Release notes - Proton Mail Bridge - beta

New

• Added more detailed local logging for label-related operations and vault key information.
• Bridge now remembers the last keychain helper used on Linux.

Changed

• Username and password handling during login is now more robust.

Fixed

• Fixed autostart shortcut creation on Windows for usernames with special characters.
• Improved reliability when many mail changes are made from other clients.

Changed

• Security and compatibility upgrade for the graphical user interface.

Changed

• Revised update logic to account for supported operating systems.

Changed

• Updated Go to version 1.23.4.
• Various dependency updates.
• Improved email update mechanism during initial synchronization.

Fixed

• Cut and paste options no longer appear in read-only text fields.

New

• Added support for IMAP AUTHENTICATE PLAIN.

Changed

• Email headers with multiple values now retain their original order.
• IMAP-related data is deleted when an account is removed from Bridge.
• Enhanced the user experience for Human Verification Prompts.
• Restored the ‘-h’ (help) flag in the CLI.

Fixed

• Addressed rare issues with creating, updating, and sending drafts during and after synchronization.

Fixed

• Disable the keychain test on macOS.

New

• Added an option to hide the Bridge tray bar icon on macOS.
• Added new parameters to the CLI help command.

Changed

• Adjusted the macOS profile installation dialogue to reflect the new macOS version profile installation changes.

Fixed

• Enhanced message importing, draft creation and email sending for rare edge cases.

Changed

• Modified behaviour of updater when an update file cannot be downloaded or verified.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that would prevent Bridge from starting if the initials of an account’s user are empty.
• Fixed import of messages with ‘Multipart/Related’ MIME type.

New

• Added a command line parameter to enable or disable keychain check on macOS.
• Introduced remote message display to Bridge to be able to communicate to users during incidents.
• Added context menu to text fields for easier interaction.

Changed

• Improved knowledge base article recommendation during customer support ticket creation.

Fixed

• Bridge can properly handle home folder name changes on macOS.

New

• Added a Repair function under the advanced settings that fixes any local data or configuration corruption without the need to reconfigure the email client.

Changed

• Various stability and security improvements.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that prevented Bridge from starting if the IMAP or SMTP port was already in use.

New

• Added human verification capabilities to Bridge, so users can unblock anti-abuse blocked clients without contacting customer support.
• Improved setup and update experience by installing Certificates on macOS for Outlook for Mac email client.

Fixed

• Improved logging for easier troubleshooting.
• Added tooltip to the Bridge tray icon.

New

• Improved sync troubleshooting by tracking in the application logs the path of the messages.

Fixed

• Resolved an issue that happens when importing a message that was involved in forwarding.
• Resolved an issue that can happen when sending attachments that has non-unicode encoding.

Fixed

• Resolved an issue that prevented Windows and Linux users to auto update to newer versions of Bridge, and in some cases reverted to a previous version of Bridge. NOTE: All Bridge versions that are between v3.2.0 and v3.8.1 (inclusive) need to be updated to the latest Bridge version manually. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Proton customer support or follow the knowledge base instructions: https://proton.me/support/protonmail-bridge-manual-update .

New

• Updated Go version to 1.21.6 and couple of golang libraries.
• Updated keychain access library.
• Improved log format and content.

Fixed

• Prevented various startup and sync issues.
• Resolved apple configuration profile issue.

New

• Suggest relevant KB articles in the in-app bug report form.

Fixed

• Improve duplicate detection in sent folder.

New

• Suggest relevant KB articles in the in-app notifications.

Fixed

• Improved Bridge interaction with keychain.
• Various errors during sending.

New

• Adjusted size of window on low resolution display.
• Improved interaction with system keychain.

Fixed

• Resolved multiple send and draft issues.
• Prevented de-synchronization during migration step.

Fixed

• Improved login and synchronization user experience.
• Resolved multiple send and draft issues.
• Improved behaviour on unstable network connection.

Fixed

• Avoided situation which lead to not receive new mails.

New

• Setup wizard introduced to improve the onboarding and connecting the email client.
• Improve the user experience for adding local certificates on macOS

Fixed

• Update correctly the status of synchronization in application window for several edge-cases.
• Prevent message duplicates in Sent folder.

New

• Update crypto libraries (gopenpgp v2.7.3)

Fixed

• Wrong mailbox hierarchy when recovering from undefined sync state.

Fixed

• Correctly reset Bridge on Windows.
• Prevent deleting message when moving it from trash in Apple Mail.
• Fix asynchronous issues in Bridge services.

New

• Reduced synchronization resource consumption. This change leads to longer synchronization time.
• Added email send, delete, and status change functionalities during synchronization to not depend on synchronization time. These interactions are shared with Proton servers immediately. The changes on Proton servers during synchronization are processed in Bridge only after the synchronization is finished.
• Synchronization progress bar is updated more frequently.
• The synchronization progress bar represents the whole synchronization process, not only the progress ahead from the time when the synchronization is started/resumed. Restarting the Bridge during synchronization will not reset the synchronization progress bar to zero.
• Introduced a new error reporting workflow to improve customer support response time and quality.
• Improved Bridge reliability by reducing its dependency on file operation failures.
• Relaxed Bridge email header parsing rules to allow more emails to import.

Fixed

• Fixed a bug that caused re-synchronization when Proton servers were not available during synchronization.
• Fixed some cases when sent messages are duplicated in the sent folder.
• Emails with missing keys (e.g., forgotten password) are now listed in the email client (still encrypted).
• A new Bridge session identifier is properly created when the Bridge user interface crashes.
• When a message is added to the trash, Bridge removes all labels to have the same behavior as other Proton email clients.
• Fixed the stuck signing in after trying to add an already-added account again.

Fixed

• Fixed the occasional “No values changed” error when sending emails with Apple Mail

Fixed

• Fixed the new database layout migration bug that could lead to mismatches in local read / unread email state
• Fixed the debug option on the Bridge command line interface to not mark emails as read on the server

New

• Added a debug option to the Bridge command line interface to cross check local mailbox state against Proton server state
• Switched to a new database layout to significantly speed up communication with email clients, and to prevent errors when Bridge processes many data quickly
• Made small UI changes to be consistent with other Proton products, and to have an easier to understand status view of the Bridge state
• Added numerous changes to make troubleshooting more efficient, including the introduction of a new log file organization
• Simplified setup experience by removing the Account details dialog when Bridge is auto-configured with Apple Mail

Fixed

• Made Bridge to handle better when Proton servers are overloaded
• Added numerous fixes to prevent application crashes, to keep Bridge consistent with the Proton servers, and to improve email parsing correctness
• Added small fixes that help running automated Bridge tests

Fixed

• Cannot permanently delete new messages

New

• Improved Bridge debugging capabilities by adding more information to the application logs
• Started measuring the Bridge setup experience

Fixed

• Temporarily removed clickable notifications on Linux to not raise the Bridge window when receiving non-Bridge notifications

New

• Reduced the number of occasions when email clients ask for Bridge credentials
• Added new Bridge notifications to help users to configure and troubleshoot their email clients
• To avoid the need to reconfigure email clients, Bridge remembers the old account password when an account is re-added (removed and added again)
• Further improved logging to support troubleshooting
• 2 factor authentication (2FA) is submitted automatically after entering a code
• Removed the requirement of having an administrator account on macOS to install Bridge

Fixed

• Fixed numerous crashes
• Fixed the case when an email could not be sent if a PDF was attached to the email
• Added varioius bugfixes and security improvemenets
• Reduced the Bridge cache size by cleaning up temporary emails that were saved during failed initial synchronizations
• Further reduced the chance of desyncronization between the email client and Bridge

New

• Enhanced Proton infrastructure protection
• Enhanced the integration with the operating system by replacing status windows with native tray icon context menu
• Switched to two columns layout on the account details page to make the informaion easier to access
• Improved logs to support troubleshooting
• Added optional usage sharing to support user experience improvements. Additional information about data sharing can be found on our support page.
• Implemented smart picking of default IMAP and SMTP ports
• Added various security and performance improvements

Fixed

• Replaced invalid email addresses with empty field for new drafts so it can be syncronized across Proton clients
• Improved crash handling
• Fixed label / unlabel performance when applied on large amount of emails
• Fixed “reply to” related issues
• Updated build instructions
• Announced IMAP ID capability to email clients

Fixed

• Added a missing error handler that can make the initial synchronization to stuck

New

• Optimized Recovered Messages folder size by not adding a message to the folder if that message has been added to it before (deduplication)

Fixed

• Improved exception / crash handling

New

• Significantly reduced memory consumption both during synchronization and communication with email clients
• Added synchronization indicator to the graphical user interface (GUI)
• Added “Close window” and “Quit Bridge” buttons to the main window
• Added command line switches to control GUI rendering
• Switched to software rendering on Windows to support old graphics cards
• Added support for Proton’s Scheduled send feature
• Avoided making email clients to ask for Bridge credentials when they started faster than Bridge at startup
• Added a notification when a user is signed out from Bridge in the background
• Improved desynchronization avoidence by setting UIDValidity from the current time
• Started updating emails in the email clients frequently when Bridge is started after not being online for longer period of time
• Improved error detection and handling

Fixed

• Fixed transparent window with old graphics cards or virtual machines on Windows
• Reduced notifications that does not require user actions
• Improved exception / crash handling
• Improved handling complex MIME types
• Reduced the source of errors that can lead to gRPC related error messages
• Fixed sub-folder rename issues
• Fixed various bugs related to secure vault handling, network communication errors, Proton server communication, operating system integration.

New

• Extended the migration from the previous major Bridge version with certificates
• Improved error detection

Fixed

• Fixed the misplaced .desktop file on Linux
• Fixed DBUS secret service integration (e.g., KWallet, KeePass)
• Made Bridge more resilient against Proton server outages

New

• Added better explanation when an email cannot be sent because of non-existing email addresses
• Added a dialog to Bridge where users can repair the application when it encounters an internal error
• Improved error detection

Fixed

• Reduced the cases when Bridge could not restart automatically
• Fixed the bug that could cause email states (e.g., read, unread, answered) to come out of sync with the web application. NOTE: This fix is only applied to new emails. In order to fix older emails in Bridge, the account in Bridge needs to be removed and added back.
• Fixed incorrect subject parsing caused by double quotes

New

• Improved inter-process communication error detection
• Improved exceptions related error detection

Fixed

• Fixed numerous sources of errors leading to logout (internal errors)
• Fixed inter-process communication related startup issues (e.g., gRPC, service configuration file exchange)

New

• Improved event processing related error handling

Fixed

• Fixed manual update errors on Windows by ensuring that all new files are deployed by the Bridge installer

Fixed

• Desynchronization while creating draft.

Fixed

• Better network error handling

New

• Improved error detection

Fixed

• Fixed the sync issues that can happen when updating from an earlier v3 version
• Improved attachment handling by setting proper MIME parameters
• Improved update processing while Bridge is not active or performs a synchronization with Proton servers

New

• Changed the default location of the database and storage files. NOTE: Please delete the old cache location if necessary.
• Optimised cache, database and storage placement
• Improved email sending performance
• Improved unexpected event handling

Fixed

• Outlook does not show sent messages as drafts
• Improved ‘Reply to’ behaviour

New

• Program argument to use software rendering.
• Improved exception handling in GUI.

Fixed

• API event processing more robust.
• Improve the startup process.
• Fixed sub-folder creation bug.

New

• Added an option to the GUI to export TLS certificates
• Increased tolerance of invalid messages

Fixed

• Autostart is set only when changed by the user
• Folders that are created during initial sync are synchronized correctly
• Improved settings migration from 2.x to 3.x
• Error reporting improvements on Intel Macs
• Show the setup guide after the first login
• User name and password validation messages are shown only when the Sign in button is pressed
• The Bridge main window is not shown on startup or after a crash
• Sign in button is not greyed out after the first login

New

• Improved error detection when Proton server updates cannot be processed

Fixed

• Proton server update processing will not stop after a folder update failure

New

• Increase worker count (performance improvement)

Fixed

• Bridge password migration from 2.x to 3.x
• Ensure proper handling of folders and labels with non-US ASCII chars

New

• New IMAP library (https://github.com/ProtonMail/gluon)
  • IMAP state managed entirely by the new IMAP library, to increase robustness and performance
  • Used ANTLR to generate a correct IMAP parser directly from RFC protocol description
  • Implemented an IMAP ‘snapshot’ system to ensure correct execution of IMAP commands when multiple clients are connected simultaneously
  • Full support of IMAP subscription
  • Full support of IMAP SEARCH
  • Allow users to modify the Gluon data location
  • Improved synchronization of local and remote changes
• New API library (https://github.com/ProtonMail/go-proton-api)
  • Switched from pmapi to go-proton-api
  • Stability and performance improvement
• Other
  • Added an option to change IMAP connection mode
  • Subfolder support

Fixed

• Stability & Reliability improvements
  • Optimized SELECT, FETCH and SEARCH performance
  • Parallel user unlock (faster startup times)
  • Parallel file upload (faster send with attachments)
  • Parallel contact fetch (faster send to multiple addresses)
  • Implemented batching for increased performance for COPY/MOVE/STORE on multiple messages
  • Reduced reliance on OS keychain
• Other
  • Implemented sync manager
  • Improved handling SMTP send deduplication
  • Better user management
  • Improved Sentry reporting for easier debugging
  • Increase test coverage
  • GUI improvements

New

• More detailed logs for Bridge GUI
• GUI improvements

Fixed

• Improved Bridge <-> Bridge-GUI communication
• Ensuring all the logs files are included when sending a bug report
• Fixes to the update process on Linux and Windows (qt6 related)

New

• GUI improvements
• More verbose logs for GUI-related issues
• New icon for .dmg installer

Fixed

• Change download and version check urls to proton.me
• Fixed manual check for updates after switching the update channel

New

• Ensured the use of random port for gRPC
• Implemented token exchange for identity validation
• Ensured gRPC generates its own TLS certificate
• Increased bridge-gui timeout for gRPC server connection
• Added new warnings for ‘TLS pinning’ and ‘no active key for recipient’ errors

Fixed

• GUI-related Bridge crashes
• The notification for when Bridge ports are occupied
• Fixed vulnerabilities of golang.org/x/crypto
• Missing Library on Fedora/Gnome upgrade form 2.3 to 2.4
• Added Digital-Signature for DLLs (Windows Security Alert to show Bridge as coming from a trusted publisher)

New

• Native Mac M1 release
• Upgrade to Qt 6:
  • Change the app architecture
  • Drop therecipe/qt dependency
  • Update to go1.18
  • Update to Qt 6.3.2

Fixed

• Improved wording for specific errors
• Improved robustness of Bridge restart
• Status View visual improvements

New

• Feature to hide All Mail from IMAP client
• Enable automatic configuration on macOS Ventura
• Improved the scope of local logs

Fixed

• Visibility of Dependencies in Bridge GUI
• Potential crashes on parallel LIST command

Fixed

• Improvements to manual update process

New

• New Bridge systray icons for all OSes
• New Bridge application icons for all OSes
• Visual update of macOS and Windows installers
• Add label/folder filtering to pmapi

Fixed

• Updated crypto-libraries to gopenpgp v2.4.7 and go-srp v0.0.5
• Convert charset only for text/* MIME types - to ensure no attachment corruption when sending with some email clients
• Reduced unnecessary shell executions

New

• Updated GUI colours to reflect new Proton’s colours theme
• Renamed ProtonMail Bridge to Proton Mail Bridge - installers, keychain etc.
• Use one buffered event for internet status changes
• Added a modal to prompt the user to reconfigure the account once a new PM address is added
• Added a link to dependencies’ licences to the help section footer

Fixed

• Syncing issues for when a new PM address is added
• Changed the wording of ‘delete this account’ dialog
• Improved manual update process (GUI changes)

New

• Added keybase/go-keychain/secretservice as new keychain helper
• GUI changes to report a problem tab

Fixed

• Manual update mechanism

New

• Added another proxy provider
• Improved UX for working with keychain on macOS

Fixed

• Windows clipboard issues (copying account details)
• Random logouts on macOS
• Error for corrupted keychain
• Bug reporting (emails send from custom domain)

New

• Improved Sentry reporting

Fixed

• Ensure messageID is properly removed from DB when it is no longer present on the API

New

• Dark Mode for Bridge, including autodetect mechanism for system colour scheme
• GUI element for changing keychain (Linux)
• Update to goopenpgp 2.4.1
• Optimising sentry reporting

Fixed

• Bridge crashes related to unlocking local cache
• Bug with sending to ‘non-encrypted’ recipients
• Cosmetic GUI changes

New

New Bridge GUI

• Added a Status View in addition to the Main Bridge Window
• Added storage information per signed in account
• Refactor of sign in flows
• Refactor of Helps and Settings section
• Refactor of bug reports
• Refactor of Bridge update flows for beta and stable channels
• Introduced Reset Bridge feature - to clear all the local preferences and settings
• Introduce local cache configuration

New local cache

• Refactor of local store (caching of size, headers and bodystructure)
• Allow to store full encrypted message bodies on a disk

Fixed

• Improved retry mechanism for connecting to Proton servers
• OpenGL issue during startup for specific GPUs
• Blurry system icons with multiple monitor setup

New

• Bridge to only be checking and trying to unlock active keys, both user and address

Fixed

• Updated bbold to v1.3.6 - including Unix fixes
• Ensured ‘delete’ on ‘All Mail’ is not allowed
• Fixed behaviour for ‘append’ of external messages to Archive
• Fixed behaviour for ‘append’ of internal messages to All Mail
• Ensure ‘move’ to All Mail returns an error
• Fixed behaviour for moving/removing message to/from Spam

Fixed

• Updated crypto-libraries to gopenpgp v2.2.2 and go-srp v0.0.1
• Ensuring proper handling of updates when the user downloads the newest version manually
• Better handling of an error for importing too large messages via Bridge
• Ensuring message packages are fully built when the list of recipients includes internal addresses (for the users using active domain with Microsoft exchange)
• Fixed Uninstalling on Windows to properly clear updates
• Improvements to reusing connections - performance

Fixed

• Fixed an issues with incorrect handling of 401 server error leading to random Bridge logouts
• Changed encoding of message/rfc822 - to better handle sending of the .msg files
• Fixed crash within RFC822 builder for invalid or empty headers
• Fixed crash within RFC822 builder for header with key length > 76 chars

New

• Updated crypto-libraries to gopenpgp/v2 v2.1.10

Fixed

• Fixed IMAP/SMTP restart in Bridge to mitigate connection issues
• Fixed unknown charset error for ‘combined’ messages
• Implemented a long-term fix for ‘invalid or missing message signature’ error

New

• Updated golang Secure Remote Password Protocol
• Updated crypto-libraries to gopenpgp/v2 v2.1.9
• Implemented new message parser (for imports from external accounts)

Fixed

• Bridge not to strip PGP signatures of incoming clear text messages
• Import of messages with malformed MIME header
• Improved parsing of message headers
• Fetching bodies of non-multipart messages
• Sync and performance improvements

Fixed

• A bug with sending encrypted emails to external contacts

Fixed

• Hotfix for error during bug reporting

Fixed

• Hotfix for crash when listing empty folder

New

• Implemented connection manager to improve performance during weak connection, better handling of connection loss and other connectivity issues
• Prompt profile installation during Apple Mail auto-configuration on MacOS Big Sur

Fixed

• Bugs with building of message bodies/headers
• Incorrect naming format of some of the attachments

New

• Refactor of message builder to achieve greater RFC compliance
• Increased the number of message fetchers to allow more parallel requests - performance improvement
• Log changes for easier debugging (update-related)

Fixed

• Removed html-wrappig of non-decriptable messages - to facilitate decryption outside Bridge and/or allow to store such messages as they are
• Tray icon issues with multiple displays on MacOS

New

• Revise storage locations for the config files, preferences and cache
• Log improvements for easier debugging (sync issues)
• Added relevant metadata to Windows builds

Fixed

• Fixed the way Bridge interacts with Windows Firewall and Defender
• Fixed potential security vulnerability related to rpath
• Improved parsing of embedded messages
• GUI bug fixes

Fixed

• Fixed update notifications
• Fixed GUI freeze while switching to early update channel
• Fixed Bridge autostart
• Improved signing of update packages

New

• Allow to choose which keychain is used by Bridge on Linux
• Added automatic update CLI commands
• Improved performance during slow connection
• Added IMAP requests to the logs for easier debugging

Fixed

• NoGUI build
• Background of GUI welcome message
• Incorrect total mailbox size displayed in Apple Mail

New

• Added desktop files and icon in Bridge repo
• Better detection of MacOS version to improve automatic AppleMail configuration
• Clearing cache after switching early access off

Fixed

• Better poor connection handling - added retries for starting IMAP server after the connection was down
• Excluding updates from ‘clearing cache’
• Not allowing copying from Inbox to Sent and vice versa
• Improvements to moving messages (unlabelling folders)
• Fixed the separation of release notes for ‘early’ and ‘stable’ channels

New

Introducing silent updates

• Introducing ‘early’ and ‘stable’ updates channels
• Allowing users to enable early access from within the GUI
• Adding and option to disable silent updates in settings

Changing the distribution of release notes

Performance and stability

• Implement support of UID EXPUNGE - to avoid avoid unnecessary resync
• Improve memory usage - gopenpgp dependency updated to v2.1.3
• Reducing network traffic by caching message size and body structure

Adding a scroll bar to the settings tab

Fixed

• Fetch errors - introducing a stop to the imap server once there is no internet connection
• Setting up flags to avoid messages misplacement
• Inline messages incorrectly changed to attachments
• Reporting bug from accounts with empty account name
• Panic when stopping import progress during loading mailboxes info
• Panic when modifying addresses during changing address mode
• Panic when trying to parse a multipart/alternative section that has no child sections
• Prevent potential loss of messages when moving to local folder and back