Plugin Updates panel blank — TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'replace')

[soulhakr]

Environment

• Obsidian version: 1.12.7
• OS: macOS (M4 MacBook Pro)
• Plugin Update Tracker version: 1.7.0
• Vault: iCloud-synced
• Date first observed: 2026-05-17

Description

When Obsidian loads and the "Plugin Updates" panel is opened, the panel renders blank. The developer console shows a TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'replace') originating from Plugin Update Tracker. The error fires 4 times per session (two caught + two uncaught) with identical stack traces on each render/re-render attempt, so the panel never recovers.

Console errors

plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:13 TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'replace')
    at CA (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:830:99)
    at gu (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:828:62769)
    at eval (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:903:2407)
    at Array.map (<anonymous>)
    at eval (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:903:2387)
    at Array.map (<anonymous>)
    at eval (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:903:2345)
    at Object.useMemo (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:11:25891)
    at L1.useMemo (plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:6:19050)

plugin:obsidian-plugin-update-tracker:11 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'replace')
    [same stack as above]

Root cause (identified)

By calling the Lambda endpoint directly with my installed plugin list, I identified that obsidian-local-rest-api release 4.0.1 is returned with versionName: null (the GitHub release name field appears to have been left blank and the fallback to versionNumber is not happening server-side).

This null propagates into the render pipeline at:

notes: gu(S.notes, S.versionName, S.versionNumber, M.githubRepositoryUrl)

where gu calls CA(S.versionName), and CA calls .replace() on the null value.

There is also a second crash site that would be hit after fixing the first:

`${z.versionName}${z.isBetaVersion && !z.versionName.toLowerCase().includes("beta") ...}`

Suggested fix

Filter out releases with null versionName before they enter the render chain:

M.releaseNotes
  .filter(S => S.versionName != null)
  .map(S => ({...S, notes: gu(S.notes, S.versionName, ...)}))

A separate issue has been filed on coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api about the null versionName in their 4.0.1 release from the Lambda.

Note on other console noise

The same session also shows 404 errors from Smart Connections (Hugging Face ONNX models) and errors from other plugins — all unrelated, their stack traces do not go through Plugin Update Tracker.

[soulhakr]

For additional context: in the linked issue on the obsidian-local-rest-api side (coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api#269), the maintainer @coddingtonbear noted that GitHub release names are an optional field, so consumers of release metadata shouldn't assume versionName will always be non-null. His suggestion was that rather than just filtering out releases with a null name (which would hide legitimate releases that simply don't have a title set), Plugin Update Tracker could fall back to versionNumber (or the GitHub tag_name) when versionName is missing, so users still see an update entry instead of it being silently dropped. Might be worth considering as an alternative/addition to the current filter approach in #171.