I have just completed the upgrade of kbin.earth to Mbin v1.10.0. Please let me know if you run into any issues.
Here are the changes listed for end users:
Add support for lists of keyword filters of content; they can be scoped to content, comments and profile-overviews and can have an expiration-date
Show the custom title of users and add the option to set one for yourself
Add the option to also show content which was boosted by people you follow in the Combined view
Pagination is now done by "anchors" (like that date of the last thread on the page) instead of page-numbers, to improve performance
Add an indicator when a user has their "cake day"
Fix search not returning most of Lemmy users and magazines
Fix the search when searching content, users or magazines by their URL
The date field of the search form now has a preset value
Small UI improvements to make the elements of posts and threads more consistent (the layout for posts in Combined view can be toggled in the UI settings)
Prevent opening a thread or post when touching interactive elements (buttons, spoilers, ...) on mobile
Suppress notification for added content if it is more than two days old (for example after delayed federation)
Fix infinite scrolling of comments
Fix reply button for comments on locked threads and posts not being disabled
Hetzner is one of the go-to server providers for Fediverse instances, in part due to its cheap offerings while still providing high quality service. However, Hetzner has announced a price adjustment, which has increased the prices of some servers as much as 3-4 times the original. This kind of ruins the point in using Hetzner, as the main appeal was Hetzner's cheap server prices.
Some of their servers haven't increased an insane amount, for example, the CAX41 offering has gone from €31.49 monthly to €40.99 (30% increase). Others are much higher though; CPX41 has gone from €38.99 monthly to €120.49 (209% increase)!
To any Fediverse admins using Hetzner, how would you see this affecting your instance? Will you be migrating to a different service or sticking with Hetzner even with the price hike?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe existing servers will be grandfathered in to the old price point, so that will certainly buy some time to find a potential alternative.
I personally am using Hetzner for my Mbin instance, but the price increase doesn't seem completely unreasonable for the specific server I am currently using. I do not see myself needing to rescale the server any time soon, so I should be able to keep the old price anyway.
Add Modlog screen at the user, community, and instance-wide (on About screen) level; by @olorin99.
Add button to clear search on explore screen; by @olorin99.
Create an emoji picker for PieFed reactions and markdown editor; by @jwr1. Note, you are currently not able to select custom PieFed emojis from the emoji picker.
Add error page for login restricted instances; by @olorin99.
Fixes
Fix totp code not being passed to login on Lemmy; by @olorin99.
Fix UI elements overflowing on mobile Linux; by @olorin99.
Fix Linux gtk header bar always being used on Wayland; by @jwr1.
Fix error on empty body for microblog; by @olorin99.
Remove incorrect check for empty accounts; by @olorin99.
Fix create microblog community picker helper text being truncated; by @jwr1.
Other
Huge navigation backend overhaul (moved to auto_route package), with web support coming soon!; by @olorin99. Note, due to specific changes in the way oauth authorization is handled (specifically, the callback URL has been changed), Mbin accounts will need to re-login.
Adopt very_good_analysis and add PR dart checks; by @jwr1.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting kbin.earth and Interstellar!
Thanks to all our generous sponsors, all expenses from the year 2025 (including server rental, object storage, domains, Apple Developer License, and Apple hardware) have been covered; almost no out-of-pocket needed from me. That's a huge deal!
To the Mbin team: none of this would be possible without you! You've forked /kbin and have kept supporting it ever since, adding new features, diagnosing and fixing bugs, recommending server setup improvements, and much more. You guys are quick to respond and are nothing but reliable! Special shout out to @[email protected] and @[email protected]!
To Interstellar's co-developer: thank you @olorin99 for literally being around since the beginning. Interstellar's very first commit was on Dec 11, 2023, and yours was just a few weeks after, on Dec 28, 2023, adding initial support for microblogs. Thanks for contributing to and developing Interstellar all this time!
To kbin.earth's mods/admins: thanks for keeping this place clean and manageable! Especially checking for sign up requests every day :) @green_copper @kindenough @aasatru
Lastly, thanks to all the 1-off contributors, translators, anonymous sponsors, and anyone else I haven't mentioned. And of course, all you users who stick around here :)
Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting kbin.earth and Interstellar!
Thanks to all our generous sponsors, all expenses from the year 2025 (including server rental, object storage, domains, Apple Developer License, and Apple hardware) have been covered; almost no out-of-pocket needed from me. That's a huge deal!
To the Mbin team: none of this would be possible without you! You've forked /kbin and have kept supporting it ever since, adding new features, diagnosing and fixing bugs, recommending server setup improvements, and much more. You guys are quick to respond and are nothing but reliable! Special shout out to @[email protected] and @[email protected]!
To Interstellar's co-developer: thank you @olorin99 for literally being around since the beginning. Interstellar's very first commit was on Dec 11, 2023, and yours was just a few weeks after, on Dec 28, 2023, adding initial support for microblogs. Thanks for contributing to and developing Interstellar all this time!
To kbin.earth's mods/admins: thanks for keeping this place clean and manageable! Especially checking for sign up requests every day :) @green_copper @kindenough @aasatru
Lastly, thanks to all the 1-off contributors, translators, anonymous sponsors, and anyone else I haven't mentioned. And of course, all you users who stick around here :)
Happy New Year! Welcome to Immich v2.5.0. This release is our fireworks to celebrate both the new year and reaching 90,000 stars on GitHub. It is packed with major features that have been in the works for quite some time, and the team has kicked off the year with incredible momentum that we're excited to carry forward. We couldn't wait to share this with you. Let's dive right in:
Free Up Space
Non-destructive editing
Database backup and restore (web)
Upload improvements
Visual refresh across all platforms
Disable admin setup
Star rating (mobile)
Additional fine-grained permissions (api keys)
Progressive JPEGs
Slideshow loop option (web)
Native HTTP clients for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 image loading
Free Up Space
This feature was requested ages ago. So long in fact, that it has a 3-digit ID (#165)! Given the rapid iteration and development pace of the pre-stable era, it was risky to include it in the app due to its bulk-delete nature. But it is now 2026 :smile:, so here we are.
Free Up Space allows you to remove local media files from your device that have already been successfully backed up to your Immich server (and are not in Immich trash). This helps reclaim storage on your mobile device without losing your memories. The feature can be accessed from the user profile panel or from the Settings page in the mobile app.
There are configuration options and steps to make sure that everything is verified before deleting from the app.
Configuration:
Cutoff date: Free Up Space will only look for photos and videos on or before this date.
Keep albums: Hold all photos and videos in the selected albums on your device, regardless of other settings. By default, **WhatsApp** related albums are selected to be kept on the device. Assets that are not already on the device will not be redownloaded.
Keep favorites: This works the same way **Keep albums** . By default, favorited assets are preserved on your device.
Keep on device: You can choose to restrict removal to **Always keep**All photos or All videos, regardless of other settings. This setting can hamper freeing up space significantly — with 80 GB of videos and 40 GB of photos, selecting **Always keep photos** retains thousands of photos on your device.
These configurations are persistent to make it convenient for those who perform this task often.
Scan & Review: Before any files are removed, you are presented with a review screen to confirm which items will be deleted and how much storage will be reclaimed.
Deletion: Confirmed items are moved to your device's native Trash/Recycle Bin.
Reclaim storage
To use the reclaimed space right away, you must manually empty the system/gallery trash outside Immich.
For more information about this feature, please read it here
Non-destructive editing
Immich now supports non-destructive photo editing. This means that any edits you make to an asset do not modify the original file; instead, the modifications are stored in the database, and new thumbnails are generated based on those changes. This means you can always revert to the original asset if needed.
When you download an edited asset, Immich provides the edited version by default. However, you can choose to download the original version if needed. Immich always generates an edited full-size version based on your full-size quality settings. This occurs regardless of whether the "Enable full-size image generation" setting is enabled or disabled.
Limitations:
Mobile clients must be updated to v2.5.0 in order view the edited version of an asset. Clients will continue to > see the original asset if on a mobile app version <2.5.0
As of this version, the edited download won't include the EXIF metadata of the original asset. This feature will come in future releases.
Mobile editing still uses the old edit system (saving a new version of the photo). The mobile editor will be upgraded to use the new non-destructive editing system in a future release.
You can click on the following icon to enter edit mode
Currently, Immich supports the following types of edits:
Cropping
Rotation
Mirroring
Opening the editor on an edited asset will load the existing edits back in so you can make adjustments and changes.
Backup and restore from the web UI
Backup and restore are an important part of any self-hosted application; this feature helps you maintain reliable access to your instance during unexpected events, such as database corruption caused by system failure or power loss.
Historically, restoring an Immich instance to a specific point required the user to have access to the command line, which proved challenging for many users, especially those new to self-hosting and software maintenance.
Now, we have the entire backup and restore pipeline built into Immich, which allows you to quickly restore a database backup directly from the web UI. You can perform the steps either from the Administration > Maintenance page, or from a brand new instance on the welcome page.
This release also improves foreground upload in the mobile app. The previous implementation improves background uploads but leaves foreground uploads less reliable by leveraging the queue system to offload upload handling to the OS, which can be throttled under specific criteria.
We are taking back more control over handling uploads with the try-and-true method used in the old timeline, but this time it is supercharged with concurrent uploads and also correctly handles assets with missing file extensions from software such as DJI or Fusion Camera.
Upload now will also send unique metadata for each asset to the server, so it can be used to quickly retrieve the checksum when reinstalling the app, saving time and CPU resources. This is especially useful for iCloud users, as the hashing process can take a long time.
For iOS and iCloud users, it is recommended to go to App Settings > Sync Status and tap the "Sync Cloud IDs" button to backfill the metadata for the uploaded content. You only need to do this once.
Visual refresh across all platforms
This release also brings you a refreshed look and feel across the web, mobile app, and the documentation sites, with a new font face ("The-name-must-not-be-named" Sans) that improves reading legibility, especially for numbers and smaller text.
The UI library (https://ui.immich.app/) components have also been added to the web app in more places. You should see a more standardized, coherent, and better hierarchy for UI components across the app.
All icon buttons now come with a tooltip, so you don't have to guess what function the button serves
Star rating (mobile)
Mobile now has the star-rating feature, similar to the web application. If you don't see a star rating on either platform, make sure the feature is enabled here.
Disable admin setup
New installs show a welcome page and allow anyone to sign up / register as an admin. To have more control over whether this is allowed or not, we have added the following environment variable:
IMMICH_ALLOW_SETUP=true|false
This is especially useful if you have already initialized Immich and never want this situation to be possible in the future, which can happen if for whatever reason the database is reset.
Additional fine-grained permissions (api keys)
Some existing endpoints have been assigned fine-grained permissions, allowing the creation of API keys with limited access. The new permissions include:\n
map.read - Retrieve a list of latitude and longitude coordinates for every asset with location data
map.search - Retrieve location information for latitude & longitude coordinates
folder.read - Retrieve information about folders and which assets they contain
Progressive JPEGs
All image-generation settings now include a new option to enable progressive JPEGs. When enabled, supported browsers will progressively render the image.
Slideshow loop option (web)
The slideshow settings on the web now include an option to automatically start the slideshow over.
Native HTTP clients
All remote images are now requested using optimized HTTP clients, meaning images load more quickly and can keep up with your scrolling. Caching is also improved: not only does this make images even snappier to load after being downloaded, it also improves the offline experience with better responsiveness and a larger cache size.
As always, there are many more QoL improvements, bug fixes, and enhancements in this release. Please find the full release note below
Context menu additions/changes; by @olorin99.
On long press, explore items open the community or user context menu; by @olorin99.
Add ability to search specific users or communities; by @olorin99.
Allow user to quickly re-login on Mbin OAuth error; by @olorin99.
Allow uploading images to comments via image hosting services; by @olorin99.
Reorderable feed sort/filter/view settings; by @olorin99.
Post layout update with reorderable components; by @olorin99.
Add ability to create thread and microblog cross posts; by @jwr1.
Add links for local and remote fediverse urls to context menu; by @jwr1.
PieFed polls
By @olorin99.
Support for PieFed polls has been integrated! You can both interact with polls by voting or viewing results, and also create your own polls. Please note the API for PieFed polls has not been stabilized yet, so poll support will only work on cutting edge PieFed servers (such as https://crust.piefed.social/) in the meantime.
User Tags and PieFed Flairs
By @olorin99 and @jwr1.
Support was added for viewing the flairs associated with a post on PieFed. Additionally, you can also assign community-defined tags to your own posts, either while creating them, or afterwards using the context menu.
User tags were also added to Interstellar. They allow assigning little comments (tags) to specific users, which help you keep track of who is who. User tags apply regardless of the platform or account you are signed into, so unlike flairs, they work with Mbin and Lemmy accounts as well.
Fixes
Fix app bar title spanning multiple lines for microblogs; by @jwr1.
Fix direct message page error for PieFed; by @olorin99.
Fix comment refresh on post page; by @olorin99.
Fix user scroll controller attached to multiple positions; by @olorin99.
Fix some nsfw blurring; by @olorin99.
Fix PieFed mod menu not available; by @olorin99.
Wrap post page in safe area; by @olorin99.
Fix navigate to reply from lemmy notification; by @olorin99.
Fix PieFed feed id not cached; by @olorin99.
Early exit if state is not mounted; by @olorin99.
Fix several mod actions for PieFed; by @olorin99.
Fix next page key not being passed to the paging controller; by @olorin99.
Fix accessing state in initState when not mounted; by @olorin99.
Fix search input focus on user/community search screen; by @olorin99.
Fix error when fetching new page and feed isn't mounted; by @olorin99.
Add non-empty database constraints; by @jwr1.
Only allow new chat while logged in; by @jwr1.
Other
Migrate to SQL (Drift) backed database; by @olorin99.
Remove Mbin specific language options; by @jwr1.
Set app user agent to Interstellar/{APP_VERSION}; by @jwr1.
Support for PieFed polls has been integrated! You can both interact with polls by voting or viewing results, and also create your own polls. Please note the API for PieFed polls has not been stabilized yet, so poll support will only work on cutting edge PieFed servers (such as https://crust.piefed.social/) in the meantime.
Support was added for viewing the flairs associated with a post on PieFed. Additionally, you can also assign community-defined tags to your own posts, either while creating them, or afterwards using the context menu.
User tags were also added to Interstellar. They allow assigning little comments (tags) to specific users, which help you keep track of who is who. User tags apply regardless of the platform or account you are signed into, so unlike flairs, they work with Mbin and Lemmy accounts as well.
Fixes
Fix app bar title spanning multiple lines for microblogs; by @jwr1.
Fix direct message page error for PieFed; by @olorin99.
Here's the list of user-facing changes from the release notes:
We enhanced security so that after a user changes their password or 2FA, all the current sessions of that user will be invalid and the user will need to log in again.
A new combined front page. You could make the combined front page the default in your profile settings. Which means you see both threads and microblogs combined on the homepage.
We also introduced a new feature under general settings, where you can select "Who can send you a direct message" (defaults to everybody).
We added support for magazine banners in Mbin (which is also compatible with Lemmy Communities).
Mbin combines the thread form into just one form (instead of having article, link, and photo having a separate form). Mbin now also federates bans correctly (both incoming and outgoing bans).
Global mods can now manage (view, approve and/or deny) account signups. Global mods can now also receive signup notifications, which will also come with a new menu item in the drop-down menu.
Plus various other bug fixes and CSS layout improvements, ban notification fixes, and too many other fixes to mention here.
Sorry that kbin.earth has been down today. Apparently, several people had issues yesterday, but I hadn't realized the full extent due to Matrix severely delaying my notifications.
The server unfortunately crashed while I was unavailable for the day, so I wasn't aware of the issue and couldn't fix it till I got back.
As an aside and general note for everyone, I don't intend on ever shutting down kbin.earth without notice. I also don't intend on completely disappearing either; I don't want people needing to wonder if something happened to me. If I plan to shut down kbin.earth (which I don't btw), I will give as much warning in advance as I can. (I'm not going to be a repeat of kbin.run)
Today only occurred due to an unfortunate combination of technology issues (my failure to receive Matrix notifications and the server crashing) and unavailability.
