Community plugin downloader can fail entirely or leave an update incomplete

Bug reports
1

Community plugin downloader can fail entirely or leave an update incomplete

Environment: Windows, Obsidian 1.15.0, installer 1.14.4

I’ve run into two kinds of failure in Obsidian’s Community plugins downloader. In one case, it checked a download link that returned HTTP 404 and didn’t install the plugin at all. In another, it applied a plugin update without downloading the stylesheet, leaving the plugin enabled but visually broken.

Case 1 — Plugin installation fails entirely

  1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.

  2. Try to install PDF++ or Study PDF.

  3. Obsidian shows Failed to install plugin. The developer console showed HTTP 404 on the initial attempts.

The downloader appeared to be checking the wrong download link on at least one attempt. The official release files existed, and both plugins installed and loaded when I downloaded those files through GitHub’s release asset API. Later retries returned HTTP 504 on the standard release download URLs. I didn’t capture the exact URL from the original 404, so I can’t tell whether Obsidian constructed the wrong URL, followed a bad redirect, or received a transient error from the download route.

Case 2 — Plugin update is applied with a missing file

  1. Start with Persian Calendar 4.9.8 enabled and its sidebar open.

  2. Update to 4.10.0 through Community plugins.

  3. The updated plugin loads, but its sidebar renders as one long column instead of a calendar grid. The plugin folder contains main.js and manifest.json, while styles.css is missing.

During diagnosis, requesting the official stylesheet through Obsidian’s network client returned 504 Gateway Time-out. GitHub’s release asset API served the file successfully. Applying the official stylesheet to the running 4.10.0 plugin immediately restored the grid. I’ve attached a screenshot of the broken layout.

Expected behavior

  • When a plugin download fails, show which file and URL failed, along with the HTTP status, so users can distinguish a bad link from a temporary network error.

  • When updating an installed plugin, preserve the working version until the new release files are ready. If a stylesheet request times out, retry or report the update failure. Plugins whose releases intentionally omit a stylesheet should still install normally.