Game Index Recovery, Artwork Corrections & Big Picture Fixes

Ascendara 11.5.2 · October 19, 2026

Ascendara now warns you when the game index is missing or unreadable and lets you set it up again without digging through logs. You can suggest corrections for wrong game artwork, browse older releases in a redesigned Timemachine, and open game pages with less artwork flicker. This update also improves controller recovery, Big Picture downloads and Linux game launching.

Download

Already have Ascendara? It will offer this update on its own.

What's new

➕ Added

Ascendara Core

• Show a persistent warning when the game index is missing, empty or unreadable, with buttons to set it up again or open Game Index settings
• Verify the game index after setup and show an error with a retry option if recovery fails
• Suggest the correct game and cover when artwork is wrong, with corrections sent to the Ascendara team for review
• Show a clear notice when a game has no working download links

Game Search

• Show a Story Only badge on game cards and game pages where applicable

🛠 Improved

Ascendara Core

• Check that the game index is still available when opening the app, returning to it and while it stays open, even with background sync turned off
• Redesign game and app report windows with clearer issue categories and descriptions
• Reorganize the game page toolbar for favorites, Play Later, sharing, reports and artwork corrections
• Redesign Timemachine around release history, with clearer version selection and a button to return to the latest release
• Warn when viewing an older release whose download links may have expired
• Prepare covers and banners before opening game pages to reduce artwork flicker

🐛 Fixed

Ascendara Core

• Stop older settings saves from clearing the game index location
• Save the selected index folder when refreshing and reload games when the location changes
• Open shared game links correctly when Ascendara is not already running
• Fix UMU on Linux using a different game prefix from the Proton launch configuration

Big Picture

• Restore controller input polling when returning to Ascendara or reconnecting a controller
• Restore focus to the app page after exiting a game
• Look up missing download links in the game index instead of failing immediately
• Handle TorBox-only providers through the desktop download flow
• Show download startup errors instead of reporting that a failed download has started

❌ Removed

Ascend

• The Pro badge in the Ascend navigation

Full list of code changes: 11.5.1 → 11.5.2