Desktop updates
Stuck downloads, quiet restarts, and how each package applies an update.
OpenFolks checks for updates in the background and offers the download in a card at the bottom of the window. How the download is applied depends on what you installed.
| Build | What the button does |
|---|---|
| macOS, Windows, Linux AppImage | Restart to update — the app replaces itself and reopens. An AppImage is rewritten at the path you launched, so your launcher, symlink, or dock pin keeps working. |
Ubuntu .deb (and rpm/pacman) | Install — OpenFolks downloads and verifies the package, copies the install command, and opens a terminal for you to paste. The app never installs a system package itself, so it never asks for your administrator password. |
Ubuntu packages are installed from the releases repository by hand, so the app hands you the exact line:
sudo apt-get install -y '/home/you/.cache/openfolks-updater/pending/OpenFolks-<version>-amd64.deb'Reopen OpenFolks when it finishes.
The download keeps spinning
Leave the app open long enough for one complete attempt, then quit and reopen. A failed differential update should fall back to the full package. If the same release stays stuck, download the current installer from the official releases repository and install it over the existing copy.
Restart to update does nothing
Quit OpenFolks completely and launch it again. If the version did not change, install the latest release by hand. Conversations and settings live outside the application bundle and survive replacing the app.
No terminal opened
The install command is on your clipboard either way. Open a terminal and paste it. If the clipboard was overwritten, the package is already downloaded:
sudo apt-get install -y ~/.cache/openfolks-updater/pending/OpenFolks-*-amd64.debUse apt-get, not dpkg -i. Only apt-get resolves dependencies, and on Ubuntu 24.04 ours are satisfied through virtual packages that dpkg alone will not follow.
Check the installed version
Open Settings and read the displayed version. A commit on main is not in the desktop app until a release workflow publishes a new version.
Use official artifacts
Do not install update files forwarded through chat or uploaded to an unrelated repository. Use the OpenFolks releases repository and its checksums.