What's new in Version Tracker

Version 1.3 — 2026-09-27

Build 2026.9.27.1337 · macOS 15.6 or later

What’s new since Version Tracker 1.2.3.

New sources and expanded coverage

• Obsidian community plugins: discover installed plugins and check for updates.
• .NET global tools: track installed tools and their available updates.
• R and CRAN packages: track packages installed in your R libraries.
• CLAP audio plugins join the supported audio plugin formats, and Adobe Camera Raw joins the Creative Cloud inventory.
• Updates to the managers themselves: check MacPorts base and supported standalone installations of Bun, pnpm, Composer, SDKMAN, GitHub CLI, xcodes and the official Go SDK. These updates use a manual action; installations owned by another package manager stay with that manager.

New languages

• Italian and Dutch are now available throughout the application, including setup, Settings, source lists, the inspector, menu bar, reports and error messages. Version Tracker now supports seven languages: English, French, German, Spanish, European Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

New features

• Persistent inventory: confirmed installed versions, known updates and user decisions are retained across restarts and interrupted or unsuccessful checks.
• Independent source controls: choose which sources are scanned and which participate in Update All, Process All and Download All. Sources excluded from grouped actions retain their individual actions.
• Search within each source with an Updates only filter. Global search also covers Ruby gems, Cargo crates, Yarn packages and uv tools, handles accented names, and opens the matching row.
• Recheck a single source from its own view. Expanded scan progress and source status explain incomplete checks and show when the last successful verification took place.
• Major upgrade controls: independently allow, ask before, or block major-version upgrades. Applications can also be deferred until the next macOS version upgrade and restored manually.
• More actions in the inspector: update or download the selected item, follow its progress, and copy the information from all four tabs. The inspector remembers the last selected tab.
• Update a selection from the context menu. New keyboard shortcuts provide Update All (Command-U), Process All (Command-Shift-U) and Download All (Command-Shift-D).
• New Homebrew cask discovery: browse casks first seen in the catalogue during the last 30 days, after the initial catalogue sync.
• Suggest an update source through an editable draft that can be copied or prepared for email or GitHub feedback.
• Interface preferences: hide the menu bar icon, enable explanatory tooltips across the application (off by default), and retain column widths in tables that adapt to the window.
• Test your proxy configuration directly from Settings and see whether the connection succeeds.
• Optional updates for apps without an identified developer: a new setting, off by default, allows these updates when the installed app also lacks an identified developer. It never allows a signed app to be replaced by an unidentified build or an invalid signature to pass verification.

Performance and responsiveness

• Faster large-inventory scans, with less repeated disk work, parallel source checks and time budgets adapted to the number of installed items.
• More responsive lists, global search, context menus, window resizing and the Debug view. Download progress no longer repeatedly refreshes unrelated sidebar and table content.
• Application icons load in the background and reuse cached images. The inspector reuses its rows when the selection changes, reducing pauses and flicker.
• Smoother dashboard animations with less CPU work. Animations pause when the app is hidden or in the background, and respect Reduce Motion.

Detection and update reliability

• More accurate matching of calendar-date versions, application build numbers and Homebrew rebuilds.
• Broader GitHub source discovery for renamed products and release addresses embedded in applications. Electron feeds specific to an architecture and additional Tauri update manifest paths are recognized.
• Fewer stale and duplicate offers after an app is replaced, renamed, updated externally or removed. Separate copies, package environments and editor installations retain their own identities; confirmed removals clear obsolete rows.
• Better handling of applications that update their own installed payload, installer-based Homebrew casks, and applications linked from another location. JetBrains Toolbox-managed IDEs remain with Toolbox.
• Microsoft Office follows the release channel and update offers supplied by Microsoft AutoUpdate. Batch verification preserves the originally selected target when another Office application refreshes the shared inventory.
• More reliable verification after Homebrew, npm, Python, RubyGems, Bun, pnpm, GitHub, Sparkle and editor-extension updates. An operation is not reported as successful when the requested version was not installed.
• VS Code extensions install the advertised version. Claude Code plugin and skill checks use the installed content and correct repository branch, avoiding repeated offers caused by temporary files or unrelated marketplace changes.
• Improved handling of long Homebrew compilations on Intel, with explicit progress and an individual choice before updates that may require a lengthy source build. TeX Live checks and downloads handle slow or unresponsive mirrors more reliably.
• Docker distinguishes local or untagged images from images with a comparable registry update. Ollama Cloud models no longer generate local update offers or verification warnings.
• Improved macOS and Apple tool compatibility checks, removal of duplicate system update offers, and consistent handling of snoozed or skipped system updates.

Interface, background operation and fixes

• Cancelling a scheduled or manual scan stops it without immediately restarting it. Previously known updates and their counts are restored, and late results cannot overwrite a newer scan.
• Background scans no longer take focus unexpectedly. Opening the main window during a background scan keeps it available, and an interrupted update session no longer leaves endless progress in the menu bar.
• Process All and Download All release their running state when finished. Saving an exported update report closes the completion dialog and returns control to Version Tracker without opening Finder.
• Error details stay readable while other batch items finish. Quit prompts remain with the main window across displays and Spaces; manual installation steps and declined confirmations are reported appropriately.
• More consistent counts across the dashboard, sidebar, update lists and menu bar, including when saved results are restored. Application menus, table selections and icons remain readable and behave more reliably.
• Custom scan folders and exclusions are honored, including when restoring saved results. Clearing caches no longer lets older in-memory results reappear or blocks quitting and restarting.
• Proxy exclusions apply consistently to source checks, connection tests reflect the current settings, and private values in update URLs are removed from diagnostic logs.
• More reliable migration of saved results from 1.2.3, improved translations and support diagnostics, and stronger local licence and trial protection while preserving existing licences and the original trial dates.

Version 1.2.3 — 2026-08-18

Improvements

• Act on a skipped update from the report. An update skipped because its application is open can now be quit and updated right from the report, and an update that requires a newer macOS shows its requirement and stays out of batches.
• Menu bar. A scan started from the menu bar now runs on the free plan with the window closed; the icon follows the appearance of the menu bar itself, and its style is chosen in Settings, applying without a relaunch.
• Switching language updates the whole interface without relaunching, and the exported batch report is written in your language.
• The Packages view names the environment, so two identical rows can be told apart.
• Clearing the cache is a real button — it asks for confirmation, clears every cache, and no longer leaves a saving panel that never finishes.

Fixes

• Phantom updates eliminated across the board. A version identical to the installed build is recognised as the same release whichever source offers it — including “Version”-prefixed strings, versions carrying their own commit metadata or build number, versions quoted in an App Store listing's release notes, self-updating casks showing a frozen receipt, and Chromium-derived browsers compared on Chromium's version instead of their own.
• Only a scan introduces an update. The checks that run between scans confirm or clear, never add; Qt, Adobe CC, Google Software, JetBrains plugins, the Android SDK and the plugin marketplaces no longer introduce updates for one another; and a package updated in a batch reappears as soon as a newer version is published.
• One app, one source. An app installed from the Mac App Store no longer receives versions from other sources; a Homebrew-installed app is no longer listed a second time elsewhere — Electron and Tauri apps included; Setapp apps are left to Setapp, which alone can update and license them.
• Sources detected more reliably. Tauri apps are detected even when their update address embeds the signing key; an app whose Sparkle feed publishes only a build number keeps its source.
• Updates that could not install are handled honestly. An Office update that cannot be verified is no longer offered; an App Store update this Mac cannot install no longer comes back through the web page; a Mac App Store hand-off is presented as a step to take, not as an error — in the app and in the exported report.
• macOS releases Apple has published but not yet offered to your Mac stay visible without being counted.
• Window polish. A search no longer answers with the previous query's results; the inspector no longer shows an app that has left the list; Space and Delete no longer act on the list while you are typing; opening an app with a broken bundle shows one explanation instead of two errors; “Process All” sizes itself to its label.
• Settings details. The proxy Save button appears only in manual mode, and the app menu keeps Check for Updates and Settings for a session started in the background.

Version 1.2.2 — 2026-08-11

New

• Public bug tracker. Bugs and feature requests now have a public home at github.com/Version-Tracker/feedback, with a changelog for every release. Reach it from Help → Report an Issue on GitHub, or from the Feedback panel. Licence and purchase questions still go to support@version-tracker.app.
• Version Tracker checks on itself. It now looks for a new version of itself at launch, on by default. Nothing installs automatically — you're simply told a release exists.
• Choose your backup destination. Settings → Backups now lets you pick where backups are stored — an external drive works, and a missing drive falls back to the default folder instead of blocking anything.
• iPhone & iPad apps, your call. A new setting excludes iPhone/iPad apps installed on this Mac from scans and update lists. On by default — nothing changes unless you opt out.
• Check for updates from the About window.

Improvements

• One scanner, one truth. Scans now run in a single engine instead of a separate background process, closing out a whole family of disagreeing-counter bugs at the root. The update count now lands exactly on the right number with no overshoot or end-of-scan flicker, and opening the app during a background scan shows it live instead of an empty list.
• Far fewer authentication prompts. Homebrew casks that install through a shared system package, or need extra permissions, are now grouped into a single Touch ID or password prompt per batch instead of one per cask.
• Retired casks, explained. When Homebrew retires a cask, the inspector now shows why, which cask replaces it, and the date it stops working.
• Updated apps reopen on their own once an update that required quitting them succeeds — quietly, without stealing focus. A new setting turns this off.
• Apps with their own updater get out of your way faster. Adobe apps open Creative Cloud, Setapp apps open Setapp, and background-agent apps (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) open the vendor's page — instead of an inert click or a disk image to install by hand.
• Everything speaks your language. A full audit found and translated the last hardcoded French strings — several error messages and progress labels reached every user in French regardless of their chosen language.
• Exported reports tell an action apart from a failure. A Mac App Store hand-off is now counted under “Action Required” instead of inflating the failed total, and the same applies to an update skipped because the app is open.
• Menu bar panel refinements. Snoozed or ignored apps leave the panel at once, it follows your Light/Dark mode choice immediately, closes itself once it's done its job, and reads clearly against both light and dark backgrounds.
• The Debug journal survives a relaunch and now records what the update count is made of at every scan, so a support report comes with its own explanation attached.

Fixes

• Detection restored. VirtualBox and Tailscale are back after a Homebrew rename broke their identification; Ruby gems waiting in a non-default Ruby (rbenv, asdf) are no longer dropped; namesake apps are no longer matched to an unrelated Homebrew cask that happens to share their name; wrapped web apps (WebCatalog, Nativefier) no longer inherit a native app's version.
• Mac App Store accuracy. A Homebrew-installed app is no longer offered a duplicate Store update; a genuine Store app can no longer be overwritten by a build from anywhere else; updates are now correctly acknowledged right after installing from the Store or updating an iPhone/iPad app.
• Setapp updates the right way, however Setapp itself was installed (Sparkle or Homebrew) — it now always opens Setapp so its own updater does the job.
• Update buttons that can't work are no longer offered. Apps Homebrew refuses to upgrade and Store-only apps now show “Open” or “App Store” and take you straight there (#29).
• Phantom and stale updates cleared. No more offers for versions no store ever served, duplicate adoption entries for the same app, fake version jumps from build-only deltas, or apps whose own embedded build number was mistaken for a pending update (Tunnelblick, MuseScore Studio — #38, #37); a stray Bun global directory no longer reports updates nobody installed (#39).
• Paths and permissions. Apps in a subfolder of /Applications work again; errors about a blocked path or Homebrew folder now explain the real cause and the exact fix, in your language; a Homebrew setup migrated from another Mac now heals itself.
• Reliability. One bad Homebrew catalogue download no longer blinds every cask-referenced app; an untrusted Homebrew tap no longer blocks read-only queries; a switched-off source is now clearly labelled instead of reading as “up to date”; download links stay current and match your Mac's processor.
• No more quit during a scan. Reading a finished command's output could crash the app instead of failing gracefully.
• Quitting mid-scan. A scan started from the menu bar now survives quitting the app; a scan you started yourself still cancels as expected.

Version 1.2.1 — 2026-07-26

New

• New licence options. A MONO licence for a single Mac, and lifetime licences for MONO, SOLO and FAMILY alongside the existing subscriptions. Your licence type is now shown in Settings and in the menu bar.
• Audio plugins. New category that inventories AU, VST, VST3 and AAX plugins and reports updates for them.
• Works behind a corporate proxy. A manual proxy setting that Homebrew, curl, gem and the app's own network requests all honour.
• Update cooldown. Hold a newly published version for a chosen period before it is offered, globally or per package, with the reason shown on the row.
• Diagnostic export. A one-click report for support that carries the state explaining a problem — including the raw output of a failed update — and never your software inventory.

Improvements

• Setapp protection, completed. 1.2.0 stopped Homebrew adoption and cask upgrades for apps under /Applications/Setapp, but an update could still reach them through another path. The exclusion is now anchored on the app's location, so no source can offer one — installing such an update would place an unlicensed copy beside the app Setapp manages.

Fixes

• Crash at launch on smaller displays. Fixed a crash that struck about a second after launch on screens that could not fit the saved window size.
• Fewer phantom updates. Several classes of false positive are gone: version-named casks, stale caches, App Store apps offered non-Store updates, and Chrome under Google Software Update.

Version 1.2.0 — 2026-07-22

New

• 47 sources tracked, up from 44. Three new sources join the list: Google Software Update (Keystone), JetBrains plugins, and Xcode versions via the xcodes CLI.
• Snapshots. Capture your installed inventory, compare two snapshots, and export the result — covering apps, AI components, Apple developer tools, and alternative updaters.
• Google apps. Chrome, Google Drive, and other Keystone-based apps are now detected and updated — apps with no Homebrew cask, no Sparkle feed, no built-in updater, and no GitHub release that no other source could see.
• Consul. Resolved via its official, host-pinned HTTPS download page, since it ships no cask, feed, or GitHub bundle.
• Mac App Store without Homebrew or mas. Inventory and update detection for Mac App Store apps now work with no command-line tool at all, reading the on-disk _MASReceipt and the iTunes API directly. Previously, without mas the Mac App Store list stayed empty. With mas installed, nothing changes — you keep its "installable now" precision and in-app installation.
• Xcode via xcodes. Versions are inventoried and updated through the installed xcodes tool.
• JetBrains + Android Studio plugins. User-installed plugins are inventoried and updated via the JetBrains Marketplace.
• Menu bar. Updates launched from the panel now run in a headless worker without opening the main app; the icon animates during a scan or update; and the update list collapses when it gets long.
• Confidence level per update source, with automatic fallback when a Mac App Store listing disappears.
• Daily scan at a fixed time, alongside the existing interval mode.
• Configurable backup retention.
• Self-update from Downloads. If Version Tracker is launched from the Downloads folder (macOS App Translocation), it now explains the situation and offers to move itself to /Applications, instead of failing with a terse error.

Improvements

• Setapp protection. Apps installed under /Applications/Setapp/ are now excluded from Homebrew's adoptable list and never offered a cask-based update — adopting or upgrading them via Homebrew could break their Setapp license. Setapp.app itself is unaffected and keeps updating normally.
• Adobe apps. Update detection relies on RemoteUpdateManager, an enterprise tool absent from consumer Creative Cloud installs. Without it, no Adobe update can actually be detected — Adobe apps now show “Updates managed by Creative Cloud” and an Open action instead of a misleading update button. Nothing changes on machines that have RemoteUpdateManager installed.
• Build-aware cask detection. A cask whose bundle already matches the catalog's build is no longer flagged as outdated.
• Menu bar panel rearchitected around a shared data layer, so the main app and the login-item agent always show the same state.
• Homebrew / sudo. Brew's internal sudo can now prompt for your password from the GUI app, and cask write failures now point you to the "App Management" system setting.
• Simplified settings. Two entries that opened the same update-readiness screen are now a single "macOS Integration" card.
• Feedback form now includes your processor type (Apple Silicon or Intel, exact chip model, and Rosetta if applicable) when "Include system info" stays checked. Nothing changes for privacy: this only leaves your Mac if the box is checked, and the message opens in your own mail app for review before sending.
• Cleanup. Removed dead or superseded code — an old script launcher, the Spotlight indexer, the old menu bar popover, and more.

Fixes

• Apps disappearing between scans. A known update is now kept when a network check fails, instead of being silently dropped — mostly affected Mac App Store apps.
• Mac App Store detection keeps working after mas removed its account command (mas 7).
• pip false positives from Apple's Command Line Tools Python (altgraph, six, wheel, …) are no longer flagged for update.
• Claude Code plugins stuck in a loop. A plugin whose source repo advances without a version bump (superpowers, coderabbit) was re-flagged on every scan with no update able to resolve it. This non-actionable drift no longer shows; real updates (version or tag) still do.
• Ollama and Microsoft AutoUpdate woken by scans. Some checks start these services in the background (ollama list launches Ollama.app, msupdate --list starts the Microsoft AutoUpdate agent), and Version Tracker left them running after every scan, including the scheduled daily one. It now closes only the ones it woke itself — anything you had already open is left alone. Configurable via "Close services woken by a scan" (on by default).
• Honest batch reports. No more failures that quietly "disappear on the next scan" — phantom-root guard, cask recovery via /Applications, formula stabilization retries, Docker pre-flight checks, and a dedicated "deferred" category.
• AI Skills on GitHub. No more errors under API rate limits or repo tree reads; detection state now survives transient failures.
• Casks "still outdated" after a successful update. When brew refuses an in-place upgrade, a forced reinstall is now applied, as brew itself recommends; a cask pinned to "latest" is no longer misreconciled.
• Auto-update casks preserve their state when a --greedy check times out.
• Cargo. Crates compiled from source (e.g. sqlx-cli) failed with "Command timed out" at 60s; source builds now get the same timeout as other long-running commands.
• GitHub asset selection. An app shipped as a plainly-named .zip alongside CLI binaries could be offered the command-line tarball instead of the desktop app.
• New sources not saved. Update sources added in Settings are now retained when the app closes.
• Menu bar "Open Version Tracker" now opens the window on the first click when the app is closed, instead of requiring a second click.
• Self-update no longer leaves a duplicate copy in Downloads after moving to /Applications.
• Inconsistent counters. The dashboard title and the "All" badge could disagree (e.g. 52 vs 53) and flip depending on whether the list was open.
• Per-source badges (Skills, Marketplaces, Plugins) kept counting items that had just been updated until the next scan.
• Missing dashboard tiles for the xcodes, JetBrains plugins, and Adobe Creative Cloud sources.
• Adopting a licensed app installed outside Homebrew now shows a warning first, to avoid the license loss a forced cask reinstall could cause.

Security

• Privileged helper only runs when every path component of the executable is root-owned, and re-verifies the caller's identity right before launch; brew and mas were removed from its allowlist.
• System hardening: a hardened root PATH, fail-closed package installation, and argument-injection guards on Homebrew commands.
• Backups: sanitized filenames and verified checksums for Homebrew casks before install.
• Logs no longer leak your software or App Store inventory; production builds stay silent.
• Admin/sudo prompts shown to you are now localized in all 5 languages.
• The background-scan LaunchAgent can only be managed by Developer ID builds.

Version 1.1.4 — 2026-07-16

Fixes

• Near-zero CPU at rest. The Dashboard's animated waveform now only moves while a scan or an update is actually running, and switching back to the app no longer re-reads every installed app each time. Background CPU usage drops from a constant 15-20% to almost nothing.

Version 1.1.3 — 2026-07-15

Fixes

• Much lower CPU usage. Fixed heavy processor usage that could make the app unresponsive while its window was open — most visible on Macs with many apps and packages, or while an App Store download was running.
• Accurate Tauri detection. Some apps (such as Zed) were wrongly listed as Tauri apps and checked for Tauri updates; detection now requires Tauri-specific signatures.

Version 1.1.2 — 2026-07-14

Fixes

• Scan reliability. Fixed a crash that could interrupt every scan when the Mac App Store reports the same app twice — for example a game installed both as a Mac app and as an iPhone/iPad app.
• Feedback window. Fixed a crash when opening the Feedback window on some Intel-based Macs.

Version 1.1.1 — 2026-07-14

Fixes

• Licence activation. Activations could fail with "This key does not belong to Version Tracker" and silently consume an activation seat. A rejected activation now releases its seat automatically, so retrying never locks you out.
• App updates for everyone. Updating Version Tracker itself no longer requires an activated licence, so every user always receives the latest fixes. Installing updates for your other apps still requires a licence.
• Better diagnostics. If a licence is ever refused, the app now logs the exact reason, making support faster.

Version 1.1.0 — 2026-07-03

New

• Tauri apps. New category that detects applications built with Tauri and checks their built-in updater endpoint for available versions.
• Electron apps. New category that identifies applications built with Electron.

Improvements

• Adobe Creative Cloud. The category now groups every Adobe app — the Creative Cloud desktop app and its helpers alongside the design products.
• Microsoft & Android. Microsoft Edge now appears with the other Microsoft AutoUpdate apps, and Android Studio is grouped under Android SDK.
• Cleaner Applications list. An app already shown by a dedicated source — Mac App Store, Sparkle, Tauri, Electron, Adobe, Microsoft, GitHub, Alternative Updaters, or Xcode — no longer appears a second time under Applications.
• Inventory persistence. Scan results for Adobe, Tauri, Electron, Qt and Android SDK now survive between launches instead of resetting on each start.
• All updates. Available Tauri updates now surface in the aggregated “All updates” view.
• Interface refresh. A lighter, more consistent layout across category tables and inspectors.

Fixes

• Fewer false positives. Numerous bug fixes and more precise detection, so apps are less likely to be reported as needing an update when they don't.

Version 1.0.25 — 2026-06-25

Fixes

• Update detection. Refines application update discovery and keeps the aggregate update list closer to the visible scan results.
• Update routing. Improves handling for apps that need to be opened or updated manually instead of being treated as automatic updates.
• Release reliability. Includes stabilization work for the public Sparkle update channel.

Version 1.0.24 — 2026-06-18

Fixes

• Update detection. Improves application update detection, especially for apps discovered through Sparkle-style metadata.
• Manual fallback. Routes updates that cannot be safely automated toward the appropriate manual action instead of reporting a false success.
• Batch reliability. Keeps failed or unverifiable updates visible after batch operations so they can be reviewed, retried, or opened manually.