I recently changed the name of a game, including the name of the archive, executable and folder. I figured something like this might cause issues for anyone who had the game installed on the itch app beforehand, and sure enough, it did.
I've got a report of someone who received an update, after which point they were completely unable to launch, manage or even uninstall the game.
There's only one executable, now with the new name. I personally wasn't able to run the game, but I did manage to uninstall, then re-install it, and it worked from there.
The name of the archive wasn't changing, so I deleted it and uploaded it again from scratch, which may have complicated things. It also got rid of the record of all the old versions, which is a shame but not the end of the world I suppose.
Based on what you described, I assume you are using butler?
When uploading files with butler, the name of the zipped downloadable file doesn’t change, even if you change it locally when pushing the new version with butler. To change the zip’s name, you can go to “Edit Game” and when browsing your available files, select the name of the one you want to change, and rename that.
Deleting an older entry, and re-uploading one with a new name shouldn’t cause issues. The only issue I can think, is that the Itch app is trying to keep the game’s version updated based on the “Channel Name” that you’ve used. So if you deleted an older file, the app wouldn’t be able to update the game anymore. If the newly uploaded file has the exact same “Channel Name”, then I’m not sure if the Itch app can tell the difference.
Did you use the same “Channel Name” when you re-uploaded the game?
As a side note, make sure to use the “Reply” link below someone’s comment when replying to them, so they get a notification :)
Yes, I'm using butler. The channel name is the same, just "windows-x64", but I am manually setting the version with the --userversion flag, and I did increment it since the last version if that makes a difference.
According to the user, it did download something, but none of the controls (launch, manage, open folder, uninstall) do anything.
When you upload a new version with butler, it only uploads a “patch” which, to put it simply, contains only the changes based on the old version.
The same thing happens on the Itch app, when it updates a game, it only downloads the “patch”, to save space.
I’m not sure if deleting the old file, and uploading a new one with the same “Channel Name” caused some sort of confusion? Especially since you mentioned you encountered the same issue yourself, but it was fixed once you uninstalled and installed again the game.
If that’s what’s happening, I can’t help much more. I would suggest maybe to delete the file, and upload the same build with a new “Channel Name”, but it’s up to you. I can’t guarantee this is the issue you are seeing. Alternatively an admin/mod might see this and provide more details/help.
Also keep in mind the “–useversion” flag does not have any restrictions by default. As in, you can name multiple builds with random numbers as the version number, and butler will still be able to tell which one is new and which one is old. I think there’s a setting on the “Edit Game” page to change that though.
