Fix: ArgoCD Image Updater Not Detecting New Images

!Symptoms

• New container images pushed to registry but ArgoCD doesn't update
• Image updater logs show no new images found
• Deployment stuck on old image tag
• Auto-image update annotations present but not working

?Root Causes

• Image updater not configured with correct registry credentials
• Update strategy annotation incorrect or missing
• Image tag pattern doesn't match pushed tags (semver vs latest)
• Registry rate limiting blocking image list API calls
• Image updater pod not running or in CrashLoopBackOff

#Diagnosis Steps

1. 1Check image updater logs: `kubectl logs -n argocd -l app.kubernetes.io/name=argocd-image-updater`
2. 2Verify annotations on the ArgoCD Application resource
3. 3Test registry access: `argocd-image-updater test <image>`
4. 4Check image list API manually: `crane ls <registry>/<image>`
5. 5Verify the update strategy matches your tagging convention

>Fix

1. 1Configure registry credentials as a Kubernetes secret referenced by image updater
2. 2Fix annotations: `argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/image-list: myapp=registry/image`
3. 3Set correct update strategy: `semver`, `latest`, `name`, or `digest`
4. 4Increase registry API rate limits or add caching
5. 5Restart image updater pod after configuration changes

*Prevention

• Use consistent image tagging conventions (semver recommended)
• Monitor image updater logs for authentication failures
• Use write-back method to commit image updates to Git for audit trail
• Set up alerts for image updater failures
• Test image updater config in a staging environment first

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