App Updates

This page is about updating PalCommand itself, the desktop app. For updating your PalServer game server installs, see Patch Day.

Channels

PalCommand ships two update channels:

• Stable, the default, and the channel every install starts on.
• Beta, earlier access to new PalCommand features, at the usual risk of a beta: rougher edges, and no promise a beta build is as stable as the release it is testing.

Switch channels with Get beta updates in the Updates section of App Settings. The switch is a preference, not an action: it changes nothing about the build you’re running, and PalCommand reads it when it starts, so the new channel takes effect the next time you launch the app.

Checking for an update

PalCommand checks for updates automatically in the background: about 30 seconds after launch, and every 24 hours after that. A check is a check and nothing more. It downloads no installer, changes no file, and never touches a running server.

You can also click Check for app updates now in App settings to check immediately. Either way, PalCommand tells you which version is available on your channel, or that you’re up to date. The “Update check interval” setting further down that page is about Palworld server updates, not PalCommand’s.

To stop the background checks, turn Check for updates automatically off in the Updates section of App settings. The manual button keeps working with the switch off, and so does installing an update you already know about: the switch is about unattended checks, not about what you choose to do.

Installing an update

When a check finds a newer build, PalCommand shows a notice with two choices: Install now and Later. Nothing happens until you pick one. Later leaves the app exactly as it was, and the “Update available” chip next to the version number in the sidebar keeps the version visible for the rest of the session.

Install now runs the whole update, in this order:

1. Download. PalCommand fetches the installer and checks it against the release signature. Your servers keep running throughout, because nothing is installed yet. If the download fails, or if the signature does not verify, the update stops here and no server is touched. PalCommand does not install an update it cannot verify.
2. Save and stop your servers. This is the same shutdown that closing PalCommand runs: each running server is announced, its world is saved, and then it stops. The overlay stays on screen for as long as that takes, because your servers are only safe while PalCommand is still open.
3. Install. The installer replaces the app and starts the new version for you.

If a server cannot be stopped cleanly, the update is abandoned. The installer never runs, nothing is replaced, and PalCommand names the server so you can go and look at it. That is deliberate: the installer closes PalCommand, and closing PalCommand while a server is still up is the one thing that costs a world everything since its last save.

Plan an update the way you would plan a restart. Anyone playing is disconnected when step 2 begins, so it is worth a word in chat first.

“Updater not configured yet”

If the check can’t reach the update server, PalCommand shows a plain “Updater not configured yet” message instead of a raw network error. On current builds this is the expected result, not a fault on your end: the signing key and the published update manifests don’t exist yet. It clears up once PalCommand’s maintainers publish that channel’s manifest.

What an update never touches

A PalCommand app update never touches your managed servers’ installs, saves, or settings. Those live entirely under your configured install roots, independent of where PalCommand itself is installed, and the installer does not go near them.

Your servers are stopped during an update, but they are saved first and they are all still there afterwards. Start them again from the dashboard once the new version opens, or leave Auto-start servers on launch on and PalCommand does it for you.