VaultSync 1.8.9 is now available.
This release is called “Keep your place. Work with clarity.”
1.8.9 isn't about adding another huge feature. After the much larger changes in the last few releases, this one is about fixing the things you notice when you actually use VaultSync every day — and tightening some important restore, cleanup and update paths underneath it.
VaultSync now does a much better job of keeping your place
One of the most annoying things an application can do is reset what you're looking at just because something refreshed.
1.8.9 fixes quite a few cases like that.
VaultSync now better preserves:
- expanded backup projects
- how much backup history you've loaded
- existing rows when lists refresh
- the currently selected backup project after deleting a backup
- UI state during background refreshes
The Backups and Settings pages have also been reworked at compact widths, and padded pages no longer request unnecessary width and create horizontal overflow.
Navigation stays labeled at the normal window size, some status pills and backup tags are better aligned, and muted/status text has improved contrast across light, dark and custom themes.
Small changes individually, but together the app feels noticeably more stable and less jumpy.
Safer restore and pruning behavior
A lot of the important work in this release is below the UI.
The CLI restore and retention paths received another safety pass.
VaultSync now verifies the recorded backup bytes before a CLI restore modifies its target.
It also now:
- rejects empty backup paths before restore or retention cleanup
- restores CLI snapshots from recorded backup data with confined cleanup
- prevents backup preflight enumeration from following linked source trees
- makes destructive prune dates exact and independent of system locale
- preserves backed and protected snapshots during CLI pruning
- confines CLI preset reads to their expected user or bundled preset directories
- preserves literal ~ characters unless they're actually being used as a leading home path
- preserves existing files when CLI diagnostics run
- prevents sync-tool output from hanging diagnostics
For a backup application, these aren't really “nice to have” fixes. Restore, prune and cleanup operations need very strict boundaries.
Better platform and updater behavior
There are several platform-specific improvements too.
macOS
- VaultSync now supports the system rsync shipped with macOS.
Linux
- manual archive updates keep VaultSync open while the update is being installed
- single-instance locks now live inside private application data
Windows / release infrastructure
- Linux updater handoff qualification is now portable through Windows CI
- Microsoft Store uploads are included in the verified release manifest and provenance
- cancelled update checks can no longer dispose or reset the check that replaced them
The updater, power handling, logging and encryption-enrollment paths also received some internal simplification and cleanup.
Removing old code instead of carrying it forever
1.8.9 also removes several things that were no longer part of the live application, including obsolete navigation/reflection paths, an old hidden backup activity chart and the dormant untracked-destination scanner.
Static-analysis findings were cleaned up again, the Sonar coverage gate was restored, coordinated dependencies were refreshed, and release/repository health received another audit.
The final release packages are also required to come from the qualified Stable promotion build, rather than having release assets recreated independently afterwards.
About 1.9
With 1.8.9 out, more attention can now move toward VaultSync 1.9 — Recovery Horizon.
The 1.8 series has spent a lot of time making file/project recovery understandable, inspectable and verifiable.
1.9 is the much bigger step toward disk and machine-level recovery.
It's a major part of what I think is still missing before VaultSync feels like the complete backup/recovery tool I'm trying to build, so I'm not planning to rush it. The underlying architecture and safety boundaries are being built and tested carefully, and I still expect 1.9 to go through multiple beta builds before Stable.
But that's for another post. :)
For now, 1.8.9 is out.
⚠️ Having trouble updating?
A clean installation may be required on some systems, particularly if you're coming from an older installation or the updater cannot safely replace the existing package.
Your VaultSync database, projects, settings and other application data are stored outside the application installation directory. Uninstalling/replacing the application does not delete that data.
Windows
- Uninstall VaultSync from Settings → Apps → Installed apps
- Install VaultSync-Setup-1.8.9.exe
- Microsoft Store users can uninstall/reinstall directly through the Store if needed
macOS
- Quit VaultSync
- Remove the existing VaultSync.app from Applications
- Open the correct 1.8.9 DMG and drag the new VaultSync.app into Applications
Choose:
- VaultSync-1.8.9-macos-apple-silicon.dmg for Apple Silicon
- VaultSync-1.8.9-macos-intel.dmg for Intel Macs
Linux
- .deb: remove the installed package and install the new 1.8.9 .deb
- AppImage: replace the old AppImage with the new one
- .tar.gz: remove the old extracted application directory and extract the new archive
The downloads on the VaultSync website and GitHub are the same official release builds.
Website: https://fglabs.dev/vaultsync
GitHub: https://github.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync
As always, if something breaks or behaves strangely, please report it. Real-world backup setups are very good at finding edge cases that test environments don't. :)