What are these messages about?
Why? I'm happy with everything just the way it is!
Apple App Store, Google Play store make keeping the server up-to-date very important
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iOS, iPadOS, Android do not let us let you pick the version of the app to run from their app stores. You can ONLY pick the newest.
As a result, when we ship a new device app, there can be compatibility issues with old versions on your server.
We try very hard to do a rolling version update, with a target of 3 to 12 months upgrade window whenever possible.
Existing users can avoid the upgrade issues by turning off auto-upgrade, and then only upgrading after the server is updated.
Newer users can use the browser app instead of the device app, you'll miss a few features but they are more in the easy of use typically than actual functionality.
Sometimes the OS doesn't give us that option - they change a requirement that makes it impossible for us to have a new version of the app compatible with older servers. Most recently Android did this to us in 2026. Apple did it to us in 2025.
Security reasons:
The Internet is still 'the wild west'. Evil people find ways to attack, we, the browsers and others find ways to block attacks. The older your version, the more likely you have more attack surfaces, even if you are running on an intranet.
Browser features removed reasons:
Browsers remove features, some for security reasons, some like Chromium in March-September 2026 because once they get rid of 'this' feature, they can add 'this other faster' or more secure feature.
The not obvious result is that the more advanced the software, the more often you need to keep it up to date.
if you are using the iOS, i*OS or Android app (as opposed to the browser app on iOS/Android) you need to keep the server close to the version being shipped to the app store because the app store themselves take away allowed features for new apps .
Examples:
- In 2025, both iOS and Android took away a feature that MCe used in the old server code and
- In 2026 Chromium took away a feature that meant old MC code won't run with new browsers, depending on a lottery system, starting in March and ending (everyone affected) in September.
Now ... we work hard to help you out to minimize this need. For example, we have fixes to let you run old MC code. But there is only so much we can do if you don't keep your server updated.
Upgrading MCe isn't hard!
Fortunately, MCe typically is a 5-15 minute upgrade, and most of that time is computer time, not human typing time.