Problem installing new version 9546 - installer wants to exit/cancel before finishing

Problem reported by Grant McAlister - 2/26/2026 at 4:28 PM

Submitted

I'm trying to upgrade my Smartermail version with the same process that has worked fine when I've done it before following the normal steps. This time while trying to install version 9546 it started off normally asking about the directory and existing installation and then proceeded to install the .NET 10 dependency but then prompted me to exit/cancel the install. If I don't exist it just loops around to the same state. After that initial time it gets to the point of installing dependencies and then prompts to exit without finishing the install. I assume it's having some issues with what is on my system (Windows Server 2016) from a dependency perspective. I can reinstall version 8664 with no issues and that version works fine after install but I'm trying to upgrade to get the new SSL cert functionality that I believe was released in 8747.

Any thoughts on what to look for in the logs to the cause or possible diagnostic methods.

Thanks

Grant

5 Replies

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J. LaDow Replied

2/26/2026 at 7:20 PM

It sounds like it's upset about something with .NET Core 10 download/install or one of the other dependencies.

There are three dependencies for the newest versions (two of them are for IIS only) - Application Request Routing for IIS, IIS URL Rewrite, and .NET Core 10 Hosting Bundle (Linux/Windows) - SM tries to install them on it's own but will fail/cancel if there's an issue. They can all be installed manually before trying to install SM.

Event Viewer may have log entries for failed Windows Installer issues --

MailEnable survivor / convert --

John Quest Replied

2/27/2026 at 10:40 AM

Maybe try downloading and installing .NET 10 separately, then installing the SM upgrade.

Dave Replied

2/27/2026 at 1:05 PM

Not the same as your issue, but similar. Back in September I was updating from a very old version of SmarterMail (100.0.8664.22089) to one of the newer ones and it would not install. The .net install kept getting errors. Worked with SmarterTools for a while and they even poked around the server. Finally just updated from Server 2019 to 2022 and it worked.

Don't know if you can go to 2019 / 2022 but after spending hours of my time and theirs trying to get it to work on the 2019 server, a 90 minute upgrade to 2022 and all was good.