SparkBox patches — Tue Oct 20, 2026
Posted by Chris
SparkBox releases shipped on Tue Oct 20, 2026 (UTC), in order, newest at the bottom. This thread is updated as releases land during the day. Update from the SparkBox dashboard, or run sudo sparkbox upgrade on your SparkBox host. Legend boxes get every release the day it ships; free boxes get it after it has run there for a week. If a problem remains after updating, submit a private support ticket or reply below with the app name, what you expected, and what happened instead. Earlier days: Mon Oct 19, 2026 · Sun Oct 18, 2026 · Sat Oct 17, 2026 · Fri Oct 16, 2026 · Thu Oct 15, 2026 · Wed Oct 14, 2026 · Tue Oct 13, 2026 v1.6.990 — A new Media Center is no longer left half set up; Plex's setup no longer ends on an empty home screen - On some new installs, Media Center's automatic setup stopped part way: Jellyfin was set up, but its login was not saved and Seerr was never signed in, while the dashboard already said Media Center was installed. The setup no longer depends on the step that failed, tries that step again when it is needed, and the checkup now says when the first setup stopped and what to run: sudo sparkbox up media. - After you claim Plex, SparkBox no longer makes Plex's Movies and TV Shows libraries by itself for now. Libraries made that way did not show on Plex's home screen or in its sidebar, so Plex's setup ended on "Your home screen is empty". Add your libraries in Plex's own setup as before (Movies is /data/Movies, TV is /data/TV). If SparkBox already made them for you, they are there: in Plex, open More in the sidebar and pin Movies and TV Shows. - The VPN guides no longer quote a dated monthly price for Surfshark; they describe the deal the way Surfshark's own page does (a discount plus 4 extra months free). v1.6.991 — Switching on a Jellyfin plugin in Media Center settings installs it - Switching on Jellyfin Enhanced or Intro Skipper in Media Center's settings and pressing Save restarted the media apps, but the plugin never arrived and nothing said why. The plugin is now installed a minute or two after Save, and Jellyfin restarts once to load it. If you switched one on before this update, it installs the next time the media apps restart, for example after sudo sparkbox restart media. For Jellyfin Enhanced, press Ctrl+Shift+R once on Jellyfin's page in your browser afterwards (Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac). v1.6.992 — Tom AI no longer offers a fix that can't reach the blocked folders inside your library - When the checkup said your apps can't write into some folders inside your library (usually folders copied in by your NAS's own account or from Windows), Tom AI offered its one-click media permissions fix, which never changes folders that already hold your files. It then said your library was writable while upgrades, renames and imports into those folders kept failing. Tom AI now tells you to run sudo sparkbox check-media-perms over SSH instead: it names the blocked folders and prints the one command that lets your apps write there on your box. v1.6.993 — The new Media page is on your box, switched off while it is tested - A new Media page is coming: search for a movie or show and request it, follow each request while it downloads with the time left, press Play when it is ready, and see in plain words why something has not arrived, with a fix button where SparkBox already has a safe one. This release puts it on your box switched off while it is tested, so nothing on your box changes yet. - If you choose to share crash reports, they now include less of the address of the page that was open. v1.6.994 — A request you just made no longer reads “Not in Radarr” while it is being handed over - On the Requests card, a request you have just made no longer shows “Not in Radarr” (or Sonarr) with advice to request it again while it is still being handed over. It now says it is being handed over, and shows its real state as soon as Radarr or Sonarr has it. - More fixes to the new Media page, which is on your box but still switched off, so that what it says about each request matches what your apps say. Nothing on your box changes yet. v1.6.995 — Six new one-click apps: Wallos, Homebox, Immich Kiosk, WatchState, Maintainerr and Securo - New app: Wallos. List the subscriptions you pay for (streaming, software, phone, gym) and see your real monthly and yearly total, with a reminder before each renewal. - New app: Homebox. A home inventory for what you own, where it is kept, its receipt and its warranty date, handy for insurance claims and moving house. Invite the people you live with from inside Homebox. - New app: Immich Kiosk. It turns a TV, tablet or old laptop browser into a photo frame that shows your Immich photos full-screen. It only reads your photos: give it a read-only Immich API key (the setup guide lists the permissions). - New app: WatchState. It keeps what you have watched in step between Jellyfin, Plex and Emby, so an episode you finish on one shows as watched on the others. It all stays on your SparkBox. - New app: Maintainerr. It clears space in your media library by rules you write, for example films nobody has watched in a year, and waits out a grace period you choose before anything is removed. - New app: Securo. Personal finance on your own box: accounts, budgets and spending reports. - SparkBox makes each app's login for you, and Settings → Service Passwords shows it (so does sparkbox passwords). Open the apps with the Access button on their card. Wallos, Homebox, Kiosk and Securo can also be used from other devices at home: set the app's network address in its Settings to this box's home-network IP. - Saving an app's network address (Kiwix's too) or a switch the app reads when it starts now tells you the app needs a restart and offers the button, instead of just saying Saved. - If your VPN is set to Other / Custom, the checkup and Tom AI now say that the VPN country setting is not used (the VPN connects to the server in your own WireGuard or OpenVPN settings), instead of suggesting a country change that does nothing.