Adobe Air Updater error 16824

Trying to do a quick test of the Adobe AIR Updater feature, I ran into Error# 16284 immediately after the download of the update air file.

A quick google search presented me with the following description:

16824 Invalid update descriptor. subErrorID may provide more information.

Although vague, it did lead me to the solution. In my haste to test the updater, I simply copied and pasted the  app_1.0.air file and renamed it to app_1.1. Then I set the updater.xml file’s <version> tag to ‘1.1’ pointed the <url> tag to the new ‘app_1.1.air’ file.

The problem occurs when AIR downloads the app_1.1.air file and inspects the <version> tag in it’s app-app.xml file. AIR did not like the fact that version number still remained at ‘1’ when it was looking for ‘1.1’.  A quick update to 1.1 in the version tag, and upload the new build and problem solved.

If I didn’t want to create a new build, I could have simply renamed app_1.1.air to app_1.1.zip, open the zip file, edit the app-app.xml file and named the file back to app_1.1.air.

Chalk it up to another copy and paste error of a different kind. I hope this saves someone a little time.