Safer updates and a fix for deleted worlds
A dev-channel preview: automatic recovery when an update fails partway through, a fix for servers pointed at a deleted world, and tougher update security.
Highlights
- · New: if an update fails partway through installing, SpawnBox now restores your previous version automatically instead of leaving the app unable to start.
- · Fixed: deleting the world your server was set to use could leave it unable to start, with no obvious way back from the app. SpawnBox now re-points to another world (or clears the setting) so it keeps running.
- · Tougher update security - the update folder is now protected consistently on every Windows language (it could fail to apply on non-English Windows), and updates get one more signature check right before installing.
- · The auto-start setting now says what it really does - it also brings your server back if it crashes while you are away, not only when your PC restarts.
This one is mostly about the update system being able to look after itself, plus a real fix for a way you could accidentally stop your own server.
A failed update now puts your old version back
If an update ever failed partway through installing, SpawnBox could be left with none of its programs in place and nothing to put them back - so after the next restart, it would not start at all. That path now has a safety net: if an install fails midway, we automatically restore the version you were already running, so you are never left with a half-installed app.
This is new, and it only steps in on the rare occasion an update fails mid-install. Normal updates are untouched, and you should never see it happen - it is there for the moment something goes wrong.
Deleting the world your server used no longer strands it
If you deleted the exact world your server was set to launch, the server lost its target and could not start again - and because the app only offers healthy worlds to switch to, there was no obvious way to recover from inside SpawnBox.
Now, deleting a world also updates that setting for you: we re-point the server at another of your worlds, or clear the setting if none are left, so it keeps starting. Deleting a world your server was not using still leaves your active world exactly where it was.
Tougher, more consistent update security
We hardened how SpawnBox protects its own update files. On non-English versions of Windows, that protection could fail to apply at all - so this release makes it work the same way on every language.
On top of that, we now re-check that an update genuinely came from us at the very last moment before installing it. It is a backstop: even if everything else were somehow bypassed, a tampered-with update still cannot run.
The auto-start setting now says what it really does
The start automatically setting has always done two jobs: it starts your server when your PC boots, and it quietly brings your server back if it crashes while you are away. The label only ever mentioned the first one, so it was easy to leave the setting off and miss protection you already had.
The wording now covers both - including why we stop retrying after repeated crashes, so a genuine problem is not buried under endless restarts.