Releases

Every version of SpawnBox, what changed, and what to watch out for.

0.2.0-beta.11 patch

Sign-in stays put during background refreshes

We chased down one more sign-in flicker: the title-bar status no longer briefly shows 'Sign In' during a routine background refresh of your session.

  • · In beta.9 we calmed the sign-in flicker that showed up right after you log in. This release fixes the other half: during a routine background refresh of your sign-in (which happens every couple of hours), the title-bar indicator could briefly flip to 'Sign In' even though you were still signed in and your cloud features kept working normally. It now stays signed in, showing a brief 'Signing in...' only while the refresh finishes. If you ever see it drop to signed-out on its own again, please send a diagnostic report so we can confirm this one is fully closed.
0.2.0-beta.10 patch

First-run setup no longer gets falsely stuck at the restart step

The biggest install blocker is fixed at the root: harmless Windows file-cleanup no longer makes setup demand a restart that was never needed.

  • · The root cause of the 'setup is stuck asking me to restart' problem is fixed. Harmless background file-cleanup that Windows does on its own was being mistaken for 'a restart is required', so first-run setup would stop and demand a restart that nothing actually needed, and could get stuck there. Setup now correctly ignores that harmless noise and keeps going. When a restart genuinely is needed, it still asks for one - that side was carefully checked too, so the change does not skip real restarts.
  • · This one was tested the whole way through, not just in theory: a clean first install, an install on a machine that really did have a Windows restart pending, and the case where you choose to skip the restart and continue. All three behave correctly now.
  • · One rough edge we are still chasing, so you know what to expect: in one specific situation the step right after a restart can sit with no progress shown for a few minutes before it continues. It is working, not frozen, but it looks like nothing is happening. If a setup seems to pause there, give it a few minutes; if it truly never continues, please send a diagnostic report so we can pin down the last of it.
0.2.0-beta.9 patch

Setup recovers from the stuck restart step, and sign-in tells the truth

First-run setup could loop forever at the Windows restart step - it now recovers from that. Plus honest sign-in status, a snappier setup wizard, and more.

  • · First-run setup could get stuck in a loop at the Windows restart step - you'd click Restart and it would never finish. This release makes it recover: SpawnBox now correctly detects when the restart actually happened and continues instead of looping. This was one of the biggest things blocking new installs. If you still hit a setup that stalls, please send a diagnostic report so we can chase the rest.
  • · If your sign-in actually expired, SpawnBox used to keep looking signed-in while quietly failing to sync in the background - sometimes for days before you noticed. It now shows a clear 'Sign back in' button the moment that happens, so nothing fails silently anymore.
  • · Signing in is calmer. Instead of briefly flashing a 'signed out' look right after you sign in, you now get a short 'Signing in...' spinner while things settle. If you still see a stuck signed-out state after a successful sign-in, let us know - we want to confirm this one is fully closed.
0.2.0-beta.7 minor

First-run feels more like the app is on your side

Setup tells you what's happening, fewer silent dead-ends, easier escape from common stuck-states, port forwarding works on stricter routers.

  • · Setup tells you what's actually happening. The wizard now uses calm 'Retrying' language when SpawnBox auto-recovers from a transient issue (instead of cryptic warnings that felt like failures). For users who want to look under the hood, a quietly-discoverable detail panel shows retry history. The non-technical default stays clutter-free; nothing in your face unless you go looking.
  • · Stuck on a pending-reboot you didn't cause? There's now an escape hatch. If Windows had a system-pending-reboot SpawnBox didn't trigger (a separate Windows Update, a different installer, etc.), the setup wizard would keep telling you to reboot even after you did. One user rebooted five times before giving up. Now the wizard shows an 'Ignore & continue' button on the reboot-required step when SpawnBox detects the pending-reboot is external, so you can bypass it and let setup proceed.
  • · A previous failed install no longer blocks the next attempt. If a prior install was killed mid-import (process kill, system crash, anything that interrupted the wsl-import step), the partial disk image file used to stay on disk and block every future install attempt with 'ERROR_FILE_EXISTS'. One user hit this for 14 minutes and gave up. SpawnBox now detects orphan disk images from interrupted previous installs and auto-recovers them so the next attempt proceeds cleanly.
0.2.0-beta.2 patch

Smoother first-run installs and a safer uninstall path

Faster, more deterministic first-run installs, and the uninstaller no longer wipes server data when you only meant to clear settings, logs, and history.

  • · Uninstalling SpawnBox no longer secretly wipes your servers: the uninstaller offered two checkboxes - 'Delete my SpawnBox data (settings, logs, and server history)' and a separate 'Delete all my Minecraft servers and worlds (cannot be undone)'. Ticking only the first one - which the label promised would just clear settings, logs, and history - was actually deleting your servers and worlds anyway. A note on why this only started biting people now: the underlying mistake had been there for a while, but the SpawnBox container used to stay running in the background even when no servers were active, and that running container kept a file-lock on the virtual disk that holds your worlds. The lock was quietly saving everyone. In 0.2.0-beta.0 we shipped the 'system memory comes back when servers are stopped' feature, which lets the container shut down when idle - that's a real win for users running games or other heavy apps, but it also released the lock and exposed this latent uninstaller bug for the first time. The two checkboxes are now properly independent: the settings/logs/history option only ever touches settings, logs, and history; your worlds, mods, plugins, and player data are only ever deleted when you explicitly tick the second box. Auto-updates were never affected by this and aren't now - your servers stay through every update. As a bonus: if a previous uninstall on your machine already left things in a half-removed state (where the system still 'remembers' SpawnBox's container but the underlying disk is gone), SpawnBox now detects that the next time it runs and clears it cleanly, instead of getting stuck looping 'container is not responding' forever.
  • · First-run installs are faster and more deterministic: after 0.2.0-beta.0 we used the install-step telemetry (the same opt-in feature beta.0 introduced) to track down specific places first-run setup was getting stuck or running unusually slow. Several were the kind of issue that's painful to find without real-world data: Ubuntu's automatic-upgrade timers were holding the package manager's lock for ~6 minutes during install (now masked inside the SpawnBox container so they never run), the Ubuntu package mirror was sometimes routing to slow nodes (now points at a Microsoft-hosted mirror with a single health-checked endpoint), a cloud-config template was silently undoing the mirror swap on every reboot (now also rewritten so the swap survives), and a Ubuntu Pro hook we don't actually use was adding ~50 seconds to every package operation by phoning home to check entitlements (now neutered). Long package operations also log a heartbeat now so the install no longer appears stuck while it's actually working. We expect a meaningful share of the long-install cases to be gone, but we don't yet have wide enough signal across diverse networks to declare the class fully closed - if your install still hangs or takes more than a few minutes per phase, please file a Diagnostics report from inside the app. That's how we keep finding the next ones.
  • · More observability for the next round of install fixes: first-run install is still one of the top two friction points (the other is server creation), and beta.0's telemetry told us when installs were going wrong but not always why. This release adds finer-grained signals across the install path - which probes ran and which succeeded, which install step ran into which class of network or package error (timeout vs DNS vs TLS vs disk vs network vs apt-specific), and when SpawnBox's auto-repair entered each specific recovery branch (so 'no failures reported' can't be confused with 'recovery never ran'). Same opt-in toggle in Settings, same anonymous data, no personal information.
0.2.0-beta.0 minor

Our biggest update since preview began

The biggest core update since preview began. Modpack mode, a memory advisor that knows your real RAM, locale-safe Windows, and a pile of reliability work.

  • · Thanks for hanging in there. This release is the biggest core architectural and feature update since preview began - the gap between updates was us making sure it'd be worth the wait. Heads-up though: an overhaul this size means there may be regressions we didn't catch. If something that worked yesterday breaks today, please file a Diagnostics report from inside the app - we want to hear about it fast so we can patch it.
  • · Modpack-mode managed servers: spinning up a server from a Modrinth modpack is now a first-class flow, and once installed the server runs in 'modpack mode' that keeps its identity stable. The Server Info card shows the pack's effective Minecraft version and loader (instead of the underlying generic Java image), the TYPE and VERSION fields lock so you don't accidentally drift the server out from under the pack, and the pack's true name + version surface in tooltips, the web portal banner, and the Discord Connect Card. The new wizard mode lets you pick a modpack from the asset browser, see version chips for which MC + loader combos that pack supports, stage your choice, and ship a working server in one flow. Modpacks enforce single-world (which mods like FTB Quests assume); the wizard explains this when it applies. Uninstall from the Collection tab when you want to leave modpack mode.
  • · Modpack client downloads auto-add the server: when you download the client-side modpack file from a SpawnBox-managed server, SpawnBox now injects the server's connection info into the .mrpack file's bundled server list. Launchers like PrismLauncher auto-add the server when your friends install the pack, so they go from 'click install' to 'connect to your server' without ever typing an address. The passthrough path also fingerprints the bundle, so re-downloading when nothing changed is instant.
0.1.1-beta.29 patch

Server type switches that just work

Type switching between Paper, Spigot, Purpur, and Vanilla no longer fails, migrations preserve your history, and kept-port imports land correctly.

  • · Server type switches no longer fail mid-flight: switching a server's type (for example Purpur to Spigot, or Paper to Vanilla) used to show misleading dialog labels and fail to complete. The root cause was that two different parts of SpawnBox were separately managing the small telemetry helper that rides alongside your server (the SpawnBox Telemetry Datapack or Plugin, depending on server type - this is what powers Activity, Connected Players detail, base tracking, and combat insights). Their code paths could collide during same-family switches (Paper -> Purpur, for example) and flag filesystem work that didn't actually need to happen. Telemetry asset management is now consolidated into a single reconciliation pass that runs right before each server launch - one owner, no collisions. As a bonus side effect, the system self-heals if anything drifts out of alignment between launches.
  • · Upgrades preserve your telemetry history: upgrading a server's type (for example Vanilla to Paper, to unlock plugin support) used to fail with a database is locked error if the server had already accumulated activity history. That migration path is now unblocked, and your telemetry history carries forward across the switch.
  • · Kept-port imports land in the right configuration: importing a pre-existing server while keeping its original Minecraft port now correctly arranges the surrounding ports SpawnBox uses behind the scenes (for features like console access from the app and the Telemetry Plugin's data channel). Kept-port imports no longer collide with those slots or land on the wrong configuration.
0.1.1-beta.27 patch

Fix-it actually fixes, install stops looping, dropdown gets smarter

A stability + reliability pass across WSL setup, the daemon status UI, and the in-game Discord chat relay.

  • · 'Fix it now' actually heals mirrored networking mode. If your Linux environment is stuck in the wrong networking mode (common if Docker Desktop or other tools configured WSL before SpawnBox touched it), the button now strips the bad config, restarts WSL, and gets you back to a working state. Works from the first-run wizard AND the live daemon status dropdown
  • · No more reboot loop on machines that already had WSL2. The setup flow used to misread Microsoft's own WSL1 compatibility message as a real error and keep asking you to restart. Now it actually checks whether the kernel is loaded and moves on
  • · Our own health check no longer kills the Linux environment mid-install. A background probe was pinging external hosts while your distro was still being imported, and a failed ping was terminating the distro. Removed. Installs go through to completion now
0.1.1-beta.26 patch

Restore actually restores, map stops crashing, imports stop lying

A stability pass across backup restore, the map, server imports, and diagnostic packages. Plus a pile of UI polish driven by what you all reported.

  • · Backup restore rebuilt to close the silent-failure class (was the GA blocker) - it actually restores now, and the 'YOU ARE HERE' marker on the timeline honestly reflects what's on disk after a restore instead of drifting to the safety backup
  • · Map stability: no more crash when you click a POI marker, overlays and data reset properly when you switch servers or worlds, Rebuild Images runs in the background (keep using the map while it reassembles), and there's a Start Over button if you need it
  • · Server import is more honest: progress events actually flow, silent-failure class closed with real error surfacing, and keep-source-ports imports no longer collide on the MCA plugin port