Updating bliss to the latest version

bliss is capable of updating itself to its latest version, normally without restarting. A special 'Update' page in bliss shows the latest available version and offers a button to perform the update. Once clicked, the button updates bliss to the latest version. Normally a restart is not required.

The Update page

You reach the Update page by clicking 'Update' at the bottom-right of the bliss interface

Screenshot of the in-app link to update bliss

This loads the Update page.

The in-app updater showing a more recent version is available

That's how the Update page appears when there is a more recent version available. If there isn't a more recent version then the Update button is not offered.

To update bliss, click the Update button. The process of updating is discussed in more detail in the next section.

Running an update

When the Update button is clicked to initiate an update, bliss goes through a five stage process:

  1. First, bliss checks that all the updated code is available.
  2. Next, bliss downloads all the parts of bliss that have been updated. Normally this adds up to a download much smaller than the normal bliss installer size.
  3. Once all the new parts of bliss are retrieved, the bits that need updating are stopped
  4. The new parts of bliss are then updated...
  5. ... and finally the updated parts of bliss are restarted

Although I wrote "the bits that need updating are stopped", this doesn't mean the bliss application is stopped. bliss is written in a 'modular' fashion such that different parts of bliss, such as the user interface, the underlying platform and its integrations to MusicBrainz are separated and can be swapped in and out while it is running. By default, the bliss application keeps running when it is updated.

During the updating process bliss shows a 'spinner' icon in the update bar. The total length of time for updating bliss depends on how many modules need to be updated, but it can take several minutes depending on your Internet connection. The largest depending factor is your Internet connection speed. Typically, when updating, bliss will download up to 40MB of data. On a 2Mb/s Internet connection this will take up to ten minutes to download, and thus install.

What if it goes wrong?

There are sometimes things that can go wrong when updating bliss.

The catch all workaround is normally to follow After I updated bliss won't start. How do I fix it?

If you have further problems, let me know via email or in the comments section below.