VortX 0.5.4: A Smoother App, a Faster Start and Better Episode Lists

Build 273. VortX 0.5.4 fixes accounts that still would not open after updating from 0.4, removes the background work that made 0.5.3 freeze every minute or so, most of all on Apple TV, opens your account faster, and brings back dimmed watched episodes. On iPhone, iPad and Mac a series opens on its next episode, and on Mac and iPad the season posters stay pinned while you scroll. All packages are built by the public release workflow. This is the Latest release, so the download links on vortx.tv serve it. The automatic-update feeds are unchanged.

Fixed

• Accounts that still would not open after updating from 0.4 (#262). Before it converts your account, VortX checks the saved copy for anything that looks like hidden data, so a password can never slip through. On accounts where a profile is connected to a Stremio account, it could mistake the normal fingerprints of that profile's Stremio data for hidden data and stop the whole account, so profiles, add-ons and the Stremio connection all failed together. Those fingerprints are recognised now, and every other field is still checked. If an account still fails, the diagnostics log now names the part of the account that was refused, without its contents.
• Freezing and lag across the app, most of all on Apple TV. VortX checks whether the data carried over from 0.4 has changed before converting it again, but that check also counted the 0.5 data that every sync rewrites, so it always looked changed. Every sync converted everything again, which took up to half a minute on Apple TV and froze menus, Settings and the remote every minute or so. The check now looks only at the 0.4 data, so the conversion runs once after this update and then stays skipped.
• A slow start. An account this device already holds now opens straight from what is saved on the device. Any conversion still due runs in the background and is applied when it finishes. A first sign-in still converts before it opens.
• Every screen redrawing on each sync. Each sync re-applied the same profiles, rewrote every profile setting and redrew every screen, even under the player. Nothing is re-applied when nothing changed. On Apple TV, Settings also stopped slowing the app down while it sits open in the background.
• Continue Watching blanking out for a moment while the app synced.
• Artwork on phones. Title and episode pages showed only the left side of the picture. It is centred now.
• Usenet. Gzipped NZBs and NZBs saved in older text encodings play, indexers that link to their NZBs over http work, results without a download link fall back to the item's link, and when an indexer refuses an NZB the error says so instead of reporting a damaged file. Anime episodes that indexers number by absolute episode are found.
• Settings > Engine on iPhone, iPad and Mac names the VortX core build instead of an outdated schema number.

New

• Dimmed watched episodes are back on every Apple platform, and on iPhone, iPad and Mac opening a series scrolls to its next episode.
• Pinned season posters on Mac and iPad. The season posters stay at the top while the episodes scroll beneath them.

Android

Android gets the usenet fixes that live in the shared engine: gzipped and older-encoding NZBs play, and indexer refusals are named.

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

Please test

• On Apple TV, move around Home, Settings and the other tabs for a few minutes after the first launch: menus and the remote should stay responsive, with no freezes every minute.
• Close and reopen the app: your profile should open within a few seconds.
• Open a series you are partway through: watched episodes should look dimmed, and on iPhone, iPad and Mac the list should start at your next episode.
• On Mac or iPad, scroll a series' episodes: the season posters should stay at the top.
• If your account would not load on 0.5.1 to 0.5.3, sign in on 0.5.4. If it still fails, export the diagnostics log right after the attempt and attach it to issue #262.
• If you use usenet, try an indexer that failed before and note whether its results now show and play.

Install

Mac (.dmg). Download VortX-macOS-v0.5.4-ci.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. 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-v0.5.4-ci.ipa for iPhone and iPad. On Apple TV, VortX-tvOS-v0.5.4-ci.ipa is VortX TV with Top Shelf, and VortX-tvOS-lite-v0.5.4-ci.ipa is VortX TV Lite without it; both need tvOS 18 or later. Step-by-step guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Android phone, tablet and TV. VortX-0.5.4-full-mpv-universal.apk includes VortX Player. VortX-0.5.4-play-media3-universal.apk is the Media3 variant. Each APK contains both the phone and the Android TV interface. Choose the variant you already use so it installs over your current version. The Play bundle is also attached for its distribution workflow.

The Apple packages were built by the release workflow from the v0.5.4-rc.2 tag, the same commit as v0.5.4; SHA256SUMS-ci.txt lists a SHA-256 checksum for each so you can confirm your download is intact. The Android packages were built and signed by the release workflow from the v0.5.4-rc.1 tag, whose Android code is identical to v0.5.4 (rc.2 changed only the Apple apps, documents and tests); check them with SHA256SUMS-android.txt and SIGNING_PROVENANCE.txt.