Downie 4 is the next major release of Downie. All existing customers will receive either a free upgrade (if they qualify), or the option to upgrade with a discount. Here are available upgrade discounts based on the date of purchase (Downie 1, 2 or 3):

• after Jun 1, 2019 - free upgrade
• between Jan 1, 2019 - Jun 1, 2019 - 75% off
• before Jan 1, 2019 - 50% off

Notes: Discounts cannot be combined with other discounts. 3rd party bundle purchases (e.g. Bundlehunt, not the Downie + Permute bundle) do not qualify for a free upgrade.

Please note that even if you are entitled to a free upgrade, your previous-generation Downie license code will not work and you need to obtain the Downie 4 compatible license by going to the upgrade page.

Setapp users will have the upgrade included in their subscription for free, of course.

Downie 4 brings many new features, main being listed here:

• Updated UI - the UI has been revised and updated, offering more options at the tip of the mouse.
• Major speed improvements - several links can now be loaded at once and YouTube videos get prepared for downloads about 6x faster than in Downie 3 (based on time required to process a 30-item YouTube playlist on iMac 27'' (2019)).
• Sandbox - Downie 4 is now sandboxed for better security.
• Metadata Improvements - the metadata that Downie gathers can be written into an external JSON file for further custom processing.
• Improved User-Guided Extraction - the UGE window now has history, allows saving favorites and much more.
• Customizable Postprocessing - you can now write your own shell script to handle custom postprocessing.
• Synchronizable History - the history can now be synchronized over iCloud between all your devices.
• Option to Go Menu-Only - the long-awaited ability to run Downie just in the menu bar has finally arrived.
• Much, much more! - many minor improvements, like custom naming schemes, option to force MP4 downloads, better cancellation, priority flags, etc..

Downie 4 requires macOS 10.12.6 or later.

Permute integration in Downie 4 requires Permute 3.4 or later for the integration with Permute. It will not work with Permute 2.

Do I have to upgrade? No, you don't have to, but there will be no further updates to Downie 3 after Downie 4 is released. Given that Downie integrates with 3rd party online services that can change at any point in time, it is possible that at some point, Downie 3 will stop working for you. This is not some devious plan to force you to upgrade, it's an unforeseeable change in the structure of the webpage.