Ente development digest

Ente digest Sep 21, 2026 - 10 shipped, 2 in progress

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:14:31 +0000

Ente shipped a set of user-facing improvements across Space, Photos, and Locker, alongside substantial mobile and ML infrastructure work. Two new changes are in progress, including easier file naming during Locker uploads and stricter server-side validation.

Shipped

Space / web: Feed captions now have corrected spacing, photo position dots, and consistent card corners; profiles can load up to 250 posts. PR #13061 · PR #13048
Locker / mobile: The document scanner was completely rebuilt for better perspective correction, recovery from difficult page edges, shadow removal, faint-text handling, and document enhancement. PR #13053
Photos / mobile: Internal users now use the native background task manager for uploads, while other users continue using Workmanager. The photo permission prompt also now uses “Continue,” addressing app review feedback. PR #12882 · PR #13056
Mobile UI: Added menu rows and sheet headers for a more consistent interface. PR #13054
ML infrastructure: Added the Rust MlStore library, composing the ML database with vector indexes for clips and cluster centroids; it is foundational work and is not yet consumed by the app. PR #12896
Maintenance: Removed unused server triggers and unverified-session alerts, and enabled automated Codex PR reviews. PR #13060 · PR #13057 · PR #13063

In progress

Locker: Files can be renamed directly from the file upload screen instead of only after uploading. PR #13059
Server: Collection file operations will reject missing file IDs and malformed or incorrectly sized encrypted key material. PR #13062

Ente digest Sep 20, 2026 - 5 shipped, 3 in progress

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:49:41 +0000

Ente Space received several user-facing improvements, including richer photo interactions and clearer profile and messaging UI. The mobile Locker scanner also got a camera-permission fix, while server and Auth maintenance work is in progress.

Shipped

Ente Space: Photo editing, photo-specific replies, and an invite walkthrough are now available across Space web and Rust components, bringing more ways to interact with shared photos.
Ente Space: Unread message indicators regain their ping animation, making new activity easier to notice.
Ente Space: Profile photo rows are grouped more clearly, and about-page title wrapping is fixed.
Ente Locker mobile: Fixed a camera-permission glitch on the scanner page, improving scanner recovery when access needs to be granted or retried.

In progress

Ente Space: Profiles may soon load up to 250 posts, increasing the amount of profile content visible at once.
Server: Boot secrets will accept standard or URL-safe Base64, with or without padding, preventing Museum startup failures for secrets generated by common tools such as Helm or OpenSSL.
Ente Auth Linux: Pins flutter_secure_storage_linux to 1.2.1 to avoid a keyring serialization compatibility issue.

Ente digest Sep 19, 2026 - 17 shipped, 1 in progress

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:28:16 +0000

Ente shipped a broad set of Photos UI improvements across mobile and desktop, alongside fixes for sharing, thumbnails, cleanup feedback, and public links. Core Rust and web work also advanced encrypted file handling and in-app account cryptography, while one Photos fix is now in progress.

Shipped

Photos on mobile: The add-person picker was refreshed, and cleanup actions now show progress, item counts, and clearer feedback when nothing can be removed: #13034 and #12989.
Raw thumbnail placeholders no longer show misleading expiry or other overlays while images load, including in Trash filmstrips: #13030.
Photos gained client support for batch sharing, updated link settings, and a refreshed Memory Lane viewer design: #12990, #13007, and #13024.
Public-link viewers no longer expose the Favorite action, while signed-in gallery behavior is unchanged: #13023.
Desktop person-naming dialogs now match the People popup styling: #12975.
Locker’s scanner now handles camera permissions more reliably: #13040.
Auth installations restored without their offline encryption key now show recovery guidance, without affecting signed-in users or existing data: #13031.
Rust added Photos file commands, an encrypted CLI replica, and support for files without a file type; authenticated account crypto also stays inside the web app’s WASM: #13037, #13038, and #13033.
Additional mobile polish covered grouped information rows, theme updates for open menus and Locker collection icons: #13035, #13025, and #13028.
Vecdb updates now preserve routing across vector updates and deletes: #13019.

In progress

Photos on mobile: A fix is underway to prevent duplicate shared photos from appearing on the map after being favorited: #13036.

Ente digest Sep 18, 2026 - 45 shipped, 3 in progress

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:43:55 +0000

A busy day for user-facing improvements across Photos and Auth, with smoother sharing, importing, and album workflows. The team also shipped multi-photo posts for Space and several reliability and performance fixes.

Shipped

Photos: Refreshed the add-person picker and updated link settings in the mobile app (#13034, #13007). Album sharing was also redesigned, and photos can now be removed directly from album chips in the info sheet (#12994, #12969).
Photos: Public-link viewers no longer show the Favorite action, while unloaded raw thumbnails no longer display misleading overlays (#13023, #13030).
Photos: Cleanup now shows progress, item counts, and clearer feedback when there is nothing to remove (#12989). Video backup also avoids unnecessary FFmpeg log traffic for smoother performance (#13003).
Auth: Google Authenticator multi-QR imports now support complete camera and image-based batches with validation and progress feedback (#13017, #13005). Imports from 2FAS, Aegis, and Bitwarden also gain better compatibility and note preservation (#13000, #13002).
Locker and Auth: Cancelled files are no longer uploaded from Locker’s pre-upload screen, and restored offline-only Auth installations now provide recovery guidance when their encryption key is unavailable (#13011, #13031).
Space: Multi-photo posts are now supported by both the web client and server (#13021, #13022).

In progress

Photos CLI: A new Rust-based set of Photos file commands and an encrypted CLI replica is under development (#13037).
Photos is addressing duplicate shared map photos appearing after they are favorited (#13036).
A notification for when Memories are ready is in progress (#12995).

Ente digest Sep 17, 2026 - 33 shipped, 10 in progress

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:10:35 +0000

Photos saw a busy round of usability and performance improvements, while Space’s feed and sharing foundations were restored across the stack. Ensu also received platform maintenance, and several upcoming Photos features are now in progress.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Memory Lane v2 received refined controls, captions, title alignment, and improved card placement (#12956, #12986, #12987). Gallery spacing was tightened to 1px, and inactive pointer tracking is skipped to reduce scrolling work (#12988, #12952).
Photos usability: Album search now keeps results visible above the keyboard, offers a prefilled Create album action when there are no matches, and provides clearer failure feedback for Referrals and Cast Sessions (#12967, #12946, #12938). Web video playback now fits the full frame on screen (#12947).
Space: The feed and its posting/caching UI were restored across server, Rust, and web clients. The nine-friend limit was removed, with pending requests instead capped at 100 per sender and recipient (#12948, #12950). Feed design refinements also landed (#12964, #12971, #12976).
Ensu and platform foundations: Duplicate desktop instances now activate the existing window instead of failing during Notes initialization (#12953). Ensu iOS moved to Swift 6 and Android to Kotlin 2, both with shared linting (#12984, #12957).
Authentication pages were consolidated across Photos, Auth, and Locker, removing the legacy-UI fallback (#12944). Server uploads now retain more pending-upload metadata, including checksums and client information (#12974).

In progress

Upcoming Photos features: A “memories ready” notification is being added (#12995), alongside an album-sharing redesign (#12994) and batch-sharing client support (#12990).
Photos is also working on clearer uncategorized-cleanup progress (#12989), removing photos from albums directly in the Info sheet (#12969), and sharing duplicate face-crop requests between thumbnails (#12955).
Server work would allow standard or URL-safe, padded or unpadded base64 boot secrets (#12977); Ensu feature documentation is also being updated for v0.1.20 (#12993).

Ente digest Sep 16, 2026 - 30 shipped, 8 in progress

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Ente shipped a strong batch of Photos and Space improvements, alongside fixes for sync reliability, mobile flows, and web performance. Several upcoming changes also target smoother Memories, face rendering, and desktop behavior.

Shipped

Space: The Space feed, caching, and posting UI are restored across web and Rust, and the nine-friend limit is removed. Pending friend requests are capped at 100 per sender and recipient, with clearer limit errors in the server, web, and Space clients.
Photos on mobile: Copying or moving files to a nonexistent album now offers to create it with the searched name prefilled (#12946). Memories now keep separate mute settings for music and video (#12924), captions no longer display quotation marks (#12936), and slideshow durations are longer, including for device albums (#12903, #12904).
On iOS, photos are no longer incorrectly shown as not uploaded after signing back in (#12922). Album search includes archived albums (#12919), and large screens get a better-scaled gallery filmstrip (#12838).
Photos on web and desktop: Videos now fit the viewer while keeping the full frame visible (#12947), storage usage preserves decimal TB values (#12932), and the desktop All People section is improved (#12891).
Reliability: Deleted-share and collection tombstones synchronize correctly, file retries preserve replica locations, and CLI exports handle deleted or renamed collections more safely (#12910, #12937, #12931). Web session crypto now uses the app’s WASM implementation (#12934).

In progress

Upcoming Photos improvements: Memory Lane v2 is getting refined controls, layout, and captions (#12956), while duplicate face-crop requests will share one in-flight operation to reduce native work (#12955).
Referral and Cast loading errors will use clearer error sheets and loading states (#12938), and Locker documentation is being expanded for document scanning (#12916).
Other work includes Auth offline app-lock recovery docs (#12954), preventing duplicate Ensu desktop instances (#12953), append-only vector graphs between rebuilds (#12949), and shared auth-page shell configuration (#12944

Ente digest Sep 15, 2026 - 35 shipped, 14 in progress

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:17:44 +0000

Today’s changes focused on smoother sharing, downloads, gallery presentation, and more reliable synchronization across Photos and Locker. Several Rust and server updates also strengthen storage, recovery, and collection consistency.

Shipped

Photos mobile: The gallery filmstrip now scales better on tablets and resizable windows, while phone sizing remains unchanged (#12838). Filename timestamp parsing is also more reliable for Signal exports, numbered copies, and timezone-aware names (#12876).
Photos web: Downloads now expose per-file progress for images and videos, improving feedback during transfers (#12828, #12875). Public album and PhotoSwipe display issues were fixed (#12888, #12887).
Photos mobile: Memory Lane playback, captions, and per-schedule completion tracking were improved, and Android Memories, Albums, and People widgets now respect rounded system corners (#12868, #12867, #12885).
Sharing and sessions: Space friend-limit errors now identify whether the limit belongs to the current user or the other person; the attempted username display was reverted (#12913, #12914, #12909). Cast pairing codes are now single-use, preventing an existing session from being overwritten (#12899).
Locker: Locker now parses scrubbed file tombstones consistently with Photos, and delete confirmation explains that items leave all collections but remain recoverable from Trash (#12902, #12881).
Server: Collection diffs use smaller removal entries, legacy upload URLs are restricted, deleted accounts can no longer log in, and account recovery state stays consistent during overlapping requests (#12915, #12874, #12872, #12865).

In progress

Upcoming Photos features: Device albums are gaining slideshow support and longer slideshow durations; archived albums will also appear in album search (#12904, #12903, #12919).
Offline link sharing: A feature-flagged preview lets users select and preview device files for link sharing in online mode (#12920).
iOS reliability: A fix is in review for photos appearing as not uploaded after signing back in (#12908).
CLI and ML work: Tombstone synchronization fixes are underway for the Rust and Go CLIs, alongside faster vecdb compaction and a new Rust ML store (#12917, #12910, #12911, #12896).

Ente digest Sep 14, 2026 - 15 shipped, 5 in progress

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:04:51 +0000

Today’s shipped work focused on safer account and sharing behavior, smoother Ente Photos experiences, and faster mobile processing. Several infrastructure improvements are also in progress, including batch album sharing and a new cross-platform background task manager.

Shipped

Ente Photos: The web app now shows per-file download progress for images and videos, laying the groundwork for a more detailed multi-file download dialog (#12828). Mobile Memory Lane playback, captions, completion tracking, and card ordering were improved, including a desaturated style for memories users have already seen (#12868, #12867, #12826, #12827).
Mobile Photos now uses optimized shared OCR models for eligible Android and iOS GPU inference, while retaining a CPU fallback (#12780). Upside-down panoramas on OpenGL ES were also fixed (#12866).
Security and sharing: Deleted accounts can no longer log in, and overlapping account-recovery operations now keep recovery state consistent (#12872, #12865). Public-link changes and revocations now take effect immediately on the handling server (#12859).
Web: Fixed the embedded viewer’s loader after completion (#12857). Internal Rust and build tooling also received performance and maintainability updates (#12801, #12860).
Smaller shipped changes added a Dockhand icon to Ente Auth and improved Apple Swift linting (#12843, #12870).

In progress

Upcoming sharing improvement: Server endpoints are being added to look up multiple public keys and share a collection with up to 10 recipients in one request (#12869).
Legacy upload URLs are being restricted as a server-side security measure (#12874).
A native background-task manager for Android and iOS is in development, with app integration planned separately (#12858).
The Rust vector database is being moved into its own crate without behavior changes, allowing Photos to use it without pulling in the image stack (#12871). Shared Android formatting, correctness checks, and CI linting are also in progress (#12863).

Ente digest Sep 13, 2026 - 2 shipped, 1 in progress

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 11:15:42 +0000

Ente Space received a pair of interface refinements, while a cross-platform chat text-rendering update is in progress.

Shipped

Space: Home improvements refine the Space home experience.
Space: Toast adjustments improve notification corner rounding and positioning.

In progress

Ensu: Text-rendering improvements aim to make chat spacing and bullet alignment more consistent across platforms, with additional fixes for web code blocks, tables, and external links.

Ente digest Sep 12, 2026 - 15 shipped, 9 in progress

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 10:15:33 +0000

Today’s merged work improves Cast reliability and usability, refreshes the Space experience, and fixes a Linux desktop issue. In progress, the team is refining Photos galleries and downloads while laying groundwork for shared native modules and upcoming platform improvements.

Shipped

Photos Cast: Pairing-code fields now default to uppercase, while person-name fields use the standard capitalization behavior in iOS keyboards via improved input capitalization. Cast stopping and re-pairing now wait for token revocation, surface failures, and let users retry through safer Cast session cleanup.
Space: The home screen has been redesigned, and the Add friend action is now less visually prominent in the home redesign and the button styling update.
Desktop Photos: Linux users can now open the logs directory without the View logs dialog hanging, thanks to the Linux logs fix.
Server: Cast tokens are validated synchronously and file creation requests are checked before storage probing in token validation and file-create validation.
Cast delivery: Cast 1.2 is now included in release automation, with TestFlight workflows, App Store signing fixes, and Discord notifications covered by release support, TestFlight builds, signing, and release alignment.
Other: Work has begun on a replacement Rust CLI in the new CLI branch, and desktop video-streaming documentation now explains processing progress in the updated guide.

In progress

Photos galleries: Upcoming mobile changes simplify justified layouts in the Flex gallery update, scale the filmstrip for tablets and large screens in the responsive filmstrip work, and adjust how seen Memory Lane cards are ordered and styled through placement and desaturation.
Downloads: The web Photos viewer is gaining per-file image and video download progress in download tracking.
Desktop and platform work: A macOS fullscreen fix will prevent videos from appearing pillarboxed in the fullscreen update. Android shared native-module preparation is underway in the build restructuring.
Additional work includes Apple formatting checks in the mobile lint update and a Dockhand icon for Auth in the new icon contribution.

Ente digest Sep 11, 2026 - 48 shipped, 7 in progress

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:46:26 +0000

Ente shipped a broad set of Photos usability improvements across mobile, desktop, and web, alongside reliability and performance work in the Rust, server, and Cast infrastructure. Several Photos and Cast features are also moving through review, including download progress and improved memory-lane behavior.

Shipped

Photos mobile

Refreshed the person picker, with the current app bar, a compact sort menu, and improved name handling.
Updated the person cover-photo picker and people menu to use the newer Photos interface.
Memory Lane now loads entries in chunks, resumes playback correctly after tapping, and has more stable card sizing and navigation (loading, playback, layout, navigation).
Social overlays now refresh after sync, keeping comment counts, previews, and reaction states current. Viewer overlays also stay in place while swiping (details).
Gallery viewers retain previews until content is ready, with improved download progress behavior (viewer loading), and back buttons now have larger touch targets (touch targets).

Desktop, web, and platform support

Fixed Linux desktop “View logs” hanging after opening the log directory.
Locker web now has updated styling and light mode, alongside ongoing interface and folder-structure updates.
Android local-photo processing now uses Rust metadata for dimensions, dates, locations, motion photos, and panoramas.
Cast release infrastructure is ready for version 1.2, including signing, TestFlight, startup promotion, and configurable endpoints (release flow, signing, TestFlight, Apple TV).

Reliability and performance: VecDB now defaults new indexes to i8 storage and cosine distance while preserving existing indexes (storage, distance); writer collisions are prevented (locking). Auth also handles omitted 2FAS defaults (PR).

In progress

Web Photos per-file download progress for images and videos.
Memory Lane cards can be visually marked as seen and moved to the end of the strip (desaturated style, ordering).
Cast token revocation now waits for completion and surfaces failures so users can retry.
Web Trash navigation is being simplified with Albums/People hidden and a back button added.
VecDB graph construction optimization claims a 41–48% reduction in construction time.
Desktop video-streaming documentation is being updated to describe processing progress.

Ente digest Sep 10, 2026 - 45 shipped, 11 in progress

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:50:21 +0000

A busy day for Ente Photos, with substantial updates to Memory Lane, gallery viewing, people sharing, Android wallpapers, and background processing. The web Locker interface also received a broad visual refresh, while Rust improvements strengthen performance and reliability under the hood.

Shipped

Ente Photos mobile: Memory Lane is now integrated into the home Memories strip, with a redesigned viewer, navigation, face-focused covers, and improved handling for ignored people or missing crops (PR #12679, #12735, #12773, #12776, #12725, #12736).
The gallery viewer now has a swipeable thumbnail filmstrip for quickly previewing and selecting photos and videos (PR #12676).
Android users can set an Ente photo as their home-screen wallpaper, lock-screen wallpaper, or both, with an adjustable crop preview (PR #12749).
People pages now support link and file sharing, including optional automatic addition of future photos (PR #12685).
Android can run ML processing in the background while charging and idle, and the Rust-backed ML database integration is ready behind a disabled feature flag (PR #12714, #12718).
Web Locker: Dashboard, collections, trash, sidebar, menus, dialogs, and item creation received interface updates to better align with the mobile experience (PR #12733, #12747, #12743, #12734, #12764, #12741, #12719).
Rust’s VecDB gained safer writer locking, faster graph growth, and opt-in int8 vector storage without changing existing results (PR #12772, #12758, #12723).
Other maintenance included faster, bounded OCR processing and hardened Android wallpaper previews (PR #12728, #12759).

In progress

Upcoming OCR acceleration: Internal Rust OCR is being adapted to shared optimized models, with Core ML on iOS and WebGPU on eligible Android devices while retaining CPU fallback (PR #12780).
Photos work continues on smoother Memories-strip layout, refreshed people menus and cover-photo picking, and names in shared person links (PR #12779, #12766, #12765, #12763).
Gallery loading states and Ensu’s desktop chat context-length indicator are also in progress (PR #12760, #12724).

Ente digest Sep 09, 2026 - 36 shipped, 13 in progress

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:54:14 +0000

Today’s changes focused on improving Ente Photos’ memories, storage reliability, search infrastructure, and cross-platform UI. Several Rust migrations and backend maintenance changes also landed, while background ML processing and new sharing capabilities are in progress.

Shipped

Ente Photos mobile: Memory Lane cards now appear in the home screen’s memories strip, while cards without available crops are hidden to avoid broken previews (#12679, #12725). iOS Live Photo uploads now clean up temporary videos, preventing accumulated files from filling device storage (#12700).
Photos reliability and search: Android OCR now uses the CPU path to avoid recognition failures on some devices (#12686). Web sidecar matching and PhotoSwipe updates were improved, helping edits and metadata stay in sync (#12691, #12697).
Ensu: Mobile apps can now index local Markdown folders and provide note-grounded chat responses with verified citations and previews (#12706).
Space and Locker: Space received a redesigned home, easier username-based friend invitations, and notifications that link directly to new posts (#12699, #12715, #12690). Locker’s web create-item UI now matches mobile (#12719).
Platform and backend: File-count backfills are now incremental and parallelized, with storage usage exposed to admins (#12711, #12716, #12721). VecDB approximate search is faster at comparable recall (#12684).
Rust crypto, session handling, linting, CI, and dependency security work was consolidated across web and mobile (#12696, #12688, #12704, #12730).

In progress

Photos: Android background ML processing is being added for charging and idle periods (#12714), alongside a more efficient, memory-bounded Rust OCR pipeline (#12728). Sharing photos from person pages, including optional automatic sharing of future photos, is also underway (#12685).
Locker and File Viewer: A Locker dashboard refresh and clearer download progress are in progress (#12733, #12722).
Ensu: A context-length indicator is being added to the desktop chat composer (#12724), with model downloads moving to commit-pinned mirrors (#12720).
The Rust-backed mobile ML database is wired behind a disabled feature flag for future rollout (#12718), and recovery operations are moving to authenticated sessions (#12731).

Ente digest Sep 08, 2026 - 35 shipped, 11 in progress

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:47:18 +0000

Today’s merged work improves Ente Photos’ on-device processing, gallery experience, and background intelligence, while Space and server-side account tooling also moved forward. Several upcoming Photos features are now in progress, including person-page sharing and a gallery filmstrip.

Shipped

Photos: OCR on Android now uses the CPU provider for more reliable text recognition after failures with accelerated inference in #12686. iOS background ML is also enabled through longer-running processing tasks in #12242.
Photos gallery: An experimental Flex justified-layout option gives internal users another way to balance row heights and tile widths, while Comfort remains the default (#12677). Desktop users now see percentage progress while streaming videos (#12609), and an arm64 executable extraction issue was fixed (#12681).
Locker: The scanner button is now more prominent and easier to discover on mobile (#12663).
Space: The new home layout adds friend-post tiles, unread indicators, and pending requests; waves are replaced with pokes and the friend limit is set to 12 (#12639). Avatar actions and further home-layout polish followed in #12662, with the limit later reduced to nine in #12675.
Server: File-count initialization and verification now cover new and existing accounts, with stale-cleanup safeguards (#12661, #12680, #12651).
Notes and web: Notes indexing is more reliable across cancellation and model lifecycle changes (#12652), while Locker sharing and family-invite handling received fixes (#12658, #12674).

In progress

Photos is adding sharing directly from named person pages, including optional automatic inclusion of future photos (#12685).
A gallery viewer filmstrip is under controlled internal-user evaluation, with live drag previews and faster navigation (#12676).
Other upcoming Photos work includes a Memory Lane home card (#12679) and Rust-based metadata processing for local photos (#12666).
Infrastructure work is improving approximate vector search performance (#12684), moving Locker link cryptography to Rust (#12688), and exposing file counts in the staff dashboard (#12687).
Space notifications will link directly to their new posts (#12690), while structured Museum errors are being added across clients (#12689).

Ente digest Sep 07, 2026 - 22 shipped, 4 in progress

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:49:47 +0000

A busy day across Ente, with user-facing improvements to Space, Photos, Locker, and media viewing alongside substantial Rust and ML infrastructure work. Several changes also improve reliability and prepare future migrations.

Shipped

Ente Space: The home screen now shows friend post tiles, unread indicators, and pending requests; Spaces are limited to 12 friends, and waves have been replaced with pokes in #12639.
Photos: Memory Lane schedules are generated on startup with validation and a 30-day cooldown in #12526. Wider galleries now use more responsive justified layouts in #12615, while media viewers keep status-bar icons visible in light mode via #12620.
Photo and video decryption failures now offer a localized “Download failed” support dialog and a route to contact support in #12540.
Locker: The document scanner is now enabled for all users in #12643.
Rust and ML: A bounded EXIF, XMP, and IPTC metadata reader landed in #12638. Photos also gained an internal-flagged Rust OCR pipeline in #12616, with further ML database migration groundwork in #12610.
Reliability: Server-side file counts now stay consistent through trash, restore, and stale-membership cleanup in #12545 and #12651. Vecdb compaction also avoids temporarily doubling resident memory in #12635.
Mobile tooling was upgraded to Flutter 3.47.2, with corresponding Android, iOS, macOS, and CI updates in #12592. Photos desktop macOS signing was fixed in #12637.

In progress

Photos documentation: New documentation covers device trash and restore, playback controls, and metadata and quality preservation during edits in #12653.
Notes on desktop: Indexing is being made more reliable with durable checkpoints and safer cancellation, resumption, and automatic re-indexing in #12652.
Security: Locker is removing sensitive information from browser local storage in #12644.
Upcoming ML migration: A Rust SQLite wrapper and ML database foundation for Photos are being added in #12642.

Ente digest Sep 06, 2026 - 1 shipped, 0 in progress

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 10:28:39 +0000

Today’s shipped change strengthens authentication reliability on the server. No new pull requests were opened.

Shipped

Server: Authentication state changes are now atomic. Login completion, credential rotation, and passkey recovery are handled more safely, preventing partially applied changes. Users may need to restart an in-progress login after changing credentials, and completed passkey recovery requests can no longer be reused.

In progress

No new pull requests were opened.

Ente digest Sep 05, 2026 - 7 shipped, 9 in progress

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:06:40 +0000

Today’s shipped work focused on polish and infrastructure across Ente Photos, including clearer web navigation, corrected translations, and a WASM prelogin change. In progress, several mobile Photos improvements target video viewing, local-photo performance, gallery layouts, and upcoming Rust-based ML capabilities.

Shipped

Web Locker: [Fix sidebar colors and icons] improves the sidebar’s visual consistency.
Mobile: [Fix reviewed mobile translations] corrects Vietnamese, Swedish, and Estonian localization issues.
Rust/WASM: [Replace core WASM with prelogin artifact] updates the artifact used before login.
Web Photos: [Inline the loading bar] makes the loading component self-contained across albums.
Documentation and maintenance: [referral storage documentation], [documentation-comment validation], and [dead-code cleanup] shipped.

In progress

Photos video viewing: [Reposition the stream button and constrain comment bubbles] avoids control collisions on shared videos. [Fix video-player status-bar icons] keeps them visible in light mode.
Local photos: [Fix memory spikes] targets excessive memory use and stuttering when browsing high-resolution on-device photos.
Upcoming ML work: [Rust OCR pipeline] adds an internal-flagged Rust OCR path, while [ML database orchestration split] prepares a feature-flagged move of mobile ML database work to Rust.
Gallery and desktop: [Wider-screen justified layouts] tunes galleries for larger displays, and [video-streaming percentage progress] adds desktop progress feedback.
Documentation updates cover [iOS Backup mode and upload-cache cleanup] and an [album slideshow FAQ].

Ente digest Sep 04, 2026 - 18 shipped, 5 in progress

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 10:48:55 +0000

Ente shipped several Photos usability improvements across mobile and desktop, including cleaner gallery layouts, XMP sidecar uploads, and earlier Uncategorized album creation. Ensu desktop also gained local Markdown notes, while internal Rust and infrastructure work continued; new work is underway on ML database architecture, video progress, and HLS validation.

Shipped

Ente Photos — mobile: Gallery rows are now more balanced and scannable, with fewer awkward tails and better handling of portrait-heavy groups (#12603). The Uncategorized album is also created during sync, so it is available before users open it (#12594).
Ente Photos — desktop: Uploads now support XMP sidecar files, preserving associated metadata alongside photos (#12585). A desktop HLS failure was also fixed so account session tokens are no longer persisted in logs (#12589).
Ensu desktop: “Your Notes” lets users select a local Markdown folder, keeps its index updated, and combines notes with Ensu Pack knowledge while providing citations (#12571).
Ente Auth: Added custom icons for the self-hosted Securo finance and Jotty note-taking services (#12579).
Localization: Corrected Vietnamese, Swedish, and Estonian mobile translation issues (#12605).
Internal Rust work added a pure-Rust vector database engine for future ML use, without wiring it into apps yet (#12573).

In progress

Mobile Photos ML: The first of four PRs begins separating ML database orchestration from SQL behind an interface, preparing a feature-flagged move of the mobile ML database to Rust without changing behavior yet (#12610).
Desktop Photos: Video streaming is set to gain percentage-based progress reporting (#12609).
Web Photos: HLS preview playlists are being validated before use (#12591).
Mobile projects are being prepared for a Flutter 3.47.2 upgrade, including updated Android tooling and platform requirements (#12592).
Documentation is adding an album slideshow FAQ (#12606).

Ente digest Sep 03, 2026 - 14 shipped, 10 in progress

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:49:43 +0000

Ente shipped a set of Photos web and desktop usability improvements alongside server integrity and security hardening. Work in progress points to upcoming XMP upload support, stronger authentication safeguards, and new desktop knowledge features.

Shipped

Ente Photos web: Signup now shows the plan selector before the gallery, archived collections are visibly marked, redundant trash actions were removed, and files can be moved between hidden albums: signup flow, archived icon, trash UX, hidden albums.
Ente Photos desktop: Fixed the app title bar and an authentication-shell layout issue that could cause an unwanted scrollbar: title bar, AuthShell styles.
Server: Usage-row handling now preserves data integrity by backfilling missing rows safely, requiring existing rows for updates, and moving same-collection validation into the controller. Legacy plaintext tokens are also cleared in batches: backfill usage rows, require usage rows, collection validation, clear tokens.
Web and Rust security: Generated WASM is kept out of initial web chunks, Locker crypto is packaged with its WASM artifact, and asset download sizes are verified: web chunks, Locker crypto, asset sizes.

In progress

Photos desktop: Upcoming support for XMP sidecar files during uploads, plus a fix for HLS failures that could expose account session tokens in logs: XMP uploads, HLS logging fix.
Authentication: A proposed change makes login completion and credential rotation atomic, invalidates pending logins after credential changes, and makes passkey recovery single-use: atomic auth state changes.
Ensu desktop: “Your Notes” would let users index local Markdown folders and chat with them alongside Ensu packs, with citations: Your Notes.
Other work includes a Flutter upgrade, ML cache invalidation on logout, HLS playlist validation, a Rust vector-database engine, YOLO decoding cleanup, and new self-hosted service icons: Flutter, ML caches, HLS validation, vecdb, YOLO decoding, service icons.

Ente digest Sep 02, 2026 - 19 shipped, 9 in progress

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:49:38 +0000

Today’s shipped work focused on Photos usability, more resilient machine-learning processing, and stronger server-side session security. Several web and mobile flows also moved further away from legacy implementations, while Android folder management and hidden-album workflows are in progress.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Trash-aware deletion copy is now shown to all eligible Android 11+ users, clarifying that deleted files can be restored from Trash (#12535). Shared albums moved to Archive now follow the same organization as other archived content (#12538), and album slideshows no longer flash during transitions (#12553).
Photos mobile: Repeated ML download or decryption failures are recorded and skipped instead of retrying indefinitely; the ML settings page now shows affected-item counts and offers a support action (#12527). Memories music is now loaded from a remote track manifest (#12531).
Photos web and desktop: Signup now presents plan selection within the authentication flow, before the gallery (#12558). The web collection selector shows archived status (#12549), and desktop authentication styling no longer causes an unwanted scrollbar (#12550).
Server security and integrity: Payment, Families, and Accounts scoped JWTs are being bound to their originating sessions and validated on requests (#12536, #12544). User creation is atomic and file counts are maintained during file creation (#12533, #12474).
Link responses in Space now validate the response identity (#12551). Web, Auth, and Locker also completed additional legacy-UI cleanup (#12530, #12534, #12537, #12539).

In progress

Upcoming Photos mobile feature: Android support is being added for copying and moving files between device folders, with progress feedback and safeguards for folders linked to Ente collections (#12543).
Web users may soon be able to move files between hidden albums (#12548), while mobile ML caches will be invalidated on logout (#12559).
Other work includes support guidance for file-viewer decryption failures (#12540), Trash/Restore file-count maintenance (#12545), a desktop titlebar fix (#12529), and documentation updates (#12528, #12541).

Ente digest Sep 01, 2026 - 16 shipped, 6 in progress

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:15:46 +0000

Ente shipped a broad set of Photos improvements today, including better location and memory features, more reliable Android media handling, and fixes across search, albums, widgets, and face recognition. Server-side session handling also moved toward safer opaque, hashed identifiers, while several mobile, web, and desktop changes are in progress.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Location results can now be sorted, and country searches recognize native names and multiple official or regional languages (#12525, #12476). City matching also uses urban-centre boundaries for more accurate results (#12524).
Photos mobile: Selected albums can now be played as slideshows, and the Memories strip has been updated to support different card types (#12506, #12481).
Photos mobile: Android now retries media reads while newly captured files are still being finalized, while immediately rejecting known permanent failures (#12518). Widget images also respect their correct orientation (#12514).
Photos intelligence: Smart albums now reliably include photos after face recognition, and stale unclustered face data is cleaned up (#12413, #12513).
Photos web: Fixed incorrect aperture values showing as “NaN” and repaired search-bar navigation (#12519, #12520).
Server: New sessions now use opaque identifiers and store token hashes instead of raw bearer tokens (#12510, #12515).
Smaller Photos UI and support improvements include chip-style file-detail actions and showing the support email when reporting issues (#12504, #12511).

In progress

Photos mobile: Repeated ML decryption failures will be recorded and skipped after retrying, with affected-item counts and a support action in settings (#12527).
Photos mobile: Memory Lane schedules are being generated at app startup (#12526).
Web Auth/Locker: A shared accounts presentation layer is being introduced (#12530).
Desktop Photos: The app title bar is being fixed (#12529).
Documentation is being updated for recent Photos desktop features, and web builds are being tightened around deferred WASM imports (#12528, #12512).

Ente digest Aug 31, 2026 - 15 shipped, 6 in progress

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:57:58 +0000

Ente shipped a broad set of Ente Photos improvements across mobile and web, including smarter albums, better search and sharing filters, and faster offline processing. Server-side authentication hardening also progressed, while slideshow support and other photo features are now in development.

Shipped

Ente Photos mobile: File-detail action buttons now match the app’s chip styling in #12504, country searches recognize native names in #12476, and the Ente filter now includes shared and received albums in #12502.
Smart albums now reliably auto-add photos after face recognition, avoiding a race that could leave newly recognized photos out in #12413.
The Memories strip was cleaned up to support different card types in #12481, and issue reports now show the support email in #12511.
Offline metadata processing is substantially faster through improved EXIF handling and pagination in #12495.
Web and desktop: A map-view update crash was fixed in #12503. Web and mobile now use the server-provided current session status in #12507.
Server security: Sessions now use opaque identifiers and token hashes internally, while retaining compatibility with existing clients, in #12510 and #12500.

In progress

Upcoming Photos features: Selected albums are getting slideshow support in #12506, and Android widget image orientation is being corrected in #12514.
Face clustering will prune orphaned unclustered face embeddings when their files are gone, improving subsequent clustering checks, in #12513.
Server security: New sessions are being stored by token hash rather than raw token in #12515.
Ente Auth is adding a custom Lightyear issuer icon in #12494.

Ente digest Aug 30, 2026 - 0 shipped, 2 in progress

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:27:04 +0000

A quiet day in Ente development, with no changes merged. Two pull requests are in progress: one improves issuer recognition in Ente Auth, while the other makes cloning the repository much faster for readers following the documentation.

Shipped

No pull requests were merged in the past 24 hours.

In progress

Ente Auth: Add Lightyear icon adds a custom Lightyear app icon for matching issuer names, including support for keeping the mark visible in dark mode.
Repository documentation: Add --depth 1 to git clone command updates the clone instructions to fetch only the latest history, significantly reducing the amount of data downloaded.

Ente digest Aug 29, 2026 - 13 shipped, 1 in progress

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:26:37 +0000

Today’s shipped work focused on making Ente Photos more responsive and reliable, especially around Memories, search, gallery loading, and background ML. The team also expanded access to several photo features and continued internal platform cleanup.

Shipped

Ente Photos — Memories: Memory music now downloads and caches hosted tracks, retries failed downloads, and falls back to another track when needed in #12488. Memory strip widgets were also renamed in #12477.
Ente Photos — performance: Search and Gallery now load file records in 2,000-row batches instead of one unbounded result, reducing memory spikes on large libraries (#12479). Foreground use now takes priority over background ML work, helping keep the app responsive while open (#12470).
Ente Photos — background processing: Magic Cache and Smart Memories refreshes now run sequentially after ML indexing and clustering, with stop requests honored between stages (#12482). Location indexing also pauses retries while offline and resumes correctly after connectivity returns (#12484).
Ente Photos — feature availability: Device Trash, EXIF-preserving edits, and lossless edits no longer require their internal user gates (#12480, #12483). The referral screen was refreshed in #12421.
Reliability and platform maintenance: Duplicate root log listeners are prevented (#12485), Photos platform channels were simplified (#12489), generated Rust legacy types are now used by web and Flutter (#12486), and server transactions roll back on all exits (#12478).

In progress

Ente Photos — Memories: The Memories strip is being cleaned up to support different card types, an upcoming UI and presentation improvement in #12481.

Ente digest Aug 28, 2026 - 23 shipped, 6 in progress

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:18:06 +0000

Ente Photos shipped a batch of performance, location, download, and Memories improvements, alongside several reliability and server-side authentication changes. New work is focused on smoother ML scheduling, broader album filtering, and more inclusive location search.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Memories can download and cache hosted music tracks, retry failed downloads, and fall back to another track when needed (#12488).
Search and Gallery now load large file databases in pages, reducing memory spikes for big libraries (#12479). Foreground activity also takes priority over background ML processing (#12470).
Location search and grouping now use the shared offline Rust index, with localized country search and lower memory use; city suggestions open directly as search results (#12465, #12468). The underlying offline city and country lookups also shipped (#12459, #12460).
Extensionless gallery downloads now receive a usable .jpg cache suffix, and the internal gates were removed from device trash, EXIF-preserving, and lossless-edit features (#12410, #12480, #12483).
The referral screen was refreshed, and Memories strip widgets were renamed (#12421, #12477).
Server: Database transactions now roll back reliably on all exits, SRP updates are atomic, and token-hash compatibility data has been added and backfilled (#12478, #12471, #12463, #12467).
Other maintenance included migrating remaining databases to sqlite_async, removing the mobile Log Viewer, improving offline retry behavior, and assorted Rust/Auth updates (#12441, #12466, #12484).

In progress

Serialize post-ML Magic Cache and Smart Memories refreshes so expensive background work does not overlap (#12482).
Expand the Memories strip to support different card types (#12481).
Search countries by native names and include shared or received albums in the Ente filter (#12476, #12475).
Server work is underway to maintain file counts during creation and finalize the token-hash database migration (#12474, #12469).

Ente digest Aug 27, 2026 - 22 shipped, 1 in progress

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:24:49 +0000

Today’s shipped work focuses on smoother Photos playback and browsing, a faster Locker scanner, and several reliability and security hardening fixes. One substantial database migration is also in progress for mobile.

Shipped

Ente Photos — The skipped-files screen is simpler, showing fewer controls when they are unnecessary (#12401).
Ente Photos — Album slideshows now support saved settings for slide duration, photo order, and background style (#12439). Video viewers also support double-tap seeking five seconds backward or forward, with improved seek feedback and synchronization (#12404).
Ente Photos — Uploader filters now use album context to identify collaborators more accurately (#12435). Memory Lane can also create timelines from single-photo clusters (#12367).
Ente Locker — Document auto-capture is faster, with the stability hold reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds, and a dedicated scanner button is now available on the home screen (#12442).
Ensu — Web attachment uploads now show progress, and chat and search typing are more responsive on web and desktop (#12453, #12423).
Auth and exports — OTP imports without issuer fields now work correctly (#12456), and CLI album exports sanitize folder names (#12446).
Reliability and security — Server validation now prevents invalid recovery-password updates from causing partial account changes (#12458), while file-link KDF parameters and custom-domain ownership handling are hardened (#12445, #12397). Android logging is also safer against engine kills that could previously leave the app on a blank screen (#12424).

In progress

Mobile database migration — Remaining Photos, Log Viewer, and Contacts databases are being migrated from sqflite to sqlite_async, while preserving existing on-device compatibility and making failed initialization retryable (#12441).

Ente digest Aug 26, 2026 - 13 shipped, 11 in progress

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:51:43 +0000

Ente Photos shipped several mobile improvements today, especially smoother viewing, background processing, and gallery filtering. Work in progress focuses on startup reliability, smarter backups, and additional viewer and referral-screen enhancements.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Background ML processing is enabled again in #12425, allowing ML tasks to continue while the app is not in use.
Photos mobile: Adjacent photo thumbnails are now prefetched in #12408, making previews appear sooner while swiping. The photo viewer was also rebuilt without the third-party dependency and now zooms toward the double-tapped point in #12368.
Photos mobile: Galleries now offer a You uploader filter when relevant in #12407, and selected album filters remain visible in #12387.
Photos mobile: Memory-lane generation is scheduled for cluster pages, with a new memory-lane option, in #12399.
Photos mobile: Several stability and memory fixes landed: isolate response ports are closed reliably in #12417, and resolved image handles are disposed after OCR dimension detection in #12416.
Web and Rust error handling was standardized in #12420 and #12411. Other merged work included source-file naming cleanup in #12419 and #12414, plus updated Live Photo documentation in #12403.

In progress

Photos mobile: Foreground ML will take priority over background ML to prevent startup delays in #12426. A database-recovery fix targets Android blank screens after an engine kill in #12424.
Existing uploads can be linked to backup albums without re-uploading them in #12418. Smart albums will also correctly auto-add photos after face recognition in #12413.
Upcoming user-facing changes include long-press 2× video playback in #12409, a refreshed referral screen in #12421, improved single-file viewer controls on web in #12422, and a fix for extensionless gallery downloads in #12410.
Additional reliability and performance work covers app-specific temporary-file caching in #12415, smoother Ensu chat/search typing in #12423, and less noisy mobile lint output in #12412.

Ente digest Aug 25, 2026 - 17 shipped, 11 in progress

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:50:45 +0000

Ente Photos shipped several viewing, sharing, and album improvements across mobile, alongside new social features in Ente Space. In progress work continues to refine video playback, gallery performance, album filtering, and memory generation.

Shipped

Photos mobile: Album filters now remain visible while browsing, making filtered views easier to manage (#12387).
Photos mobile: The photo viewer now uses an Ente-owned implementation and zooms toward the point users double-tap, while retaining pinch, pan, transitions, and gesture behavior (#12368).
Photos mobile: Video viewers support playback speeds from 0.25× to 2×, with the selected speed preserved while the viewer remains open (#12313).
Photos mobile: iOS cold-start sharing and Apple Photos save-permission handling were fixed; shared media also retains the correct file extension and MIME type (#12365, #12302, #12187).
Photos: Background ML processing is disabled to reduce background work, while foreground ML remains available (#12393).
Space: Users can add friends by username and send a wave; public profile links were removed (#12385). Message wave animations were also removed (#12391).
Locker: The document scanner is now gated behind an internal feature flag (#12384).
Web and desktop Live Photo viewing instructions were updated (#12403), and the CLI now prevents unsupported Locker exports (#12396).

In progress

Photos mobile: Upcoming video controls include long-press 2× playback (#12409) and double-tap five-second seeking (#12404).
Photos mobile: Adjacent viewer thumbnails will be prefetched for smoother swiping (#12408), and album searches will gain a “You” uploader filter (#12407).
A mosaic gallery layout is in progress, currently gated to internal users and debug builds (#12390), alongside scheduled Memory Lane generation for cluster pages (#12399).
Other cleanup includes a simpler skipped-files screen (#12401), canonical custom-domain ownership handling (#12397), named ML errors in Rust (#12411), and more focused mobile lint output (#12412).

Ente digest Aug 24, 2026 - 6 shipped, 4 in progress

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 07:00:16 +0000

Today’s shipped work focused on a smoother Locker document-scanning experience and broader Ente Auth service coverage. In progress, Ente Space is gaining lightweight social interactions, while the scanner rollout is being prepared behind an internal flag.

Shipped

Locker: Document scanning is more polished, with auto-capture enabled by default, animated page handling, improved review controls, haptic feedback, and a loupe for precise crop adjustments.
Ente Auth: Added support for Accountable and e621 icons, improved UPS visibility in dark mode, cleaned up duplicate icon data, and fixed the support page’s feature-suggestion link in this icon update, this icon cleanup, the e621 addition, and the link fix.
Internal ML test fixtures were pinned to the shared immutable fixture set in #12382.

In progress

Ente Space: New social interactions would let users add friends by username and “wave” to nudge them to post, while removing public profile sharing.
Locker: The document scanner is being gated behind an internal feature flag, with its segmentation model served from Ente’s model infrastructure.
Rust: Legacy extraction and binding-error refinements are underway.
Photos: Old review comments are being removed.

Ente digest Aug 23, 2026 - 0 shipped, 3 in progress

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:41:48 +0000

Today’s activity is focused on Ente Auth, with two new service icons and a small improvement to the in-app feature suggestion link. No pull requests were merged in this period.

Shipped

No pull requests were merged.

In progress

Ente Auth: Add an Accountable icon, adding a custom service icon for accounts that are not covered by Simple Icons.
Ente Auth: Add an e621 icon, extending service icon support for e621, which now supports 2FA.
Ente Auth: Fix the “Suggest features” link so it opens the intended Auth feature discussions instead of an incorrectly filtered GitHub page.