Spine should only require downloading an update the first time it is run. However, I found a major problem: if Spine tries to download the latest update and the download fails, Spine will no longer run until the download succeeds. This is not what was intended!
I have changed how this works, now if the download fails Spine will just start using the last version that was downloaded successfully.
To get this change, please download and reinstall the Spine launcher. The Spine launcher will be version 1.9.00 or greater, which you can see in your Spine log file. The log file is accessible from the settings dialog.
This will especially help those on slow connections who are trying to update, such as some users in China.