⚡ Faster With Huge Libraries
Tested with 2 million archived files, 50,000 Watchlist artists, 500,000 queued files, 10,000 Link Vault creators and more. Times are how long the window used to freeze → now.
- Archive tab: Opening 4.8 s → under 0.1 s, search 2.7 s → 0.04 s, file-type filter 4.2 s → 0.1 s, statistics 3.3 s → 0.2 s. Opening a creator: up to 10 s → instant.
- Download queue: Loading 500,000 files 3.5 s → 0.2 s. Thousands of files changing at once 9 s → 0.2 s.
- Retry Failed: Opening with 5,000 failed files over 2 minutes → under 0.1 s. Retrying 20,000 files 4 s → 0.1 s.
- Watchlist: Scrolling, searching and filtering 50,000 artists under 0.1 s. Check All on Pawchive and cum.st: hours → minutes (45 artists checked in 3 s).
- Link Vault: Opening 10,000 creators took minutes → instant.
- Known Series: Adding or removing a character with 10,000 in the list 0.85 s → under 0.1 s.
- Decompressor: Showing, scrolling and selecting 5,000 archives 2–5 s → under 0.1 s. Extracting is up to twice as fast (the password check 1.7 s → 0.1 s per archive).
- Saving download progress: Rewriting up to 700 MB every 30 s → only what changed.
- Log files: About 95% smaller (294 KB → 13 KB).
✨ New
- Compress pictures and videos (opt-in): In the Decompressor after extracting, or from the Gallery's right-click menu. Pick a format and quality for pictures, videos and animated pictures, and choose at the end whether to keep the originals.
- Change an artist's download folder: The 📂 button in the Watchlist now really changes it and can move the files already downloaded, with progress and Stop.
- Site in Folder Name (on by default): Turn it off to name folders "Artist" instead of "Artist [platform]".
- Windows and Linux share your data: Folders saved on one system work on the other ("D:\Art" ↔ "/mnt/d/Art").
- Browser sign-in for embedded videos (off by default): Lets videos that need you to be logged in, like RedGifs, download. Firefox works best.
- Tidier Decompressor: The page scrolls, its options fold away, and its settings are remembered.
🛠️ Fixes
- No more endless "Unfinished Download" prompt: It only appears when files really never got their turn.
- Gallery copy, compress and extract work again: Every file failed with "name 'time' is not defined".
- Watchlist stops repeating itself: Posts with missing or removed files no longer show up as new after every download, and updates found are kept after a restart.
- Watchlist folders stick: A folder you chose is no longer moved back or shown twice, and auto-check is respected at start-up.
- Retry picks the right files: Only the files you selected are retried, the count is always right, and small or WebP pictures aren't downloaded again.
- Archive repairs itself: A damaged archive is fixed automatically, removing a creator works again, and a failed export says why.
- Split archives with 10+ parts: Parts 10–19 are no longer extracted as separate archives.
- Nothing lost after a 7-Zip warning: Files already extracted are kept instead of deleted.
- Clearer video errors: Gfycat links count as gone, and RedGifs "410" errors are explained.
- Long translations fit: Buttons and options no longer cut off text in Russian and other languages.
📦 Good to Know
- Your data moves over automatically: The archive, Watchlist, history and Link Vault move to faster storage on first start; the old files are kept as backups (
.migrated). - One-time preparation: A big archive is prepared in the background on first start (about 2 minutes for 2 million files), and the Archive tab is slower until it's done.
I hope you enjoy using Pawchive Downloader! If you run into any issues, notice unexpected behavior, or have ideas for improvements, please don't hesitate to open a bug report. Your feedback helps me make the app better with every update.
I work on Pawchive simply because I enjoy it, and it will always be free. If you'd ever like to support it, I have a Ko-fi page, but please only do so if you can comfortably afford it. It's never expected, and using the app and sharing your feedback already means a lot to me. 💙