April Addressables Warm Catalog CDN Smoke Fails After Content Update - How to Fix

Problem: After an April 2027 Addressables content update (post–March capstone), producers say “receipt passed / uploaded,” but warm_catalog_ok stays false—public CDN catalog GET returns a stale hash, profile Remote.LoadPath drifts, or the installed player still misses remote keys (InvalidKeyException / RemoteProviderException) while Editor Play looked fine.

Who is affected now: Teams running April warm catalog evening and Unity Guide #51 before Summer Sale concurrency. This is recovery when A4/A5 fail after upload theater, not orphan recovery after warm GREEN (ghosts after warm_catalog_ok: true), not Invalid Key only without CDN proof, and not Library cache ContentState alone.

Fastest safe fix: Freeze promote → pin ServerData catalog SHA-256 → purge / invalidate public catalog edge → cold GET until body hash matches → installed player smoke (clear Addressables cache) on remote label → rewrite april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json → latch warm_catalog_ok.

Direct answer

A content-update “pass” that never proved the public catalog path and an installed remote label is not a warm path. Fix LoadPath + edge identity, re-smoke cold, then rewrite the warm receipt—do not flip warm_catalog_ok because CI uploaded ServerData.

Why this issue spikes before Summer Sale (April 2027)

1. Origin PUT ≠ edge warm — upload to bucket succeeds; CDN still serves yesterday’s catalog_*.hash.
2. Profile variable drift — staging LoadPath in CI; prod hostname in player.
3. Editor-only smoke — Play Mode resolves local/cached catalogs; A5 never ran.
4. Capstone allow without warm gate — april_content_update_allowed: true treated as player-ready.
5. Wrong cousin — teams jump to orphan R1–R6 while A4 still RED (orphan lane needs warm GREEN first).

Symptoms and search phrases

• “warm_catalog_ok false after content update”
• Addressables CDN catalog hash mismatch April
• verify_april_warm_catalog.sh fails catalog_url
• installed player InvalidKeyException remote label after promote
• Remote.LoadPath stale after Addressables content build
• April content update receipt passed player still cold

Root causes (check in order)

1. Stale CDN edge — public GET body SHA ≠ ServerData catalog SHA (A4).
2. Wrong catalog URL — profile {CatalogHash} / env token points at old path.
3. A5 skipped — only Editor or warm browser tab; no cold installed player.
4. Library / ContentState poison — CI GREEN from cached Library while public bytes differ (Guide #24).
5. Orphan surface mistaken for warm fail — if A1–A6 were honestly GREEN and Sale traffic still hits ghosts, use orphan case study.
6. Key missing from catalog — true Invalid Key after CDN hash matches (Invalid Key help).

Beginner path (first 30 minutes)

Prerequisites: Unity 6.x Addressables remote catalog, access to candidate ServerData, CDN purge or invalidate rights, one installed RC player, jq + curl, write access to release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/, Guide #51 open.

1. Prove the failure:

REC=release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/*/april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json
jq -e '.warm_catalog_ok == true' $REC
# expect fail
URL="$(jq -r '.catalog_url' $REC)"
curl -sS -o /tmp/catalog.body.bin "$URL"
sha256sum /tmp/catalog.body.bin
# compare to receipt .catalog_sha256 — mismatch = this article

2. Confirm March allow is still true (april_content_update_allowed)—do not warm a blocked April path (Friday closeout).

3. Re-pin catalog SHA from the same ServerData folder CI uploaded (not an old artifact).

4. Purge / invalidate the public catalog object (and hashed path if your CDN keys by hash). Re-GET until body SHA matches A2.

5. Install player → clear Addressables cache / app data → load april-warm-smoke (or your label) → save player-warm-smoke.log.

6. Rewrite receipt + BUILD_RECEIPT (below). Do not promote Summer Sale content updates while A4/A5 stay RED.

Developer path (recovery gates)

R1 — Pick the correct cousin

R3 — CDN purge + public GET (sketch)

CAND=release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/2027-04-02-rc01
URL="$(jq -r '.catalog_url' "$CAND/april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json")"
# After CDN invalidate / purge of catalog object:
curl -sS -D "$CAND/catalog.response.headers" -o "$CAND/catalog.body.bin" "$URL"
sha256sum "$CAND/catalog.body.bin" | tee "$CAND/cdn_catalog_sha256.txt"
jq -e --arg h "$(cut -d' ' -f1 "$CAND/cdn_catalog_sha256.txt")" \
  '.catalog_sha256 == $h' "$CAND/april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json"

Fail: hashing origin-only URLs while players use a different hostname; or trusting 200 OK without body SHA.

R4 — Cold installed player (not Editor)

1. Install the RC that points at the recovered LoadPath.
2. Clear Addressables cache / player persistent data.
3. Load the smoke remote label.
4. Capture log with catalog source URL + location count.
5. Screenshot menu / asset that proves the label resolved.

Editor Play Mode does not close R4.

R5 — Receipt rewrite

{
  "schema": "april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1",
  "receipt_id": "april-2027-rc01-warm-catalog-recovery",
  "build_label": "2027-04-02-rc01",
  "catalog_url": "https://cdn.example.com/addr/<CatalogHash>/catalog.json",
  "catalog_sha256": "REPLACE_WITH_SERVERDATA_AND_CDN_MATCH",
  "content_sha256": "REPLACE_REQUIRED_BUNDLE",
  "remote_load_path": "https://cdn.example.com/addr/{CatalogHash}",
  "environment": "prod",
  "smoke_label": "april-warm-smoke",
  "recovery": {
    "reason": "CDN edge served stale catalog after ServerData PUT",
    "previous_cdn_sha256": "STALE_HASH",
    "purged_utc": "2027-04-02T18:40:00Z",
    "cold_player_log": "release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/2027-04-02-rc01/player-warm-smoke.log"
  },
  "gates": {
    "A1": "GREEN",
    "A2": "GREEN",
    "A3": "GREEN",
    "A4": "GREEN",
    "A5": "GREEN",
    "A6": "GREEN"
  },
  "warm_catalog_ok": true,
  "notes": "Do not confuse with remote_catalog_orphan_recovery_ok after a prior warm GREEN"
}

R6 — BUILD_RECEIPT + verify

{
  "warm_catalog_ok": true,
  "april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt": "release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/2027-04-02-rc01/april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json"
}

bash scripts/verify_april_warm_catalog.sh \
  release-evidence/april-2027/warm-catalog/2027-04-02-rc01/april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json

Verify

• Public catalog GET body SHA equals receipt catalog_sha256.
• Fresh install loads smoke remote label with no InvalidKeyException.
• jq -e '.warm_catalog_ok == true' on receipt and BUILD_RECEIPT.
• Thursday content-update row review no longer treats upload theater as promote-ready.

Prevent

1. Run Guide #51 A4–A5 before claiming warm GREEN.
2. Smoke ≥1 installed remote label after every content build promote.
3. Pair April warm evening for full A1–A6 ritual.
4. Keep weekly catalog jq for Monday hash drift.
5. If warm GREEN then Sale ghosts appear, switch to orphan recovery—do not re-run this help as a substitute.

Related GamineAI reads

• Unity April Addressables warm catalog CDN smoke (Guide #51)
• Your first April warm catalog receipt evening
• Remote catalog orphan after warm GREEN
• Unity Addressables Invalid Key runtime
• Remote catalog hash mismatch after CDN purge
• Library cache ContentState preflight
• Thursday content-update BUILD_RECEIPT row review
• Official: Unity Addressables remote content

Uploaded ServerData is not a warm catalog—purge the public edge until hashes match, cold-smoke an installed remote label, rewrite april_content_update_warm_catalog_receipt_v1.json, then latch warm_catalog_ok only when A4 and A5 are honestly green.