Hey everyone,
a new version of Aspect has been released: 1.0.0-preview.25 (view blog post). You’ll find the download links at the bottom of this post. Simply install over the existing installation to upgrade. The following changes and additions are included:
New features
- Added support for peer-to-peer library synchronization and cloning within the local network
- Other devices running Aspect can be invited to clone a library or requested to provide access to a library
- Synchronization of library instances now happens automatically in the background
- The first-start dialog now offers to create a new library or to join one from the local network
- Added a companion window feature to make use of dual-monitor setups
- The secondary window will display the same items as the main window
- Separate view settings can be used and the secondary window uses a complementary display mode (thumbnail vs. details view)
Enhancements
- Simplified the library creation workflow
- The library name and folder patterns do not have to be set during library creation anymore
- Instead, when first importing a file that requires a decision, you will get a dialog to confirm the correct settings
- Improved reliability of local network device discovery
- Improved the device pairing UI for adding known devices
- Reworked the user interface layout
- Incoming pairing requests are now shown as a dialog box instead of as a barely visible notification center entry
- Devices can now be blocked/unblocked from sending pairing requests
- Fixed some crashes and hangs occurring when cancelling the pairing process mid-way
- Pairing codes do not contain zeros and the letter O anymore to avoid confusion
- Host names for macOS devices are now displayed without their domain name
- The introduction overlay now shows event placeholders to better communicate the event pane functionality
- Clone progress is not properly displayed on the clone configuration page
- When leaving the “create collection” collection bar entry with an entered name, a confirmation dialog appears instead of just discarding the name
- The metadata pane now refreshes automatically when selected files or their sidecar files change
- Synchronization activities can now be cancelled
- Improved the time required to load the UI theme on startup
- Reduced idle CPU usage in the presence of other Aspect network devices
- The example tree for visualizing the chosen folder patterns now always shows the current year
- Events can now be created directly from the navigation pane
- A new button allows to create new events, or to select existing folders as events
- The folder browser view now supports changing sorting modes
- Broken connections to known devices are now indicated and can be re-established
- Added a colored status indicator to the known device list
- Reduced the time taken for “Synchronizing with file system”
- Pressing the escape key now leaves the selected local collection, if any
- Improved the “library storage devices” section of the synchronization pane
- Library instance entries now display the device alongside their storage volume
- Entries are now sorted by device
- No empty storage volume names are displayed anymore
- An issue with possible duplicate entries has been fixed
- Improved the network device list popup
- The selected entry now stays selected after adding or removing it to/from known devices, as well as after device changes
- Fixed possible flickering of the list during refreshes
- An issue with possible duplicate entries has been fixed
- Fixed the main UI getting blocked while waiting on a pairing request
Bug fixes
- SECURITY: Fixed a possible brute force attack during the pairing process, enabling a man-in-the-middle attack
- Fixed updating thumbnails after the underlying image has been changed (e.g. rotated) remotely
- Fixed deleted events possibly appearing in the example library tree used to visualize path pattern settings
- Fixed an issue with empty year folders being left over on macOS
- Fixed individual photo folders to be properly merged and named during synchronization
- Fixed an image possibly ending up in two taxonomy branches after concurrent changes in separate library instances
- Fixed a crash occurring when adding a file with the same name to the same folder on two library instances concurrently
- Fix backup file names of files deleted in another library instance
- Fixed library instance information not getting updated (e.g. associated host name and ID)
- Fixed a synchronization error occurring when moving files out of a large event or individual photos folder in two library instances concurrently
- Fixed notification pane item order and missing activity entries
- Fixed an attempt to organize a scanned folder that was manually moved into a library folder by the user
- Fixed a sub-pixel rendering issue in some dialogs
- Fixed manual synchronization blocking the UI
- Fixed a regression in preview 24, where the name entered for newly created events got ignored
- Fixed a crash when synchronizing with a library that contains an empty shoe box folder
- Fixed an issue with video thumbnails being sometimes corrupted or causing crashes
- Fixed remote device status sometimes not being correct after pairing or after remote changes
- Fixed issues when canceling the process to add a known device
- Fixed layout issues in the notification center fly-out
- Fix a possible hang during shutdown
- Fixed other Aspect instances being erroneously displayed in the drive pane
- Fixed failures to initialize the OpenGL driver on certain systems
Feel free to leave any feedback here or in the bug reports sub forum. Thanks for helping to shape a new way of organizing photos!
Please remember: Even though the software is reasonably stable at this point, always make a backup of your data, or work with a copy of it, when using pre-release software.
Download
Windows installer
macOS bundle
Linux AppImage (experimental)