VortX 0.5.0 Beta 6: Sync Fix and Smoother Playback

Build 267. This beta fixes profiles that would not finish loading and Sync Now failing, stops playback from uploading your whole account every few seconds, and makes resuming after a long pause much quicker. These Apple packages are built locally from the tagged source. This is now the Latest release, so the download links on vortx.tv serve it. The automatic-update feeds are unchanged.

Fixed

• "Couldn't finish loading your profiles" and Sync Now failing. Older-format account data written by earlier VortX versions could be refused during sync, and that single refusal blocked profile loading and every upload, leaving changes stuck as pending. That data is now set aside safely instead: it stays untouched in your account and is retried on every sync, while your profiles, watch progress and settings load and sync normally.
• Profiles reopening on a device that already has your account. Reopening the same account is no longer treated as a fresh import of data that was already accepted.
• Repeated Keychain prompts on Mac. VortX keeps its installation key in a protected local file instead of asking again for access to tv.vortx.native-installation. Existing saved sign-ins are not deleted or changed.
• Resuming after a long pause. After a pause of about a minute or more, pressing Play now restarts the stream straight away instead of waiting first, and playback keeps your exact position.
• Player controls needing several taps on iPhone and iPad. Tap and pinch no longer compete for the same touch, and the buffering overlay no longer blocks taps.
• Apple TV catalogs, details and trailers failing to load. One add-on returning a malformed response no longer stops healthy catalogs, details and streams from showing, and trailers prefer a playable direct link. Thanks to xdavcop for the detailed report (#261).
• Discover showing "D / is" on iPhone. The Discover button is now a fixed-size icon, so it can no longer wrap.

Changed

• Watch progress syncs without slowing playback. Progress used to upload your whole account every few seconds while you watched. It now uploads 15 seconds after you pause or stop, or at most once a minute while you keep watching. Any other change still syncs within a few seconds.
• No more background sync loop. While sync could not finish, the app reloaded and reprocessed your whole account every few seconds. That loop is gone, which frees up the device during browsing and playback.
• Lighter Home and player work. Identical recommendation requests no longer cancel and restart each other, the account is not converted repeatedly, and source and quality checks stop as soon as they have their answer.
• Player controls follow your profile colour. Controls use a deep shade of your profile colour while white icons stay readable over bright scenes. Quality, Player, Audio and Sources buttons follow your profile colour too, and the bottom menu no longer sits on a black bar.
• Clearer sync diagnostics. If older-format data is set aside, the diagnostics log now records why, so it can be resolved properly.

These changes have passed source and automated checks. They have not yet been confirmed on every installed device, so please report anything that still misbehaves.

Update your other devices too. Once an updated app saves to your account, older VortX versions can no longer upload to it. They keep their local data and playback, but need updating to resume cloud uploads.

Android. This release is Apple only. VortX is Apple first, and the Android APK is an early technical preview rather than the finished app, so expect missing features and rough edges there.

Please test

• Open VortX on each device and pick your profile: profiles should load, and Sync Now should succeed.
• Change something on one device and check it appears on your others.
• On Apple TV, pause for more than a minute, then press Play: playback should resume within a couple of seconds.
• On iPhone, a single tap on the video should show the player controls.

Install

Mac (.dmg). Download VortX-macOS-v0.5.0-beta.6.dmg, drag VortX into Applications, then clear Apple's one-time quarantine: open it once, click Done, then System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/VortX.app). The Mac app is for Apple silicon, needs macOS 14 or later, and is ad-hoc signed rather than notarized. macOS may ask for your password so VortX can use its saved sign-in information in Keychain after replacing the app; approve only a prompt that names VortX, and do not delete Keychain entries or sign out to get past a sync error. Step-by-step guide: Install on Mac.

iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (sideload the IPA). The IPAs are unsigned, because VortX is open-source and distributed outside the App Store with no Apple Developer ID yet, so you re-sign them yourself with Sideloadly, AltStore / SideStore, or Signulous. No jailbreak. Use VortX-iOS-v0.5.0-beta.6.ipa for iPhone and iPad. On Apple TV, VortX-tvOS-v0.5.0-beta.6.ipa is VortX TV with Top Shelf, and VortX-tvOS-lite-v0.5.0-beta.6.ipa is VortX TV Lite without it; both need tvOS 18 or later. Step-by-step guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

These packages were built locally from the tagged source rather than by the GitHub Actions workflow. SHA256SUMS-v0.5.0-beta.6.txt lists a SHA-256 checksum for each file so you can confirm your download is intact.

vortx-platforms: apple