Your SparkBox week — Oct 15
Posted by tomspark
Here's what shipped to every SparkBox this week — if your box is up to date, you already have all of it: • If the compose file that describes one of your apps gets damaged on the box (for example the same line ending up in it twice), SparkBox refuses to start that app and shows you the exact line. That message used to tell you to run sudo sparkbox update, which never repairs that file, so the app stayed down however often you ran it. It now gives the command that puts SparkBox's own copy of the file back while keeping your settings, app data and per-app overrides: curl -fsSL https://get.tomsparkbox.com/install.sh | sudo bash. If you prefer, fix the line it points at yourself and run sudo sparkbox up. • Dashboard: right after an install, an update or adding an app, SparkBox checks the box once while every app is starting, and that one reading could say "Your box is overloaded … turn off apps you do not use". The yellow banner then stayed at the top of the dashboard for a whole day, even on a quiet box with memory to spare. It now shows only while the box really is still overloaded, and disappears by itself once the load has settled. To check again at any time, run sudo sparkbox verify; it ends with "Your SparkBox is working." when all is well. • Tailscale: when its sign-in key was used up or expired, the checkup, the box alert, the Access from anywhere page and Tom AI told you to paste a new key under Settings, Tailscale, or in the Tailscale app's settings on the Apps page. Neither exists, and removing and re-adding the app keeps the old key. They now all point to the real place: in the classic dashboard, Settings, Server Config, open "Advanced — show raw configuration", find the Tailscale card, paste the new key into Tailscale Auth Key and click Save Changes; Tailscale restarts and signs in by itself. On dashboards 2 and 3, add /classic-visit?open=media to the end of your dashboard address to open that page. From a terminal: sudo sparkbox set-env TSAUTHKEY followed by your new key, then sudo sparkbox restart tailscale. The link on the Access from anywhere page now opens that section for you. • Dashboard Security card: it said "Public IP" and "reachable from the public internet" any time SparkBox asked for your password again before admin changes, even on a box at home where one of its checks simply could not answer. It now says which it is: Public IP, Public address (you opened the page through a public web address), Shared online (Tailscale Funnel, a Cloudflare tunnel or a proxy host), or Not confirmed. The password step itself is unchanged. To see where your box sits, run sudo sparkbox doctor. • Media pipeline card: when Sonarr or Radarr had its qBittorrent connection switched off, the card said the connection was lost and that restarting the Media apps would re-wire it, so it came straight back after every restart (SparkBox keeps a connection you switched off as it is). The card now says it is switched off and to switch it back on in Sonarr or Radarr under Settings, Download Clients, qBittorrent. • Tunarr: the setup guide gave a playlist address that the current Tunarr does not serve and no TV-guide address. It now gives both (http://your-box:8000/api/channels.m3u and http://your-box:8000/api/xmltv.xml) and says where Tunarr's own player is: on the Channels page, open the channel's options menu and choose Watch Channel. • Local AI (Open WebUI): if you signed in or created your account and kept using that same browser tab, a single dropped connection (the computer sleeping, a Wi-Fi change, Open WebUI restarting) could leave the page spinning after every question with no answer and no error. This update brings Open WebUI 0.12.2, which reconnects signed in. Before updating, reloading the chat page also brings the answers back. Your chats, accounts and models are kept. • App updates: Open WebUI 0.12.2, Immich 3.3.3, Matrix (Synapse) 1.163.0 and n8n 2.44.1. Your files and settings stay in place. 📣 Shoutouts this week: could be you. Report what's broken and you might see your name in next week's thread. Got a bug or a feature idea? Post it right here in d/sparkbox and Tom's team reads it. P.S. Tell a friend about SparkBox: you earn $10 for every Legend sale you refer, and they get $10 off. Free to join: https://tomsparkbox.com/affiliate 📖 The full write-up, with pictures: https://tomsparkbox.com/blog/this-week-in-sparkbox-2026-10-12 Previous weeks: This week in SparkBox: Sep 29 – Oct 5, 2026 — https://tomsparkbox.com/blog/this-week-in-sparkbox-2026-10-05 · This week in SparkBox: Sep 22 – Sep 28, 2026 — https://tomsparkbox.com/blog/this-week-in-sparkbox-2026-09-28 · This week in SparkBox: Sep 15 – Sep 21, 2026 — https://tomsparkbox.com/blog/this-week-in-sparkbox-2026-09-21 · This week in SparkBox: Sep 13 – Sep 19, 2026 — https://tomsparkbox.com/blog/this-week-in-sparkbox-2026-09-19