Minecraft 26.3 is now available when you create a server

Two things lead this release: Minecraft 26.3, and a fix for a server getting stuck when you close the SpawnBox window while it starts. There is also a new way to find out whether your router will let friends in, and a change to how Easy Address names are kept.

Minecraft 26.3

You can now pick 26.3 when you create a Vanilla, Fabric, Quilt or Forge server. Everything SpawnBox records while you play (sessions, joins and leaves, deaths, advancements) works on 26.3 the same way it does on earlier versions. Minecraft 26.3 writes some of those lines differently, and we taught SpawnBox to read the new wording.

Paper, Spigot and Purpur servers will offer 26.3 as soon as Paper releases a stable 26.3 build. Until then they offer the same versions they do today, so nothing you run there changes.

Starting a server with the window closed

If you pressed Start, or used Apply Now after changing a server’s memory, and then closed the SpawnBox window a few seconds later, the server could end up stopped with no explanation, or stuck with Start greyed out until you restarted your PC. Closing the window now has no effect on a start that is already under way: the server finishes starting in the background, and when you open SpawnBox again it shows as running.

Test my router

Letting friends join from outside your home usually means opening a port on your router. SpawnBox can do that for you on most routers, but not all. The new Test my router check asks your router a few questions and tells you, in plain words, whether we can open ports there for you. Every Open my router automatically switch now says what we know instead of just turning grey.

When a new server is set up to be reached from the internet, you can also say no to automatic port opening and still keep its Easy Address.

If another computer on your network running SpawnBox already has your server’s port, the card now says “Another SpawnBox computer has this port” and what to do about it, instead of showing a raw network address.

Easy Address names

Turning Easy Address off, or changing a server’s name, now frees the old name so it can be claimed again, by you or by someone else. The address panel says this before you change anything: “This name is yours while Easy Address is on. Turning Easy Address off frees it.”

When a server stops on its own

If a server that was running stops by itself, for example because it ran out of memory, and nothing is going to start it again, you now get a notice that stays until you clear it: “<your server> stopped without being asked to, and it’s still off.” Before, the card just quietly showed the server as stopped.

Also in this release

• Easy Address: typing a space in a name now turns it into a hyphen (my server becomes my-server) instead of dropping it.
• Inviting friends: for a modded server, the invite message in the Get Players Connected guide no longer repeats the word modpack, and it names the mod loader properly, for example Fabric instead of fabric.
• Ports and routers: if the port settings dialog stops a Start and you choose Keep current, your next Start now goes ahead instead of showing the same dialog again, and on PCs with VMware or VirtualBox installed we now look for your router on the right network connection.
• Starting and restarting: restarting a server from somewhere other than its controls card, for example after installing mods or changing who can join, no longer makes the card say we have lost track of it, and a stopped server’s Console now says it isn’t running instead of waiting for lines that never come.
• Saving your world: if SpawnBox’s background service restarted in the middle of a backup, a running server could be left with world saving switched off until it next restarted, and we now switch it back on.
• Backups: in some cases a backup that could not read one of your server’s files still reported success, and it now fails and tells you instead; and if a new server got an automatic backup before its first start, its world is now backed up soon after that start instead of about a day later.
• Players and game rules: a player on their first visit now shows in your server’s player list while they are online, and on Paper servers that use our plugin, World Settings now shows your server’s real game rules instead of their defaults.
• Creating a server and the web dashboard: if a modpack failed to install while creating a server, the last screen now says what was left undone instead of “Your server is ready!”, and switching off a server’s public web dashboard now takes its page down instead of only stopping its updates.

Smaller fixes

• Opening SpawnBox after an update no longer shows “Couldn’t load server data.” when the part of your PC that runs your servers had gone to sleep.
• The window’s close button now tells you your servers keep running, and how to open SpawnBox again from the tray.