Today we are releasing Codebook 4.1, an important update to Codebook on all four platforms we support (Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows), requiring a simultaneous release for compatibility. We recommend all customers update to the latest version as it includes significant stabilization improvements and bug fixes for the Sync feature, better error handling and recovery, as well as a set of new features allowing power users to change how Sync operates from its default method for exchanging data.
Codebook 4.1 supports the same minimum operating system requirements as Codebook 4.0.1 If you are running Codebook 4.0 you can and should update to 4.1. If you Sync over Desktop WiFi you will run into a protocol mismatch error during Sync if you upgrade only one of your devices—make sure all of your devices are updated to 4.1 to continue using Desktop WiFi sync.
Read on for more information about the new Operations, and the full list of changes for Codebook 4.1.
Downloading the Update
Codebook 4.1 is being distributed through the normal release channels, Google Play, iTunes and Mac App Store, and our appcast feeds for the Windows and direct Mac versions.
We have instructions available for downloading the latest version on your platform. If you are having trouble getting the update, please get in touch.
Sync Operations
The new Sync Operations are similar to the Operations feature previously available in Codebook 3, with a new addition that we hope will be particularly helpful in support and recovery scenarios. It allows you to select one of four different modes of operation for Sync:
- Sync
- Overwrite
- Restore
- Merge
Codebook uses the standard Sync operation to swap local changes with changes from your desktop or a cloud service, using a last-update-wins method of conflict resolution. This is the operation we recommend all customers use during normal operation. We understand that there were initially some issues with this replication in 4.0, along with some historical bugs in 3.x, however we have tracked them all down to the best of our knowledge, and this release patches the last of them.
The additional operations, Overwrite, Restore, and Merge, are intended to help with cleaning up any remaining problems. They’re also useful if you happen to have known good data and wish to use it to override data on another device or cloud service, or wish to combine databases in order to avoid data loss.
Because these operations are intended for advanced usage they’re not displayed in the UI by default, but they are easily enabled. Instructions for displaying the Operations menu on your device are available on the Help page.
The Overwrite and Restore operations should be fairly self-explanatory: they cause Codebook to replace all the data on one side of a sync operation with all the data on the other side. So, if you set Codebook on your iPhone to Restore, and sync with Codebook on your desktop, Codebook will replace all the data on your iPhone with all the data on your desktop. If you set Codebook on your desktop to Overwrite and sync with Dropbox, Codebook will replace all the Codebook data in your Dropbox with the data from your desktop. Because one side is essentially clearing out the data on the other, Overwrite and Restore should be used carefully to avoid unintentional data loss.
The Merge operation allows you to combine both the local and remote databases to create a new unified set of records, but it requires you to choose either the local or the remote database as authoritative for any conflicts Codebook cannot resolve on its own using the last-update-wins strategy. An additional feature of the Merge operation is that it avoids processing any un-seen deletes, meaning that merging two databases won’t cause data deleted only on one side to be deleted in the resulting database after the merge operation.
Additional Changes in Codebook 4.1
There have been numerous other changes to Codebook on all four platforms we support.
Android:
- Updates External Links section of the Settings view with links to the latest documentation and a link to the Codebook mailing list
- Improves capture rate of QR code by enabling autofocus of camera
- Improves local service scanning behavior for WiFi sync to desktop
- Adds support for loading Codebook Help within Codebook instead of sending the user out of the app to the system web browser
- Adds support for scanning QR codes for capturing TOTP secret keys directly within application
- Presents confirmation dialog when choosing to not backup Sync Key
iOS:
- Adds a button for toggling the masking state of the password field on Master Password authentication prompts for decrypting a Sync Key
- Updates External Links section of the Settings view with links to the latest documentation and a link to the Codebook mailing list
- Adds support for loading Codebook Help within Codebook instead of sending the user out of the app to the system web browser
- Improves caching and local network address resolution of selected Desktop WiFi computer on the Sync view
macOS:
- Updates the Sync menu, making the Start Sync item more clearly visible at the bottom and grouping other related menu items together
- Updates the title of the Start Sync menu item to reflect the currently selected Operation
- Fixes regression on Create New Category to drop user directly into the name field without any default title once the sheet presents
- Provides Undo and Redo support for randomly generating passwords during Entry editing
- Provides Undo support for field ordering/dragging
- Explicitly clears the Undo stack when Entry editing ends (instead of when another Entry is selected)
- Ensures that auxiliary windows and panels requiring database access are properly closed on application lock
- Fixes failure to persist field edits immediately after pasting a copied Entry
- Fixes an issue improperly preventing application termination
- Improves menu bar item validation when the Main Window is not the active window and when the Main Window is locked
- Updates the Help menu with links to the latest documentation and a link to the Codebook mailing list
- Help menu items have been rearranged and grouped according to function
- Updates the Entry menu, specifically the group of field-specific items at the bottom to match changes to the Fields table context menu for the currently selected field
- Adjusts the fields context menu to display the Show/Hide item more visibly at the top, with a new mask/unmask icon on the menu item
- Adjusts the fields context menu to improve the grouping and separation of related menu items
- Adjusts the fields context menu to no longer display the Show/Hide item during editing
Windows:
- Updates the Help menu with links to the latest documentation and a link to the Codebook mailing list
- Help menu items have been rearranged and grouped according to function
- Updates the Sync menu, making the Start Sync item more clearly visible at the bottom and grouping other related menu items together
- Updates the title of the Start Sync menu item to reflect any non-standard Operation (Overwrite, Restore, or Merge) that the user has selected for the next sync
- Presents confirmation dialog when choosing to not backup Sync Key
- Disables main window during synchronization
1. We had originally intended to use the 4.1 version number to introduce Dark Mode on the Android and iOS versions of Codebook, which would have necessitated some minimum OS version number upgrades. This means some devices that cannot run the newer OS’s would not be able to install new versions of Codebook. Our thinking was that we do not want this to happen until all current Codebook customers would be able to have upgraded to the 4.0 sync system including the enhancements in this 4.1 release. This way they will still be able to sync with later copies of Codebook 4 installed on other devices even though some devices may not be able to install that upgrade. We’re going to hold off on the Dark Mode changes until 4.2 in order to make sure everyone running 4.0 can upgrade to 4.1.