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Date formatting crash with Arabic regional settings on Windows 11

Bug ReportKnown Issue13.27

Summary

LaunchBox throws a date formatting error when Windows is using Arabic regional settings with the Um Al Qura calendar. The Um Al Qura calendar only supports dates between 30 April 1900 and 16 November 2077 Gregorian. When LaunchBox formats a date outside that supported range, the app errors and certain views crash.

Affected versions

Reported on 13.22, user also notes behavior change on Windows 11 compared to Windows 10.

Environment

Windows 11 with Arabic language and Arabic regional format, Um Al Qura calendar active.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Set Windows 11 display language or regional format to Arabic, which enables the Um Al Qura calendar

  2. Launch LaunchBox or Big Box

  3. Navigate to a game view that formats or displays dates, for example Game Details

  4. Observe the error dialog and crash

Observed behavior

Error appears frequently during normal operations. Example message

Specified time is not supported in this calendar. It should be between 04/30/1900 00:00:00 and 11/16/2077 23:59:59, inclusive. Actual value was 451541088000000000.

Stack shows System.Globalization.UmAlQuraCalendar.CheckTicksRange, called from DateTime.ToShortDateString, then GameDetailsViewModel.

Expected behavior

LaunchBox should format and display dates correctly regardless of Windows calendar choice. If a date falls outside the active calendar range, LaunchBox should clamp or fall back to Gregorian formatting rather than crashing.

Notes

User reports the issue disappears when switching Windows to English, which moves the system to a Gregorian calendar. This suggests LaunchBox is calling ToShortDateString under the current culture without guarding for calendars with smaller supported ranges.

Possible workaround for users

Temporarily set Windows Regional format to English United States or English United Kingdom to use the Gregorian calendar, then relaunch LaunchBox. This is not ideal for Arabic users and is shared only as a temporary mitigation.

Relevant log excerpt

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException at System.Globalization.UmAlQuraCalendar.CheckTicksRange(Int64 ticks) at System.DateTimeFormat.Format(...) at System.DateTime.ToShortDateString() at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.GameDetailsViewModel.BuildResolver(...) ...

Proposed direction

• Audit all date formatting paths that rely on current culture

• For calendars with limited ranges such as Um Al Qura, either clamp out of range values to the calendar minimum or maximum, or force a culture with Gregorian calendar for formatting only, while keeping the user’s language for text

• Add defensive checks around date fields that may be null, default, or sentinel values outside 1900 to 2077 Gregorian

Affected Product
OS Version
Windows 11
LaunchBox Version
Plugins
NA
Posted by AstroBob ·
Status: Completed6 comments

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Comments6

  • AstroBob changed status to Completed
    Team•

    May 13

    Pinned

    Hi there,

    With today’s release of LaunchBox for Windows 13.27, the fix for this is now available to everyone. You can update to the latest version from within the app to receive this.

    Installing, Updating, and Managing LaunchBox

    Notes on the release can be found below:

    LaunchBox for Windows - 13.27

    Please let us know if anyone is continuing to experience this issue, and thanks for bearing with us while we go that sorted.

  • AstroBob changed status to Completed
    Team•

    Jan 27

    Pinned

    Hi Everyone,

    With the release of LaunchBox 13.25 today, this fix is now available to all users, you can update to the latest versions to receive this fix.

    Thanks for bearing with us while we got this sorted.

    Cheers,

    • Ashlad

      •

      Jan 28

      Are you certain the problem solved ? Could you please revert to version 13.16? If a solution for our Arabic-speaking users cannot be provided, we request guidance on alternative launchers and a refund of our investment.

  • AstroBob changed status to Planned
    Team•

    Dec 8, 2025

    Pinned

    Hi everyone,

    We’ve just released a new beta version of LaunchBox that improves date handling to prevent crashes in certain locale-specific calendar scenarios. You can get the fix by updating to the latest beta (currently 13.25 beta-3).

    To learn how to update to a beat build, check out our guide here: 
    🔗 LaunchBox Beta Versions

    If you’d prefer not to update to a beta build, don’t worry, this fix will be included in the upcoming official 13.25 release.

    Please us know if anyone experiencing this issue continues to do so after updating to the latest beta. And thank you so much for bearing with us while we worked to resolve this, we know it was a real blocker for some users so we appreciate the patience there.

  • AstroBob

    Team•

    Feb 23

    HI Everyone,

    Our sincere apologies on the delayed response here. As some of you know, we pushed out a fix with the release of 13.25 that we thought addressed the issue. At the time, we didn’t have the proper environment to reliably reproduce the problem, which made it difficult to validate the solution.

    We’ve since been able to properly reproduce the crash in an Arabic Windows environment and have identified the root cause (dates outside the supported calendar range being applied to game metadata).

    We now have a risk fix in place that prevents the crash by safely rendering out-of-range dates as plain text instead of attempting to format them in the active calendar. All valid dates will continue to display normally.

    We’re currently finalizing testing, but things are looking promising.

    Thank you for your patience, we’ll share another update once it’s ready for release.

    • Ashlad

      •

      Feb 24

      We sincerely hope so; this is what we have come to anticipate from you. We appreciate your assistance.