Updates

Tideline checks the GitHub releases page for a newer version once a day. Nothing downloads or installs on its own — a check only ever offers.

Check Now asks straight away. The check reads one public endpoint and sends nothing about you or your files.

When there is something newer

The Overview pane and the menu bar say so, and Update & Restart does the rest: it downloads the release build, unpacks it, and only installs it once the copy passes three tests.

It is Tideline.
It is the version the release advertised.
It carries the same Developer ID signature and Apple notarisation as the copy you are running.

Anything less and the download is thrown away untouched.

The swap

The last step. The app quits, the new bundle replaces the old one, and Tideline reopens on the new version. If the copy fails halfway the old app is put straight back and reopened, so a bad download never leaves you without the app.

If the app cannot replace itself — it sits somewhere you cannot write to, or macOS is running it from a read-only quarantine copy — it says so and points you at the releases page. That is the main reason to keep it in /Applications.

Being told about it

When a check that ran on its own finds something newer, Tideline also says so in Notification Centre, once per version, so a new release does not wait for you to open the window.

Notify me when a new version is out switches that off. It appears only where notifications were already allowed, since finding an update is never a reason to raise a permission prompt.

Turning it down

Skip This Version silences one release without silencing the next.
Check for updates automatically switches the daily look off entirely.

Installed with Homebrew? The cask is marked as self-updating, so a plain brew upgrade leaves Tideline alone and the two never race. Naming it takes the new version from Homebrew instead: brew upgrade --cask estruyf/tap/tideline. brew upgrade --greedy does the same across every self-updating cask you have.

What changed in each version is in the changelog.