WoW Ace Updater for Mac

Please note this page has been updated and superceded by the documentation for Mace.

Application Developer: Anthony Jones (wild@southernwardens.com)
Documentation: Eleanor Holmes (siha@southernwardens.com)

Current Version: 1.0
Release Date: 29 November 2007

The WoW Ace Updater is an easy-to-use Java application that allows you to download updates for all your Ace-based addons with just a few mouse clicks. Follow the instructions below to install and use the application, or contact the program’s developer if you have any queries.

Installing the Updater

  1. Download the WoWAceUpdater.zip file below.

  2. Unzip the file, and put WoWAceUpdater.jar into a directory of your choice. (Note that the application will create a “mods” subdirectory to store its downloads.)
  3. Ready to use!

Using the Updater

  1. Before you begin, quit out of WoW completely.
  2. Run the application from the directory where you installed it. The first time you use it, it will take a little while to load, as it’s scanning your drive for WoW installs.
  3. Once the application has loaded, go to the dropdown menu for “WoW Installations” at the top of the application window, and make sure it shows the right location for your copy of WoW. If you only have one copy of WoW installed, it should automatically show here. If you have multiple installed copies of WoW, it will identify each one; just select the installation you wish to update.
  4. The window is split into two panes. The top pane (“Currently Installed ACE Mods”) is populated with a list of your installed Ace-compatible addons. The bottom pane (“All Available ACE Mods”) lists all of the Ace mods available for download at files.wowace.com.
  5. Both panes have columns listing the addons’ names, descriptions, revision number and ‘last updated’ date. These details are taken from your hard drive for the “Currently Installed” listing and from the file details at files.wowace.com for the “All Available” listing.
  6. To automatically update all your Ace mods, go to the File menu and select “Mark Updated Mods”. It will place tickmarks in the checkboxes of all mods that need updating. Un-tick any that you do not wish to update.
  7. To update only a few specific Ace mods, go to the “Currently Installed” pane, find the mods and tick their checkboxes.
  8. To install new mods from scratch, find them in the “All Available” pane and tick their checkboxes.
  9. Once you have ticked all the mods you wish to install or update, go to the File menu and select “Install Marked Mods”. The Updater will download all the ticked mods and install them in your WoW addons directory.
  10. You can monitor the progress of your installation by watching the bottom of the Updater window. While it is downloading and installing your mods, it will show a line of status text and a progress bar.

Please Note

  1. If you make any changes to your WoW/Interface/Addons directory while you still have the Updater open, you can select “Refresh” from the File menu to update your addons listing.
  2. If you have had the Updater open for a long time, make sure you select “Refresh” from the File Menu to update the addon listings, in case there have been new addon versions uploaded to files.wowace.com in the meantime.

Known Issues

Revision Number is “-1”
Sometimes you will see a mod in your “Currently Installed” list with a revision number of -1. If this happens, you need to manually tick the checkbox next to that mod’s name in your “Currently Installed” addons list for it to be updated.

This happens when your installed version of a mod is a non-Ace version and there is a mod available by the same name at files.wowace.com. You should check carefully whether they’re the same mod or not – sometimes a mod is updated to be Ace-based during its development cycle, and you should update it to the Ace version (eg Scrolling Combat Text); sometimes there are multiple mods with the same name. You should only update the mod if you know that the ACEd version is an update of the mod you have installed, not just a totally different mod with the same name.

Multiple Installations of WoW
If you have several copies of WoW on your computer, the WoW Ace Updater may not correctly find all of the installations. If this happens, you’ll just have to download the addons manually. (If you’re maintaining identical addon directories between the two installations, you can always use the WoW Ace Updater to update one installation, and then just manually copy your addons across to the other installation after each update.)