What's new in MovieClaw

⚠️ Update the Docker image: Stop the container and back up the data directory, then run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. In-app update cannot install this version; it shows that a new Docker image is required.

Highlights

Watch on the plane, not just at home

Until now, the iPhone app could only stream from your server, so no network meant nothing to watch. With iPhone 0.8.0 or later, open a title's ⋯ menu and tap Download (下载) to keep the original file or a 1080p, 720p or 480p copy, each with an estimated size. Transcoded copies stream to the phone while the server is still converting them. Blu-ray, DVD and ISO disc titles cannot be downloaded yet.

• Only qualities below the source are offered. A lower quality is not always smaller, so go by the estimated size.
• Smaller copies are made by the server's GPU. Without one, an online Mac transcoder makes them in HEVC, which is usually smaller.
• With neither, smaller copies need software transcoding. There is no switch in Settings: an administrator turns it on from the prompt shown when playing a title that needs it.
• HDR titles need a GPU or the Mac transcoder for smaller copies, and those copies are in SDR.
• Smaller copies keep one stereo audio track. Text subtitles (SRT, ASS) come along; picture-based subtitles stay only in the original.

Set up a model provider without copying model names

On a compatible endpoint you used to type every model ID by hand, and OpenAI only offered its built-in list. Now Fetch models from endpoint (从端点获取模型列表) lists the models your key can see. On OpenAI and compatible endpoints you can add models that aren't built in; other providers offer only their built-in models. Start at Settings → Model Providers (模型接入) → add or edit a provider (administrators).

• You choose the connection-test model; on your first provider it also becomes the default AI model.
• GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol need the Responses API, set under Advanced settings → API protocol (API 协议). Under Chat Completions they are hidden.
• Under Chat Completions, GPT-6 Sol and Luna can only run with thinking off.
• DeepSeek's official models can now turn thinking off.
• Known issue: Kimi K2.6 and K2.5 on Bailian can no longer turn thinking on, and earlier level choices now run without thinking. For thinking, use Kimi K2.6 through Kimi's official platform, where it is on by default.

More features and improvements

• 18 new built-in models: GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna on OpenAI; Qwen3.8 27B, 2.4T-A95B, Omni Flash and the Max 0902 snapshot, Qwen3.7 Flash, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K2.7 Code, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3 and MiMo-V2.5-Pro on Bailian; DeepSeek Flash, GLM-5.3 FlashX, Kimi K2.7 Code and K2.7 Code HighSpeed on their official platforms.
• More thinking: GPT-5.6 Luna gains the Max (最高) level.
• Custom models: A thinking budget is required only with budget-based control (预算分段).
• Command line: New mclaw llm models discover lists an endpoint's models.

Fixed

• On slow disks, a first install no longer gets cut off halfway through database setup and then fails on every restart.
• If you are already stuck this way (logs repeat table … already exists), this version cannot repair it. On a first install with no data yet, stop the container, delete the files starting with movieclaw.db in the data directory, and start again. If it happened during an upgrade, do not delete anything: restore your own backup, or, if that upgrade went through in-app update, the automatic one named after the old version in data/updates/backup.

For administrators

• Downloads are on for every member by default. To block a member, go to Settings → Members → Edit member and turn off Download videos to device (下载影片到设备).
• Turning it off stops new and unfinished downloads; titles already downloaded still play. It also rejects whole-file downloads from Jellyfin clients such as VidHub, and Infuse may be affected too.
• Conversions run one at a time and pause for playback. Activity → Downloading (正在下载) shows each one's quality, who converts it, speed and progress.
• Copies take disk space in the data directory, with no size limit, and appear in Settings → Update & Maintenance → Cache Management as Offline download transcodes (离线下载转码). A copy is deleted once the phone finishes it, unless another device still needs it. Known issue: other copies are not cleaned on a schedule; one left 72 hours without access is removed only when someone next starts a smaller-quality download.
• Original-quality downloads of cloud-drive strm items are relayed through the server.
• Offline viewing syncs back when the phone reconnects and adds to watch history and play counts. For viewing synced later, webhooks get only the Finished (看完) event, with its real time.
• Known issue: cancelling or deleting a download on iPhone doesn't stop its conversion on the server. Everything already queued, such as a whole season, is still converted, and the copies stay for at least 72 hours. To stop it, stop the container, delete the cache/offline-exports folder in the data directory, then start the container. Unfinished smaller-quality downloads for the account signed in on the iPhone start over by themselves a while after the app is next opened; if one shows an error, delete it and download it again.
• Known issue: a conversion may wait forever and hold up the ones behind it. This can happen when the Mac transcoder it needs goes offline, or, with only an Intel GPU, no Mac transcoder and software transcoding off, for some HDR and 10-bit SDR titles, which are still offered. Bring the transcoder back online, or delete the stuck download on every iPhone that requested it and clean up as in the previous item.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database, and a Docker image update makes no automatic backup. To return to v0.37.0, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.37.0, restore the backup you made, then start it.
• Server releases no longer include the app downloads (Mac transcoder, Mac app, iPhone, Android and Android TV). Each app has its own release; the Apps section below lists the latest versions. Android's fixed download link is https://movieclaw.io/download/android.apk.
• Windows 1.0.x will not update itself to the new Windows app. Download it from https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/tag/windows-v0.1.0.

Full changes: v0.37.0 → v0.38.0.

⚠️ Update the Docker image: Stop the container and back up the data directory, then run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. In-app update cannot install this version; it shows that a new Docker image is required.

Highlights

Pick the next film from the page you're on

When a film ended, finding something like it meant searching again, and its series was only a link. Under the cast, library detail pages now show Similar (相似推荐), and for a film in a series, the whole series in release order with how many you have. This works on the web, iPhone, Mac, Android and Android TV, and appears without any setup.

• Suggestions come only from libraries of the same type that you can see. Animation, documentaries and reality shows are not mixed with other titles.
• The series row needs TMDB collection data. Series set only by local NFO files don't show it.
• Missing films in a series are dimmed. On the web, iPhone and Android you can open them to subscribe.
• Android also adds a Related links (相关链接) row for TMDB, IMDb and Douban.
• Mac and Android TV show the cast as portrait photo cards.

Phone and chat notifications, set in one place

Messaging apps such as Telegram and WeChat used to have two server-wide switches of their own, separate from phone notifications. Now a linked messaging account is one more channel for its owner and follows the same choices as their phone. New notifications cover a subscription that has every episode, a stalled download, a season that may have more episodes, a problem that has cleared, and an AI reply that has finished. Start at Settings → Account → Notifications (通知).

• The test notification on that page now also goes to your messaging accounts.
• AI reply finished (AI 回复完成) is for administrators, goes to phones only, and covers questions asked in the app or on the web. Sideloaded iPhone builds can't receive push; Android needs realtime notifications turned on.
• Administrators are also told when a messaging account's sign-in expires and it needs to be linked again.
• Notifications from plugins appear in the same list, grouped by plugin.

New features

• Android TV episode controls: During playback, press Up for Next episode (下一集) and Episodes (选集).
• AI chat on iPhone (administrators): Conversations read as chat bubbles; long-press a bubble to copy it or rewrite your question. The Me (我的) tab has a one-line AI input above the tab bar.
• Network-drive files on local mounts: strm files that point to a path on the server, such as a CloudDrive2 or rclone mount, now play like local files. The path must be reachable inside the container at the same location.
• Fewer relays for network drives: When a strm link goes through a 302 service on your network, players are sent straight to the final address if they can reach it.

Improvements

• Up next: If end credits aren't recognized, an episode now plays to the end, then counts down to the next one. After three episodes in a row with no input, it asks Still watching? (还在看吗？) (web, iPhone, Mac).
• Quieter Android TV home: Preview autoplay is now off by default. Turn it on from your account page in the sidebar with Auto-play previews (自动播放预告).
• Intel GPUs: Hardware transcoding now uses low-power encoding when the GPU supports it. This may stop crashes seen on some Intel GPUs, such as virtualized ones.
• Gallery view: Gallery view (图床浏览) is now remembered per library. On a collection page it moved from the toolbar into the ⋯ menu.
• Plus 3 smaller improvements: intro and credit detection uses less CPU, Douban links on iPhone open the Douban app when it's installed, and linked Emby or Jellyfin servers are also refreshed after scans and manual imports.

Fixed

• In the browser, if the server's transcode failed to start, the player kept retrying for minutes. It now drops to a lower quality right away.
• Browsing a few pages no longer fills Task Center with queued network-drive prefetch jobs. The bundled prefetch plugin is updated to 1.0.1 and clears jobs left over by the old version.
• strm files saved with a UTF-8 BOM are no longer rejected, and files saved as GB18030 are read correctly.
• Android TV: Back with the sidebar open quit the app; it now closes the sidebar.
• Android TV: Focus no longer gets stuck with only Left working after you close the sidebar or the player.
• Android TV: The detail page no longer takes seconds to slide between the artwork and the episode rows.
• Plus 2 Android TV display fixes: episode numbers shown twice under cards, and uneven Chinese text weights.

For administrators

• Existing messaging accounts now belong to the administrator and send what the administrator chose in Notifications. Earlier messaging switches are not carried over.
• Changes on messaging apps: Download started (开始下载) and Upgrade finished (洗版完成) are now off by default. Imported (入库完成) comes back on if you had turned it off there.
• Messaging accounts now get only subscriptions the administrator started or follows. To get all new arrivals, turn on New in your libraries (媒体库有新片).
• Group bots receive the same as the person who linked them, including new-device sign-ins with the device name and IP address.
• MovieClaw-format webhooks send a new message layout, with renamed fields and the X-MovieClaw-Event-Id header. Update your receivers. Jellyfin-format webhooks keep working with your template.
• Webhooks can now subscribe to 35 system events, up from 10, plus events that plugins declare. Failed deliveries are retried 5 times over about 40 minutes and are not lost on restart; progress and detail-view events are not retried.
• Plugin approval now lists the notifications a plugin sends and the viewing activity it reads. Notifying members needs Allow it to notify household members (允许它给家里的成员发通知). Plugins built for earlier versions that listen to events may need updating.
• With host networking, if port 3001 is already used, set MOVIECLAW_NEXT_PORT to another port; port 8000 must still be free.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database, and a Docker image update makes no automatic backup. To return to v0.36.0, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.36.0, restore the backup you made, then start it.
• Similar titles and the series row need the new apps. Older apps keep working without them. Android 0.3.1: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.37.0/MovieClaw-Android-arm64.apk · Android TV 0.2.2: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.37.0/MovieClaw-AndroidTV.apk
• The iPhone and Mac apps stay at 0.7.0 but are rebuilt for this release: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.37.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa · https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.37.0/MovieClaw-macos-arm64.zip. No Mac transcoder update is required.
• On Android 0.3.0, some notifications may land in a different notification category until you update to 0.3.1.

Thanks to @WadeChenn for the Android TV improvements. Full changes: v0.36.0 → v0.37.0.

⚠️ Update the Docker image: Stop the container and back up the data directory, then run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. In-app update cannot install this version; it shows that a new Docker image is required.

Highlights

Network-drive titles no longer need a special player

Until now, a strm title only played if the player could decode the original file, and the web player told you to open it in Infuse or VidHub instead. Now the server checks each title's format and remuxes or transcodes it when needed, in the web player and in Jellyfin players. Links that only work inside your home network are relayed by the server. This applies automatically after the update, and the new official plugin Network-drive spec prefetch (网盘规格预探) checks titles in the background so playback starts sooner.

• Remuxing, transcoding and relaying run through your server, using its bandwidth and CPU as local files do. Public links still go straight to the player.
• Links to private addresses or local names (such as alist) are relayed. So are links with request headers written in Kodi style: #EXTVLCOPT:http-user-agent=… on the line before, or |User-Agent=… after the link.
• MKV titles get seek thumbnails. Their embedded subtitles load without reading the whole file, and this also speeds up local MKV files.
• The iPhone and Mac apps still play these titles directly, as before.
• Strm files must contain an http(s) link; local file paths are not supported.

Android notifications that arrive right away

The Android app could only check for news by itself every 15 minutes. With Android 0.3.0, it can keep a direct connection to your server, so notifications arrive as they happen without Google or vendor push, and ones missed while offline arrive after reconnecting. Turn it on in the app under Settings → Notifications → Realtime notifications (keep connected) (实时通知（保持连接）). Download: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.36.0/MovieClaw-Android-arm64.apk

• It is off by default and needs this server version. On an older server the switch turns back off and asks you to update the server.
• A silent persistent notification shows download progress (administrators only) or your own text, such as the default "今天入库 {今日入库} 集".
• Choose events under Which events to push (推送哪些事). The choice is per account and shared with iPhone and the web.
• A step-by-step guide helps keep it running in the background on vivo/iQOO, Xiaomi/Redmi, OPPO/OnePlus/realme and Huawei/Honor phones.

New features

• Turn off official plugins: Administrators can open a plugin under Settings → Plugins and choose Disable (停用) or Uninstall (卸载). Uninstalled official plugins can be brought back with Restore (恢复).
• Plugins do more: Plugins can run background jobs shown on the Activity page and can use the AI assistant. Chats started by a plugin are marked Plugin (插件) in the sidebar.
• Firefox extension: Settings → Resource Sites → Install extension (安装扩展) now also offers a Firefox package. It is unsigned: load it as a temporary add-on, and load it again after restarting Firefox.
• Android activity page: Long-press a playing session to see why it plays that way, open the title, end playback or sign out the device.
• Android downloads and chats: Season-pack rows show each episode's progress, and AI replies can show title, library and subscription cards.

Improvements

• Model API key: Leave the key blank when editing a provider to keep the saved one. A new key is still needed when you change the provider type or endpoint.
• Site checks: They now say when a NexusPHP login has expired or a Cloudflare challenge blocks access, instead of blaming a site layout change.
• Skip intro and credits: End credits split into two parts are joined, so the next-episode prompt appears sooner. Intros that run into the story end earlier.
• iPhone push: The iPhone app attached to this release explains in Settings → Notifications when a sideloaded build cannot receive push.
• Android: New aurora app and notification icons, and the version footer shows the real version.

Fixed

• With GPT-5.6 models on OpenAI, choosing a thinking level made the AI assistant fail with error 400 once it used tools.
• In the web player, after direct play failed twice, you were asked to enable software transcoding, or HDR titles failed, without hardware transcoding being tried.
• Libraries on a mergerfs pool (such as on fnOS) picked up new downloads only at the next scheduled check, up to 6 hours later. If such a library was created with Monitor folder changes in real time (实时监控目录变化) off, turn it on in the library's edit dialog.
• Episodes left unselected in a season pack kept the subscription waiting forever. They are now searched again.
• On slow machines, an update could leave the container stuck restarting on an older version.
• After a restart, background tasks could stay queued until the next restart.
• Android: AI chats with tool calls no longer crash or fail to load.
• Android: Tapping an expired account now opens sign-in with your server and user name filled in, instead of doing nothing.
• Plus 3 smaller fixes.

For administrators

• The prefetch plugin is on by default. After the update it checks every existing strm title, one every 3 seconds, reading the start of each file from the drive. Tune or disable it under Settings → Plugins.
• Existing skip-intro results are hidden until each season is recognized again. This runs in the background, and a show someone starts playing goes first.
• Each Android device with realtime notifications holds one open connection to the server. Missed notifications are kept for 7 days, up to 200 per device.
• A plugin using the AI assistant runs with administrator rights and uses your model quota. Its approval screen points this out.
• OpenAI providers on the official endpoint now use the Responses API. Ones with another API endpoint stay on Chat Completions. Switch under Advanced settings → API protocol (API 协议), or use thinking level Default or Off if the endpoint lacks /v1/responses.
• GPT-5.6 Luna no longer offers Max (最高). Chats that used it run at the model's default level.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database, and a Docker image update makes no automatic backup. To return to v0.35.0, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.35.0, restore the backup you made, then start it.
• Android features above need Android 0.3.0; Android 0.2.0 keeps working without them. Android TV 0.2.1 (https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.36.0/MovieClaw-AndroidTV.apk) has no visible changes. The iPhone and Mac apps stay at 0.7.0, and the Mac transcoder needs no update.

Thanks to @WadeChenn and @anlan-home. Full changes: v0.35.0 → v0.36.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.

Highlights

Add what MovieClaw can't do yet

Adding another messaging channel or downloader used to mean waiting for a new release. Now WeChat, Telegram, Discord and Feishu channels and the qBittorrent and Transmission downloaders are six official plugins, and you can install third-party plugin packages next to them. You can also ask the AI assistant to write and install a plugin for something MovieClaw is missing. Start at Settings → Plugins (插件) (administrators).

• Each plugin has a detail page with what it adds, its settings and storage. A third-party package lists its permissions by risk, and you review them before it installs.
• Third-party plugins can be rolled back to their previous version or uninstalled. Official plugins can't be turned off in this version.
• Third-party plugins run in their own low-privilege process. If a new version fails to start, it goes back to the previous one. Install them only from sources you trust.
• Known issue: a third-party plugin can call another plugin's routes without the usual checks, and plugins receive the signed-in user's credentials. Fixed in v0.36.0; update to it.
• If the server crashes right after starting with third-party plugins, the next start skips them and the Plugins page offers Exit safe mode (退出安全模式).
• Bound IM channels and configured downloaders keep working; channels are still set up in Settings → IM Push (IM 推送).

TV previews and Clips without the wait

Large previews on Android TV and Clips on iPhone used to stream the whole original file, and on iPhone away from home the server had to transcode it live. Turn on Clip pre-cut (片段预切) and the server cuts a short 1080p clip of each title in the background, so they play a small file instead. Start at Settings → Playback → Clip pre-cut (administrators); it is off by default.

• Needs Android TV 0.2.0 or the iPhone app attached to this release; older apps keep playing the original file.
• While it is on, a title without a ready clip shows only its still on Android TV and is left out of iPhone Clips.
• On Android TV, Blu-ray and DVD titles get previews too once their clip is cut.
• Cloud-drive (strm) titles, and titles too short to pick a scene from, are not cut.
• Progress shows in Activity → Tasks as Clip pre-cut (片段预切) and continues after a restart or update.
• Once someone uses Clips or a TV preview, administrators get a suggestion at the top of the web Library page to turn it on.

Find your place in a long series

Finding where you were in a season of hundreds of episodes meant a long scroll. Seasons over 50 episodes now split into 50-episode ranges with an All episodes (全部分集) panel, and every season opens on the episode you are up to. It works automatically on the web, iPhone, Mac, Android and Android TV.

New features

• Delete the download too: When deleting a title or a file, administrators can tick Also delete the download task and source files (同时删除下载任务和源文件). It is off by default and available on the web, iPhone and Android.
• Episodes beyond TMDB: When sites carry newer episodes than TMDB lists, the web subscription page offers to keep following them. Change the count under More → Adjust episodes (调整集数) on the web.
• Search by other titles: Searching for resources from a detail page or a subscription also uses the English and original titles, on the web and iPhone. This sends up to 3 keywords to each site, so a search makes more requests.
• Android player and subscriptions: Centered play controls, a Next episode button, an episode picker and an intro marker on the timeline, plus a redesigned subscription details page.
• Mac player on top: The window floats above others while playing. Turn it off in Window → Float while playing (播放时置顶).

Improvements

• Android switches tabs without a pause and keeps each tab's scroll position.
• The browser plugin (浏览器插件) for cookie sync is now called the browser extension (浏览器扩展), in the same place under Resource Sites; installed extensions keep working.
• Plus 5 smaller refinements: Feishu group bots can be added in IM Push without an AI model, brand red for the Netflix theme's play button and "In library" badge, mobile web Settings as a grouped list, hover polish on genre tiles, and Android TV home scrolling that may be smoother.

Fixed

• Android TV now shows up in the app list of Xiaomi, Hisense, TCL and other TV launchers, with a proper icon and banner.
• On Android subscription details, Pause tracking (暂停追踪), Resume tracking (恢复追踪) and the auto-renew switch work again. Marking an episode watched no longer hides the favorite heart, and new-episodes-only subscriptions no longer show "Season 1 · 0 / 0".
• The Android library home updates its totals right after you delete, restore or purge a file. The iPhone download dialog no longer says auto-import is unavailable when it first opens.
• An AI assistant conversation can continue after a reply was stopped before any text appeared, including conversations already stuck this way.
• With a naming template that uses only the original file name, scanned files are no longer renamed "未命名". Files already renamed stay as they are.
• Poster cards no longer have their top corners clipped when they lift on hover, and the site status popover in search results scrolls when many sites respond.

For administrators

• Pre-cut clips are stored in the data directory and listed in Settings → Update & Maintenance → Cache Management as Pre-cut clips (预切片段). In our tests a title took about 15 to 30 MB.
• Cutting uses the server's CPU, one clip at a time, and steps back while someone is watching. Turning the switch off stops it and asks whether to delete the clips.
• Deleting source files cannot be undone. The option is greyed out with a reason when the torrent is still used by other files, carries a hit-and-run risk, or was not added by MovieClaw, and for titles downloaded manually before this update.
• A finished series subscription can go back to tracking when sites list newer episodes than TMDB. The prompt to follow or dismiss them is only on the web.
• In mclaw, the channels im … and channels weixin … commands are replaced by channels list, channels accounts and channels bindings.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database. To return to v0.34.0, use Settings → Update & Maintenance → Roll back to an earlier version (回退到历史版本). It restores the backup taken before the update, so anything since is lost, including IM channels bound in this version. If you update by pulling the Docker image instead, no backup is made, so stop the container and back up the data directory first.
• Adult (成人) is no longer a built-in search category; if you had turned it on, its tab disappears. To bring it back, go to Settings → Resource Sites → Search categories → New custom category (新建自定义分类) and select Adult.
• A custom site YAML whose custom_class is not a built-in site class is now skipped, with a warning in the log.
• To get the app changes above, install the apps attached to this release: Android 0.2.0 from https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.35.0/MovieClaw-Android-arm64.apk and Android TV 0.2.0 from https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.35.0/MovieClaw-AndroidTV.apk. The iPhone and Mac apps keep version 0.7.0 but are rebuilt: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.35.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa and https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.35.0/MovieClaw-macos-arm64.zip. The Mac transcoder does not need updating.

Thanks to @WadeChenn for the Android player and subscription work, @duchanghexuhe for the Netflix theme and poster card polish, and @anlan-home for the Android TV launcher fix. Full changes: v0.34.0 → v0.35.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.

Highlights

Watch from the couch with your Android TV remote

On an Android TV or box you could only use a Jellyfin player. The new Android TV app shows your home rows, libraries and collections, searches with the remote, and plays with subtitle, audio and quality panels, skip intro and an up-next card. Download https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.34.0/MovieClaw-AndroidTV.apk, install it on the TV, pick your server, then scan the QR code it shows with your phone and approve. This first version is for early testing, and playback can differ between TVs and boxes.

• Needs Android 6.0 or later on an ARM TV or box, and MovieClaw server v0.34.0 or later. Older servers refuse its sign-in.
• Approve with your phone's camera, the scan button at the top right of Me (我的) in the iPhone app, or by entering the pairing code at the address the TV shows. The TV signs in as whoever approves and appears in their Settings → Devices (设备). A user name and password also work.
• Keep several accounts, even on different servers, and switch under Who's watching? (谁在看？).
• It plays the original file when the TV can, otherwise the server transcodes. Dolby Vision the TV supports isn't tone-mapped, and ASS subtitles and DTS or TrueHD audio play in the app. The TV switches to the video's frame rate; on Android 12 and later this follows the system's frame-rate matching setting.
• Resting on the large artwork plays a short clip with sound, with no switch to turn it off. Episodes to continue go to the system's Play Next row, which some TVs lack.
• It is made for watching: no Discover, subscriptions, Reels, settings, downloads or push notifications. The interface is in Chinese.

ISO disc images play in the browser too

Blu-ray and DVD ISO images used to play only in players that read them directly, such as the iPhone and Android apps or Infuse; the web player refused them, and so did the apps once you lowered the quality. Now the server reads the film inside the image and streams it, so ISO titles play in the web browser, on Android TV and in the apps at a lower quality, including discs whose film is split into many pieces. It works after the update, with no setup.

• An image the server can't read is still refused, with a message suggesting a player that opens ISO files itself.

Watch statistics that match real viewing

Every open used to count as a play, so a title opened for a few seconds could top Most popular (本期最受欢迎), and scrubbing added to watch time. Now a play needs at least a minute of watching or reaching the end, picking up where you stopped within 3 hours (even on another device) counts as the same viewing, and watch time can't exceed the time that actually passed. Administrators find it under Activity → Watch Statistics (观看统计), with no setup.

• Finished means the viewing reached the last 10% and at least a third of it was actually watched. Rewatching to the end now counts; jumping straight to the end doesn't.
• The heatmap and daily chart spread watch time across the hours it spans, so a late movie no longer lands on one hour or the wrong day.
• By playback method (按播放方式) leaves out plays under a minute, and its note now correctly says it covers the web and the apps.
• The change from the previous period appears only when history covers that whole period.
• Share guests' watch time counts, but they are not counted as active members.
• Play counts for past periods follow the new rules, so they can drop. Watch time recorded before this version is not recalculated.

More features and improvements

• Clearer transcoder messages: When an HDR title needs the Mac transcoder and it is online but full, the message says it's busy and asks you to try again, instead of saying no hardware was found.
• iPhone messages: Pop-up messages now sit at the bottom, above sheets and the keyboard. Swipe down or tap to dismiss.
• Device names in Activity: New plays from Android phones and TVs show the device model, and the client name is no longer repeated.

Fixed

• Some ISO episodes and films were marked watched as soon as they started, kept no resume point and showed a wrong duration. Stored durations are corrected in the background after the update. Titles already marked watched stay marked; use Mark as unwatched (标记为未看) on the title page.
• The Android app could crash on some phones when playing certain titles from a server reached over HTTPS. Thanks to @WadeChenn.
• After an app was force-closed during transcoded playback, starting another title on the same phone or TV could be refused for up to 3 minutes when the server had no other free transcoding slot.
• Reopening an HDR title, or switching its subtitles or audio, could fail with "no hardware found" when only the Mac transcoder could tone-map it.
• Plus 1 smaller fix.

For administrators

• At every startup, the server reads the structure of each ISO image in the background, a few small reads per image. Startup doesn't wait for it.
• After the update, the server reads the header of each Dolby Vision file once in the background.
• After each playback, the Android TV app sends diagnostics to your own server: TV model, decoders, display modes and error logs. Nothing goes to the developers.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database. Updating from Settings → Update & Maintenance first makes an automatic backup. To return to v0.33.0, go to Settings → Update & Maintenance → Choose a version to roll back to… (选择版本回退…); it restores that backup, so anything recorded after the update is lost.
• If you update by pulling the Docker image instead, no backup is made: stop the container and back up the data directory first. To return, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.33.0, restore that backup, then start it.
• The iPhone changes need iPhone app 0.7.0: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.34.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa, installed over the old app the same way. The Android fix needs Android 0.1.1: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.34.0/MovieClaw-Android-arm64.apk. Older apps keep working with this server.
• The Android TV app is separate from the Android phone app; both can be installed on the same device.

Thanks to @WadeChenn. Full changes: v0.33.0 → v0.34.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.

Highlights

Subscribe without building a rule group first

Until now, a subscription only knew what to download through a rule group you had to set up. Pick Smart selection (智能选择) instead: set the resolution and source you prefer and how long to wait for them, once for movies and once for shows. A matching release is downloaded as soon as it appears. If none turns up in time, the best acceptable one is taken, and a show keeps to the same release where it can. Administrators set it up under Settings → Subscription Rules (订阅规则) → Smart selection, or straight from the subscribe dialog.

• It is the default for new subscriptions on the web and in iPhone 0.6.0. To use a rule group, open More options (更多选项) → Selection method (选择方式) → Rules (规则模式).
• Options: 4K or 1080p; WEB-DL, Blu-ray or Remux; wait not at all, up to 3 hours, 1 day, or 1 to 7 days; allow later upgrades; accept only the chosen resolution.
• A subscription keeps the settings it was created with. Later changes apply to new subscriptions only, and a subscription can't switch between smart and rules.
• Each episode or movie shows how long it will wait and the current candidate. You can Download current candidate now (立即下载当前候选) or extend the wait.
• Only administrators change the settings. Members can subscribe this way once an administrator has saved them.
• Existing subscriptions keep their rule groups. Android and the AI assistant still create rule-based subscriptions.

MovieClaw on Android

Android phones had only the web app. The new Android app browses your libraries, discover, search and subscriptions, and plays with subtitle and audio switching, skip intro and AI subtitles. Download https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.33.0/MovieClaw-Android-arm64.apk, install it and sign in with your server address, user name and password.

• Needs Android 8.0 or later on an arm64 phone or tablet. Android asks you to allow installing unknown apps.
• If you installed an earlier test build of this app, uninstall it first; it is signed differently.
• No push notifications: the app itself checks for new notices about every 15 minutes.
• Smart selection, subscription rules, sites and downloaders are managed on the web.
• Disc images (ISO) play only when the server address is http, not https.
• The interface is in Chinese only.

One message per season, not one per episode

WeChat, Telegram and other IM channels used to get a message for every download, every import and every upgraded episode. Now a batch of episodes shares a few messages: when the download starts, when the first episodes can be watched, when everything has arrived, and when something is stuck. Episodes are written as ranges, such as 第 1–8 集. This applies automatically after the update.

• Upgrades are merged per subscription. Episodes you removed from a subscription no longer send messages.
• The iPhone app's expandable notification cards need push, which the sideloaded iPhone app does not receive.

New features

• Discover: On the web, Discover Movies (发现电影) and Discover Shows (发现剧集) are now one Discover (发现) entry. Switch between movies and shows, or TMDB and Douban, from the page title. On phones the web app now opens on Library.
• Transcoder limits: Under Settings → Playback (播放), choose how many jobs (1–4) each Mac transcoder runs. The page also shows its chip, memory and load, and playback in the browser through it starts sooner.
• Naming templates: Templates no longer have to include the title, season or episode. Known issue: a file-name template of only {release_name} renames scanned files to 未命名 when you organize a library. This is fixed in v0.35.0; update to get the fix.

Improvements

• Same-name movies: When a release can't be told apart from another movie with the same title and year, the subscription skips it and keeps looking. It no longer pauses and raises an alert for you to confirm, and such alerts left from before clear after the update.
• Settings on the web: Switches save at once and text saves when you leave the field. Dangerous actions sit at the bottom or in ⋯.
• Downloaders and sites are added and edited in a side panel. Clicking outside it or pressing Esc discards what you typed.
• Rule preview: The Simulate (模拟一单) panel is now Preview matching (预览匹配) under Subscription Rules → Custom rules.
• Devices: Devices are grouped into four kinds, each listing up to five online. View all (查看全部) opens the full list.
• iPhone settings: Server Settings (服务器设置) is redesigned, with device search, a page per member and Fanart.tv setup.
• Subtitles: Web, iPhone and Mac menus show each track's own name, such as 简体中文特效, and mark forced subtitles.

Fixed

• Shared links (分享) now play. Since v0.28.0, starting playback from one failed with a server error.
• A show's poster no longer gets replaced by an episode thumbnail, on the web and in Jellyfin players such as Infuse.
• Opening a title in Infuse or another Jellyfin player no longer shows it as playing under Activity (活动).
• Plus 6 smaller fixes.

For administrators

• The Mac transcoder's job limit is now stored on the server. Older transcoders still work, but the limit can't be changed from the web until you update: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.33.0/MovieClawTranscoder-macos-arm64.zip.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database. After an in-app update, you can return to v0.32.0 under Settings → Update & Maintenance → Choose a version to roll back… (选择版本回退…). It restores the automatic backup taken before the update, and data added since is lost.
• If you updated by pulling the Docker image, there is no automatic backup. To return, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.32.0, restore your own backup of the data directory, then start it.
• Changes listed for iPhone need app 0.6.0: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.33.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa. The Mac app is at https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.33.0/MovieClaw-macos-arm64.zip.
• Older apps keep working with this server but can't create smart subscriptions. With app 0.6.0 on an older server, choose Rules to subscribe.

Thanks to @anlan-home for the Android app, and to @WadeChenn for improving it. Full changes: v0.32.0 → v0.33.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.

Highlights

A real app for watching on your Mac

On a Mac you could only watch in the browser. The new Mac app browses your libraries, collections and favorites, searches titles and people, and plays with subtitle, audio and quality panels, skip intro, next episode and keyboard controls. Download https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.32.0/MovieClaw-macos-arm64.zip, unzip it and open the app.

• Needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 26 or later. The app is notarized by Apple.
• Needs MovieClaw server v0.32.0 or later. Older servers refuse its sign-in, and the app asks you to update the server.
• Sign in with a user name and password, or choose QR code sign-in (扫码登录) and approve it on iPhone under Settings → Devices (设备) or in a signed-in browser.
• Keep several accounts, even on different servers, and switch from the Account (账号) menu.
• It is made for watching: Discover, subscriptions, Reels and settings stay in the web app, and it gets no push notifications.

Not sure what to watch? Start with a genre

You no longer need a title in mind. Two new rows, Browse movies by genre (按类型找电影) and Browse shows by genre (按类型找剧集), show a card for each genre with a still from the latest title added to it. Pick one to see every matching title across your libraries. The rows appear by themselves after My Libraries (我的媒体库) on the web Library page, iPhone and Mac.

• To hide them, use Customize home (自定义首页) on the Library page.
• Members only see genres from libraries they can access. Libraries excluded from the home page are left out.
• iPhone needs app 0.5.0. Older apps don't show these rows.

New features

• Reels plays more formats: Reels (片段) on iPhone 0.5.0 now also plays Blu-ray folders, ISO images, DVD, TS and AVI. Older iPhone apps may fail to play these titles in Reels.
• Clean up old devices: Settings → Devices → Clean up… (清理…) lists devices unused for 7, 30 or 90 days (30 by default) and signs them out at once. Administrators can do it for everyone from the All members (全部成员) view. iPhone app 0.5.0 has it too.
• What cleanup keeps: The device you are using and connected transcoders stay. Jellyfin players such as Infuse are included and need to sign in again.
• More naming placeholders: Settings → Scrape & Organize (刮削与整理) → Naming templates (命名模板) adds English title, Douban ID, season name, video codec, HDR, bit depth, audio, site and original filename. Site and original filename are only filled for files MovieClaw imported itself, and original filenames are recorded from this version on.

Improvements

• Tidier file names: A title repeated in one name, such as an original title equal to the title, is written once. Names over 200 bytes are shortened, keeping season, episode and specs.
• Device list: Each device shows an icon with an online dot. Rename and sign out (注销) moved into its ⋯ menu.
• iPhone play button: It names the episode, as in "继续 第 1 季第 3 集 · 46:56", and opening a show lands on the episode you are watching.
• iPhone colors: SDR video now has the same tone as in Infuse, instead of slightly bright, washed-out mid-tones.
• iPhone Library page: Reels (片段) is now the ▶ icon at the left of the top bar, next to ⋯.
• iPhone player quality: Auto (自动) is now called Original (原画). It works the same.
• Resource search: Search resources (搜索资源) on a title and Manual pick (手动选种) on a subscription search only movies or only shows. Pick All (全部) to widen.
• Library covers: Once a library has four posters, its collage cover changes at most once a day.
• Plus 2 smaller improvements.

Fixed

• After you finish a title and rewatch part of it, leaving and coming back continues from where you stopped.
• {episode_title} in naming templates was always empty. It now fills in the episode title.
• In Jellyfin players, libraries follow MovieClaw's order, the Collections (合集) view has a cover, and some posters that may not have shown now display.
• On iPhone 0.5.0, some DVD ISO images no longer play a few seconds of the menu instead of the film.
• On iPhone 0.5.0, titles switched to server transcoding may no longer stay stuck at 0:00.
• Plus 1 smaller fix.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database. After an in-app update, you can return to v0.31.0 under Settings → Update & Maintenance → Choose a version to roll back… (选择版本回退…). It restores the backup taken before the update; data added since is lost.
• If you updated by pulling the Docker image, there is no automatic backup. To return, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.31.0, restore your own backup of the data directory, then start it.
• Changes marked for iPhone need iPhone app 0.5.0: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.32.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa. Older apps keep working with this server, just without them.

Full changes: v0.31.0 → v0.32.0.

⚠️ Update the Docker image: Stop the container and back up the data directory, then run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. In-app update cannot install this version; it shows that a new Docker image is required. Also update the iPhone app to 0.4.0 (https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.31.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa): with 0.3.0, library search fails on this server.

Highlights

Type a few letters and find the title

Searching your library used to match only the exact title text, so you had to switch to a Chinese keyboard and remember the name. Now full pinyin, initials (such as st or xjcy), Chinese mixed with pinyin, Traditional Chinese, alternative titles, and actor or director names all work. Results are sorted by relevance and say why they matched, and matching people get their own row that opens their page in your library. On the web, open search (⌘K / Ctrl+K) and pick Library (媒体库); on iPhone, tap the magnifier and pick the same tab.

• Suggestions appear as you type. On iPhone, results also update as you type.
• Results are no longer grouped by library or counted. Scroll, or tap More results (更多结果), to load more.
• After the update the server builds a search index in the background. Search works meanwhile, but may be slower on large libraries.

Sharper posters, stills and cast photos

Episode stills used to be stored 300 pixels wide and posters 780, so they looked soft on a TV or large screen. Now the server keeps the original images by default, every device gets the size it needs, and cast photos are saved locally too. With your own Fanart.tv API key you also get more posters, backgrounds, title logos and season posters. Administrators start at Settings → Scrape & Organize → Local image quality (本地图片画质) and Enable Fanart.tv (启用 Fanart.tv).

• Quality options are Original (the default), Standard, Save space and Custom, each with an estimated size for your library.
• Titles already in your library get Fanart.tv artwork after Refresh metadata (刷新元数据) or their next scheduled refresh. To pick by hand, use ⋯ → Change images… (更换图片…) on the title page.

More features and improvements

Library and playback
- Skip buttons by type: Short intros such as studio logos are detected, and end credits of Western series are found from the on-screen credits. Ads and next-episode previews show Skip ad (跳过广告) and Skip preview (跳过预告); other segments show Skip segment (跳过此段).
- Faster intro and credits detection: Up to 4 episodes run in parallel, depending on CPU cores. While someone is watching it keeps one going, and it pauses only while the server itself is transcoding.
- Collections shown on the home page also get a card in My libraries (我的媒体库).
- Refresh metadata no longer downloads every image again. It keeps the ones that are fine, and the task center shows how many images were new, reused or missing.

Sites and downloads
- Separate downloader for ratio boosting: Settings → Sites → ⋯ → Enable boosting… → Boost downloader (刷流下载器), shown when you have more than one downloader. If it is unavailable, the site pauses boosting instead of switching downloaders. Deleting it turns off boosting for those sites; seeding torrents stay.
- New sites: SunnyPT (shown as Sunny, connects with an API key generated on the site) and UBits (connects with a browser cookie).

iPhone
- Tap ✕ on the Continue Watching bar to hide it until this device plays something again.
- The scan button on the Me tab approves another device's sign-in.
- Customize home is now an edit list: show or hide rows, drag to reorder, and add rows by type, library or collection.
- Connection errors say what went wrong and what to try, with the address and error code.

Fixed

• On iPhone, signing in with an http address that uses a domain name failed with error -1022.
• Editing the home layout on iPhone deleted "All movies" and "All series" rows added on the web.
• The iPhone lock screen and Control Center showed no artwork for what was playing.
• Skip buttons sometimes marked story scenes as end credits, labelled other segments as intros, missed short ads, or used old times after a file was replaced.
• Playback through the Mac transcoder could stop partway through. This is fixed on the server.
• The Mac transcoder reconnected by itself after you disconnected it, kept its old name on the server after renaming, and was slow to reconnect after the network came back. These need the new transcoder: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.31.0/MovieClawTranscoder-macos-arm64.zip
• In search, recent titles and torrents were mixed and Clear (清空) wiped both; on a phone, a series in the results took two taps to open.
• System logs could contain the TMDB API key and site passkeys in plain text.
• Plus 2 smaller fixes.

For administrators

• Images take more disk space: Existing images are downloaded again once, whichever quality you pick, as scheduled refresh reaches each title over about a month. In our test library we estimate Original at about 2.6 GB, up from 0.28 GB; the settings page shows the estimate for yours. To use less, choose Standard or Save space under Local image quality soon after updating.
• iPhone notifications are not usable yet: New pages Settings → MovieClaw Cloud and App push (App 推送) (administrators) and Notifications (通知) (everyone) prepare them, but they need an App Store or TestFlight build, which is not public yet. The sideloaded app cannot receive notifications.
• MovieClaw Cloud reporting: Once connected, the server reports its version and system. Share statistics (上报统计信息) is on by default and also reports device counts by platform and app version, and whether official push is reachable; turn it off on the MovieClaw Cloud page. Nothing is sent while not connected.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database, and a Docker image update makes no automatic backup. To return to v0.30.0, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.30.0, restore the backup you made, then start it.
• The iPhone items above, and the new skip button labels on iPhone, need app 0.4.0.
• Intro and credits detection runs again on every series, keeping CPU and disks busy, possibly for many hours on a large library. Until a series is done it has no skip buttons; a season you start playing goes first.
• "All movies" and "All series" rows no longer appear by themselves. If you have two or more libraries of a type and never customized the home page, they are gone; add them back at Library → ⋯ → Customize home → + Add a row (＋ 添加一行).
• Settings → Devices no longer has the pairing code box. Tap Approve new device login (批准新设备登录) there, or open /activate. Old approval links still work.
• Message push (消息推送) is now called IM push (IM 推送), in the same place.
• mclaw search library-items is now mclaw search library, and /api/v1/search/library-items is gone. Download the new mclaw from this release and update your scripts.
• Logs written before the update still contain those keys. Delete old files in data/logs before sharing logs.

Thanks to @DongShull. Full changes: v0.30.0 → v0.31.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.

Highlights

No more dragging past the same opening

Watching a season back to back meant scrubbing past the same intro every episode. Now MovieClaw compares the audio across a season to find the intro, sponsor spots before it and the end credits, and shows a Skip intro (跳过片头) button. When credits that run to the end begin, the Playing next (即将播放) card counts down 8 seconds and plays the next episode. It's on for every TV library after the update, in the web player and in iPhone app 0.3.0 or later.

• Tap ✕ on the card to keep watching the credits. Auto-play stops after three episodes in a row with nobody touching the player.
• Credits followed by more of the episode get Skip credits (跳过片尾) instead of the card.
• Nothing is found for seasons with fewer than three episodes in the library, intros shorter than 15 seconds or outside the first 10 minutes, or credits whose music changes every episode; the card then appears only in the last 40 seconds, without a countdown.
• New episodes are analyzed as they arrive. Existing shows are filled in in the background, the ones you're watching first, so older shows get the button later.
• Jellyfin clients such as Infuse may also show a skip button.

The web player keeps your quality and reconnects by itself

On a slow line the web player used to switch to a lower-quality transcode on its own, and a dropped connection cost you quality too. Now it reconnects at the same quality and picks up where you were; when the line really can't keep up, a card shows the measured speed and offers a lower quality, and the choice is yours. A file that is gone from the server now says File not found on the server (服务器上找不到这个文件) instead of retrying. It applies after the update, nothing to set up.

• The quality you pick is remembered per title. The single quality setting from earlier versions is reset to Auto.
• When a title opens with a non-default quality, audio track or subtitle from last time, a short notice tells you.
• The first play of some MP4 files and large TS files no longer waits while the server reads the whole file; in our NAS tests that took a minute or more.
• In Safari on iPhone and iPad, HEVC videos now play through the system player, which may stop seeking and Skip intro from stalling for a second or two.

All your movies in one row

With movies spread over several libraries, the Library page showed one row per library and the same film could appear twice. Now All movies (全部电影), All TV shows (全部剧集) and All other videos (全部其他视频) rows combine the libraries of one type, each title once; open the row title to browse them all. A row appears by itself when you have two or more libraries of that type, and you can add one with Customize home (自定义首页) at the top right of the Library page (in its ⋯ menu on phones) → + Add row (＋ 添加一行 · 从哪来？). These rows are web only for now; the iPhone app doesn't show them.

• Known issue: saving Customize home in the iPhone app deletes the rows you added on the web and resets the rest to their defaults. Fixed in v0.31.0 (iPhone app 0.4.0); update to it.

New features

• GitHub access token: If checking for updates reports GitHub rate limiting, add a token in Settings → Update & Maintenance → GitHub access token (GitHub 访问令牌); a fine-grained token with no permissions is enough, or use mclaw app update github-token-put.
• Resume bar on iPhone: The bar above the iPhone app's tab bar shows only what you played on this iPhone, not titles from Infuse or other devices. The Up next (接下来继续) row on the Library page still covers all devices.
• New logo: The iPhone app icon (with dark and tinted versions), the web app, the Mac transcoder and the browser extension have a new logo, and browser tabs now show it too.
• Clips (片段) on iPhone: The filter menu gains Other (其他) for "other video" libraries, though Clips still draws only from movies and TV shows by default. The page gains a back button, and its title opens the details page. Swiping sideways on a clip in portrait no longer seeks; seek in full screen instead.

Improvements

• Faster remote transcoding on a Mac: With this release's Mac transcoder, starting and seeking in a transcoded title is faster, most of all for Blu-ray discs and TS files. Download https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.30.0/MovieClawTranscoder-macos-arm64.zip and replace the old app; the old one keeps working as before.

Fixed

• Watching the longer version of a title with several versions, such as an extended cut, could mark it watched well before the end and lose the resume point.
• In the web player, picking a lower quality from the quality menu before the picture appeared did nothing.
• While a library scan ran alongside a metadata refresh that read local NFO files, some new files failed with "database is locked" and were left out of that scan.
• In Settings → Update & Maintenance → Cache Management, Clean up orphaned entries (清理孤儿条目) failed with an error.
• And 1 more fix for Jellyfin clients.

For administrators

• After the update, every TV library is analyzed in the background: the first 10 and last 7 minutes of each episode are read, using disk and CPU, and the work pauses while anyone is watching. Progress shows on the Activity (活动) page; to turn it off for a library, open it → ⋯ → Edit library (编辑库) → Detect intros and credits (识别片头片尾), keeping the intros already found.
• The analysis keeps small fingerprint files, listed in Cache Management as Intro and credits fingerprints (片头片尾指纹). Clearing them keeps the intros already found, but the next new episode of a season makes the whole season be read again.
• Installs from source need an ffmpeg with chromaprint, such as jellyfin-ffmpeg, or nothing is detected. The Docker image already has it.
• Shared collections (not set to Only me (只有我可见)) can now be changed only by their creator and administrators. Existing ones are assigned to the administrator, so members can no longer rename, edit or delete them, even ones they made.
• In member permissions, Site search (站点搜索) is now Resource search (资源搜索). Members without it still get the search button, for movie and TV info if they have Subscriptions (订阅追踪), and for their visible libraries.
• Members now see download progress on subscriptions they started or follow, without torrent or downloader names.
• Members with Subscriptions, Resource search and One-click download (一键下载) can now use Pick torrent manually (手动选种) on subscriptions they started; when they download, the save-location dialog lists only their visible libraries and the downloader's default folder.

Before you update

• The iPhone features above need iPhone app 0.3.0: download https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.30.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa and install it over the old app the same way you installed it.
• This release migrates the database. Updating from Settings → Update & Maintenance makes an automatic backup first. To return to v0.29.0, use Choose a version to roll back to… (选择版本回退…) on the same page; it restores that backup, so anything recorded after the update is lost.
• If you update by pulling the Docker image instead, no backup is made: stop the container and back up the data directory first. To return, stop the container, change the image tag to movieclaw/movieclaw:v0.29.0, restore that backup, then start it.

Full changes: v0.29.0 → v0.30.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.
⚠️ Update the server before the iPhone app 0.2.0. On a v0.28.0 server, iPhone 0.2.0 can't open Change artwork (更换图片), and manual downloads that ask you to confirm the title fail. The earlier 0.1.0 app keeps working with this server.

Highlights

Watch 4K on your phone without the long wait

Streaming a high-bitrate file over mobile data used to mean a long wait before the first frame, and another one after every seek. With iPhone 0.2.0, playback starts while data is still arriving: MKV files with many subtitle tracks no longer download a large index first, and seeking past the buffer starts reading right where you land. Resuming a title, even after reopening the app, is much faster too. It applies automatically after you update the server and the app.

• The lower-quality suggestion now also appears after a single 8-second wait (for the first frame, after a seek, or mid-playback) when your connection is slower than the file. It still asks at most once per playback and never switches on its own.
• The faster MKV start helps from the second play of a file and for the next episode: the server prepares a small index the first time. It shows up in Settings → Update & Maintenance → Cache Management as MKV compact index (MKV 精简索引).
• The app keeps recently played data on the phone across launches, up to 512 MB, and removes it after 30 days unused. iOS can also reclaim it when storage runs low.

Reels: scroll through your own library

Not sure what to watch? In the iPhone app, tap ▶ Reels (片段) at the top right of the Media library tab and swipe up through highlights picked from your movies and shows. Tap Details (详情) to open the title, or Full screen (全屏观看) and then Watch full title (看全片) to keep going. Filter by movie or show, genre, decade, country, minimum rating, length, or unwatched only.

• Requires iPhone 0.2.0 and this server version. Members see clips only from libraries they can access.
• MKV and MP4 movies and shows only; Blu-ray, DVD, ISO, TS and cloud-drive strm items are skipped. A show's clip comes from episode 2 of its first season.
• Quality defaults to original at home and 720p away from home or on mobile data; switch it with the quality button. On mobile data the app asks before opening Reels.
• Scrolling clips doesn't add to watch history. Only Watched (已看) or continuing with the full title does.

Audio and subtitles that pick themselves

Default tracks used to follow whatever the file flagged, so you often got a dub or had to turn subtitles on yourself. Now the default audio is the film's original language, and the default subtitles follow your library's metadata language: a foreign film in a Chinese library opens Chinese subtitles. Only tracks you change by hand are remembered, so an automatic pick no longer sticks to a whole series. It applies automatically on the web and in iPhone 0.2.0; Jellyfin clients such as Infuse may follow it too.

• The audio and subtitle rows on a title's page mark the track that will play for you and say why.
• Commentary and audio-description tracks are never picked automatically.
• On upgrade, saved choices that were just the old automatic pick are cleared, so they follow the new defaults. Choices you made yourself stay.

New features

• Title logos: Title pages on the web (default theme) and in the iPhone app show the title's logo, and Jellyfin clients receive it too. On the web, pick another one in the title's ⋯ → Change artwork → Logo (徽标). Existing titles get their logo at the next metadata refresh, and libraries that write artwork into media folders also write clearlogo.png.
• Confirm the title for manual downloads: When a search-result download isn't recognized, you can search for the title and pick it on the web or iPhone. The library is then chosen automatically, as for recognized downloads.
• Switch accounts on iPhone: Long-press the avatar tab to switch accounts, or double-tap it to go back to the previous one.
• Continue watching bar on iPhone: On iOS 26.1 or later, the next title to continue sits above the tab bar; tap to play, or long-press to hide it for now.

Improvements

• iPhone tabs: The order is now Media library, Subscriptions, Discover, Activity, Me, and every account opens on Media library. Administrators used to start on Discover.
• iPhone Me page: Settings is now Server settings (服务器设置). About MovieClaw (关于 MovieClaw) moved to the bottom of Server settings, and Log out (退出登录) to the bottom of your profile page.
• Faster large libraries: Opening More filters (更多筛选) and a library page are much faster on libraries with many files. In our test, a library with 18,000 files went from about two minutes to under a second.
• AI subtitles respond at once: Starting AI subtitles responds right away, and stopping takes effect within seconds. Reading the subtitle track shows its own progress, model errors say what went wrong, and after a temporary outage the job retries from where it stopped.
• Smaller touches: On iPhone, the side buttons show the same volume indicator as swiping during playback, and large artwork on Discover and Subscriptions no longer shows bare edges. The web Activity page on desktop (default theme) uses the same overview and sub-pages as the app and phone.

Fixed

• With the Mac transcoder on ffmpeg 7.1, GPU transcodes that had to scale the picture down always failed.
• Season folders with extra text in the name, like Season 4-第 4 季-(2007), were treated as separate titles. When a season couldn't be determined, episodes were silently filed under Specials; now they wait in unrecognized items so you can pick the season.
• After a quality upgrade, the same download could be copied into the library a second time.
• In the browser, a title with a Mandarin DTS track and an English AC3 track could switch to English to avoid transcoding.
• In the iPhone player, a faint oval no longer shows in the middle of dark scenes.

For administrators

• MovieClaw pages can no longer be shown inside an iframe on another site, such as a dashboard. The API description file is no longer public; set APP_ENV=local to bring it back.
• The first time anyone opens Reels after the server starts, the server reads the index of one file per movie or show in the background, once.

Before you update

• Generate chapters (生成章节) is now off by default, and turned off for every existing library. While it's off, title pages show no chapter row and Jellyfin clients such as Infuse get no chapter images; chapters built into the file still work. To turn it back on (administrators), go to Media library → the gear button (管理媒体库) → ⋯ next to the library → Edit library → Scan & monitoring → Generate chapters. Images already generated are kept, and missing ones are generated in the background.
• The subtitle Outline (描边) option is gone on the web and iPhone. Without a background, subtitles are white with a soft shadow.
• This release migrates the database. In-app update backs it up first; to return to v0.28.0, use Settings → Update & Maintenance → Choose a version to roll back to… (选择版本回退…), which restores that backup, so changes made after the update are lost. If you update by pulling the Docker image, stop the container and back up the data directory first; to return, change the image tag back to v0.28.0 and restore that backup.
• Changes marked for iPhone need app 0.2.0: https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/download/v0.29.0/MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa

Thanks to @miniers. Full changes: v0.28.0 → v0.29.0.

✅ No Docker image update is required. Update from Settings → Update & Maintenance.
⚠️ iPhone app: it needs this server version; older servers refuse sign-in from the app.
⚠️ If you use the Mac transcoder: download MovieClawTranscoder-macos-arm64.zip and replace the old app. It is now called MovieClaw 转码器; delete the old MovieClaw Transcoder.app so you don't end up with two (settings and pairing carry over). The old version keeps working, but Blu-ray and Infuse transcodes are not sent to it; the server transcodes them itself or plays the original.

Highlights

Your library as a real iPhone app

On iPhone you could only open the web page, where large files and discs often needed transcoding or didn't play. The new app plays files straight from your server, including 4K HDR, Blu-ray folders, DVD and ISO, with picture-in-picture and AirPlay. Download MovieClaw-iOS-unsigned.ipa and install it with AltStore, SideStore or Sideloadly using your own Apple ID.

• Needs iOS 26 or later. It is made for iPhone (iPad runs it in compatibility mode), and the interface is Chinese only.
• Sign in with your server address, user name and password; on first launch it looks for servers on your local network. You can keep several servers and accounts.
• Subscription rules, resource sites, downloaders and auto-import are set up on the web; the app sends you there.
• An app signed with a free Apple ID expires after 7 days unless AltStore or SideStore renews it.

A Mac transcoder you can just open

The Mac transcoder used to be a menu bar item with a settings window; it is now a status panel showing which title it is converting. It starts at login and restarts its converter by itself after a crash. It can convert Blu-ray folders and turns HDR and Dolby Vision into SDR on the GPU. The download is notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click.

• Apple Silicon Macs, macOS 12 or later. ISO images and DVDs can't be converted yet.
• GPU HDR conversion needs Jellyfin-ffmpeg; with another ffmpeg, HDR falls back to the CPU and is much slower.
• Settings changes: Pause receiving tasks (暂停接收任务) is gone, as the app takes jobs while it is open; Max concurrency (最大并发) is now Settings → Transcoding → Simultaneous transcodes (同时转码).

See and sign out every login

You couldn't see where your account was signed in, and only administrators could manage command-line and transcoder access. Settings → Devices (设备) now lists the browsers, apps, command-line tools, transcoders and Jellyfin players signed in to your account, with system, version and last activity. Every member can rename their own devices or Sign out (注销) any of them, and administrators can switch to every member's devices.

• Approve a new mclaw or transcoder by entering its pairing code, or by opening the link it shows; the pending-requests list is gone.
• Members can pair mclaw with their own account, and it gets that member's permissions. Only administrators can approve transcoders.
• Changing your password signs out your other browsers, apps and Jellyfin players. Tick Also sign out command line and transcoders (同时注销命令行和转码器) to sign those out too.
• Existing mclaw and transcoder pairings keep working after the update, and mclaw logout now also signs the machine out on the server.

New features

• Subscriptions page (Silver Glass): A rotating hero with title logos and backdrops, a Just arrived (刚刚入库) row, a week-ahead schedule, and separate movie and show rows with View all (查看全部) in place of the type switch.
• Rule groups chosen automatically: Give a group an Applies to (适用范围) (movies or shows, regions, genres) under Settings → Subscription Rules. New subscriptions pick the matching group, otherwise the default. Existing subscriptions keep their groups.
• Different themes on computer and phone: Settings → Appearance now sets the theme for the kind of device you are on.
• How each stream plays: Activity marks each playback as direct, remux or transcode, and shows where it is being transcoded.
• Clean up leftover boost torrents: When you turn off ratio boost or delete a site, you can delete its boost torrents and their files. Later, use Clean up boost torrents… (清理刷流种子…) in Activity. Torrents still inside the site's required seeding time are deleted when it ends.

Improvements

• Faster: Resuming starts sooner, saving a subscription no longer pauses for seconds, and the subscriptions and library pages load faster.
• Less disk reading: Opening a title's details no longer reads the whole file to extract subtitles; embedded subtitles are extracted when the player asks for them.
• Web player: The speed in the player shows what is actually loading. In the diagnostics panel, Stream (取流) is now Bandwidth (带宽). Chapter marks are gone from the progress bar; chapter names still show while scrubbing.
• Phone layout (Silver Glass): The bottom bar is icon-only. More (更多) is now the Me (我的) tab with your avatar, and search is at the top right. Start new conversations from Me → Recent conversations; copying a conversation ID is only in the desktop sidebar.

Fixed

• Playing in Infuse through a remote transcoder always failed (needs the new Mac transcoder).
• Newer Jellyfin clients such as Findroid, Flow and the official Android TV app may have refused to connect because the server reported an old version.
• With Docker bridge networking, players that found the server through local discovery got an address they couldn't reach. Discovery now returns Settings → Network → External access address (外部访问地址); fill in your LAN address there and map UDP port 7359.
• The scheduled task switches were misaligned in Chrome and Edge, and the rule group list was squashed on phones.

For administrators

• Resetting a member's password signs them out of web, app and players, but not the command line. Use Sign out everywhere (全部下线) in Settings → Members to sign them out everywhere.
• Playback quality records are now deleted from the server after 90 days.

Before you update

• This release migrates the database. To go back, open Settings → Update & Maintenance → Choose a version to roll back to… (选择版本回退…) and pick v0.27.0. It restores the automatic backup made before this update, so changes made since are lost.
• MovieClaw is now under the MovieClaw License (Apache-2.0 with non-commercial terms) instead of MIT. Personal and family use is not affected.

Thanks to @duchanghexuhe and @jasonhorga. Full changes: v0.27.0 → v0.28.0.