What's New in DriveVault

We build in the open. Every feature, fix, and improvement - tracked here so you always know what's changed.

Transparent development
New Feature v1.2.4 August 2026
Context Scan PDF Search Beta Feature

Context Scan (BETA)

  • Introducing Context Scan, a new scanning mode that extracts and indexes the full text content from PDF documents, enabling powerful offline keyword search across your entire document archive.
  • Perfect for academics searching research papers by content, legal professionals finding specific clauses across documents, writers locating quotes and sources, or business users searching contracts and reports by keywords.
  • To use Context Scan, click the Scan Drive button and select Context Scan (BETA). Choose your drive containing PDF documents, and DriveVault will extract text content for offline searching.
  • Search your documents by keywords or phrases even when drives are disconnected. Context Scan currently focuses exclusively on PDF documents.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where DriveVault could go to sleep during background metadata extraction if the app window was inactive. DriveVault now stays awake until scanning is fully complete.
  • Improved drive comparison accuracy by updating the logic to eliminate phantom results and false positives. Drives are now compared more intelligently and consistently.

Note: To add context search to an existing drive, perform a new Context Scan and DriveVault will create a separate context-searchable catalog.

Improvements v1.2.3 June 2026
Performance Scanning Cloud Sync Bug Fixes

This update focuses on smoother scans, better feedback, and a lighter footprint when DriveVault is in the background.

Scan Experience

  • Satisfying scan completion - A new "Scan Complete!" celebration appears the moment your drive is fully indexed and ready to explore, complete with a soft chime.
  • Live cataloging progress - The first phase of a scan (indexing) now shows a live item counter and the folders being walked, so you always know DriveVault is hard at work and hasn't frozen.
  • Scan cloud-sync folders - Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, Documents, Desktop, and other folders inside your home directory can now be scanned. Note: scanning of system files remains blocked, per user requests.

Performance

  • Sleep mode - When you're not actively using DriveVault, it quiets down on CPU usage and frees up memory. Switch back and it picks up exactly where it left off.

Reliability

  • Safer Forget Drive - A confirmation alert now appears before forgetting a drive, and the cleanup is more thorough so future re-scans start completely fresh.
  • Working Help menu - The macOS Help menu now correctly opens the in-app Help Center.

Polish & Bug Fixes

  • "+ New Project" button now glows on hover.
  • Four new project colors added: Mint, Lime, Brown, and Slate.
  • Fixed: drives now correctly show their assigned project while filtering (previously showed "Unassigned").
  • Fixed: launch crash on some Intel Macs caused by the menu bar icon initializing too early.

Thank you for the continued feedback - it directly shapes every release. Keep it coming! 💙

Improvements v1.2.1 April 2026
Scanning Previews Performance

Smarter Scanning

  • Gaming archive and bundle recognition - DriveVault now skips deep scanning of game files, dramatically reducing scan times for drives with large game libraries. DriveVault now recognises over 180 different bundle/archive types across dozens of use-cases to reduce scan times and provide users with the most relevant information possible.
  • Internal SSD scanning blocked - Prevents freezes caused by scanning millions of system files.
  • NAS and RAID detection - These drive types are now automatically detected with a warning that DriveVault is not yet optimised for them. Related help documentation has been added.

Refreshed Previews

  • Revamped Quick Look - Spacebar preview now has a cleaner layout and richer metadata display.
  • Redesigned sidebar preview - File information is now presented more clearly.

Visual Polish

  • Glowing progress bars - New glow effects on progress bars for a more refined look during scans.

We're continuously improving DriveVault - thank you to our awesome community for providing feedback that helps us make DriveVault as powerful and easy to use as possible. 💙

New Features v1.2.0 April 2026
New Dashboard Drive Cards Search UI

Beautiful New Home View

  • All-new dashboard view - DriveVault now opens to a visual home screen where you can see all your drives at a glance. Each drive gets its own card showing capacity, file counts, and status.
  • Visual drive cards - Assign custom icons to each drive for instant recognition. See online/offline status, storage details, and quick actions without opening a drive.
  • Project organization - Group drives into color-coded projects directly from the dashboard. Drag and drop drives between projects, collapse/expand groups, and sort your library however works best for you.
  • Search and sort - Filter your drive library instantly. Sort by name, date added, size, or project.

Note: You may need to recreate projects if you had projects in a previous version of DriveVault.

Enhanced Search

  • Improved search with helpful tips and safeguards against overly broad queries that could freeze the app.
  • Search is now faster and more reliable.

Modern Interface Updates

  • New, smoother and more informative initializing sequence when opening the app.
  • New column/icon view toggle buttons in the bottom toolbar.
  • Updated "Add Drives" button with distinctive glowing green styling to differentiate the action from "Scan Drives".
  • Quick access to App Store reviews and feedback with the new 'Star' icon.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

  • EXIF and metadata now properly saved and searchable across all files. Please rescan drives to assign metadata if you have old scans missing it.
  • Advanced search now correctly returns results with custom tags, notes and ratings.
  • Tags and notes persistence between sessions fully resolved.
  • Improved drive re-scan functionality for drives with new content.
  • Fixed layout issue where smaller app window sizes could force the metadata progress bar to overlap with other UI elements.
  • Fixed layout issue during scanning where users occasionally saw two different dialogue windows on top of each other.

Note: If re-scan does not perform as expected, try deleting the previews folder (accessed via the "i" icon next to a drive), forgetting the drive and performing a fresh scan. We are still testing some aspects of re-scan functionality.

Thank you for using DriveVault! If you're enjoying the app, we'd love to hear from you - tap the new Review button to share your feedback. 💙

Bug Fixes v1.1.1 April 2026
App Store Fix UI Improvements

Highlights

  • Fixed 5-Drive Bolt-On purchase - The 5-Drive add-on was not properly connected to the App Store in v1.1. This is now fixed and purchases work as expected.
  • Redesigned "Add Drives" page - Users reported the horizontal scroll to reveal the "Unlimited" tier was easy to miss. The page now uses a new stacked layout that displays all tier options at once without scrolling.

Technical Notes

  • Restored App Store product connection for 5-Drive Bolt-On SKU.
  • New vertical tier layout improves visibility on all screen sizes.
  • Various minor stability improvements.
New Features v1.1 March 2026
Search Previews CSV Export Bundle Detection 5-Drive Bolt-On

Visual & Interface Improvements

  • New vibrant logo colorway for better menubar visibility.
  • Redesigned "Add Drives" button with auto-hide behavior for a cleaner workspace.
  • Revamped pricing page with clear tier explanations and bolt-on value comparisons.

Search & Preview Enhancements

  • Image previews in search results - instantly identify files visually without browsing folders. Find what you need at a glance.

Export & Data Management

  • CSV export - Export complete drive file lists to spreadsheet format for external analysis. Find this in the "Reports" window.

Scanning Improvements

  • Enhanced bundle detection - Now recognizes 120+ bundle types (up from 80).
  • (Beta) Custom bundle filtering - Use the new gear icon in "Scan Drive" to control which bundles DriveVault includes or skips during scans. Note: Including bundle contents may significantly increase scan times and memory usage.

Smart Collections

  • Improved scan progress UI with real-time status updates.
  • Persistent file counts across sessions - category totals now saved between app launches.

New Purchase Option

  • 5-Drive Bolt-On - Add 5 drives to your capacity at ~30% savings vs individual drive purchases.

Bug Fixes & Performance

  • Fixed: Duplicate filenames showing identical thumbnails - now using content hashing for accurate previews.
  • Optimized file handling for smoother performance with large drive catalogs (many thousands of files).
  • Updated help documentation.
💙 Public Launch v1.0 March 2026
General Availability App Store Stable Release

Highlights

  • DriveVault is officially out of beta and available for everyone on the Mac App Store. After months of rigorous testing with our incredible beta community, we're ready for the world.
  • All core features have been battle-tested and refined based on real-world usage from photographers, videographers, archivists, and creative professionals.
  • Stable, reliable scanning across drives of all sizes - from 1GB USB sticks to multi-terabyte long term storage units. Although we generally recommend using Quick Scan for drives over 4TB or 100,000 files, we've successfully scanned and used DriveVault using Full Scan with multiple 40tb drives in the Drive Library. Quick Scan has also been widely documented scanning 40tb+ hard drives in under 3 seconds.
  • A polished, native macOS experience that feels right at home on your Mac - complete with Light, Dark, and Glass themes.

A Note From Our Team

We're a small, independent team and we're incredibly proud to reach this milestone. DriveVault has been through extensive beta testing over several months, but the nature of external hard drives means there are endless combinations of hardware, file systems, and workflows out there.

If you encounter an edge case or something unexpected: please be patient with us, and submit a bug report. Your feedback directly shapes DriveVault's future. Together, we'll make this the most powerful drive cataloguing tool on the Mac.

Thank you for believing in what we're building. 💙

New Features v0.9.8 January 2026
Quick Search Projects Scanning Pricing

Highlights

  • Added macOS top menu Quick Search. Click the eye icon to open a powerful search bar separate from the main app window. Find any file instantly with advanced filters and sorting, without opening DriveVault.
  • Introduced Project sorting. Hover over any project to reveal up and down arrows, allowing you to reorder projects in any way that suits your workflow.
  • Launched a new, simpler non-subscription pricing model based on user feedback. Pay only for the number of drives you need, with flexibility to grow.
  • Implemented new and improved scanning logic using intelligent drive partitioning to support larger drives and prevent stalled scans.
  • Major overhaul of the Manage Library system, including a powerful new library reset option.

Improvements & Fixes

  • Overall stability improvements and extensive bug fixes across the app.
  • Fixed an issue where the Compare feature could incorrectly report 0% similarity.
  • Introduced new button colours and subtle glows for improved visual clarity.
  • Improved re-scanning behaviour - previously scanned drives now update incrementally.
Improvements v0.9.5 October 2025
Large Drive Scanning UI Performance

Highlights

  • Fixed large drive scans failing or stalling at 50% with new auto-partitioning logic.
  • Redesigned Drive Scan UI with "Full Scan + Previews" default.
  • Added lazy loading for large libraries to prevent stalling.
  • Fixed column sorting for file size.
  • Added loading screen for Library Stats.
  • Smarter Backup Mode with refreshed duplicate detection.

Technical Notes

  • New background partitioning handles drives above 2TB (200k+ files).
  • Scans take approximately 3-6 mins per TB.
  • Lazy loading ensures smooth navigation across massive catalogs.
  • Removed legacy "High Capacity Mode" - replaced with intelligent auto-partitioning.
Public Beta v0.9.0 September 2025
Offline Library Search UI

Highlights

  • Public Beta launch with offline drive catalogs and global search.
  • Finder-style Column, Icon, and List views with quick previews.
  • Drive Library with custom icons, names, and online/offline status.

Technical Notes

  • EXIF/metadata search and file-type filters.
  • Smart Collections: Recent Photos, Large Files, and Unlabeled.
  • Analytics dashboard with file-type breakdown and charts.
  • Performance: background scanning for 500k+ files.
  • Security: local-only storage; optional password lock.
Improvements v0.8.2 September 2025
Performance Thumbnails

Highlights

  • 2x faster initial scans on large photo/video drives.
  • Smoother column navigation and better breadcrumb history.

Technical Notes

  • Reduced memory spikes on libraries with many small files.
  • Improved EXIF extraction for HEIC/HEIF variants.
  • Fixed rare freeze when switching between Icon and List views quickly.
Fixes v0.7.0 August 2025
Stability UX

Highlights

  • Crash fixes during very large directory walks.
  • Refined empty states and tooltips across the app.

Technical Notes

  • Improved error handling for disconnected network volumes.
  • Added first pass of drive personalization (custom icon & name).
  • Keyboard nav: /\\\\u8594 to move columns, \\\\u8984 K to jump to search.

Help shape DriveVault's future

Got an idea or found a bug? We're listening.

Request a Feature Report a Bug
}