Unable to start the editor.

Started by Xiarno 10 posts 534 views

Reply on sbox.game
  1. #1
    Xiarno 305
    I've installed the editor and the game file on both the same drive. However, when launching the editor, I get the following errors:
    image.png 98.2 KB

    Inspecting more closely, it seems that the "sbox-dev.exe" is in the sbox game folder but steam is looking for a completely different folder that is empty.
  2. #2
    Zoch 10
    Happened to me. I have to manually add "sbox-dev.exe" to steam to get my shortcut..
  3. #3
    Eku 135
     I think it’s a temporary problem; you can solve it by creating a symlink between sbox 2129370 (editor) and sbox (game). 
  4. #4
    Haluca

    My case is exactly the same. I am currently living in mainland China, and even after installing the file, the files won't download and it shows the exact same error message.

  5. edited Apr 2026 #5
    Daryl Winters 2,065
    Hi
    I saw this workaround in sbox discord

    1) Close steam

    2) go to your \Steam\steamapps folder

    3) edit appmanifest_2129370.acf and change installdir to "sbox"

    image.png 35.09 KB

    Note: Make sure you installed SBox BEFORE sbox-editor
  6. #6
    Haluca
    image.png 136.13 KB

    My computer's appmanifest_2129370.acf has "installdir" set to "sbox".
    But when I try to install the sbox editor through Steam, it shows the download size as 0B. Is this because I'm in China?

  7. #7
    Daryl Winters 2,065
    No it's perfectly normal
    You need to install and start at least once S&Box then install S&box editor (which is just a shortcut to sbox-dev.exe, that's why it's 0B)

    And if it still state "missing exe" follow the workaround
  8. edited Apr 2026 #8
    Haluca
    It still state "missing exe"  and i can't find "sbox-dev.exe" at the folder (I instailled it to D drive of my computer)
    The Korean text of the error message below means 'Missing game executable'
    and i found "sbox-dev.exe"at other folder named "sbox590830" 

  9. edited Apr 2026 #9
    Daryl Winters 2,065
    Funny
    then instead of just putting "sbox"  in the  appmanifest_2129370  try to put "sbox 590830" (not sure about the whitespace too)

    Edit: I think I know why, you probably installed sbox-editor **before** s&box 
  10. #10
    Lukasz
    I found a solution for that:

    https://sbox.game/f/devhelp/1849/1/#post2

    Do NOT install the editor. It seems like it is meant for the official release down the line, later in April. Follow my steps in the post I linked - this resolved all editor issues for me (I had several...). Hope it helps.