Fastio Desktop 0.4.11 and 0.4.12: CPU and Finder Sync

Two releases of Fastio Desktop for macOS, 0.4.11 and 0.4.12, address two problems that hit large accounts hardest: the app worked your CPU too hard, and it told you about cloud changes too late. Both are fixed.

The CPU problem

If your account had a lot of files, macOS could peg a CPU core for minutes at a time. The worst part was that it happened even while the app was closed, so there was nothing obvious to quit.

Syncing in 0.4.11 is much lighter and stays out of the way, including while the app is closed.

Large libraries sync more gently

Alongside the CPU fix, big syncs are now spread out gently in the background instead of hitting the system all at once.

There is a real trade off here and it is worth being clear about it. A large batch of files may take a little longer to fully appear in Finder than it did before. In exchange, your Mac stays responsive while that batch works through. We think that is the right call: a sync you barely notice beats a sync that finishes marginally sooner while your fans spin up.

Finder listings hold up better

File listings in Finder are more reliable in 0.4.11, including after restarts and after background updates.

The credit limit warning that was not real

Paid accounts that went past their included allowance could see a banner saying uploads were disabled. Nothing was actually blocked. Uploads kept working the whole time, but the warning suggested otherwise, which is the kind of thing that makes you stop and go check your billing page for no reason.

That false warning no longer appears.

Cloud changes now show up in seconds

This is the headline of 0.4.12. A bug meant that files and folders added or changed in the cloud could take up to half an hour to show up in your Finder folder. That covered changes you made yourself on another device and changes made by a teammate, so the effect was that Finder quietly lagged behind what everyone else could already see.

Those updates now appear within seconds.

If you work across a laptop and a desktop, or you share workspaces with people who upload from the web app, this is the difference between trusting the Finder folder and having to go double check it in a browser.

A warning when the Finder folder disconnects

Occasionally macOS drops the Fastio folder that lives in Finder. Until now the app kept showing “Connected” while the files had quietly disappeared from Finder, which is close to the worst possible combination: the thing is broken and the status light says it is fine.

The dashboard in 0.4.12 now shows an amber “Finder folder unavailable” notice when this happens, with a one click Re-register button to put the folder back.

Better diagnostics underneath

0.4.11 also added better diagnostics inside the app. That work does not change anything you can see day to day, but it means the next performance issue is easier to pinpoint and fix rather than being reproduced by guesswork. Given that the CPU problem above took a while to track down, that felt worth building before the next one arrives.

Getting the update

Both releases are macOS only. Download the latest build from the Desktop App page.