Changelog

v1 had a lot of issues, especially on macOS 27. This release fixes most of them and reworks storage, search and the encrypted vault.

Major fixes

• Fixed the app freezing on launch (#16, #12).
• Fixed the encrypted vault locking people out (#15). If this happened to you, the vault turns itself off on first unlock and your data should still be there.
• Fixed HEVC recordings older than 7 days being deleted regardless of your retention setting.
• Fixed retention only running when the timeline window was open.

Encrypted vault

The vault has been reworked and fully works on public builds now.

• You set a recovery passphrase when turning it on. Keep it somewhere safe, as it's the only way to get your data back if the keychain is reset.
• Unlock with Touch ID or your Mac password.
• Recording keeps going (and stays encrypted) while the vault is locked.
• Turning the vault off decrypts your data.

Timeline

• You can scroll back through your whole history now. Before, only the last ~1000 captures (a few hours) were loaded.
• New captures show up without resetting your scroll position.
• The latest capture shows at full resolution instead of a blurry preview.
• Fixed the previous screenshot sometimes showing when a frame failed to load.

Storage

HEVC is now the default format, and existing installs on HEIC are switched to it automatically. HEVC encoding was also tuned, so recordings are around 4x smaller than before.

Measured on text-heavy frames:

Format	KB per frame	Quality (PSNR)
HEIC (old default)	155	43.5 dB
HEVC, old settings	84	34.9 dB
HEVC, new settings	20	35.5 dB

• Text and OCR data now take up a lot less space. Existing data is upgraded in the background.
• Silent audio is no longer saved or transcribed (when audio mode is enabled).

Search

• Much faster AI search (170k captures in ~10 ms).
• Faster text search.
• Search and the timeline don't wait on recording anymore.
• AI search keeps working while embeddings are being rebuilt.
• Search matches are now highlighted in Direct (Accessibility) mode.

MCP

• MCP searches now go through the running app, which opens in the background if needed. The helper doesn't touch your database or vault keys anymore, and it's much smaller.
• No more storage migration needed to turn on MCP.
• Images are off by default now. When on, they're smaller JPEGs for the first 10 results.

New

• New "On app switch" capture setting: take a snapshot shortly after switching apps, either on top of your normal interval or as the only time it captures.

Other

• Less CPU and battery use: made some processing async, and optimized background processes.
• Settings UI fixes.

Performance

• Reduced repeated database writes during capture and OCR processing.
• Improved timeline scrolling by reusing layout calculations and skipping offscreen drawing.
• Reduced HEVC preview generation work and reused video assets and decrypted segments when browsing recordings.
• Coalesced live timeline updates and paused capture-triggered refreshes while the timeline is hidden.
• Reduced repeated embedding provider setup and bounded thumbnail cache memory.
• Bounded OCR processing to prevent capture buffers from accumulating under heavy load.

Fixes

• Fixed thumbnail caching at different preview sizes.
• Prevented stale media results from being shown after the vault locks.
• Made vault migrations recoverable and preserved source recordings when database updates or video sealing fail.
• Fixed encrypted still-image handling in MCP search results.

UI Fixes

What's Changed

• first v1 release
• visual refresh and many UI fixes
  • fixed many instances of app freezes
• fixes for app builds and packaging
• efficiency and storage optimisations
• new AI search mode powered by Apple's image embedding models
• faster search algorithms and improved result quality

Fixed

• Fixed "Show dock icon when no window" option
• Fixed repeated permission popup on startup

Changed

• Add warning that encrypted vault and MCP are not working on public builds

Fixed

• Fixed thumbnail preview flicking

Hopefully fixed app not launching

Fixed

• Fixed the app freezing when searching
• Fixed some image thumbnails not loading in search
• Fixed some navigation issues

Improved

• Improved contrast of navigation controls

Changed

• Made Direct processing mode the default for new users

No functional change, fixed release script.

Small fix in the release script, no functional change.

New

• Accessibility-based text capture mode. TimeScroll can now read on-screen text directly via macOS Accessibility, significantly reducing energy usage compared to OCR. Enable it under Preferences → General → Text processing.
• New onboarding experience. A fresh, redesigned onboarding flow to guide you through the setup process.

Improved

• Storage efficiency. Added text deduplication to optimize database size.

Fixed

• Fixed menu bar behavior.
• Fixed accuracy of usage statistics.
• General stability improvements.

Fixed

• Fixed app builds
• Fixed performance for EmbeddingGemma and other embedding models

Fix app builds.

This update adds MCP support and QoL improvements.

New

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) support. You can now connect TimeScroll to any MCP client, enabling even more powerful retrieval from your timeline. For example, you can connect to Claude and ask, "Which person's Wikipedia article was I reading earlier?"

Improved

• AI search mode now supports any Ollama text embedding model.
• Added an onboarding window for granting permissions.

Fixed

• Fixed broken pagination in search.

Improved

• Improved window capturing methods
• Blacklisted apps are now handled more intuitively

New

• HEVC video format (experimental) with more advanced video compression. Up to 40-60% reduction in storage size. Try it out in Settings -> Storage!
• Support for better embedding models for improved AI search accuracy (more coming soon). Requires Ollama to be installed and running.
• Added tile view mode in search.

Improved

• More tamperproof encryption with some fixes/improvements.
• Improved timeline viewing experience

New

• Storage location is now customizable. Change it easily in Settings -> Storage.
• Added backup location setting. Instead of deleting snapshots after some time, you can now choose to move them elsewhere (e.g. an external storage).

Improved

• Improved default configuration values for new users

Fixed

• Incorrect usage tracking.

New

• AI search mode uses local NLP to enable smart semantic search. It can find what you're looking for, even if you don't remember the exact words. Try it out in Settings -> Search. (Only works for snapshots taken after AI is enabled.)
• Intelligent accuracy improvement for (non-AI) search attempts to reduce OCR-related errors for more reliable results.

Fixed

• Various search fixes.

Fixed

• Important fix for encrypted vault feature: a bug caused the DB to remain unencrypted. Please disable and re-enable encryption to ensure your database is correctly secured.

New

• More comprehensive stats in Settings -> Stats.

New

• Encryption feature (Beta)! Your timeline snapshots can now be stored in a secure vault. When locked, your snapshots will be encrypted at rest, offering extra protection. Use your device password or Touch ID to unlock. Try it out in Settings -> Security.

Fixed

• Timeline zoom UX
• Added confirmation for dangerous actions

New

• Support for multiple monitors/displays. Enable "All displays" in Settings -> General -> Capture.

Fixed

• Timeline zoom UX

New

• New look and improved search experience: search results now appear in a clean, list-view format for easier browsing and preview.

Fixed

• Fixed search instabilities.
• Various UI fixes.

New

• Fixed behavior when waking up from sleep
• Added delete button for snapshots
• Added Blacklist apps feature
• Improved focus when clicking on image view

Open source

The app is now fully open source. This was one of the top feedback given. Please keep the feedback coming!

The first public release of the app!

Website: https://timescroll.muzhen.org/