502 Errors - Description and Status

Symptom

Since mid-May 2023, we've noticed an increasing number of cases where Affixa is reporting a 502 error and not creating draft messages. This applies to both Affixa Desktop (which has a green circle icon) and Affixa Enterprise (which has a colourful star icon).

Quite often, reattempting to send the message or create the draft will then work, although it may take more than one try.

Diagnosis

The problem that's arising is actually a problem with the Gmail servers (specifically, the Gmail API servers) rather than Affixa itself.

A 502 error means that Google's server is trying to talk to another Google server and failing to do so. This could be because a load balancer is failing to reach a back-end API instance, for example.

Final Status

As at 8 June 2023, 11:54, UK time.

Releases addressing the 502 issue are now available for both Affixa Desktop and Affixa Enterprise:

• Affixa Desktop [exe / msi]
• Affixa Enterprise - requires Client version 1.5.1.0 or greater. This can be downloaded from the Affixa Portal on the Download Software screen (when logged in as an administrator). If you have this client version or later and haven't installed the Google Client Library manually, your software will auto-update. If you elected to deploy the Google Client Library manually, you can download the new version of this (1.2023.06.02) from the same page.

Previous Status Updates

As at 6 June 2023, 22:29, UK time.

A new build of Affixa Desktop [exe / msi] is now available that will automatically retry if a 502 error occurs. That said, it does look like Google have now fixed the root cause, so this isn't quite as urgent.

A new build of the Google library for Affixa Enterprise will be made available tomorrow.

As at 5 June 2023, 12:45, UK time.

Our code signing certificate has been issued so we'll aim to make new software releases within the next 24 hours. However, as things stand, it would appear the problem has gone away (at least for now).

As at 3 June 2023, 09:53, UK time.

We've prepared some example code for Google so that they can reproduce the problem. However, it does look like the 502 problem isn't happening at the moment (meaning the problem isn't reproducible)!

We'd love to think that it's gone for good, but we'll keep checking over the course of the weekend.

As at 3 June 2023, 08:13, UK time.

We've heard back from Google and they've confirmed that the issue we're all running into might be related to an ongoing investigation. They have asked for further information and we'll provide that today.

No further news on the code signing certificate, unfortunately. We're unlikely to hear anything further on that until Monday.

Thanks for your continued patience while we do our best to support you through this problem.

As at 2 June 2023, 21:38, UK time.

Indications are that the volume and frequency of 502 errors in the Gmail API has increased today. We've also now established that other software product vendors are experiencing the same problems.

As at 2 June 2023, 19:51, UK time.

A further update: we're also trying to get some engagement from Google themselves since the 502 error indicates that the root cause is server-to-server issues within their estate. Google resolving the root cause problem would also make this situation go away.

As at 2 June 2023, 18:16, UK time.

Frustratingly, we're still waiting for the organisational validation to be completed (so that we can sign our software releases again). We apologise; this is outside of our control but we're doing our best to chivvy things along.

As at 2 June 2023, midnight, UK time.

We're aware of the problem, and while the cause isn't Affixa itself, we have changed Affixa Desktop and Affixa Enterprise so it automatically retries uploading your message if it fails because of a 502 error.

We've done the changes and have tested both editions of Affixa, but there is a small delay in making the updates available to you. This is because we need to procure a new code signing certificate and undergo organisational verification, which takes several days. Our previous vendor, with whom we'd already completed organisational verification (Tucows), has ceased trading.

As soon as we have a new code signing certificate available, we'll make the software available to you.

Updated software won't be pushed out automatically, initially. Once we've had strong indications from those who have manually downloaded the update that it seems to be working, we'll push the update out for others to download automatically.

Further Questions

If you have any further questions, please raise a support ticket and we'll get back in touch. Otherwise, keep monitoring this page for further updates.