A normal installation of IDE 2.x next to IDE 1.x might upgrade the AVR board package to 1.8.6 if you're not on that board package version yet; it will not update anything else. It might nag you that updates are available for boards and libraries (which you can disable).
As @ptillisch states that the issue is specific to IDE 1.x, I would suggest that you create a portable install of IDE 1.x (version depends on what you want to use) and use that for anything except for the Arduino Nano ESP32; use IDE 2.x for Arduino Nano ESP32.
The portable installation will be fully independent of any other installations. You can copy your existing libraries over from your existing IDE 1.x installation (and I think that you can also copy existing board packages).
Personally I have taken it a step further and I have a portable install for different board packages as well as for my projects.
It won't. There are legitimate reasons to continue to use Arduino IDE 1.x, but that is not one of them.
If you do run into any problems, just let us know and we'll help you solve them.
The problem is that the developers released a new version 2.0.18-20240930.arduino3 of the "Arduino Nano ESP32 Boards" platform cerca 2024-09-30. Something about the package index entry (the release metadata used by Boards Manager) for that release (I guess it is the somewhat unusual, but 100% valid version number) causes Arduino IDE 1.x to no longer recognize the installed platform, regardless of which version of the platform you have installed. package index entries for all versions of the "Arduino Nano ESP32 Boards" platform.
Arduino IDE properly handles the 2.0.18-20240930.arduino3 package index entry.
If for some reason you do find that you can't work with Arduino IDE 2.x, there are some workarounds for this bug in Arduino IDE 1.x, and we can provide instructions for those workarounds if needed. But I think updating to Arduino IDE 2.x will be the best solution so try that first..
That is the FQBN for the board definition from the "esp32" boards platform. The FQBN for the board definition from the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform is arduino:esp32:nano_nora.
The wording of the error message is quite confusing because we expect to see this information in the order of descending generality (i.e., "package arduino, platform esp32"), as is done in the FQBN, but for some reason the developer swapped the order. It is more prone to confusion because many Arduino employees and members of the community stubbornly insist on using incorrect terminology (e.g., "package", "core", "BSP", and various combinations) instead of the correct term "platform".
The 3rd party "esp32" boards platform provides support for all ESP32-based boards and microcontrollers. That includes the Arduino Nano ESP32 board.
The "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform is a fork Arduino made of the "esp32" boards platform, which has been trimmed down to only provide what is needed to support the Arduino Nano ESP32. In addition, Windows drivers for the board have been added.
As you noticed, you can use either, but we recommend using the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" for the following reasons:
It provides Windows users with the necessary drivers
Arduino carefully verifies it is working with the Nano ESP32 board before making a release, whereas the developers of the "esp32" platform can't do comprehensive validation for all the hundreds of boards in that platform
Arduino tests our libraries and sketches with this platform, so you might encounter incompatibilities if you use them with the latest version of the "esp32" platform (which might have breaking changes that were not yet accommodated in the library code.
You can install as many versions as you like without any problems if you use the "ZIP file" package of Arduino IDE. You get it by clicking this link:
It is only the installer that overwrites the previous installation. When you download the ZIP package, you just extract the file to whatever location is convenient and you are ready to use that version of Arduino IDE, as well as any other copies you have on your computer. I have over 300 different versions of Arduino IDE installed on my computer.
It is not. I can reproduce it. The reason you aren't experiencing it is because you are using the "esp32" boards platform instead of Arduino ESP32 Boards. If you use Boards Manager to uninstall the "esp32" boards platform and install Arduino ESP32 Boards, you'll see the same thing.
Thanks for all the clarifications. Just to make sure I get the boards part, here are two screen grabs (I am Mac on IDE 2. The first is searching for the board using the new board interface. I think you might agree it is a little hard to tell which is which while the second screen grab is of the older style interface and it is clear which only contains 1 board. I thought I had it understood that Arduino had to be in the name but with the OP using IDE 1 and there being an actual bug I got confused. This board has bested me a couple times now and I am very embarrassed about that. Thanks for clearing this up.
I am not sure this applies to me as a Mac user, but for Windows users, is the zip file just the arduino.exe, and the installer is what? Is it the entire Arduino15 directory?
Similar question for Linux while we are at it.
Even though you have a DMG instead of ZIP package for macOS, you can also have as many installations of the IDE on a macOS machine as you like. It is actually more simple in a way because there isn't an option of downloading an installer package as there is for Windows so there isn't any chance of getting mixed up.
Just make sure to use Finder to rename the Arduino IDE app folder to something that includes the version number so that you don't have a folder name collision with the default app folder name when you install additional Arduino IDE versions.
No, it contains a bunch of files. It is exactly the same as the files when you install the IDE using the installer.
For example, here is what you have in the first two folder levels of the Arduino IDE 2.3.3 ZIP package:
Sorry, I am not getting this at all, neither Win or Mac (maybe Mac, I just rename some folder?)
In any case, I don't ever see me needing to have multiple versions, so I will just move on, thanks for trying though, at 82 and being autistic I don't always get everything first try or even 2nd.
I'm on the road to recovery. I bit the bullet and installed IDE 2.3.3 based on the previous comment that my old IDE 1.8.9 would not be impacted - and it wasn't.
With the new IDE, I was able to recover the Nano ESP32 by putting it in "purple" mode and using Upload Using Programmer (normal upload wouldn't work). Once this updated, I can now upload sketches normally.
It appears that I got myself into this hole by something I set wrong in the config file for TFT_eSPI, and that somehow messed up the Nano ESP32. But now that I can compile and upload, I can deal with that. Probably something dumb I did with the pin designations.
Thanks for all of your help. And as a side note, IDE 2.3.3 is VERY nice and much faster.
And I believe the issue that originally put the Nano ESP32 into a mode where it wouldn't take uploads is an SPI bus speed setting and an issue with pin numbering in the setup file for TFT_eSPI.
I've since lowered the SPI bus speed settings and changed to legacy pin numbering and everything is operating properly.
As a side note (I will start another thread so as not to hijack this one), my setup file references pins by D11, D12, etc. According to the Arduino Support document Select pin numbering for Nano ESP32 in Arduino IDE, using D11, D12, etc should work in either Pin Numbering mode in the IDE. But setting it to "By Arduino Pin" didn't work and "By GPIO Number" did work.
Thanks to everyone for all of their help and bearing with me.
