diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/livecheck/livecheck.rb b/Library/Homebrew/livecheck/livecheck.rb
index 8056d787a9..6b87804cb0 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/livecheck/livecheck.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/livecheck/livecheck.rb
@@ -102,8 +102,9 @@ module Homebrew
           latest = Version.new(m[1])
         end
 
-        # A HEAD-only formula is outdated when the latest commit hash and installed commit hash differ
         is_outdated = if formula.head?
+          # A HEAD-only formula is considered outdated if the latest upstream
+          # commit hash is different than the installed version's commit hash
           (current != latest)
         else
           (current < latest)
@@ -148,7 +149,7 @@ module Homebrew
         end
       end
 
-      if [args.newer_only?, !has_a_newer_upstream_version, !args.json?, !args.debug?].all?
+      if args.newer_only? && !has_a_newer_upstream_version && !args.debug? && !args.json?
         puts "No newer upstream versions."
       end
 
@@ -167,7 +168,7 @@ module Homebrew
         formula: formula_name(formula, args: args),
         status:  status_str,
       }
-      status_hash[:messages] = messages.presence
+      status_hash[:messages] = messages if messages.is_a?(Array)
 
       if args.verbose?
         status_hash[:meta] = {
@@ -273,7 +274,7 @@ module Homebrew
     # @return [String]
     def preprocess_url(url)
       # Check for GitHub repos on github.com, not AWS
-      url.sub!("github.s3.amazonaws.com", "github.com") if url.include?("github")
+      url = url.sub("github.s3.amazonaws.com", "github.com") if url.include?("github")
 
       # Use repo from GitHub or GitLab inferred from download URL
       if url.include?("github.com") && GITHUB_SPECIAL_CASES.none? { |sc| url.include? sc }
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/livecheck/livecheck_spec.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/livecheck/livecheck_spec.rb
index 0d89a319ae..80bb2267ac 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/livecheck/livecheck_spec.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/livecheck/livecheck_spec.rb
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ describe Homebrew::Livecheck do
       head "https://github.com/Homebrew/brew.git"
 
       livecheck do
-        url(+"https://github.s3.amazonaws.com/Homebrew/brew/releases/latest")
+        url "https://github.s3.amazonaws.com/Homebrew/brew/releases/latest"
         regex(%r{href=.*?/tag/v?(\d+(?:\.\d+)+)["' >]}i)
       end
     end
@@ -80,11 +80,11 @@ describe Homebrew::Livecheck do
 
   describe "::status_hash" do
     it "returns a hash containing the livecheck status" do
-      expect(livecheck.status_hash(f, "blah", ["blah"], args: args))
+      expect(livecheck.status_hash(f, "error", ["Unable to get versions"], args: args))
         .to eq({
                  formula:  "test",
-                 status:   "blah",
-                 messages: ["blah"],
+                 status:   "error",
+                 messages: ["Unable to get versions"],
                  meta:     {
                    livecheckable: true,
                  },
@@ -146,12 +146,13 @@ describe Homebrew::Livecheck do
 
   describe "::livecheck_formulae", :needs_network do
     it "checks for the latest versions of the formulae" do
-      allow(args).to receive(:debug?).and_return(false)
+      allow(args).to receive(:debug?).and_return(true)
       allow(args).to receive(:newer_only?).and_return(false)
 
-      expect { livecheck.livecheck_formulae([f], args) }
-        .to output(/test : 0\.0\.1 ==> (\d+(?:\.\d+)+)/im).to_stdout
-        .and not_to_output.to_stderr
+      expectation = expect { livecheck.livecheck_formulae([f], args) }
+      expectation.to output(/Strategy:.*PageMatch/).to_stdout
+      expectation.to output(/test : 0\.0\.1 ==> (\d+(?:\.\d+)+)/).to_stdout
+                 .and not_to_output.to_stderr
     end
   end
 end