Home / Changelog
What's new in MacDupl
Every version we've shipped, from 0.1.21 backward. Same words as the in-app "What's New" sheet — this page and the app read from the same file. Download the latest.
0.1.21
Fixed
- Updating macOS could make MacDupl forget your license. After a macOS update and restart, MacDupl could come back as though it had never been activated — and because it also restarted the free trial at the same moment, everything kept working for another week before suddenly dropping to the free tier, long after the update that caused it. Fixed, and made much harder to happen again: your license is now kept in a second, separate place on your Mac and restored automatically if the first copy is lost or damaged, and MacDupl will never overwrite a license it wasn't able to read properly.
- If this happened to you and your key is now refused because it has reached its activation limit, email support@macdupl.app — we'll free the seat and send your key back.
- Some networks could deactivate a licensed Mac. Hotel, café and workplace Wi-Fi that intercepts your connection with its own sign-in page could be mistaken for the license server saying your key was no longer valid. MacDupl now treats anything other than a clear answer from the license server as "couldn't check right now" and carries on, exactly as it already did when you were offline.
- Re-entering your own license key no longer uses up a second activation. If you type in the key this Mac is already using, MacDupl reconnects the existing activation instead of spending another one.
0.1.20
New
- Try App Store apps we haven't tested yet (Settings ▸ Advanced). Off by default. MacDupl can clone some App Store apps by giving each instance its own data containers, but only apps we've verified end to end are offered normally — so far that's WhatsApp. Turn this on and the picker will also list App Store apps that *look* like they should work but haven't been tested. They may not launch, or may not keep their accounts fully separate, and instances made this way run with one of macOS's security protections switched off. MacDupl asks you to confirm before enabling it, and your original apps are never modified. Turning it back off only changes what the picker offers — anything you already created keeps working.
- Apps that can't work are now listed with the reason instead of just being missing, so you're not left guessing.
Fixed
- Cloned App Store apps that bundle their own components wouldn't open. Anything larger than WhatsApp hit this: the instance was built correctly but macOS refused to start parts of it, and the app died at launch. Three separate causes, all fixed. If you made an instance before this update, delete it and create it again — old ones don't repair themselves.
- Updates are small again. The 0.1.19 update made everyone re-download the whole app (about 4 MB) instead of just the changed parts (as little as 330 KB). Fixed, and MacDupl now checks this before publishing so it can't happen quietly again.
- If you were on an old beta build, you're back on the normal updates. The beta channel had gone stale and testers were stuck on a July build with no way forward. They're now moved onto the public release and will get updates normally from here. The beta channel is closed for the time being.
Known limitation
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote) can't be cloned, and is now blocked with an explanation rather than appearing to be worth a try. An Office instance gets all the way to starting up, but Office's own activation screen fails when it finds a brand-new, unlicensed profile. That's inside Microsoft's software; the only way around it would be copying your real Office licence into the instance, which would defeat the separation that's the whole point.
0.1.19
New
- WhatsApp can now be cloned (Beta). You can finally run a second WhatsApp on the same Mac — a work one and a personal one, side by side, each with its own Dock icon and its own chats. Create an instance the usual way (pick WhatsApp, name it, choose a colour, Create) and it links as its own separate device. Your main WhatsApp is left completely alone, still signed in, nothing moved.
- One honest note. To make this work, a WhatsApp instance runs with one of macOS's security protections (the "hardened runtime") switched off — the technique that isolates it needs it that way. Your original WhatsApp keeps all of its protections; this only ever applies to instances you create, and WhatsApp is the only app it applies to. That trade-off is exactly why we're shipping this as Beta and telling you about it up front.
- This is the first "App Store" app MacDupl can clone. Other App Store / sandboxed apps (like Microsoft Office) still can't be cloned yet.
- Whether running more than one account fits WhatsApp's own terms is up to you to check — MacDupl just runs the app; it doesn't change any service's rules.
Fixed
- An instance could look "stopped" while it was actually running. Instances whose name contains a special character — WhatsApp is one — could show a Launch button on the dashboard even though the app was already open, and could be miscounted against the free tier's running limit. The dashboard now reads their status correctly.
0.1.18
Same app as 0.1.17 — this one is about the download itself.
Fixed
- No more "Apple could not verify" when you open the download. MacDupl has always been signed and notarized, but the disk image it arrives in wasn't, so macOS could warn about the file before you had even opened it. The download is now notarized too. Nothing changes if you update from inside MacDupl — this only affects downloading MacDupl from the website.
0.1.17
New
- Keep MacDupl out of the Dock. In Settings ▸ Background, turn on "Hide MacDupl in the Dock when its window is closed". Close the window and MacDupl leaves the Dock — it keeps running in the background, so your instances stay up to date and sign-in links keep working, and its menu-bar icon stays put. Click the menu-bar icon (or open MacDupl from Applications, Launchpad or Spotlight) and it comes straight back, in front of whatever you're using. There's a Hide Now button if you'd rather not wait for the window to close. Your instances keep their own Dock icons either way.
Improved
- A fresh look for the dashboard. Every instance card now carries its own colour — a tinted card, a coloured outline while it's running, and a matching Launch arrow — so you can tell your instances apart at a glance. Running and idle are clearer, the title bar shows how many instances you have and how many are live, and hovering a card lifts it and shows a ghost copy of its icon.
- Colours are picked as colours, not from a list of colour names, when you create or edit an instance or a workspace.
- Right-click any instance for its menu, or double-click it to launch (or bring it forward if it's already running).
- All the new movement respects System Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Reduce Motion.
0.1.16
New
- A quick question when your trial ends. If your 7-day trial runs out without buying a license, MacDupl will ask (once) why you didn't upgrade — a couple of quick options plus an optional note. Totally optional, and it's a regular email to us, not tracking: nothing is sent unless you choose to send it.
0.1.15
If you installed 0.1.14, please update. A build fault meant 0.1.14 contained the previous version's code, so none of the features below actually reached you even though the app reported itself as 0.1.14. That's fixed, and the build now refuses to package a stale binary.
New
- Sign your instances as you (optional). Network tools like Little Snitch identify apps by who signed them — and because instances are normally signed generically, they show up as an unknown publisher and your rules don't stick. In Settings ▸ Code signing you can now have MacDupl sign instances with a signing identity of your own. Don't have one? One button creates it for you, and one button removes it. Nothing leaves your Mac.
- macOS asks for your login keychain password the first time an instance is signed — choose "Always Allow" and it only asks once.
- Instances are signed when they're built, so use Re-sign on an instance (or Re-sign All Instances) to update ones you already have. Your logins and settings are kept.
- A friendlier first run. The welcome flow is now four short pages instead of one long one, ending with a button that creates your first instance right there. The things that surprise people — apps asking for permissions again, and how "Sign in with Google" finds the right instance — are explained when they actually make sense rather than up front.
Fixed
- These release notes are readable again. Headings and bullet points ran together into one long paragraph.
- MacDupl no longer opens several times over. Keeping a second copy around (say one in Applications and one still in Downloads) could leave two or three MacDupls running at once. Opening a second one now just brings the first forward.
- Re-signing an instance could quietly remove capabilities it was given at build time (for example Claude's Cowork). Fixed, and now covered by an automated check.
0.1.14
New
- Sign your instances as you (optional). Network tools like Little Snitch identify apps by who signed them — and because instances are normally signed generically, they show up as an unknown publisher and your rules don't stick. In Settings ▸ Code signing you can now have MacDupl sign instances with a signing identity of your own. Don't have one? One button creates it for you, and one button removes it. Nothing leaves your Mac.
- macOS asks for your login keychain password the first time an instance is signed — choose "Always Allow" and it only asks once.
- Instances are signed when they're built, so use Re-sign on an instance (or Re-sign All Instances) to update ones you already have. Your logins and settings are kept.
- A friendlier first run. The welcome flow is now four short pages instead of one long one, ending with a button that creates your first instance right there. The things that surprise people — apps asking for permissions again, and how "Sign in with Google" finds the right instance — are explained when they actually make sense rather than up front.
Fixed
- Re-signing an instance could quietly remove capabilities it was given at build time (for example Claude's Cowork). Fixed, and now covered by an automated check so it can't come back.
Earlier releases (0.1.13–0.1.6)
0.1.13
New
- Instances can show their menu bar icon. Apps that live in the macOS menu bar — Claude, Slack, Discord and friends — never showed an icon there when run as an instance. Now they can: open Edit on an instance and turn on *"Show this instance's menu bar icon"*. It's off by default and set per instance, so you can give your work Slack a menu bar icon and leave the personal one out of the way. Your session moves with it, so you stay signed in.
- Open an instance at login. In Edit, turn on *"Open this instance at login"* and MacDupl starts it when you log in to your Mac — no window, no interruption, just the app where you expect it. It needs "Keep MacDupl running in the background" turned on; the switch tells you, and offers to turn it on.
- See what each instance uses, and get the space back. Every card now shows how much disk its instance is using, and the ••• menu has a new Clear Cache. It frees the temporary files the app rebuilds by itself — you stay signed in, and your settings, history and extensions are untouched. On real instances this freed 241 MB from a Claude instance and 425 MB from a VS Code one. (Reset Session is still there for when you *do* want a clean slate.)
0.1.12
New
- Keep instances fresh and signed in — even when MacDupl is closed. Turn on "Keep MacDupl running in the background" (in Settings, or during the new welcome) and MacDupl adds itself to your login items with a small menu-bar icon. Now an instance you launch straight from the Dock or Spotlight is always the up-to-date copy, and sign-in links land in the right instance — no need to open the MacDupl window first. It starts quietly in the background at login (no window, no interruption); click the menu-bar icon to open the dashboard. It's optional and completely local — no tracking, ever.
- A quick welcome for new users. First launch now shows a short intro: how to create an instance, why apps ask for permissions again, and how sign-in links follow the instance you're using.
- Sign-in with Google (and other SSO) is easier to get right. When you clone an app that uses website sign-in, MacDupl now tells you that sign-in links will follow that instance, and points you to the per-instance "Sign-in & App Links" control the first time you launch it — so a login that doesn't complete is a one-click fix instead of a mystery.
0.1.11
New
- Workspaces. Group your instances by organization, client, or persona. Each workspace is its own section on the dashboard with a color, a count, and how many are running — so a dozen instances stop being one long wall of cards. Create one with the folder button in the toolbar.
- Launch All and Quit All. Start or stop a whole workspace in one click — open every app you use for a client at the beginning of the day, and close the set when you're done.
- New instances inherit the workspace. Pick a workspace while creating an instance and it starts with that color, named like "Slack (Acme)". Type over either one and your version sticks. Instances already in a workspace keep their own color; recolor them together from the workspace menu when you want to.
- Grouping never touches your instances. Moving one between workspaces is instant — no rebuild, no restart, sessions untouched. Deleting a workspace only removes the grouping: its instances move to Ungrouped and keep their apps, icons, and logins.
Fixed
- Claude clones can use Cowork again. Opening Cowork in a cloned Claude reported that the installation was corrupted and asked you to reinstall. Nothing was wrong with your copy of Claude — the clone was missing a macOS permission that Cowork needs, and MacDupl now keeps it. Existing Claude clones repair themselves the next time you launch them from MacDupl, and your sessions are kept. Chat and everything else were never affected.
- Clearer license messages. When a license key doesn't activate, MacDupl now tells you why in plain language — for example that the key wasn't found, so you can check it for typos — instead of passing along a raw error.
- What's New reads properly again. These update notes could show up with broken formatting or a sentence cut off partway through.
0.1.9
New
- Clones now follow the original app's updates. When you update an app, its clones refresh automatically — on launch and in the background. Your sessions and data are always kept.
Fixed
- VS Code clones no longer share the original's extensions or Claude Code account. Each clone now starts clean and manages its own extensions and sign-in — including VS Code forks like Insiders, VSCodium, Cursor, and Antigravity IDE.
- Chrome clones no longer break after a Chrome update. Clones that could fail to launch after Chrome updated itself now build and open reliably.
0.1.8
New
- After your free trial, keep using MacDupl with one instance — no charge.
- Need more? MacDupl Pro ($19 one-time) unlocks unlimited instances.
0.1.7
Added
- Custom icons. You can now set any image as a clone's icon — pick a photo, a logo, or anything else. The icon keeps the color tint and badge so your clones stay visually distinct. Find it under Edit → Choose Custom Icon.
- Send Feedback always visible. The Send Feedback button is now always shown at the bottom of the dashboard, so you can report bugs or request features without opening the menu.
Fixed
- MacDupl no longer appears in the app picker as a cloneable app.
- Release notes layout improved — clearer typography and better spacing.
0.1.6
Added
- In-app feedback. MacDupl → Send Feedback… opens a form to report bugs, request features, or send general feedback. Opens your email client — no telemetry, no data leaves your Mac.
- What's New after updates. The first time you launch a new version, a "What's New" sheet shows what changed. Access it anytime from the MacDupl menu.
- Discord can now be cloned. Run multiple Discord accounts side by side (Discord, PTB, and Canary) — each with its own profile, login, and cache.
- App Store apps you can't clone are now visible. The picker shows sandboxed App Store apps grayed out with an explanation instead of silently hiding them. Slack (App Store) gets a hint to install the direct download from slack.com/downloads, which clones normally.
- Spotify can now be cloned. Two Spotify accounts, each with its own login and cache, running simultaneously — including both launch orders.
- YouTube Music (th-ch/youtube-music) verified. The open-source YouTube Music desktop app clones out of the box.
- CapCut can now be cloned. Run two CapCut accounts side by side with fully separate drafts and logins.
- Sign-in & App Links routing (SSO fix). Browser-based "Login with Google" now completes inside a clone — sign-in callbacks automatically follow whichever instance (original or clone) you're using. No manual setup needed.
- Keychain isolation for Zoom. Signing into one Zoom instance no longer logs the other out. Each clone keeps its own session key.
- Zoom re-verified on 7.0.5 — works with fully separate data.
Fixed
- Cloned app icons no longer show a blank tinted box with no logo — the real app artwork now always renders through the color tint.