VortX 0.5.6 beta 11 - AetherEngine on every Apple device and Trakt that stays signed in

Build 282 for Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac. The AetherEngine player to try now comes to iPhone, iPad and Mac as well as Apple TV. Trakt stays signed in on every device you use, and Trakt Continue Watching reaches the Apple TV Top Shelf after re-signing.

New

• AetherEngine on iPhone, iPad and Mac, to try. The second player from Apple TV, using the device's own video decoding and display, now runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later and on Mac with macOS 15 or later. Choose it under Settings > Playback > Player engine, or for one title from the player menu on its sources. Auto stays the default, and older systems keep the same app without the choice. If AetherEngine cannot play a source, VortX Player takes over on the same source from the same moment. The in-player engine menu shows when AetherEngine is playing and switches to VortX Player or AVPlayer. Picture-based (PGS) subtitles are not drawn with it yet.

Fixed

• Trakt stays signed in on all your devices (#187). Devices sharing one Trakt sign-in renew it at about the same time. One device could miss the renewed sign-in for a few seconds and sign itself out, so only one device kept syncing. It now waits briefly for the renewed sign-in from your other device and keeps going.
• Trakt Continue Watching on the Top Shelf (#229). After AltStore or SideStore re-signs VortX, the Apple TV Top Shelf shows your Trakt and SIMKL Continue Watching like it shows local rows. Under a signing service whose shared space other apps can read, it still shows only local rows.
• Imported Stremio titles in Library (#267). The Library shows the native engine's combined view, including imported saved titles and eligible watched history, and a connected account has a Refresh Stremio import action.

Android

Android stays on the 0.5.6 beta 7 packages for now. Its release build stopped at an account-sync check, and it ships as soon as that passes.

Please test

• Try AetherEngine on an iPhone, iPad or Mac on a few sources you know well, including Dolby Vision and Atmos titles, and compare it with VortX Player.
• If you use Trakt on more than one device, check that every device keeps syncing over a few days.
• On Apple TV after AltStore or SideStore, check that the Top Shelf follows your Trakt Continue Watching.

This is a prerelease for testing. Update using the same platform and variant to preserve your app identity and saved data. Apple IPAs require compatible sideload signing; the Apple-silicon Mac app is ad-hoc signed and is not notarized. Device playback, focus, audio routes and signing capabilities remain part of testing.

Install

Mac (.dmg). Download VortX-macOS-v0.5.6-beta.11-ci.dmg and drag VortX into Applications. If macOS blocks the app downloaded from this official release, use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway, or run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/VortX.app

The command removes the download quarantine flag; it does not notarize the app or change its signature. 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 and need to be re-signed with a compatible sideloading tool or signing service, such as Sideloadly, AltStore / SideStore, or Signulous. No jailbreak. Use VortX-iOS-v0.5.6-beta.11-ci.ipa for iPhone and iPad. On Apple TV, VortX-tvOS-v0.5.6-beta.11-ci.ipa is VortX TV with Top Shelf, and VortX-tvOS-lite-v0.5.6-beta.11-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. Keep using the 0.5.6 beta 7 APKs.

All four packages are built by the public release workflow from v0.5.6-beta.11. SHA256SUMS.txt lists the package checksums, and VortX-Hosted-Direct-Beta-Provenance.json records the source, build and package verification details.