diff --git a/app/build.gradle.kts b/app/build.gradle.kts
index 4f91e6d98..da050805c 100644
--- a/app/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/app/build.gradle.kts
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ sourceSets{
         kotlin{
             srcDirs("test")
         }
+        java{
+            srcDirs("test")
+        }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/UpdateCheck.java b/app/src/processing/app/UpdateCheck.java
index 20c91dd38..debe32417 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/UpdateCheck.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/UpdateCheck.java
@@ -204,12 +204,15 @@ protected boolean promptToOpenContributionManager() {
   */
 
 
-  protected int readInt(String filename) throws IOException {
+  protected static int readInt(String filename) throws IOException {
     URL url = new URL(filename);
-    InputStream stream = url.openStream();
+
+    // try-with-resources auto closes things of type "Closeable" even the code throws an error
+    try(InputStream stream = url.openStream();
     InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(stream);
-    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(isr);
-    return Integer.parseInt(reader.readLine());
+    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(isr)) {
+      return Integer.parseInt(reader.readLine().trim());
+    }
   }
 
 
diff --git a/app/test/processing/app/UpdateCheckTest.java b/app/test/processing/app/UpdateCheckTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9dbc214b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/test/processing/app/UpdateCheckTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+package processing.app;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.*;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.io.TempDir;
+import org.mockito.MockedConstruction;
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
+
+import java.io.*;
+import java.net.*;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.nio.file.*;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;
+
+class UpdateCheckTest {
+
+    @TempDir
+    Path tempDir;
+
+    // Helper: write content to a temp file and return its URL string
+    private String createTempFile(String content) throws IOException {
+        Path file = tempDir.resolve("test.txt");
+        Files.writeString(file, content, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        return file.toUri().toString();
+    }
+
+
+    // tests to show that the method returns what it should
+    @Test
+    void readInt_simpleInteger_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("42\n");
+        assertEquals(42, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_negativeInteger_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("-7\n");
+        assertEquals(-7, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_integerWithLeadingAndTrailingWhitespace_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("  100  \n");
+        assertEquals(100, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_integerWithNoNewline_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("99");
+        assertEquals(99, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_maxInt_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile(String.valueOf(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
+        assertEquals(Integer.MAX_VALUE, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_minInt_returnsCorrectValue() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile(String.valueOf(Integer.MIN_VALUE));
+        assertEquals(Integer.MIN_VALUE, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_integerWithMultipleLines_readsOnlyFirstLine() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("5\n10\n15");
+        assertEquals(5, UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    // checks for if errors are correctly reported
+    @Test
+    void readInt_nonNumericContent_throwsNumberFormatException() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("not-a-number\n");
+        assertThrows(NumberFormatException.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_emptyFile_throwsNullPointerException() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("");
+        // readLine() returns null on empty stream → trim() throws NPE
+        assertThrows(Exception.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_blankLine_throwsNumberFormatException() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("   \n");
+        assertThrows(NumberFormatException.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_floatValue_throwsNumberFormatException() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("3.14\n");
+        assertThrows(NumberFormatException.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_overflowValue_throwsNumberFormatException() throws IOException {
+        String url = createTempFile("99999999999999\n");
+        assertThrows(NumberFormatException.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(url));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_invalidUrl_throwsMalformedURLException() {
+        assertThrows(MalformedURLException.class,
+                () -> UpdateCheck.readInt("not-a-valid-url"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_nonExistentFile_throwsIOException() {
+        String nonExistent = tempDir.resolve("ghost.txt").toUri().toString();
+        assertThrows(IOException.class, () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(nonExistent));
+    }
+
+    // checks for if streams are closed
+    @Test
+    void readInt_streamIsClosedAfterSuccessfulRead() throws IOException {
+        // Spy on the InputStream to verify close() is called
+        Path file = tempDir.resolve("close_test.txt");
+        Files.writeString(file, "7", StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+
+        URL url = file.toUri().toURL();
+        InputStream realStream = url.openStream();
+        InputStream spyStream = spy(realStream);
+
+        try (MockedConstruction<URL> mockedUrl = mockConstruction(URL.class,
+                (mock, ctx) -> when(mock.openStream()).thenReturn(spyStream))) {
+
+            UpdateCheck.readInt(file.toUri().toString());
+        }
+
+        verify(spyStream, atLeastOnce()).close();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void readInt_streamIsClosedEvenWhenParseThrows() throws IOException {
+        Path file = tempDir.resolve("bad_close_test.txt");
+        Files.writeString(file, "not-a-number", StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+
+        URL url = file.toUri().toURL();
+        InputStream realStream = url.openStream();
+        InputStream spyStream = spy(realStream);
+
+        try (MockedConstruction<URL> mockedUrl = mockConstruction(URL.class,
+                (mock, ctx) -> when(mock.openStream()).thenReturn(spyStream))) {
+
+            assertThrows(NumberFormatException.class,
+                    () -> UpdateCheck.readInt(file.toUri().toString()));
+        }
+
+        verify(spyStream, atLeastOnce()).close();
+    }
+}