checked the log it had an entry for when I initiated the update but it didn't have any information on the error. I'll try to attach the log to this report. Here is last entry in the log about the update:

INFO - updateCheck.AutoUpdateChecker._started (15:42:42):
Performing automatic update check

Do all the 'Check for update...' errors give the same error message?

Yes.

If so I think we could really improve the usability/user experience of this by providing the user some simple details about why the update didn't work.

Generally, any errors are connection related, but there could be many connection related errors, most of which have rather technical (and possibly not localised) error messages.

I'm sorry I'm not a programmer but is there anything I can do to help to write some update error messages?

Attachment nvda-2013-1-1-update-error.log added by srippon on 2013-09-10 06:03
Description:
NVDA 2013.1.1 log file after failed update.

Unfortunately, this log doesn't reveal anything useful and we no longer have contact with the reporter. Closing.