Troubleshooting and feedback

#Report a problem

Open Help → Report a problem… (or Report a problem on the Home screen). PyBlocks saves one zip file that you send to us yourself; nothing is sent automatically.

1. Describe what you were doing, what you expected and what happened instead. The description is required.
2. Keep Attach diagnostics ticked: it adds the version, system and screen information, the end of the recent logs and the last error of the session.
3. Tick Include the project name or Include project files (scenes and scripts only) only if you are happy to share them. Project files are text only (scenes, scripts, animations, settings); images and audio are never included.
4. The zip is saved on your Desktop by default; click Change… to pick another folder.
5. Click Save report (or press Ctrl+Enter), then Show in folder to find the zip.

In every attached file your home folder is replaced by ~. Copy details copies the version and system details to the clipboard, and Open logs folder opens the logs.

#When something goes wrong

• Something went wrong: if PyBlocks hits an unexpected error, this window appears with Open logs folder, Continue and Report a problem…. The editor keeps running; save your work to be safe.
• Block errors: the Problems panel lists script diagnostics, and runtime errors appear in the Console. A runaway loop in a block script is stopped automatically and reported instead of freezing the editor.
• Unexpected shutdown: while a scene has unsaved changes, PyBlocks writes a recovery copy every two minutes to <your project>\.pyblocks\autosave\. When you reopen the project, Recover Unsaved Changes offers Recover, Ignore and Delete Autosave.

#Logs

The editor writes a diagnostic log to %LOCALAPPDATA%\PyBlocks\logs\pyblocks.log. It rotates at about 1 MB and keeps the five previous files. pyblocks_fault.log, in the same folder, records hard crashes. Help → Open logs folder opens the folder for you.

Exported games keep their own logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\<Developer Name>\<Game Name>\logs (see Export a Windows game).

#Check an installation with the self-test

PyBlocks.exe --self-test <report.json> runs an automatic check of the installed editor. It opens the window, creates a starter project in a temporary folder, opens PyBlocks Lab with Ctrl+Shift+L, plays every bundled example for 120 frames, loads the interface sounds, writes a test problem report, exports Sky Hopper with the bundled player and runs the exported game's own self-test. It then writes a JSON report with a passed value and one entry per check, and exits with code 0 when everything passed.

It uses separate settings, so your preferences and recent projects are not touched, and it does not show the Quick tour. From a command prompt (adjust the first line if you installed PyBlocks somewhere else; right-click the PyBlocks shortcut and choose Open file location to find it):

cd /d "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PyBlocks"
start /wait "" PyBlocks.exe --self-test "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\pyblocks-self-test.json"
echo %errorlevel%

#Common problems

• Windows protected your PC when installing or opening a game: the files are not code-signed. Choose More info → Run anyway.
• Panels disappeared or the layout is messy: Window → Reset layout. Show a single panel again from Window → Panels.
• The Game view is somewhere else: Window → Game view placement puts it back In the Game workspace.
• Undo does nothing: undo pauses while the game is playing. Stop the game first.
• Ctrl+C / Ctrl+D copy or duplicate an object instead of a block: see Blocks workspace shortcuts.
• A key does nothing in my game: games can only read the arrows, Space, Enter, Esc and W A S D Q E R F Z X C V.
• The export button is disabled: the PyBlocks Player is missing from the installation. Reinstall PyBlocks.
• Export Blocked: fix the diagnostics listed in the Problems panel for the included scenes.
• Could not replace the previous export: close the exported game and export again.
• My font looks different in the exported game: fonts installed on your PC are not exported. Import the font into the project (UI, text and fonts).

#Known limitations of the beta

• Undo covers scene edits and, in the Animate workspace, animation clip edits. The Python Lab editor uses the text editor's own undo. Undo history is not kept after closing a scene.
• No networking, no 3D and no mobile export. Exported games run on Windows only.
• Lab plugins run unrestricted Python on the editor thread, with no sandbox; Python loops are not limited like block loops, and external plugin dependencies are not bundled in exports.
• Very large projects (hundreds of large images or very large scenes) can pause the editor briefly while loading.

#Send feedback

Include your exact version in every report. It is shown in Help → About PyBlocks (which also has a Copy version button), in the window title and at the right end of the status bar. Send the report zip to the PyBlocks beta feedback channel provided with your download.

Thank you for testing PyBlocks!