diff --git a/scripts/bin/update-packages b/scripts/bin/update-packages
index 8ae3dda355..9be9d7d3b2 100755
--- a/scripts/bin/update-packages
+++ b/scripts/bin/update-packages
@@ -144,9 +144,6 @@ declare -A _ALREADY_SEEN=() # Array of successful or packages and their old/new
 _fetch_and_cache_tags() {
 	echo "INFO: Fetching and caching tags"
 
-	# First invocation of termux_repology_api_get_latest_version fetches and caches repology metadata.
-	quiet termux_repology_api_get_latest_version ' '
-
 	local __PACKAGES=()
 	local __GITHUB_PACKAGES=()
 
@@ -473,6 +470,24 @@ export IPC_FIFO="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/termux_ipc_$$.fifo"
 mkfifo "$IPC_FIFO"
 exec {IPC_FIFO_FD}<>"$IPC_FIFO"
 
+# If the dependencies for the 'dump-repology-data' script are not yet present,
+# create a venv, activate the venv, and install them in the venv before running the
+# 'dump-repology-data' script
+if ! python3 -c "import requests" 2>/dev/null; then
+	dump_repology_data_venv_dir="$(mktemp -d)"
+	python3 -m venv --system-site-packages "$dump_repology_data_venv_dir"
+	source "$dump_repology_data_venv_dir/bin/activate"
+	echo "INFO: Installing the dependencies of the 'dump-repology-data' script"
+	pip3 install requests
+fi
+echo "INFO: Running the 'dump-repology-data' script"
+if python3 "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR}"/scripts/updates/api/dump-repology-data "${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}"; then
+	echo "INFO: The 'dump-repology-data' script was successful"
+else
+	echo "INFO: The 'dump-repology-data' script was unsuccessful, so an empty json is being placed in \${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}"
+	echo "{}" > "${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}"
+fi
+
 if [[ "$1" == "@all" ]]; then
 	declare -a PACKAGE_LIST=()
 	# To conserve API limits and speed up update checking,
diff --git a/scripts/updates/api/termux_repology_api_get_latest_version.sh b/scripts/updates/api/termux_repology_api_get_latest_version.sh
index 94597ee4d7..791c4b6435 100644
--- a/scripts/updates/api/termux_repology_api_get_latest_version.sh
+++ b/scripts/updates/api/termux_repology_api_get_latest_version.sh
@@ -15,15 +15,6 @@ termux_repology_api_get_latest_version() {
 		termux_error_exit "Usage: ${FUNCNAME[0]} PKG_NAME"
 	fi
 
-	if [[ ! -s "${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}" ]]; then
-		# We should not install them in the case if python packages are externally managed.
-		find /usr/lib/python3.* -name EXTERNALLY-MANAGED -print -quit | grep -q . || \
-			pip3 install bs4 requests >/dev/null # Install python dependencies.
-		python3 "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR}"/scripts/updates/api/dump-repology-data \
-			"${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}" >/dev/null || \
-				echo "{}" > "${TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE}"
-	fi
-
 	# Why `--arg`? See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/54674832/15086226; `sub` strips the leading 'v'
 	jq -r --arg pkg "$1" '.[$pkg] // "null" | sub("^v";"")' "$TERMUX_REPOLOGY_DATA_FILE"
 }
diff --git a/scripts/updates/termux_pkg_auto_update.sh b/scripts/updates/termux_pkg_auto_update.sh
index a2b72aaaff..0e3ee546c6 100644
--- a/scripts/updates/termux_pkg_auto_update.sh
+++ b/scripts/updates/termux_pkg_auto_update.sh
@@ -14,10 +14,15 @@ termux_pkg_auto_update() {
 	local project_host
 	IFS='/' read -r _ _ project_host _ <<< "${TERMUX_PKG_SRCURL}"
 
+	# gitlab.gnome.org started responding to API requests originating from
+	# GitHub Actions with HTTP 403 errors in January 2026.
+	# Example command failing in GitHub Actions:
+	# curl https://gitlab.gnome.org/api/v4/projects/GNOME%2Fvte/releases/permalink/latest
+	# See: https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/28242
 	if [[ -z "${TERMUX_PKG_UPDATE_METHOD}" ]]; then
 		if [[ "${project_host}" == "github.com" ]]; then
 			TERMUX_PKG_UPDATE_METHOD="github"
-		elif [[ "$TERMUX_PKG_SRCURL" == *"/-/archive/"* ]]; then
+		elif [[ "$TERMUX_PKG_SRCURL" == *"/-/archive/"* && "$TERMUX_PKG_SRCURL" != *"gitlab.gnome.org"* ]]; then
 			TERMUX_PKG_UPDATE_METHOD="gitlab"
 		else
 			TERMUX_PKG_UPDATE_METHOD="repology"