Arduino IDE 2.3.6 is now available

Development Tools IDE 2.x
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:red_exclamation_mark: Normally, Arduino IDE offers to auto-update when a newer version is available. However, due to a bug, Arduino IDE 2.3.5 does not have an auto-update capability. Please download Arduino IDE 2.3.6 from the "Software" page of the Arduino website and install the downloaded file:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/software

This release provides fixes for regressions present in Arduino IDE 2.3.5.

Thanks so much to the forum community for all the valuable testing and feedback that has helped us greatly in identifying and investigating these bugs!

Highlights

Fix application auto-update capability

arduino/arduino-ide#2697, arduino/arduino-ide#2696

Arduino IDE has an auto-update feature, which notifies the user when a newer version is available, and allows them to easily update the application.

The auto-update feature was broken in Arduino IDE 2.3.5. Arduino IDE 2.3.5 will not notify the user of an updated version, even if the user manually triggers an update check. This bug has been fixed in Arduino IDE 2.3.6, so the auto-update feature will work as before for users of Arduino IDE 2.3.6 once a future release comes out. However, the bug in Arduino IDE 2.3.5 means that it will not be possible to use the auto-update feature to update from 2.3.5 to 2.3.6.

Please download Arduino IDE 2.3.6 from the links on the "Software" page of the Arduino website:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/software

Then install the new version from the downloaded file.

Fix opening additional sketches via file association

arduino/arduino-ide#2686, arduino/arduino-ide#2678

In addition to opening them via the Arduino IDE GUI, sketch files can be opened directly when the .ino file type is associated with Arduino IDE.

Previously, if a sketch was opened in this manner while Arduino IDE was already running, a bug caused the currently opened sketch was opened again in a new window instead of the selected sketch.

Fix extra blank window on macOS when IDE started via sketch file association

arduino/arduino-ide#2693, arduino/arduino-ide#2688

In addition to starting the Arduino IDE application directly, it can be started by opening a specific sketch file using the Arduino IDE application.

Previously, when Arduino IDE was started by opening a sketch file on a macOS machine, a pointless blank window was opened in addition to the Arduino IDE window for the selected sketch. Arduino IDE will now only open the window for the selected sketch.

(Thanks @embeddedkiddie)

Fix IDE stealing focus from other windows.

arduino/arduino-ide#2681, arduino/arduino-ide#2679

During long operations such as installing large boards platforms or libraries, or compiling/uploading large sketch programs, the user may wish to multitask by using another application will the operation proceeds in Arduino IDE.

Previously, if the user selected a different window while an operation was in progress in Arduino IDE, a bug caused the Arduino IDE window to steal focus from the active window each time any new content was printed to Arduino IDE's "Output" panel.

Expand and improve translations

arduino/arduino-ide#2692

The community work to make Arduino IDE accessible to everyone in the world through localization of the text of the IDE's UI continues, reaching high coverage levels for 18 languages/locales.

If you would like to contribute to the Arduino IDE translations, please see the information here:

https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/blob/main/docs/contributor-guide/translation.md#translator-guide

Full changelog here:

https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/releases/tag/2.3.6

If you have any questions or feedback please post here in the dedicated forum category for Arduino IDE 2.x:

https://forum.arduino.cc/c/software/ide-2-x/93

If you want to see the list of known issues, work in progress, submit a formal report, or contribute to development, the Arduino IDE 2.x source code is hosted in this public repository:

https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide

5 Likes
3

Downloaded 2.3.5 1,5 hrs ago :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

4

Should IDE 2.3.5 be uninstalled first?

If installing 2.3.6 over the old 2.3.5 installation, does it remember the previous installation preferences (e.g., whether to install for just the current user or all users, location of installation folder, etc.)?

5

Afaik binaries and data including preferences are separated.

6

It is not required.

The Windows installers (exe and "MSI") will perform an update if there is an existing installation of Arduino IDE. If you are using the Windows ZIP package, then you manage the installation manually and are free to have multiple copies of Arduino IDE if you like, and likewise can delete the copies as you like.

There is no installer for Linux, so you manage the installations manually and can have multiple copies and remove them as you like, the same as the Windows ZIP package.

macOS has a minimal installation helper, were you simply mount the DMG file and then drag the application from the mounted drive to the Applications folder (or anywhere you like). You are free to have multiple copies of the Arduino IDE application if you like. You only need to rename the Arduino IDE application folder if you want to store multiple copies in the same folder (since each folder must have a unique name).

Yes, the Windows installer does.

1 Like
7

FYI, my MacAir does NOT have the

Fix extra blank window on macOS when IDE started via sketch file association
bug.

I also do not have the following bug

Fix opening additional sketches via file association

8

Are you using Arduino IDE 2.3.5 or 2.3.6?

If you are using 2.3.6, then that is expected because the bug has been fixed in 2.3.6.

If you are using 2.3.5, then the bug is indeed present. You can follow these instructions:

  1. If Arduino IDE is running, select Arduino IDE > Quit Arduino IDE from the Arduino IDE menus.
    All Arduino IDE windows will close.
  2. Control-click on any .ino file from a sketch.
    A context menu will open.
  3. Select "Open With" from the menu.
    A submenu will open that allows you to select which application to use to open the file.
  4. Select the Arduino IDE application from the menu.

Arduino IDE starts, with the selected sketch open as expected.

:bug: However, an additional blank Arduino window also opens.

If you are using 2.3.5, then the bug is indeed present, but on macOS it only occurs if you pass the path of the sketch to the Arduino IDE invocation as a command line argument. For example:

% "/Applications/Arduino IDE/Contents/MacOS/Arduino IDE" ~/Documents/Arduino/SomeSketch
9

Maybe that explains it, I open sketches using normal methods like dbl clicking the ino file. I have no idea if that passes the path to the ino file to the command although it sounds probable.
I have NEVER used Control-Click for anything in all the years I have been using a Mac. I just tried it on 2.3.5, and indeed, it works as the bug report states.
Now, I have to find out what the advantage is of using a procedure to open a sketch that requires all those extra steps.
Thanks for the clarification, and now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

10

A double click is generally equivalent to the Control-click procedure I described. Those instructions came from the bug report. I chose the Control-click procedure because it allows you to select the specific application to use to open the sketch, while the double click will open it using the default application. The developers and beta testers likely have multiple installations of Arduino IDE and they must make sure to open the sketch using the specific installation that is under test.

macOS seems to use a different mechanism. The reason I say this is because arduino/arduino-ide#2678 occurs when you open the sketch via command line argument, but not when you open it via double click or Control-click.

Likewise, arduino/arduino-ide#2688 occurs when you open the sketch via double click or Control-click, but not when you open it via command line argument.

The only advantage is the ability to select which application will be used to open it. If the application you want to use is used by default, then there is no advantage.

1 Like
11

I have been using rename to allow for multiple versions/releases, but I have always used the Mac ecosystem method of Spotlight to select from a few versions of an app, fewer keystrokes

Screenshot 2025-04-09 at 10.39.23
Screenshot 2025-04-09 at 10.39.23302×340 19.8 KB

12

I had a very old IDE in this Win 10 WS, so uninstalled it and grabbed 2.3.5. It was fascinating to see that during the first startup, the focus bug appeared. Tried to get a browser window into the fg, but the IDE kept took it back, until it was done with initial install, setup.

Under 2.3.6 it's gone.

13

Looks like IDE2.3.6 still having issues. Been working with zephyr on the giga R1 and had to do a remove of 0.3.1 and a reinstall. The reinstall completed successfully but after I closed and restarted the IDE on windows 11 22h2 received a not responding when I opened the IDE again. Had to restart machine. After restart it looked like it worked but when I put the board into booloader mode by double clicking the IDE went blank and had to do task manager to kill the process

image
image1115×678 3.85 KB

didn't see this issue previous versions.

After restarting the ide seems to have recovered.

14

Needless to say I have been in the same boat at times with zephyr on the GIGA. I have also installed 2.3.6 as 2.3.5 had many other issues.

Sometimes with Zephyr, it feels like there is something with each individual GIGA on will it boot correctly or not. Not sure what.

I have Two GIGAs, each now has a Giga display shield on it. With one of them,
each time zephyr boots, I have to go to the Debug window (Serial1 through USB to UART connection) and type: sketch
to get the sketch to run. Note: I have gone through probably 50+ loader installs since this started, plus I have tried building with or without debug on... The other one works as expected... Not sure what the
difference is...

Note: They both work fine when using MBED

I have also tried to reset, the giga using the instructions at:
Factory reset giga r1/remove micropython - Mega / GIGA R1 WiFi - Arduino Forum

But maybe other things, like maybe the settings that it was set in earlier
when using MBED, like flash split?...

Sorry I know this is more giga specific and not the IDE, but maybe something like that is hitting your board as well, although maybe manifesting itself differently.

15

There were other changes; not sure if it is in 2.3.4 → 2.3.5 or 2.3.5 → 2.3.6.

One change that I observed is that when starting with a multi-line comment /* it now auto completes with the closing */.

No complaints about it. Is this related to feat: use `theia@1.57.0` (#2654) · arduino/arduino-ide@859d29d · GitHub (2.3.4 → 2.3.5)?

16

I confirm that was where the feature was introduced.

For those of us who prefer to close block comments manually, it can be disabled via Arduino IDE's advanced settings:

  1. Press the Ctrl+Shift+P keyboard shortcut (Command+Shift+P for macOS users) to open the "Command Palette".
    A menu will appear on the editor toolbar:
    Command Palette screenshot
    Command Palette screenshot440×112 11.9 KB
  2. Select the "Preferences: Open Settings (UI)" command from the menu.
    ⓘ You can scroll down through the list of commands to find it, or type the command name in the field.
    A "Settings" tab will open in the Arduino IDE main panel.
  3. Type editor.autoClosingComments in the "Search Settings" field of the "Settings" tab.
  4. Select "never" from the "Editor: Auto Closing Comments" setting menu.
  5. Close the Preferences tab by clicking its X icon.
1 Like
17

Two issues with 2.3.6:

  1. when initially offered to start the IDE immediately after the install, I got a black window.
  2. Library update hangs:
    image
    image844×506 23.4 KB
18

When that happened, did the IDE application become completely unresponsive as reported by @Merlin513?:

I can provide you with instructions for a workaround:

  1. Start Arduino IDE.
  2. When you see the "Updates are available for some of your libraries" notification, click the "INSTALL MANUALLY" button instead of the "UPDATE ALL" button.
    Library Manager will open, with a list of the updatable libraries.
  3. Click the "UPDATE" button on the first of the entries in Library Manager for a library you wish to update.
  4. Wait for the update to finish, as indicated by the appearance of a "Successfully installed library ..." notification.
  5. Repeat steps (2)-(3) until you have updated all the libraries you wish to update.

Please let me know whether the problem of the update hanging still occurs when you use that procedure.

I also experience this problem sometimes. Unfortunately it seems to only occur intermittently and under specific conditions, which makes it difficult to investigate. For example, I experience it when I use the IDE with my ridiculous 32 GB collection of 90 different boards platforms installed, but when I switch to a more realistic environment with only a dozen platforms then I can no longer reproduce the fault.

And when I enable the debug logging that would give me some idea of what is happening, I can no longer reproduce the fault.

And when I run the same commands with Arduino CLI directly (which is the tool that actually performs the library updates for Arduino IDE under the hood), I can no longer reproduce the fault.

A very difficult to pin down bug! I have made multiple attempts at investigating it, but previously I didn't take it very seriously because we had never received any reports from users who were affected. However, now we have your report, as well as a couple of others over the last six months (1, 2), so maybe something has changed that makes it more likely to occur?

I find that when I update each of the libraries separately using the procedure I described in my previous reply, instead of all in one go as occurs when you click the "UPDATE ALL" button in the notification, I never encounter the update process hang. So I think that we at least have a reliable workaround for the bug.

19

Yes.

Thank you for the library work-around. I'll give that a try the next time there are libraries to update.

1 Like
20

Hi,
I did update like this from 2.3.5 and my all-previous sketches somehow disappeared from the sketch directory. I checked the sketch library location, but they are not there.
The bug that previous versions had (Restart: "A setting has changed that requires a restart to take effect. Press the restart button to restart Arduino IDE and enable the setting" when a new sketch is opened, and next time when a sketch is opened menu bar is missing) is still there.
I am on Windows 10 64bit.