All About ShipWorks AutoUpdate

To make the AutoUpdate process as smooth as possible, when ShipWorks is not open on your computer(s), the AutoUpdate process will happen silently. The next time you launch ShipWorks a banner will display at the top of ShipWorks notifying you that ShipWorks was updated automatically. You can even click View Release Notes to see what cool, new features are in the new version.

As the day and time approaches for ShipWorks to be AutoUpdated, a banner will be displayed at the top of the ShipWorks software letting all users know of the pending update.

At the scheduled AutoUpdate day and time, a splash screen will be displayed letting you know that ShipWorks will be automatically closed. So that you can finish up anything you may be working on, ShipWorks will count down for 30 seconds prior to closing.

When the countdown reaches zero ShipWorks will automatically close and the AutoUpdated will begin. During the update:

At the completion of the update, ShipWorks will automatically reopen and a banner will be displayed notifying you that the software was updated successfully.

If you are running ShipWorks on multiple computers, all instances of the ShipWorks software will be automatically updated. In some cases during the AutoUpdate process you may see a notification that your ShipWorks server is on a later version of ShipWorks than the computer you are currently on. Not to worry, you will be given the opportunity to update the ShipWorks software and if no one is around to kick off the update ShipWorks will update automatically.

There may be occasions when ShipWorks is unable to update (for example: there may not be enough disk space to create a backup, which will cause the automatic update to cancel). In those cases, you’ll still be able to use ShipWorks. We’ll try to update again the following week. If ShipWorks is unable to update after two attempts, we’ll open a support ticket for you to troubleshoot the issue.

You will be notified with a banner at the top of the ShipWorks software letting you know any time an AutoUpdate fails.

While we make every effort to ensure that ShipWorks AutoUpdates run successfully, there are a few things we suggest that will make the update process run as smoothly as possible.

If you have multiple computers running ShipWorks it is recommended that your ShipWorks database is configured to use SQL Server Authentication. If your ShipWorks database is configured to use Windows Authentication it will cause AutoUpdates to fail.

If you are unsure which authentication method is being used we suggest reaching out to your IT person for assistance. Of course, we are here to assist you as well.

While it may vary, the general rule is to ensure that you have at least two times the amount of free disk space as the size of your ShipWorks database available so that the AutoUpdate process can backup your ShipWorks database and complete the update successfully.

You can check the size of your ShipWorks database by clicking on the Manage tab and then on the Configuration button. Then, look at the Total: line under Disk Usage.

Then, take a look at the free disk space on the ShipWorks server and make sure that you have at least two times the amount of free disk space as the ShipWorks database size. (The more free space you have the better.)

If you see that you need to free up disk space, please reach out to your IT person for assistance.

Using custom triggers within your ShipWorks database will cause ShipWorks AutoUpdates to fail. It is recommended that custom triggers are not used. If you are unsure about whether or not you are using custom triggers, please reach out to your IT person or database administrator.