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Upgrading

Your setup always carries over when you update CroStream. Settings, triggers, macros, logins, overlays, viewers and media stay where they are, and anything stored in an older format is converted automatically the first time the new version starts. This page explains what happens behind the scenes, in case you come from a much older version or from streamlink, CroStream's earlier name, or want to go back.

Updating CroStream

CroStream updates itself: Settings → Updates checks for new versions, and Install and restart downloads, checks and installs one. Nothing installs without you clicking. See Updates.

Updating never touches your files except to convert old formats as described below. You don't need to export or back up anything first, though a backup never hurts.

CroStream was called streamlink before. The first time CroStream starts, it takes everything over automatically:

  • Folders: each streamlink folder is renamed to the new name (CroStream on Windows and macOS, crostream on Linux), so your settings, logins, history, viewers and media carry over unchanged. See Folders from before the rename.
  • The window's storage on Windows (%AppData%\streamlink.exe) moves the same way, so view options you set are kept.
  • Export files made by streamlink still import.

Close streamlink before starting CroStream. If streamlink is still running, CroStream can't move its folder and says "An older copy of CroStream (from when it was called streamlink) is running on this computer. Close it first."

What converts automatically

From What happens
A settings file from version 1 Your Twitch login and OBS password move out of the settings file into the private secrets/ folder. Then it continues as below.
A settings file from version 2 Each old rule becomes a macro plus a trigger that runs it, and old actions become their current equivalents (for example, "save the OBS replay" becomes the Clip action on OBS).
Runtime state inside the config folder Moved once to the state folder.
A Twitch login from an older version Keeps working, but may lack permissions that newer features need. CroStream tells you which; click Log in again on the Twitch page. See Missing permissions.

The current settings format is version 3. Each conversion runs once, can safely be interrupted (it picks up where it left off at the next start), and never overwrites an earlier copy.

Copies kept for rolling back

Before converting, CroStream saves your old files next to the originals in the config folder (Settings → Open config folder):

File What it is
config.v1.json.bak Your version 1 settings.
config.v2.json.bak Your version 2 settings. If you came from version 1, this is its version 2 conversion.
token.v1.json.bak Your version 1 Twitch login (token.json).

A damaged old settings file

If the old settings file can't be read, CroStream leaves it exactly as it is and runs on default settings until you fix it. The Activity page shows the error. Your Twitch login is still copied into secrets/, so you stay logged in.

Rolling back

An older version can't read a newer settings file: it would start on default settings (and, from version 1, look logged out). To go back to an old version:

  1. Quit CroStream.
  2. Open the config folder.
  3. Copy the backup over the settings file:
    • back to version 2: copy config.v2.json.bak over config.json;
    • back to version 1: copy config.v1.json.bak over config.json, and token.v1.json.bak over token.json.
  4. Start the old version.

To undo a change made within the current version (a deleted macro, a bad import), you don't need any of this: restore an automatic backup instead.

Changes after the upgrade are lost

The .bak files hold your setup as it was before the upgrade. Anything you changed afterwards is not in them.

Trying an upgrade safely

Power users can check a copy of the config folder with the command-line tool before letting a new version loose on the real one. See The command line.