I keep getting this "downloading unknown update" window soon after i launch voobly. Its annoying to click cancel every time i open the app. thing is even if you let it download it takes forever to finish.

It automatically downloads the latest patch and applies it to your installation when you enter the lobby. If we disable that, the download would start when you enter a game room, and this would prevent the host from launching the game.

i have the 1.6 patch already but it keeps coming

Yeah, because the patch requires the 1.6 game data. A couple of years ago, you had to install the compatibility patch, Wololo Kingdoms and depending on your game version a few more things manually and in the correct order, else the game was broken. Nowadays it's an automatic process and everything is done by the Voobly client.

so in short i need to download the game data and it goes off?

That's correct.

same problem but in mi case it frezee at 29% and if i cancel the update, it can't run any game or join any room nor hast any game help

Delete the sub folders in the following directories:

AoE II HD:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\SteamApps\common\Age2HD\Voobly Mods\AOC\Data Mods\
c:\program files (x86)\steam\SteamApps\common\Age2HD\Voobly Mods\AOC\Patches\

AOC:
c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Voobly Mods\AOC\Data Mods\
c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Voobly Mods\AOC\Patches\

I have both the 1.6 patch and the 1.6 game data installed and they work for me, still the update pops up and fails immediately, and an error pops up says Lost connection to the server but when i cancel it everything works fine.

Please run game diagnostics and paste the results here. In most cases, a clean game installation resolves the issue.

AOK/AOC: [You must login to view link]
AoE II HD: [You must login to view link]

So I have been able to install the 1.6RC patch and mod manually but some patches (like autofarmQ) don't have a manual method. I consistently get the same error when trying to install a patch the normal way (the automatic way):

The directory is completely normal as far as I can tell e.g. 1.6 patches go here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Voobly Mods\AOC\Patches\v1.6 RC

Game diagnostics says everything is fine. I tried making the entire folder tree read/write/full by anyone but that made no difference. By the way these patches worked fine for years and stopped working a few months ago.

game diagnostics:

I also tried moving all the subdirectories of Patches and Data Mods. No help. Now I have 3 things that want to download when I launch voobly instead of just one. Fortunately I had moved the contents (not deleted) so I could just move them back.

@chris@voobly?

If you are still getting this error:

Then something is wrong with your game installation. Please follow:

AOK/AOC: [You must login to view link]
AoE II HD: [You must login to view link]

Please make sure you have the setup files, it is not enough to create the game binary at the correct folders.

@chris@voobly I finally tried what you said but no luck. Is there some log file somewhere that says which stupid "installation" directory it can't find?

Here's what I did.

Ran uninstaller for voobly. Uninstaller for aoc. Completely deleted the "microsoft games" folder and everything in it.

Reinstalled AOE from CD. Reinstalled AOC. Did the "no cd" patch. Did the aok and aoc patches that voobly said to do (brings aoc to 1.0c).

Launched aoc to make sure it works. Exited

Went to voobly and installed that. Launched voobly. It updated to newer version of voobly and restarted. Then it tries to install mods and patches and I get the same error:
Could not find game installation directory -- please join a lobby and run game diagnostics.
Every folder is found. Everything is a success. At the end it says the usual "everything looks fine".

Now what????? This used to work up until maybe 6 months ago. voobly just downloaded and installed patches automatically. Easy. No longer.

For now I will reinstall the V1.6 mod and patch manually but many other mods and patches have no other way to install!

I may have messed up the protection levels of the c:\program files (x86)\ folder. I tried to lower the permissions there I believe a while back.

IS THERE SOME LOG FILE TO FIND OUT WHAT FOLDER IT IS THE "Installation" directory? Maybe it's trying to install onto some other drive or something? Some weird network drive maybe?

Can I look at the code? Is this on github? (I'll go look for it now).