The update window#
SablePower looks for a new version when it starts, and every 15 minutes while it is open. When one is out, a window opens over the app: "SablePower 1.5.2 is ready", with what is in the new version and two buttons, Update now and Later. While you are signing in, or another window of the app is open, it waits until you are done.
- Close your open profiles. The window reminds you if one is still open.
- Press Update now. The window shows each stage: checking, downloading with a percentage, installing, restarting.
- SablePower restarts on the new version. Profiles, proxies and settings stay exactly as they were.
Later closes the window. Nothing else covers the app: a small blue Update ready shows at the bottom of the sidebar, just above the row of icons. Click it and the window opens again. The window also opens again when you next start SablePower, and at once when a newer version comes out.
Help with updates at the bottom of the window opens this page. If an update stops, the window says why, and the link opens If an update does not install.
Before installing, SablePower checks the download's signature, so it installs only a version that really comes from us.
SablePower never installs by itself. Replacing the app that holds your accounts is a decision you make.
What's new#
What's new, the star at the bottom left of the sidebar, lists every update of SablePower, newest first: the version, the day, and what changed in a few lines. A blue dot on the star means there is something you have not read yet; opening the list clears it. On a team the dot follows your account, so reading on one computer clears it on the others.
After an update, the first time SablePower opens it shows you the new version's part of the list by itself, once. Close it with the cross; it is always under What's new.
Update emails#
On a team you can get a short email when SablePower gets something big: a new feature or a new version. Never for small fixes, and one email per release. They are off unless you turn them on.
- The first time you open What's new, it asks once: "Email me when there's something big?" Yes, email me or No, thanks.
- Change your answer at any time: Settings (the gear, bottom left), General, Update emails.
- Every email has a Stop these emails link at the bottom. One click turns them off; you do not need to sign in.
The emails come from [email protected] and go only to the address you sign in with.
Check for updates by hand#
Settings (the gear, bottom left), About tab, Check for updates. When a new version is out, Settings closes and the update window opens. Otherwise it says This is the newest release. The same tab shows the Version you have. Untick Check for a new version when SablePower starts only if you would rather check yourself.
Update the browser#
Sometimes only the browser inside SablePower gets a new build. A bar then says so with Update the browser. It is a separate download of the browser alone; profiles stay as they are. Close open profiles first: they run in the browser being replaced. Until you update, profiles keep working on the old build, but a browser older than the one SablePower expects can give itself away to sites, so do not wait long.
The Mac asks for a password after an update#
Two different boxes can appear on a Mac. Neither wants your SablePower password: both want the password you use to log in to the Mac.
"SablePower wants to make changes"#
macOS asks this when SablePower in Applications cannot be replaced by your Mac account by itself: the app was installed by another account on the Mac, or your account is not an administrator. Type the name and password of an administrator of the Mac and press OK; the update then installs as normal.
If it asks at every update: install SablePower once by hand while logged in to your own Mac account, as an administrator. Quit SablePower, open the newest .dmg, drag SablePower into Applications and choose Replace. Your profiles stay: they are kept in your account's own folder, not in the app. If your Mac account is not an administrator, this box comes with every update and needs an administrator's password.
"SablePower wants to use your confidential information … in your keychain"#
Older versions kept your sign in and the team key in the Mac's keychain. Since version 1.2.0 they are kept in a protected file in your Mac account instead, so the keychain asks no more. When a Mac moves from an older version, it asks once, sometimes two or three boxes in a row: type your Mac login password and press Always Allow in each.
Press Deny and SablePower opens signed out and asks again at the next start. If a box comes back at every start, tell us.
Why boxes at all: SablePower is not signed with a paid Apple developer certificate, and macOS treats each unsigned version as a new app for the keychain. Keeping the keys in a file avoids that.
Windows and SmartScreen#
An update from the app (Update now in the update window) installs without SmartScreen: SablePower checks the download's signature itself and runs it. SmartScreen appears only when you run an installer downloaded in a browser, the first install for example: "Windows protected your PC", then More info, then Run anyway. It shows because the installer is not signed with a paid certificate; this is expected.
If an update does not install#
The update window says "The update did not install" with the reason, and offers Download the installer. Download it, quit SablePower, and install it over the one you have: on a Mac drag it into Applications and choose Replace, on Windows run the installer. Profiles, proxies and settings stay.
If it says "Close your open profiles first", close them and press Update now again: nothing was changed yet.
Now and then a version can only be installed by hand. The window then says "This version is installed by hand", its installer opens in your browser, and Download the installer fetches it again. Install it over the one you have, as above.
Closed the window with Later? Update ready in the sidebar opens it again, with the reason still there.
The same works when a copy is too old to update itself: install the newest one over it: SablePower for Mac or SablePower for Windows.