Version 1.8.10

• I'm really excited about this one: Sidebar now supports a vertical list layout. This option is only available when Sidebar is used vertically. If enabled, this changes Sidebar from an icon-based layout to a text-based list format. Applications that don't fit on screen will be accessible by scrolling through the list, rather than being grouped into an expandable section.
  Vertical list mode is compatible with all display styles and can be enabled in the styling settings in the "Position & size" category: "Display as vertical list". This option is only available if Sidebar is either on the left or right side of the screen.
• Added a new running indicator: Circles with window count. This running indicator shows circles for each window, up to the maximum that fits next to the icon (based on icon and indicator size). Displays a line when window count exceeds available space
• You can now enable running indicators for stacks. For regular running indicators (circle, line, dynamic and highlight) this will indicate if at least one app is running within the stack. For running indicators with window count (highlight with window count and circle with window count) this will include all windows from apps within the stack.
  This is a styling setting available in the "Applications" category where you can also choose which running indicator to use.
• Multimedia controls are now available when using ungrouped labeled style, as long as there's just one window
• Added a new option to the context menu to move an icon, spacer, ... one spot to the left or right. This is an alternative approach to rearrange icons rather than using drag and drop

• Fixed an issue when running Sidebar on the latest beta for macOS Tahoe
• Overall performance improvements

Version 1.8.9

• Fixed an issue with multimedia detection for Webkit based browsers (Safari, ...)
• Fixed a layout issue when switching multimedia apps

Version 1.8.8

• Sidebar now supports multimedia cover images again (for the previews and to replace the application icon with the cover image)
• Added a new option to adjust what happens if you middle-click an application. Sidebar now offers three options:
  • Do nothing
  • Close the app or application window
  • Create a new application window (if the app is supported) or do nothing
  When middle-clicking on an application window, this will now only close that application window instead of the whole application. If you choose the option to create a new application window, this is only supported for those apps that also offer this option in the context menu of Sidebar.
• The size of empty spacers can now be reduced down to a minimum of 5 px. Also, you can now adjust the size of empty spacers by scrolling up or down while hovering over the spacer with the cursor while customization mode is active instead of using drag & drop on the side of the spacer.
• Added functionality to export / import your entire Sidebar configuration with a single click. You can find it in the expert settings

• Overall performance improvements and crash fixes
• Fixed an issue with showing preview and context menu windows while a fullscreen application is on screen
• Some more fixes for auto-hiding
• Fixed some problems with multimedia detection
• Fixed an issue with generating previews while Stage Manager is active
• Fixed a bug that sometimes clicks went through other windows (e.g. context menus of other apps) and performed a click on Sidebar if it was located right behind it

Version 1.8.7

• Fixed an issue that could lead to more CPU usage as usual
• Fixed a layout issue that sometimes after your Mac woke up from sleep Sidebar wouldn't expand in size
• When the width for items displayed in ungrouped labeled style is turned all the way down to 0, then this will hide the title while using Sidebar vertically

Version 1.8.6

• Added a new setting to adjust the behavior when scrolling on an application icon. You can find this setting in the Applications tab in the settings. You can choose between
  • Do nothing
  • Scroll through application windows
  • Minimize application windows on scroll down or unminimize on scroll up
  • Move windows to the active screen on scroll up, or minimize on scroll down
• Sidebar will now always be visible while the settings are open, making it easier to customize settings while auto-hide is active
• Harmonized corner radius for all additional windows. Instead of mirroring the corner radius of Sidebar, additional windows will now always use a fixed corner radius
• You can now turn the width for ungrouped labeled items all the way down to 0. This will effectively hide the window title and just display one application icon for each application window

• Lots of performance optimizations are included in this update
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes lead to large amount of RAM being used
• Fixed some layout issues with multimedia controls, corner radius etc.
• Fixed a problem that you couldn't add exceptions to the auto-quitting feature while the "include" mode was selected
• Fixed a bug that sometimes shifted application windows back to the default sort order, even though those windows have been sorted manually before
• The scroll detection has been improved to avoid unintentional scroll gestures on app icons
• Fixed missing context menu options for non-running applications in a stack
• When Sidebar isn't able to detect the name of a window, instead of showing a static text, Sidebar will now show the application name instead
• Fixed some auto-hide related issues

Version 1.8.5

• A new icon styling option is now available: Dynamic icon size
  • This option can be found in the styling settings in the "Icons" tab
  • Enabling this option will allow Sidebar to automatically scale down icons if there's not enough space to fit all icons
  • After enabling the dynamic icon size option, you can set the minimum icon size to which Sidebar is allowed to scale down
  • Note: The height of Sidebar (which is, among other things, determined by the icon size) will not be changed when scaling down the icon size to provide a more consistent design (especially when using the overlapping prevention)
• The option to show application previews can now be enabled even without Screen Recording permissions. In this case Sidebar will only show application titles without preview images and always display the window titles in list mode
• You can now close application windows from the context menu via the little x button that will appear on hover
• Added a new context menu option (only available in list mode) to open a specific file with this application (same as if you'd drag and drop the file into the application)
• Added an indicator in the context menu showing which of the open application windows is the active one
• The option to move all windows of all applications is now available in the context menu of the Sidebar button

• Fixed notification badges for Microsoft Outlook
• Added a missing context menu item for stacks in list mode to remove this stack
• Fixed an issue that caused Sidebar to appear even when briefly hovering over the activation area
• Fixed an error that sometimes caused additional windows not to properly close
• The option to "Close all windows" now displays "Close window" if there's just one window
• Fixed an issue that caused Sidebar to grab the input focus while a preview window was open
• Sidebar will now correctly resolve folder aliases in FolderPeek, displaying aliases and softlinks to folders with the correct icon
• Fixed an issue with multimedia controls that kept the controls visible for an app, even though playback had already been stopped
• Fixed some layout issues
• Other crash and bug fixes

Version 1.8.4

• Sidebar now supports multimedia controls for applications again - even when running macOS 15.4+. At the moment, this new approach does not support cover/artwork images, but will allow you to universally control multimedia playback for all applications

Version 1.8.3

• Added a new setting (Settings -> Behaviour) to switch between different context menu modes. Three modes are available:
  • Modern - the default updated design since 1.8.0
  • List - more like the old context menu but with an updated design
  • Minimal - just like list mode, but with only the basic options available (option / alt to expand)
• You can now right click the empty area in Sidebar or the Sidebar icon to access the context menu with some basic options
• You can now scroll through open application windows (e.g. Finder has three windows, use the scroll wheel to quickly scroll through all open windows)
• Added a new setting that lets you adjust the delay for the preview window independently from all other additional windows
• Harmonized the delay until additional windows appear for all windows
• The option to hide preview images when displaying preview in list view now also works in auto mode
• Fullscreen detection should now run a bit faster
• Sidebar now automatically detects if the system accessibility setting "Reduce transparency" is enabled. If so, the transparency in Sidebar's settings will be disabled automatically

• Fixed an issue with detecting notifications and showing badges
• Fixed a bug that sometimes a scroll indicator was visible in the preview windows
• Fixed a bug with full screen detection
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Sidebar's overlapping prevention not to work after waking your mac from sleep
• Fixed some other layout issues with stacks when using Sidebar in vertical mode
• Apps without a window won't quit anymore while the system is locked or put to sleep
• The size of the activation area (expert setting) is now exactly the amount of pixel that you set it to in the settings
• Fixed an issue quitting the Steam app using the context menu action
• Fixed a bug with Discord window detection
• Fixed a layout issue for displaying stacks in the list of applications that don't fit on Sidebar anymore
• Stacks that are in the list of applications that don't fit on Sidebar anymore won't open on hover anymore
• Folder links won't open on hover anymore when placed inside a stack
• Fixed an issue that prevented moving around items within a stack when used vertically
• The application specific setting to "Limit to active spaces" via the context menu now works correctly
• Fixed a bug that caused individual Finder tabs to count as regular application windows when using the highlight with window count running indicator while the setting to "Limit applications to active spaces" is disabled

Version 1.8.2

• You can now view previews and move out applications of the view for the applications that don't fit on Sidebar anymore - it basically looks like a stack in list view

• I'm really sorry about the fast 1.8.2 update, but there was a bug preventing the screen center spacer to work properly in some cases. This has been fixed with this update

Version 1.8.1

• Added a new option to only show pinned applications in Sidebar. Tip: If you disable running indicators, this will turn Sidebar effectively into an application launcher
• Added a new option to disable the preview images when using the list view for the application previews. You can find this new option in the styling settings (Previews category)
• Sidebar will now automatically check if an application is still installed (if the app is still there) once you hover an application
• You can now remove items from Sidebar by just dragging them out of Sidebar (just like on the Dock). This works for applications and links
• The context menu option "Close" that will be displayed for application windows can now be switched to "Quit" when holding down the option / alt key
• Multimedia controls will now automatically be enabled for Spotify and Apple Music even if the app is not playing for as long as there's just one of those two apps running at the same time
• The design when viewing the contents of a folder has been slightly improved (better aligned, new button design etc.)

• On right click, the context menu will now open instantly ignoring any delays that usually take effect for e.g. showing preview windows
• When changing a stack icon, the default stack icon will now be displayed correctly
• Fixed an issue that the currently active window didn't highlight in ungrouped labeled style while using the highlight running indicator
• The window count when using the highlighted running indicator will now update correctly when closing a preview window via the little x in the corner of the previews
• Further improved the fullscreen application detection. Sidebar should now hide faster and more reliable than before
• Fixed a layout issue that prevented to correctly position icons in the "screen center" alignment when using a custom date format
• Improved file pass-through handling to applications - this should work much more reliable than before
• Fixed some layout issues when viewing folder contents
• Some smaller performance improvements

Version 1.8.0

Customization mode

• Sidebar now offers a new customization mode, that can be enabled from within the previews or context menu
• While customization mode is active, Sidebar will show multiple context specific options when hovering an item in Sidebar. All actions that used to be available in the context menu before can now be found in the customization mode
• Customization mode will remain active until manually disabled, allowing you to quickly switch between multiple items and adjust settings
• The functionality to customize an icon in Sidebar is now also directly available in customization mode
• You can now customize application names and even names of specific windows in Sidebar
• For applications, there's a new functionality that allows you to move all windows of a single application to a specific screen

Application previews

• The preview window (when hovering an icon) was completely redesigned and now also offers a list view and an automatic mode that will switch between large previews and previews as list automatically. Switching between display modes is easy and directly accessible via the button at the top left
• You can now also find a new customization button at the top right that enables customization mode (see next point)
• This button will switch to a settings button while holding down the option / alt key
• Added a new setting called "Show application title" that's only available if preview windows are disabled. This setting lets you control whether you want to see the name of the application or title of the window on hover or not
• Added a new setting called "Show quick actions" that allow you to enable / disable the quick actions (preview layout / customize mode) when viewing previews. The quick actions will always be visible in the context menu (right click) though

Context menu

• When right clicking an item in Sidebar (e.g. an application, window, stack, ...) instead of bringing up a regular context menu, Sidebar will now show additional options right in the preview window (e.g. Open, Quit, ...). For most of these options, alternatives are available while holding down the option / alt key (e.g. Quit becomes Force quit, ...)

Running indicators

• Sidebar now offers two new running indicators: Highlight and Highlight with window count. Both will display a highlighted background around running applications instead of placing e.g. a line beneath the icon. When using the highlighted mode along with the window count you'll see the number of application windows next to the application icon, if the app has more than one window
• Added a new styling setting that allows you to customize the highlighting area around icons when using the highlight or highlight with window count running indicator

Multimedia support

• Important note: Starting with macOS 15.4, Apple does no longer allow third party applications to universally get playback information. That means if you are running macOS 15.4 or later, Sidebar will only show multimedia controls for Spotify or Apple Music. Browser controls are no longer supported, as this has been restricted by Apple. Sidebar is not the only app affected by this - all apps that used to support system wide multimedia controls can no longer achieve this
• For maxOS 15.4 and later Sidebar directly controls Spotify and Apple Music instead of using data provided by the system. When using the functionality to show the cover image for Spotify, Sidebar will communicate with the Spotify servers in order to download the cover image. This network request is new and necessary, since otherwise Sidebar won't be able to access the cover image. Apple Music on the o ther hand directly provides the cover image data without any additional network requests
• A new multimedia control style is available: Large controls. This design will display the title and artist information next to the controls instead of above them. Using this style almost doubles the size of the multimedia application
• Multimedia controls in the previews have been removed as an overlay of the preview / cover image. Instead the controls follow the new design approach and are now available as buttons beneath the preview
• Added a new expert setting for multimedia controls (macOS 15.4+ only). This setting allows you to control the refresh rate of multimedia information requested from supported apps (Spotify, Apple Music)

Bug fixes

• Fixed an error that could cause some functionalities e.g. move all windows to a specific screen to stop working after changing your system's screen setup
• Unpinning a link will now automatically remove it
• When passing through a file to an application, stacks will now automatically open, allowing you to pass the file through to an application located within a stack
• Fixed an issue that sometimes notification badges of some applications (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) weren't displayed / updated correctly
• Fixed an issue that sometimes passing through a file to an application via drag & drop didn't work as expected, especially after activating an application by hovering it while performing the drag operation
• Fixed an issue that sometimes after a system time / date change, Sidebar stopped updating the time
• Fixed a problem that when emptying a large amount of files from the trash, Sidebar would be unresponsive until the operation completed
• Fixed some typos

Version 1.7.10

• Fixed an issue that could sometimes lead to crashes of Sidebar due to a bug in Sidebar's configuration

Version 1.7.9

• Fixed some bugs that could lead to crashes and memory usage issues

Version 1.7.8

• Sidebar will now remain visible when triggering the "Show desktop" functionality, so that you can use it to e.g. drag & drop files from the desktop to the trash
• Added a new application specific setting to never show multimedia controls for specific applications
• Added another application specific setting to show a specific application in Sidebar, even if there are no application windows
• Added a new setting that lets you control the delay until an application will be quitted automatically after the last window closes

• When moving all windows to another screen, the overlapping prevention will now trigger automatically
• Some more fixes to better support Parallels
• When terminating Finder via the context menu, Sidebar will now close all applications instead of terminating Finder
• When quitting applications automatically, applications that are actively playing multimedia in the background (even without a window) will be excluded automatically
• Sidebar will now only show the "What's new" dialog if the major version has been updated (e.g. 1.7 -> 1.8)
• The onboarding window will not float on top of all other windows anymore to avoid covering the System Settings while requesting permissionss
• Fixed some layout issues
• Fixed some bugs that could lead to potential crashes

Version 1.7.7

• Quit applications without windows: This new feature (Settings -> Applications -> Quit applications) allows you to automatically quit applications that do not have any application windows left
• Sidebar now offers a new functionality to move all application windows (either from a single application or all applications) to another screen. This functionality is accessible for all apps via the top right menu bar item or the context menu of the Sidebar button, and for single apps via the context menu of the application icon
• You can now pin single files to Sidebar. To do that, just drag & drop a file onto Sidebar's drop area
• You can now activate specific application windows via the preview windows while dragging a file from Finder. This allows you to pass through the file to specific application windows, rather than to the application
• Support for Parallels Coherence mode running a Windows guest system has been improved a lot
• Chromium based browsers (Chrome, Brave and Edge) now support new context menu items that allow you to open a window with a specific profile
• Added a new styling setting for multimedia controls that lets you control if the running indicator should be displayed while multimedia controls are active, or not
• Added new animation settings: you can now control the animation that's used when Sidebar auto-hides
• Sidebar will now display a special icon while the settings are open that allows you to quickly focus the settings window again

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused missed clicks when using fully transparent backgrounds
• Shortcuts (from the Shortcuts app) will now display the proper name in Sidebar
• Fixed an error that sometimes caused overlapping prevention not to work properly when moving application windows across multiple screens
• Fixed a bug that sometimes mispositioned stack windows after opening the stack with a click on Sidebar
• Fixed an issue that sometimes updating a custom application icon did not work if there was another custom icon set before
• Fixed an error that sometimes caused Sidebar to crash

Version 1.7.6

• When using the Gnome‑style application switching, Sidebar now respects the "Limit applications to active Spaces" setting. This means that the last active window will be determined individually for each space
• Sidebar will now automatically become visible when auto-hiding is enabled and you move the cursor to the side of the screen where it’s pinned while dragging an item
• Parallels Coherence mode is now better supported, causing the overlapping prevention to work for those windows as well
• The "New window" and "New tab" context menu options have been added for iTerm2

• Fixed a bug that caused Sidebar to crash when clicking the Sidebar button to activate the start menu
• The "Desktop" and "Mission Control" Clear View actions now work even if you don't use the standard system shortcuts
• Triggering the second‑click functionality (e.g., clicking the active app again in Sidebar) now executes faster
• Volume controls now automatically close when you no longer hover over the window
• Sidebar is now better at switching windows on inactive Spaces
• Fixed the context menu option for creating a new private window for Safari
• Fixed an issue in which restoring window positions across different Spaces did not work in macOS 15+
• Fixed layout issues when using multimedia controls for applications that are in a stack. For stacks displayed as a grid, multimedia controls are disabled completely. For stacks displayed as a list, multimedia controls are available only without the title
• Fixed a bug that prevented preview windows from appearing after disconnecting an external (main) screen
• Fixed an issue where, in some rare cases, the trash bin could be displayed multiple times
• Fixed several other issues that could crash Sidebar

Version 1.7.5

• Changed how sorting in FolderPeek works. Now, when sorting descending, Sidebar will scroll down instead of inverting the order, making it easier to interact with the latest item
• The volume in percent will now be visible beneath the volume slider when adjusting the volume level
• Added more hints

• Fixed a bug that sometimes full-size preview windows didn't close automatically, preventing to interact with the app beneath it
• Fixed an issue that caused overlapping prevention not to work for hidden apps
• The setting to show Sidebar when moving the cursor to the screen side that Sidebar is pinned on now works correctly
• Fixed background blurring of the settings dialog - it will now use a constant blurring regardless of styling settings
• Fixed the position of file previews for FolderPeek and also the issue that those previews did close automatically when trying to interact with it
• Fixed the tab order of buttons in the start menu when using the 'Keyboard navigation' accessibility setting
• Fixed an issue that caused spacers not to show correctly if a spacer was the last item in the default area
• Fixed the selection value of stack styles - both values were mixed up
• Fixed an problem that sometimes application windows did randomly re-order
• Fixed some layout issues

Version 1.7.4

• Added a new setting to show / hide applications with no windows. You can find this option in the Applications tab in the settings. If enabled, Sidebar will display all applications, even those without windows. Such applications use a slightly transparent running indicator. When disabled, only pinned apps will be visible when they have no windows
• Sidebar will now show a warning when exiting while the Dock is hidden, allowing you to easily restore the Dock. You can disable this warning in the settings
• The date / time is now centered in Sidebar and does no longer use the padding for the running indicator so that there's more available space
• Sidebar now hides a lot faster when switching to a fullscreen space and does not hide apps on other spaces first - making the transition smoother overall
• The Dock's hiding mechanism has been improved, especially during Mission Control. To use this improvement, please toggle the Dock hiding off and on once

• Fixed a bug that sometimes a click on an application activated the app, but didn't bring the window forward
• Fixed a bug with the trash can layout when unlocking the trash from the right side
• Fixed re-ordering applications when using ungrouped labeled style
• Dropping an application or a folder from Finder to Sidebar is now a lot smoother
• When navigating into a styling category, the view will automatically scroll to the top. Navigating back to the overview will center the styling categories
• Fixed an issue with some JetBrains products that caused some dialogs to instantly close while using WindowSnap
• Some more layout issues were fixed
• When copying a style to another screen, the custom Sidebar icon will now also be copied
• Fixed an issue when removing a Sidebar license via the settings. The functionality now correctly removes a license, so that e.g. switching to a different license is working as expected now
• Fixed a problem that sometimes a wrong icon was displayed for an application

Version 1.7.3

• Sorry - the last release had an issue with the new status window when using Sidebar's auto-hide feature

Version 1.7.2

• Multimedia previews can now be enabled independently of inline multimedia controls
• Changed how the show / hide shortcuts work. You can now also force hide Sidebar if e.g. it remained open while displaying a fullscreen application. Pressing the shortcut again will cycle through all available options
• The shortcuts to show / hide Sidebar or force overlapping prevention will now shortly show a status window to indicate that the action worked
• Added a new settings category: Accessibility. You can now remove the transparency of the settings window or switch to a white window with black text to increase readability for the settings
• Added a new shortcut to restart Sidebar
• Added more hints

• Fixed a bug that caused Sidebar to crash when exporting styling settings
• Fixed wrong labels for ClearView styling settings
• Fixed an issue when triggering the second click functionality while using macOS application display style
• Fixed an issue that sometimes WebKit based browsers (Safari, Orion, ...) didn't show multimedia controls
• Fixed the reset button in the settings. It now correctly resets slider values too
• Fixed a bug in the new styling settings that also activated the option behind the navigation when clicking the navigation
• Fixed some layout issues

Version 1.7.1

• Moved all styling settings up one level so that you can see all available settings without selecting a screen first
• Added a new option to automatically use the same style across all screens

Version 1.7.0

New settings

• Settings have been completely redesigned with a modern look
• Some settings have been simplified or replaced, while others have been removed. All controls now use a modern approach, making Sidebar easier to customize

Themes

• Multiple base themes are now available - choose from various presets to customize Sidebar

Style

• All style settings can now be copied to other screens or reset to their default values with a single click
• Styles can now be copied to other screens easily within the styling settings
• The size of notification badges can now be adjusted in the styling settings. Notification badges will now also better adjust their shape to the number of notifications
• When using dynamic size for Sidebar, it will now respect the alignment as well. You can have a dynamically sized Sidebar that is not always centered
• Auto-hiding can now be customized individually per screen

Animations

• You can now customize some of Sidebar's animations in the style settings. There's still more to come!

Applications and windows

• You can now sort application windows of the same application using drag & drop
• The order of application windows for an application will now be more consistent
• Running indicators are now much more reliable. Running applications without a window get a semi-transparent running indicator. Except for Finder, if Finder doesn't have any windows but is pinned to Sidebar, there won't be any running indicator to simulate a non-running Finder
• The view for truncated applications (those apps that don't fit on Sidebar anymore) now has a dynamic size and will adjust its size to the displayed applications
• There's a new type of spacer: Line. A line spacer will display a subtle line instead of just empty space. You can change a spacer type via its context menu while spacers are unlocked
• Added a new setting to lock/unlock Sidebar. While Sidebar is locked, icons cannot be rearranged. This setting will be persisted even when restarting Sidebar

Hints

• Sidebar will now show hints from time to time to help you discover its features
• You can disable hints in the settings or reset all hints to make them appear again

Other improvements

• Added a new shortcut to trigger overlapping prevention
• FolderPeek now uses the default file viewer to open a containing folder rather than always using Finder

Bug fixes

• Fixed a lot of bugs and crash-related issues
• Performance improvements for various features