Can't update sparkbox for weeks. Stuck on 1.6.320
Posted by Amilo21
Hey Tom I have been busy the last couple of weeks. Tried updating sparkbox a couple times, with no luck, and haven't had the time to investigate. Can even see one of the newer updates also lets Sparkbox tell me why it won't update (could really wish that right now) Do you have enough with this info to help me troubleshoot what's wrong? From update: Asking server to start self-update... Self-update started — checking for new release... Checking for updates... New version available: 1.6.362 (current: 1.6.320) Container mode detected — host install at /opt/sparkbox Looking up dashboard image... Spawning privileged update helper (image=sparkbox-sparkbox-dashboard)... mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/opt/sparkbox’: File exists [helper 2026-07-16T06:54:17+00:00] starting tee: /opt/sparkbox/state/self-update-helper.log: No such file or directory [helper] from version: unknown [helper] Downloading install.sh... [helper] Downloading install.sh.sig... [helper] install.sh signature verified [helper] Running install.sh in upgrade mode against /opt/sparkbox... [0;36m / | | | | ) \ \| ' \ / | '| |/ / \ / \ \/ / ) | |) | (| | | | <| |) | () < |/| ./ \,|| ||\\/ \//\\ || [0m [1mThe easiest, most user-friendly self-hosting stack anywhere.[0m Created by Tom Spark | youtube.com/@TomSparkReviews [1;33m[SparkBox][0m Unsupported NAS detected. SparkBox officially supports UGREEN NASync. [1;33m[SparkBox][0m Continuing anyway — it may work, but support is limited. [0;36m[SparkBox][0m NAS detected: generic [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Running in NAS mode (generic) [1;33m[SparkBox][0m NAS users: keep internet access ON during install. [1;33m[SparkBox][0m SparkBox needs the internet to: [1;33m[SparkBox][0m 1. Pull Docker images during install [1;33m[SparkBox][0m 2. Activate your free personal-use license key (auto-updates) [1;33m[SparkBox][0m Re-block outbound internet only AFTER you've logged in, registered [1;33m[SparkBox][0m your license, and finished the setup wizard. [1;33m[SparkBox][0m Full details: https://tomsparkbox.com/docs.html [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Network profile: nas (NAS detected: generic) [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Data directory (media/photos/books/manga): /opt/sparkbox/data [0;32m[SparkBox][0m System clock is in sync (0s off Cloudflare's reference) [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Detected: Alpine Linux v3.23 (NAS mode - this is fine) [0;36m[SparkBox][0m NAS mode: skipping system package installation. [1;33m[SparkBox][0m Tool 'jq' not found. Some features may not work. [0;36m[SparkBox][0m whiptail not found -- setup wizard will use plain text prompts. [0;32m[SparkBox][0m Docker already installed: Docker version 29.5.2, build 79eb04c7d8e1d73247cb7fe011eecc645063e0f0 [0;32m[SparkBox][0m Docker Compose: 2.40.3 ============================================================ PREFLIGHT — here's what I found on this machine ============================================================ System: Alpine Linux v3.23 Hardware: NAS (generic) Memory: 31868 MB Free disk: 96 GB at /opt Install to: /opt/sparkbox Timezone: UTC Clock: in sync (0s off reference) Mode: fresh install ============================================================ [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Downloading SparkBox... [0;36m[SparkBox][0m Verifying release integrity... [0;32m[SparkBox][0m SHA256 digest verified [0;32m[SparkBox][0m ed25519 signature verified mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/opt/sparkbox’: File exists [helper] install.sh exit code: 1 [helper] install.sh failed — attempting to recover the stack with sparkbox up anyway [helper] Bringing the stack back up via sparkbox up... bash: /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox: No such file or directory [helper] sparkbox up attempt 1/4 failed; waiting 10s before retry... bash: /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox: No such file or directory [helper] sparkbox up attempt 2/4 failed; waiting 10s before retry... bash: /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox: No such file or directory [helper] sparkbox up attempt 3/4 failed; waiting 10s before retry... bash: /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox: No such file or directory [helper] sparkbox up attempt 4/4 failed; waiting 10s before retry... [helper] WARNING: sparkbox up still failing after 4 attempts — health probe + rollback will handle it [helper] Picking up any containers left in Created state... [helper] to version: unknown [helper 2026-07-16T06:55:13+00:00] post-update health probe (up to 180s)... [helper] dashboard healthy (shallow — deep endpoint not present) after 3s [helper 2026-07-16T06:55:13+00:00] done — refresh the browser to load the new dashboard [helper] install.sh failed (rc=1) and version did not change — signaling failure to dashboard. ERROR: SparkBox could not install the update. install.sh failed and your previous version is still active. Try again; if it repeats, open Settings → Updates and use the stepped update option. [ERROR] SparkBox could not install the update. Your current install was left in place. Try again; if it repeats, open Settings → Updates and try the stepped update option.
3 replies
tomspark wrote:
Hey — nothing wrong on your end, this is on us. The dashboard's Update button is hitting a bug where it can't see your existing SparkBox files properly, so it gives up partway through. Good news: you can skip the button entirely. SSH into your NAS and run: sudo sparkbox upgrade That runs the upgrade straight from the terminal instead of through the dashboard, and should take you from 1.6.320 to the latest cleanly. I've flagged the Update button bug so we can get it fixed properly too — thanks for pasting the full log, that made it easy to spot.
Amilo21 wrote:
Thanks. I tried that with no luck, but Tom AI helped as it was some permission issue (again). Its now up and running. I hope I have time to look at the media pipeline next week, and maybe get some help. Still haven't gotten it to work as intended yet. Keep up the good work
tomspark wrote:
Glad it's sorted and thanks for sticking with it. I've already flagged the Update button bug so it gets a proper fix. Whenever you get to the media pipeline, start a new post or drop me a line, happy to help sort it out.