Mister Download Manager changelog & release notes

On a Mac? The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

A big fixes release: YouTube and video downloads, crashes and freezes, downloads on slow disks, the Mac helper, plus a Safari extension, far more file types and a few new columns and options.

Added

• Torrent → Files…: the list of a torrent's files for any torrent, running, stopped or finished, with a box to choose each (also a Files… button in File Properties).
• Two columns for torrents in the download list (#357): Peers (those a torrent has connected while it runs, seeders and leechers alike) and Share ratio (what it has sent against what it took), after Transfer rate. A layout saved before them gets them there.
• The extension's Media on this page can name a file after its page: Prefix media file names with the page title puts the page's title before the file's own name. Off as installed.
• Far more file types taken from the browser by default (#382): AI models and datasets (GGUF, SAFETENSORS, CKPT, PT, ONNX, PARQUET...), 3D and CAD (GLB, FBX, OBJ, STL, BLEND, STEP...), design and camera RAW files, ebooks, Office files, DAT, disk images and split archives. A list you never edited gains them; one you edited stays yours.
• A Safari extension, inside the Mac app: a click on a link to a file type MDM takes goes to MDM, and so do the right-click items, the button over videos and Media on this page, as in the other browsers. Safari gives extensions no access to its downloads, so a download a page starts by itself stays with Safari, and the browser's proxy is not shared. See Browser integration.
• Help: what to do when an antivirus or VirusTotal flags MDM, and how to check your copy is the real one.

Changed

• In English, the Last Try Date and Added columns follow the system's 12- or 24-hour clock: Oct 28 9:44:12 PM 2026 when Windows uses a 12-hour clock, and Added starts wide enough for it (#392).

Fixed

• With no tray icon to come back from, closing or minimizing the main window now leaves it in the taskbar, with downloads still going, instead of hiding it with no way back. Options → General → Keep running when closing the window (on by default) makes closing quit MDM when unticked (#457).
• Crash reports: a crash monitor that can't open its connection no longer makes MDM wait five seconds at start or stays behind as a second process (#458).
• Download File Info no longer stays open but out of sight, with every later download waiting behind it (#440). The next one after answering Create folder came up as an invisible window, and on Windows one hidden with a minimized main window is now shown again, as is the duplicate question
• A file name sent by a site in plain UTF-8 now reaches MDM readable from Firefox and browsers built on it, such as Floorp, Waterfox and Zen: an Arabic name was saved as unreadable symbols (#447). A name written with percent signs in the same header is decoded as well. The add-on carries the fix
• A download saved under a numbered name because another file already had its name (master (1).mp4) now shows that name in the list and opens its own file, instead of keeping the old name and opening the other file (#442). Two downloads waiting under one name no longer collide when they start: the later one takes the next free name, instead of failing with "already being downloaded" or continuing the other one's data.
• A link sent from the browser no longer fails with 403 on sites that refuse a browser's User-Agent on a connection that isn't a browser's: MDM asks once more with its own, as Add URL does (#372).
• The video download button moves to a free corner instead of covering a control of the page, such as a thumbnail's watch-later button (#421). Dragging it still puts it where you want it.
• Crash reports: no report any more when one of the download engine's background tasks panics while MDM is already closing (#422).
• Crash reports: a freeze whose window had recovered by the time its dump was taken is reported as a freeze, not as a crash in MDM's own watchdog (#420).
• Text in a script outside the interface language (a video title in Bangla, a playlist in Japanese) now shows its letters, instead of boxes: the font for that script is loaded the first time it is needed (#405).
• Options → Proxy / Socks now applies to yt-dlp and gallery-dl too, so video look-ups and downloads no longer go straight out when a proxy is set (#363).
• The window no longer freezes while watching the clipboard when the program holding it hangs, or while a cancelled download's files are removed from a slow disk (#418, #423).
• Downloads at full speed no longer stop and go on a slow disk: writing the resume state flushed the file to the disk so often that every connection waited for it, and were then replaced as slow (#361).
• A save folder shown as Downloads/Video could be taken literally, asking to create it in the wrong place or failing with "Read-only file system" on macOS.
• macOS: Download video no longer stops with a Python error and a "Python.framework is damaged" alert on a copy of MDM downloaded by a browser (#330, #339). MDM now installs yt-dlp's folder build, which it unpacks once and checks against yt-dlp's signed list, instead of the single-program build that unpacks Python afresh at every start. The video window then offers to install it in place of a copy that came with an earlier version.
• Browser link import: tighter handling of site data.
• Crash reports: a freeze that was over before its snapshot was taken says so, instead of calling it a deadlock in code that was only waiting for events (#355).
• Move/Rename was greyed out with several downloads selected, for example a set just added to a queue. It now asks for a folder and moves them all there (#333).
• The extension no longer asks you to update MDM when only a bug-fix version separates them, which it did even when there was no update to get.
• Download video shows a plain file's size, from its server, instead of "size unknown" (#320).
• Download video finds the video on pages whose player loads a .mpd or .m3u8 address that answers something else first, as SVT Play does (#377).
• RSS feeds: the boxes on the Download rules tab (Episodes, Must contain and the others) keep the keyboard while you type, instead of losing it after each key (#353).
• A download refused by a site's bot check (Cloudflare's challenge) says so and how to get the file, instead of "the server answered 403 Forbidden" (#376).
• Open folder works on a torrent that is still downloading (#354).
• Alt and F10 open the menu bar while a button or the list has the keyboard focus, not only when nothing does (#328).
• Hide tab in a download's window takes the Speed Limiter or Options on completion tab off its tab row, instead of only going back to Download status. Right-click the tab row and choose Show hidden tabs to bring them back (#326).
• Windows: no more crash on a computer where Direct3D can't start, when a window opened during the switch to OpenGL (#337).
• Windows: no more crash when a screen is unplugged, turned off or rearranged while MDM runs (#335).
• A finished torrent that isn't being shared lets go of its files, so they can be moved or deleted while MDM runs.
• A torrent says Checking 42% while its files are read and checked, and a Recheck no longer stops partway and stays there.
• Video downloads: the progress no longer says 100 % while a video is still coming, when the site gives no total size, or between a video and its separate sound (#344). A video yt-dlp only knows by its address is named after the page, not a long hash (#345).
• A YouTube playlist in Add URL (#338) opens the video window with its videos, instead of saving the page as a file named "playlist".
• Dailymotion's embedded player (#359): its address is looked up as the video's own page, so the download button works on sites that embed one.
• A download that a page starts by script (a thank-you page going to the installer, as obsproject.com's does) gets the file's address, not the page's, so MDM no longer saves that page under the installer's name (#374). A finished download also shows what really came down when the server gives no size.
• Stop on a download in a running queue stays stopped, instead of the queue starting it again a moment later; Stop All too (#341).
• Removing the last feed in the RSS feeds window no longer crashes the app (#321).
• YouTube formats with Node.js or Bun installed (#360): yt-dlp needs a JavaScript runtime for them and looks for Deno alone, so MDM now tells it about Node.js (nvm's too) or Bun when there is no Deno.
• YouTube's look-up failing with "Requested format is not available" (#352): signed-in cookies make yt-dlp use only YouTube's players that need a JavaScript runtime, and without one no video is left. The page is now looked up again without the cookies, and lists its qualities.
• Download video offering only the sound, with no reason given (#351):

On a Mac? The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

Added

Themes Support

Now you can change Mister Download Manager's look and feel, and even its icons, with themes, and you can write your own.

• 9 built-in looks in View → Theme: Classic, Native, High contrast, Metro, Adwaita, Breeze, Luna, Aero, Aqua.
• Write your own theme as a TOML or JSON file, or import a Base16 scheme or your pywal colours.

Remote Control and Headless Mode Support

MDM no longer has to be in front of you: manage your downloads from your phone, or keep it running on a machine with no screen.

• Add links and manage your downloads and queues from your phone, on your own network: Options → Remote.
• Run MDM with no window on a server, NAS, Docker or Unraid with --headless, and send it downloads from your browser.

Browser extension

The extension now installs from your browser's store, updates itself, and catches more of what you download.

• Install it from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons.
• See the streams, videos and sounds a page has loaded, with their qualities, and download any of them.
• VPN and proxy support: send downloads through the browser's proxy or VPN extension (off until you turn it on).
• See why a download stayed in the browser, and which setting to change.
• More browsers supported: it now works in Zen, Helium, LibreWolf, Floorp and Waterfox too.

Video and Images

MDM now goes well beyond single videos: whole playlists, subtitles, sound on its own, and picture galleries.

• Playlist and channel support: download a whole playlist or channel from a video site: tick the videos you want and pick one quality for all.
• Subtitle support: download a video's subtitles, saved beside it or put into it.
• Audio-only support: download just a video's sound, as MP3, Opus or FLAC.
• Signed-in video support: download videos that need you signed in, using your browser's cookies.
• Image gallery support: download whole galleries (Flickr, Imgur, DeviantArt and more) with gallery-dl.

Torrents

Torrents grew into a full client: watch while they download, follow feeds, or let your debrid service do the work.

• Sequential download support: download a torrent in order, so you can watch it while it downloads.
• RSS support: follow feeds and add new torrents automatically, by your own rules.
• Debrid support: use your Real-Debrid, AllDebrid or Premiumize account for torrents and file-host links.
• Limit seeding and upload, recheck files, reannounce, add trackers, and block IPs with a blocklist.

Downloads

Hand MDM a pile of links or a Google Drive link and let it get on with it.

• Link grabber: paste many links, MDM groups them, checks which are online, and extracts archives when they arrive.
• Google Drive support: links now download the actual file instead of Drive's web page.
• Up to 128 connections per download, if you turn it on.
• The Scheduler can wake the computer to run a queue.

Network

Decide exactly how MDM reaches the internet, and see where your files come from.

• Send every download through one network adapter, such as your VPN's. If it drops, nothing goes out through your normal connection.
• Custom DNS support: choose who looks up addresses: Cloudflare, Google, Quad9, AdGuard, NextDNS or your own, over HTTPS, TLS or plain.
• See each download's server: its country, flag and round trip.

Interface

Bigger when you need it, faster to open, and closer to your system.

• Make every window larger, up to 200 %: View → Interface size, or Ctrl + and Ctrl −.
• Direct3D 12, Vulkan and Metal support: MDM draws with Direct3D 12 on Windows; Vulkan on Linux and Metal on macOS are options.
• Every file name now has its file-type icon, the one your system uses.
• The built-in categories can now be renamed, given other file types, or deleted.
• Hide a download's progress window to the notification area while it keeps going.
• When MDM starts with the computer, it now waits in the notification area instead of opening its window.

Other

Smaller additions worth knowing about.

• System keychain support: passwords and account sign-ins are now kept in your system's keychain, not in MDM's settings.

…

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

A fix for 0.2.3, whose toolbar buttons did nothing (only their drop-down arrows worked), and for dark mode, which drew everything a little bigger and in other places than day mode.

Added

• The video helpers are offered on the first start. A window explains what yt-dlp and ffmpeg do and downloads both on Yes, download them (recommended); Not now leaves them for the video window. Upgrading? It asks once too, if one of them is missing.

Changed

• MDM's own downloads use its own downloader: yt-dlp, ffmpeg, MDM's updates and a crash report's symbols now come down with several connections, resume after a cut connection and go through your proxy settings. Each file is still checked against its publisher's signed checksums before use.

Fixed

• The toolbar's buttons work again: Add URL, Add Torrent, Delete Completed, Options, Scheduler, Start Queue and the others did nothing when clicked in 0.2.3; their drop-down arrows did.
• Dark mode has day mode's sizes and places: the menu bar, the toolbar, the panes, the list's lines and selection, buttons and the progress window's table measure the same in both modes. Only the colours change.
• Texts that were always in English are translated in every language: the empty list's message, buttons of the crash report window, and why OK or Verify is greyed in some windows.
• Menus fit their texts: they were wider than needed, so short commands looked lost in them.
• The language list scrolls with the mouse wheel.
• A cut file name's full text shows at the pointer, not under the list.
• Toolbar buttons have as much room under their label as above their icon when the pointer is over them.

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

A fix for 0.2.2, which froze on every system as soon as Add URL opened, and crash reports, so the next problem like it is caught and fixed sooner.

Added

• Crash reports. If MDM closes unexpectedly or stops responding, a report window opens. It shows what happened and where in MDM's code, lets you read the whole report, and Send on GitHub opens a crash report form in your browser, filled in. Nothing is sent by itself. When the same problem was already reported, it takes you to that issue instead. A frozen MDM can be ended and restarted from there. Reports leave out your download addresses and file names. See Crash reports.
• A log, kept in MDM's data folder (logs), so a report can show what led to a problem.
• MDM checks for updates every time it starts (it was once a week), and once a day while it stays open; a new version's window opens in front. Check for updates at every start in that window turns it off.

Changed

• One look for every kind of control, in both themes: text boxes, read-only fields, check boxes, buttons, drop-downs, tabs, lists and their headers, popups and progress bars are each drawn one way everywhere (dark mode drew some windows' controls in an older style, with bright borders). A number and its arrows are one box now, as Windows 11's are; text is centred in controls of any height; one blue for selection and focus.
• A tour of the features on the website instead of a wall of screenshots.

Fixed

• The window froze for seconds while a big download was writing: MDM saved its list on the window's thread, and the save waited for the disk. It saves on a thread of its own now (the new crash reports caught it).
• Add URL froze MDM (Tasks → Add new download, the toolbar's Add URL, Ctrl+N), and so did Download File Info: their address and Save As boxes took the keyboard focus and MDM waited on itself. Everything clicked after that seemed to do nothing. A test now opens Add URL the way you do, and a stricter check looks for this kind of hang in the whole app.

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

A sweep through every window for the small things that make a program feel finished: how each control looks and answers the mouse and the keyboard, dark mode everywhere, screen readers, and a long list of fixes found by reviewing all of it (issue #7 and more).

Added

• A status strip under the list: how many downloads it shows and how many are selected, how many are running and how fast in all. The tray icon's tip says the same.
• Drag and drop on the main window: drop a link to add it, several links or a list (.txt, .ef2) to choose them in Import, a .torrent file to add it.
• MDM comes back as you left it: the window's place and size, the Categories pane, its open branches and the node shown.
• Download counts in the Categories tree, an empty list that says why (with Clear filters or Add new download), a right-click menu on the list's blank space, a double-click on a column border to fit it, and Reset columns.
• Screen readers (Narrator, NVDA): every window, dialogs and menus included, now tells them what each control is, its name and its state; the download list reads each download.
• Keyboard everywhere: arrow keys in radio groups and tab strips, Ctrl+Tab between tabs, type a name to jump to it in any list or drop-down, Up/Down through Add URL's and Save As' history, Home/End in menus, Tab between the Categories tree and the list (the tree answers the arrows), F2 to rename, held arrows repeat, the date picker's calendar works from the keyboard and has Today.

Changed

• Windows 11's look in light mode: rounded text boxes and drop-downs (no more black corner dots), pressed states on every button (issue #7), focus rings only when you use the keyboard, tooltips with Windows 11's corners and padding, and dark mode in every window.
• Every list in the dialogs scrolls, highlights and takes the keys the same way, and the Scheduler's list of a queue's files now scrolls at all.
• Numbers are typed in one kind of box everywhere: arrows step them, a value out of range is outlined in red and set right when you leave the box (some were changed silently before).
• Things that fail say why: opening a file that was moved, a file that can't be deleted or moved, the list that can't be saved, a computer that won't shut down, a check closed early.
• System file dialogs no longer freeze MDM's other windows while they are open.
• The mouse wheel scrolls as many lines a notch as Windows' mouse settings say, in every list, tree and text box; Page Up / Page Down in the download list go to the edge of what's shown first, as in Explorer; text boxes of several lines have the lists' scroll bar.
• The toolbar's right-click menu is gone: it offered button sizes and styles that don't exist.

Fixed

• Options' OK undid changes made meanwhile (the toolbar's Speed Limiter, Torrent settings…), and the Scheduler's Close undid downloads added to or removed from a queue.
• Shift+Delete's answer was remembered: after one Shift+Delete, a plain Delete with "Don't show again" erased files from disk. Shift+Delete now works on macOS and Linux too.
• Sleep when done hibernated the computer on Windows.
• Enter did two things: with Cancel or a check box focused, Enter also pressed OK.
• Download File Info ignored an edited address and accepted an empty Save As.
• Find could select a download hidden by the column filters; the selection vanished when the list lost focus; Delete now selects the next download.
• The keyboard focus got lost when a button greyed itself or Escape closed a drop-down: Tab started over at the top of the window. It now moves on, or comes back, as in Windows.
• Help → Report a problem filled the form's System and Installed with only for a moment; they stay filled now.
• A torrent's progress window: its tabs touched the buttons above them, and Resume capability's Yes / No stood apart from the other values. A long list of file types in Options ran out under its box.
• Deleting a queue asks first; a running queue stops when deleted; the toolbar's Start / Stop Queue arrows always work.
• Many more: the checksum dialog, the progress window's completion options and speed limit, the torrent and video windows (Stop a look-up, stale video choices), Batch's letter ranges, addresses without http://, duplicate links arriving together, imports that doubled downloads, menu titles that shared access letters in French and other languages, and more.

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

Added

• Update now in Help → Check for updates: MDM downloads the new version, checks it, puts it in place and restarts, on Windows (setup, portable and plain zip), Mac and Linux (AppImage, .tar.gz; a .deb or .rpm opens in the system's installer). It installs only files listed in a checksum list signed by MDM's release key, which every release now carries (SHA256SUMS.txt.sig). The first update this way will be from 0.2.1 to the next version.

Fixed

• Ghost windows while a menu is open (issue #4): faded copies of the main window titled "egui window" opened and closed with every redraw of an open menu, and the toolbar's hover flickered under them. On a Mac in full screen they opened a space of their own and froze MDM (issue #5). They came with 0.2.0's menu keyboard support, which asked about a submenu's window that wasn't open, and that made one.
• Check for updates: the release notes scroll (the wheel, a trackpad, their scroll bar, and the arrow, Page and Home/End keys); their lines no longer break mid-sentence, and links show as their text (issue #5).
• Controls that didn't react to the mouse: the ▾ of Address and Save As (Add URL, Download File Info), the drop-down lists, check boxes, radio buttons, the Categories pane's ×, the Scheduler's date button and calendar, scroll bars and the list's column headers now show when the pointer is over them and when they're pressed, as Windows' own controls do; an arrow stays pressed while its list is open.

Changed

• Help → Report a problem opens GitHub's new bug report form with your MDM version, your system and its version, how MDM was installed and its language filled in. Every report now says which system and version it comes from.

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

Mac fixes from the first round of real use, found on every system and fixed there too; the menus and text boxes work as in any desktop program; and MDM works with AI assistants.

Fixed

• Menus on macOS and Linux: clicking a menu item did nothing (the click moved the focus to the menu's own window, which closed it first). The list's right-click menu and the toolbar's drop-downs had the same fault.
• Paste from other programs into any text box (Ctrl+V, ⌘V): MDM kept a clipboard of its own.
• The app icon on macOS: the Dock showed a small, blurry icon while MDM ran; it keeps the app's own now. Elsewhere windows take their icon from a large size (sharp at any scaling).
• The download list's file icons were drawn over the Categories pane when the list was scrolled sideways (the Categories tree and the Scheduler had the same fault).
• The download progress window could be stretched on macOS and Linux without its contents following; it keeps its size, as on Windows.
• Questions ("Create this folder?", delete, a duplicate download, the turn-off countdown) could open behind the window that asked them; they stay in front now.
• Video downloads' progress went back and forth (a stream in fragments re-estimates its size, and picture and sound arrive one after the other); it only moves forward now, from the size the video window showed.

Added

• The menus show each command's keys (Ctrl+N, on a Mac ⌘N) and work from the keyboard: F10 or Alt (on a Mac Ctrl+F2), the underlined letters, the arrows, Enter, Esc.
• Right-click any text box for Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select all.
• Address (Add URL) and Save As (Download File Info) list the last 20 addresses and folders from their arrows; ... beside Save As chooses a folder, + beside Category makes one.
• Help → Keyboard shortcuts shows the Mac's keys on a Mac.
• AI assistants: misterdownloadmanager-mcp, an MCP server that comes with MDM, lets Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP assistants list, add, pause, resume and remove the running app's downloads and start its queue, through the automation API (how to set it up).
• --json for misterdownloadmanager-cli: every command prints JSON for scripts and AI agents, downloads as one progress line per half second and then done or paused (the formats).
• The automation API's JSON Schema, automation-api.schema.json, made from the code the app answers with. Each download in its list now says why it failed (error), and the "it is off" answer carries "code": "api-off" for programs to check.
• The website has llms.txt and llms-full.txt, and every help page as Markdown, for AI tools.

Changed

• misterdownloadmanager-cli status, pause, start, remove, delete and api exit with code 1 when the app answers with an error (the API is off, an unknown action), as they do when the app isn't running.

New: macOS and Linux. The -experimental files are fresh builds for Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux that we haven't tried ourselves yet. Want to be among the first? Give them a go and tell us how it went in an issue.

The first release: a free download manager for Windows, laid out the way Internet Download Manager users expect, with experimental builds for macOS and Linux.

• The download engine: up to 32 connections per file, re-splitting the slowest part until the last byte, and crash-safe resume after a restart or a dropped connection. HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS (ftp://, ftpes:// explicit TLS, ftps:// implicit TLS), proxies, SOCKS and proxy auto-config (PAC) scripts.
• The main window you know: categories, the download list, the progress window with every connection's share, queues and the Scheduler, the speed limiter, Sites Logins, and Options where you expect them, every control working. Day and dark mode.
• Browser integration for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi (Firefox in testing): downloads hand over to MDM with their cookies and referrer, right-click Download with Mister Download Manager, and a Download video button over videos on any page, which can be dragged along the video's edge, hidden on a video or a site, or turned off in Options.
• Copy a link, get the download window: copying a link to a file type on the File types list opens Download File Info with it, ready to start, also without the browser extension (Options → General → Offer to download links copied to the clipboard, on by default).
• Videos from web pages through yt-dlp (installed and kept current from MDM, with ffmpeg for the qualities that need merging), and BitTorrent and magnet links through librqbit: choose the files, see peers, trackers and pieces, keep sharing if you like.
• 86 interface languages, every language Windows 11 offers, chosen by flag on the first start or in View → Language...; right to left for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and Uyghur; fonts for every script from the system itself. The installer speaks the same languages, and the browser extension speaks your browser's (50 languages).
• Options → Regional: dates and times as your region writes them, or your own way (day, month or year first, 12- or 24-hour clock, the week's first day); the list and the Scheduler follow.
• Command line and automation: IDM's switches (/d /p /f /a /n /s), misterdownloadmanager-cli (files, videos, torrents) and a local, token-protected automation API that lists, pauses, starts, removes and deletes downloads.
• Downloads: the Windows installer, a portable zip and a plain zip, the browser extension on its own (a zip for Chromium browsers, an .xpi for Firefox, always the app's version), and macOS and Linux to try: a universal .dmg and an AppImage, .deb, .rpm and .tar.gz, marked -experimental because they are untested by us. There, MDM connects itself to Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi and Firefox, has its tray icon, follows the system's light or dark look and uses the system's fonts and ffmpeg. Tell us how they work for you.
• Help opens the user guide and tutorials.