Updated resources crashing Logos 36.1

John · 2025-06-19T18:25:36+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

Upon updating Logos resources, my Desktop version began to crash upon opening.

After much investigation I discovered that it was two particular resources that had been recently updated which were causing the crashing. After restoring the older files, the software runs normally without crashing. Here are the particular files:

THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR I Kings

    
        https://www.logos.com/product/186469/the-biblical-illustrator-i-kings
    



Old file that still works

LLS:BBLCLLLSTRTKNGS

2019-10-15T19:23:34Z

BBLCLLLSTRTKNGS.logos4

New file that crashes Logos

LLS:BBLCLLLSTRTKNGS

2025-06-16T15:44:57Z

BBLCLLLSTRTKNGS.logos4

The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments

    
        https://www.logos.com/product/126593/the-holy-bible-containing-the-old-and-new-testamentslogos
    



Old file that still works
LLS:HLYBBLBAPTIST

2016-08-08T19:39:54Z

HLYBBLBAPTIST.logos4

New file that crashes Logos
LLS:HLYBBLBAPTIST

2025-06-16T15:45:57Z

HLYBBLBAPTIST.logos4

Is this a bug or mistake, or is Logos changing the resource file format to be incompatible with older versions of the software?

Find more posts tagged with

Resources

Bug

Desktop App

Comments

Dave Hooton

Logos will release books that won't run on Logos 36.1 because they require the latest version of the software, and they no longer support version 36.1. I would stay with the older version of the books, but you could upload some logs when running the latest version as they might be helpful.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

Logos changing the resource file format to be incompatible with older versions of the software?

Yes… but… we do this all the time.

We introduced support for a new resource feature (a change to the resource file format) in Logos 36.0. On Monday we published five resources that use that new feature. (It looks like your system downloaded two of them.)

Logos won't download resources that it knows it can't support. In this case, these resources are tagged as "requires >= v36.0" so your version (36.1) thinks it can support them. It's possible that while that's supposed to be true, there's actually an unknown bug in v36.1 that makes it incompatible in practice.

My recommendation would be to upgrade to a supported version of Logos (which is v42.1 at the time of writing).

If you're deliberately sticking with an unsupported version of Logos, you might need to downgrade to v35.1 because it will not download any other resources that require version 36.0 or later.

John

@Bradley Grainger (Logos)

It's possible … there's actually an unknown bug in v36.1
My recommendation would be to upgrade to a supported version of Logos (which is v42.1 at the time of writing).
If you're deliberately sticking with an unsupported version of Logos, you might need to downgrade to v35.1 because it will not download any other resources that require version 36.0 or later.

Thanks for the info, at least now I now know in part what is going on.

Neither of these particular resources was new. Is a fresh install of v35.1 going to download an older version of these resource files from the server? When a new resource is created, are compatible resource files also created for older versions of the software?

If not, this would also make it impossible for me to ever purchase new resources, as the older versions of the software will not read them. The answer is always going to be "you have to update to the latest version" … Is that correct?

DMB

Not being negative per se, but an hour ago I ended my app's buying habits (which are accompanied by resource updates). Same conclusion.

John

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1372309#Comment_1372309

Thanks Dave, I am ok with staying with older versions of the resource files. Especially since any new functionality will not benefit me (as a non-subscriber). But what happens when they publish a new resource?

I still have all the resource files in Libronix 3.0g, but I can no longer purchase anything new that will run in that format. Is that also going to be the case here?

John

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1372322#Comment_1372322

I'm still not fully clear on what the future holds here. It appears that the Logos resource file format has been changed which breaks compatibility with older versions of the software. The resource folder is still "Logos4" and the file extension is still .Logos4, but apparently compatibility has been broken … the software has no ability to check the file version … it just opens it and crashes?

Older versions may or may not be supported by the server allowing them to download a compatible version of the resource. Still not clear on whether new resources are also compiled into versions capable of being used by older software or not. Hoping @Bradley Grainger (Logos) will elaborate on that.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1372323#Comment_1372323

@Bradley Grainger (Logos) commented on resources being marked for newer versions than yours. That applies to any resource, whether an update or new to you. I doubt that this tagging prevents resources being advertised in emails or on logos.com, so you would have to return any that will not download.

Logos 3.0g cannot support the resource format introduced by its successor, Logos 4, many years ago! Your only option with recent resources is to keep updating (for free) Logos, starting with 42.1.

DMB

My understanding is the resource-filter check should have been >36.1, not 36.0. But I can't afford problems like this. Too much invested.

John

@Dave Hooton

… keep updating (for free) Logos, starting with 42.1

Why 42.1? Were these changes discussed already? What changed with 42.1?

Edit: Ok it just occurred to me that 42.1 is probably the latest version. Where is the delete button? 😀

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

It's possible that while that's supposed to be true, there's actually an unknown bug in v36.1 that makes it incompatible in practice.

I did some testing and found that these resources do crash in 36.1 and 37.2 (the last version of Logos that works on macOS 12) but work fine in 38.0. We will be fixing the Logos resource compiler to mark any resources that would have required a minimum version of 36.0 to require v38.0 instead. This will stop older versions of Logos from downloading books that will crash the application.

Neither of these particular resources was new. Is a fresh install of v35.1 going to download an older version of these resource files from the server?

Yes. The application will download the latest version of the resource it supports. (This of course relies on the metadata about supported versions being accurate. That metadata is set by an automated system and I can't remember the last time it was wrong; however, it looks like an error was introduced in the process in this one particular case.)

When a new resource is created, are compatible resource files also created for older versions of the software?

Not exactly. The Logos compiler figures out the earliest version of the software that can support a particular book and builds it to be compatible with that version. (The vast majority of newly-created books only require Logos 4.2a or later. That's 4.2, not 42, to be clear.) If the book uses features that are only available in a specific version of Logos, then it's marked as requiring that version.

An example might be if we digitized all the works of the Scriptorium Project:

https://community.logos.com/discussion/250410/the-scriptorium-project-a-project-of-dalcassian-press

We would need to create new data types to represent all those works, and those data types might only be available in, say, Logos 46.0. We wouldn't create versions for Logos 40, Logos 30, Logos 22, Logos 10, Logos 9, etc., as that would require stripping out arbitrary pieces of content and/or functionality from the books (and also significantly increase resource production costs).

If not, this would also make it impossible for me to ever purchase new resources, as the older versions of the software will not read them. The answer is always going to be "you have to update to the latest version" … Is that correct?

Like I said, books are created to be compatible with the earliest-possible version of the software that can read them, and most books end up being compatible with Logos 4.2a.

But if there happened to be a new release that used a new data type, and you reported the problem that Logos 36.1 didn't automatically download that book, then yes, our answer would be "please update to a supported version of Logos, or use this book through the web app".

It appears that the Logos resource file format has been changed which breaks compatibility with older versions of the software.

The Logos resource file format has been changing in almost every release since Logos 4.0. Each new version is incompatible with older versions of the software, but we try very hard to make this a seamless experience for users.

The resource folder is still "Logos4" and the file extension is still .Logos4, but apparently compatibility has been broken … the software has no ability to check the file version … it just opens it and crashes?

You're half right. The software does have the ability to check the file version. However, in this case, a book file that should have been marked as requiring v38.0 was incorrectly marked as requiring v36.0, causing versions 36.x and 37.x to download it (when they shouldn't have), then crash.

John

@Bradley Grainger (Logos)

We will be fixing the Logos resource compiler to mark any resources that would have required a minimum version of 36.0 to require v38.0 instead. This will stop older versions of Logos from downloading books that will crash the application.

Thanks for fixing this

DMB

Ditto … thank you, Bradley.