VideoCull v2.2.1

Changed

• Standardized the current product, executable, installer, shortcut, publisher, repository, and documentation identity as VideoCull by StippieDot.
• Renamed the Windows installer to VideoCull.Setup.2.2.1.exe and the installed executable to VideoCull.exe while preserving the existing application ID and upgrade location.
• Moved the production Electron profile from %APPDATA%\video-cull to %APPDATA%\VideoCull with an atomic directory rename. If Windows cannot rename it, VideoCull keeps using the original profile and tries again on the next launch.
• Added directory-level safety checks and safe handling when both old and new profile folders exist. VideoCull never merges, copies, overwrites, or deletes those profiles automatically.

Video Cull v2.2.0

Added

• Added a persistent light theme with app-wide styling, a visible theme control, a configurable keyboard shortcut, and startup persistence.
• Added an option to keep the playback timeline and controls visible while reviewing videos.
• Added a sessions-and-folders guide and expanded the in-app and website documentation for grid, review, duplicate, cache, settings, and safety workflows.

Changed

• Replaced the Video Cull logo and application icon throughout the app, Windows executable, installer, uninstaller, and generated shortcuts.
• Reorganized Interface settings into clearer sections for grid defaults, Review mode, and report export.
• Changed downloaded updates to require an explicit choice between updating now, installing on exit, or being asked later.
• Updated Electron and related runtime packages.

Fixed

• Review shortcuts continue working after interacting with the embedded video player.
• Playback controls remain accessible during keyboard-driven review sessions.
• Grid scrolling stays anchored when batch status changes remove videos from the current filter.
• Search shortcuts no longer interfere with editable fields, and cached thumbnails appear more reliably.
• MPEG-4 Part 2 videos now open in the external player instead of showing a black frame in the built-in player.

Video Cull v2.1.0

Added

• Added an offline, searchable in-app documentation modal opened from the Help menu, app chrome, or F1.
• Added a Mintlify documentation site covering the main grid, review, duplicate, cache, processing, settings, formats, troubleshooting, FAQ, installation, and development workflows.
• Added dedicated guides for delete safety and cache/processing decisions.
• Added live in-app shortcut tables that reflect the user's configured keybindings while the website continues to show defaults.

Changed

• Made the selected Mintlify MDX pages the shared source for both web and in-app documentation, with an explicit in-app allowlist for user-facing pages.
• Redesigned the documentation modal around compact grouped navigation, collapsible sections, responsive fixed-height sizing, a smaller search field, and direct links to relevant settings.
• Expanded and consolidated the user guides to remove repeated sections and make guidance more task-first.
• Improved duplicate matching so exact matching respects duration and keeper selection prefers bitrate within the same resolution tier.

Fixed

• Natural filename sorting now orders numbered files as people expect, such as file 2 before file 10.
• Review shortcuts continue working after interacting with the video player using the mouse.
• Closing duplicate video playback no longer intermittently resets the list to the top.
• Previously decided videos again show their Keep, Delete, or Skip color when reopened in review mode.

Video Cull v2.0.0

Video Cull 2.0.0 has smarter duplicate review, richer media decisions, safer cache handling, clearer destructive actions, better mounted-drive behavior, and a UI that holds up better on very large libraries and high-resolution screens.

Added

• Duplicate review mode for finding likely duplicates across all loaded videos or the current filtered view, with pHash and visual-similarity matching, adjustable thresholds, sample counts, sampling windows, flipped comparison, and optional run-after-scan.
• Suggested keepers for duplicate groups using resolution, bitrate, duration, FPS, and size, plus manual keeper overrides, protected Keep/Skip videos, ignored match pairs, group dismissal, and right-click duplicate actions.
• Richer review decisions with ratings, favorites, bookmarks, playback speed, global mute, next-undecided navigation, scoped review summaries, pending/delete totals, and undo-aware review flows.
• Media insight throughout the app: codec, container, resolution, FPS, metadata date, compatibility badges, metadata-based sort options, and clearer labels for resolution/FPS.
• Built-in playback fallback behavior for unsupported files, including compatibility checks, external-player handoff, and decode-error overlays when Chromium cannot play the stream.
• Grid search by filename or path, with Ctrl+F as the default shortcut and full keybinding customization.
• Context menus for grid videos, folder headers, duplicate rows, and duplicate groups, including reveal/copy-path, status changes, thumbnail regeneration, keeper selection, exclusion, and dismissal.
• Maintenance controls for stale-cache cleanup, missing-subfolder cache pruning, empty-folder cleanup after delete, and thumbnail-count rebuild warnings.
• Safer cache storage management across centralised, per-drive, and distributed cache modes, including cache-location validation and explicit migrate/start-fresh choices.
• Custom Windows installer artwork and shortcut choices while keeping current-user installation and install-location selection.
• App diagnostics and performance instrumentation for scan, render, duplicate, cache, and idle-state troubleshooting.

Changed

• Upgraded Electron and refreshed the runtime/development dependency stack.
• Reworked the sidebar around large-library culling, with denser status/filter controls, clearer folder/session feedback, duplicate-mode controls, and better skipped/inaccessible folder reporting.
• Reworked the grid for large sessions with faster filtering/sorting, folder grouping, aggregate computation, virtualized rendering, stable search controls, and lower render churn during metadata and thumbnail updates.
• Reworked review mode so thumbnail preview and playback fit normal, maximized, and high-resolution displays while keeping the action controls stable.
• Improved scanner traversal throughput, stat batching, progress reporting, cancellation behavior, stale/superseded scan handling, and behavior on slow mounted drives.
• Improved metadata and thumbnail processing with clearer progress phases, better cancellation, short-video handling, safer reuse of existing thumbnail sets, and smaller renderer update batches.
• Improved duplicate detection performance with worker-based fingerprinting, batched database access, lower memory use, stronger candidate grouping, and more stable group IDs.
• Improved cache loading, saving, migration, recovery, pruning, and corruption quarantine behavior for existing libraries, including lower thumbnail-cache write churn and conservative concurrent folder-cache loading for very large libraries.
• Made potentially destructive or expensive maintenance behavior opt-in instead of surprising: stale-cache cleanup defaults off, empty-folder cleanup defaults off, and thumbnail-count changes warn before causing rebuild work.
• Updated development and CI workflows around Node 24, Vitest, Playwright, IPC contract checks, installer checks, native cache checks, and release packaging.

Fixed

• Existing cache decisions, metadata, thumbnails, bookmarks, ratings, favorites, duplicate fingerprints, recent folders, and settings now survive rescans, relaunches, and upgrades more reliably.
• Destructive delete flows now validate loaded paths more strictly, clean related cache artifacts, report permanent-delete fallbacks clearly, and only clean truly empty folders when the user enables that option.
• Cache migration and cache-mode changes now avoid partial/clobber-prone moves and communicate migrate/start-fresh outcomes more clearly.
• Missing/offline folders and transient stat failures no longer silently prune cache by default.
• Open/reveal/play external operations and custom thumb:// / video:// serving now validate loaded paths more carefully.
• Built-in playback compatibility now better matches real browser support while FFmpeg-supported files can still be scanned for thumbnails and metadata.
• Thumbnail cancellation, short-video thumbnail reuse, failed thumbnail regeneration, and thumbnail-count changes behave more predictably.
• Duplicate reruns, deleted duplicate videos, stale duplicate selections, visual fingerprint settings changes, and hidden duplicate review state now clean up more reliably.
• Sort state, resolution labels, feature toggles, keybinding capture, focused input behavior, shortcut conflicts, and privacy/shortcut precedence are more predictable.
• New-folder and pending-scan UI states are clearer, reducing ambiguity when old videos are still visible while a new scan is starting.

Tooling

• Added npm run check:ipc, npm run check:installer, npm run test:renderer, npm run test:duplicates, npm run test:cache-native, and expanded npm run test:ci.
• Added Playwright Electron regression flows for smoke, delete safety, relaunch persistence, and duplicate reruns.
• Added cache-clutter cleanup tooling, installer validation, release/test GitHub Actions updates, and broader regression coverage for Electron, renderer, cache, scanner, duplicate, processor, and settings flows.

Video Cull v2.0.0-beta.2

This beta focuses on scaling duplicate review, reducing large-library slowdown, tightening media compatibility behavior, and raising the regression-testing baseline before the persistent-library work begins.

Added

• Expanded duplicate-review tooling with richer group handling, better keeper controls, safer rerun flows, and stronger duplicate-session management.
• Context-menu actions and idle/performance diagnostics for faster inspection and debugging during heavy review sessions.
• Broader automated coverage across Electron, renderer integration, duplicate workflows, relaunch persistence, and delete-safety flows.
• Dedicated CI test workflow and Playwright/Vitest infrastructure for repeatable regression checking.

Changed

• Improved app responsiveness across the renderer, sidebar, grid, review mode, scanner traversal, cache startup, and duplicate startup paths for larger libraries.
• Reduced duplicate-detection overhead with more selective fingerprint loading, cleaner worker flow, and lower main-process startup cost before comparisons begin.
• Improved cache and metadata persistence behavior with stronger save paths, better migration coverage, and more predictable reload/relaunch behavior.
• Refined compatibility handling so built-in playback rules better match real browser support, while additional FFmpeg-supported formats are recognized during scanning.
• Updated development and CI plumbing, including Electron/Vite dev-port coordination and refreshed GitHub Actions usage.

Fixed

• Duplicate cleanup and delete flows are safer and more consistent, including reruns, fallback behavior, and follow-up state cleanup after removals.
• Sort state now persists more reliably, and resolution labels are normalized more consistently across the UI.
• Feature-setting toggles and related input behavior now behave more predictably.
• Cache, duplicate, and scan edge cases now fail more safely under heavy or unusual workloads instead of leaving stale state behind.

Tooling

• Migrated and expanded the automated test stack around Vitest, renderer integration tests, and E2E release checks.
• Added more helper utilities, diagnostics hooks, and performance instrumentation to support future release hardening.

Video Cull v2.0.0-beta.1

This beta is a major step toward Video Cull v2.0: richer review decisions, smarter library filtering, clearer media insight, safer cleanup, and more predictable playback for large video collections.

Added

• Smarter review workflow with ratings, favorites, review summaries, delete totals, scoped review context, and next-undecided navigation.
• Richer library browsing with Library status filters, rating/favorite/incompatible filters, file-size and duration ranges, and cleaner active-filter controls.
• Deeper media insight with codec, container, resolution, FPS, compatibility badges, and new metadata-based sort options.
• More predictable playback with Video Cull's own compatibility policy, external-player fallback for unsupported media, decode-error overlays, and global mute.
• Better user feedback with in-app notifications for cache recovery, save delays, update state, and background maintenance.
• Feature toggles for enabling or hiding the new review, metadata, compatibility, and playback helpers.
• Thumbnail regeneration controls for stale, partial, or interrupted thumbnail sets.
• About/settings links for project, release, and support pages.

Changed

• Upgraded Electron to 41 and refreshed application dependencies.
• Reworked the custom video protocol for Electron 41 compatibility and stricter file-serving rules.
• Reworked the sidebar around faster decision-making, with Library status filters promoted to the top and secondary filters kept more compact.
• Improved large-library navigation with updated grid virtualization, better scroll restoration, and folder headers that show filtered size next to total size.
• Made review and grid playback behave more consistently across compatibility, mute, metadata, ratings, favorites, and external-player actions.
• Improved thumbnail generation with clearer progress phases, ordered results, retries around difficult timestamps, and safer reuse of existing thumbnail sets.
• Cache loading and merging were hardened across central, per-drive, and distributed cache layouts.
• Improved export reports for multi-directory sessions.
• Made settings, cache migration, and update flows communicate their state more clearly.

Fixed

• Unsupported audio/video decode failures now show an in-app explanation instead of failing silently.
• Corrupt cache databases are quarantined and rebuilt instead of blocking the app from loading.
• Deleted videos now remove related cache database rows, metadata entries, and thumbnail folders.
• Empty parent folders left after deletion are removed when safe; cloud drives without Recycle Bin support now fall back to permanent removal only for verified-empty folders.
• Partial or interrupted thumbnail folders are regenerated instead of being reused as if complete.
• Stale cache rows are refreshed when rescans find newer metadata.
• Save-cache failures now retry and warn the user when decisions may not yet be persisted.
• Global shortcuts now avoid interfering with focused controls, settings, and shortcut overlays.
• Update status handling now reports errors and ready states more reliably.

Tooling

• Added an IPC contract checker for exposed Electron APIs.
• Added a cache-clutter cleanup script for old thumbnail/cache artifacts from earlier builds.

Video Cull v1.8.2

Changed

• Thumbnail generation now limits actual active FFmpeg processes directly: frames are extracted sequentially within each video while overall parallelism is spread across videos.
• Auto concurrency now accounts for the current thread-limit setting and allows higher single-thread process counts on capable systems while still capping by available memory.
• Hardware-accelerated thumbnail generation now pauses briefly between large batches to reduce GPU/driver pressure during long scans.
• Processing settings now use clearer wording around parallel FFmpeg processes and one-thread-per-process behavior, with expanded manual process limits up to 32.
• Removed the Minimal/Extended mode selector, first-run mode notice, View menu toggle, and mode shortcut because Video Cull no longer uses app-wide modes.

Fixed

• Auto concurrency in Settings now recalculates from the unsaved local settings, so toggling thread limiting immediately updates the displayed process count.
• Cancelling thumbnail generation now also applies to fallback frame extraction.
• ElectronAPI TypeScript declarations now include the distributed cache confirmation API.

Video Cull v1.8.1

Fixed

• Playing videos after scanning a whole drive now works correctly. Drive-root selections such as D:\ are now handled by the loaded-folder security check instead of rejecting every child path.
• Closing the app during large thumbnail-generation runs no longer triggers a main-process "Object has been destroyed" error from delayed progress batch sends.
• Video fullscreen now hides the Electron menu bar and restores it when fullscreen exits.

Video Cull v1.8.0

Added

• Auto concurrency now factors in available RAM — each ffmpeg instance uses ~400 MB, so the limit is capped to whichever is lower: half the CPU cores or (free RAM − 1 GB) / 400 MB. Prevents out-of-memory on lower-spec machines.
• Settings panel now shows the resolved thread count when Auto concurrency is selected, making the setting self-documenting.

Changed

• Cache writes now fan out to per-folder SQLite databases that mirror the actual directory hierarchy on disk. Existing flat-root cache DBs are automatically split on first scan.
• Thumbnail output directory is resolved per-video when using folder-distributed cache, keeping thumbs co-located with their DB.
• Sidebar layout reorganized with improved visual hierarchy and spacing.
• defaultGroupByFolder now correctly defaults to true for existing installs that predate the setting.

Fixed

• Grid thumbnail flicker eliminated: filteredVideos selector upgraded to shallow equality, preventing react-window from remounting all visible rows on every thumbnail batch update.
• getItemSize now uses a stable ref instead of reading rows state, removing a secondary source of row remounts.
• Thumbnails now fade in with a CSS opacity transition instead of snapping in abruptly.
• ElectronAPI TypeScript interface updated with missing getAutoConcurrency declaration.

Video Cull v1.7.0

Added

• Multi-directory sessions with true Add to Session behavior for dropped or selected folders.
• Cache storage modes for centralised, per-drive, and distributed cache layouts.
• Cache migration flow when switching storage modes, with migrate, start fresh, and cancel choices.
• First-run Minimal/Extended mode notice, Settings mode selector, View menu toggle, and configurable mode shortcut.
• Per-drive and central cache location validation with write tests before settings are saved.

Changed

• Thumbnail files now resolve through cache-mode-aware roots instead of assuming one central cache folder.
• Grid folder labels include the root folder prefix when multiple roots are loaded.
• SQLite cache handles are kept per DB path so multi-directory operations do not close each other's connections.
• Cache writes now preserve future metadata columns when values are present.

Fixed

• Batch cache saves fall back to chunked persistence for very large selections to avoid blocking the main process.
• Distributed cache index entries are pruned on startup when folders are no longer available.
• Scanner ignores distributed .videocull cache folders during recursive scans.
• Per-drive cache overrides must stay on the drive they configure.