July 2026 Release Notes

One big thing this month, and a few smaller ones that I am genuinely excited about. Here is what is new.

The desktop app got a ground-up redesign

This is the headline. The desktop app has been rebuilt from scratch, and it is better in every way that matters.

It runs in your menu bar or system tray and starts quietly when you log in. You manage everything from a local page in your browser that talks only to the app on your own machine, so 1Retro’s servers never touch your files.
Native installers for every desktop. A .dmg for macOS, a proper installer for Windows, and both .deb and .AppImage for Linux. Grab yours from the Download page. It even checks for its own updates from the tray.
A device-centric layout. Instead of one big undifferentiated list, you get a page per device with its own save sources, and you can enable or disable each source individually. If you only want RetroArch syncing on one machine and your handheld folder on another, that is now a two-click setup.
Light and dark, or automatic. The old triple-dark-theme situation is gone, replaced with a clean light mode, dark mode, and an auto option that follows your system.
Live progress and background watch. You can preview a sync before pulling anything down, watch changes get picked up in real time, and let it run quietly in the background.
An optional local password on the app’s UI, off by default, for shared machines.

If you are on the old desktop app, updating is worth it. The whole thing feels faster and far easier to reason about.

Back up saves straight off a cartridge

New, and I have wanted this for a long time: if you have a GB Operator, you can now plug in a physical Game Boy cartridge and back up its save directly with 1Retro.

Plug the cart in and the app detects it, shows you the game with its box art, tells you whether you already have a cloud save for it, and lets you back up or restore the cartridge save. It works on Windows and Linux (and macOS), and pulling a save off a real cartridge into the same library as your emulator saves feels a little like magic.

itch.io ROM sync, in early access

If you buy DRM-free games on itch.io, you can now link your itch account and have 1Retro pull your owned ROMs down alongside your saves. A sync is a full sync: it fetches the games you own and the saves that go with them.

This is opt-in early access while I sort out curation and coverage, so it is gated for now rather than on for everyone. The CLI and app both grew proper progress bars for the ROM download and hashing phases while I was in there, with live rate and ETA, so a big first sync is no longer a mystery.

Billing: change your plan in place

Switching between Plus and Pro used to mean cancelling and resubscribing. Now you can change your plan in place on an active subscription, and it just does the right thing with proration. Small, but it was an annoying rough edge.

Smaller things

CLI power tools. Sync or watch a single source by name with --source, and run a source once without permanently configuring it. Handy for testing a folder before you commit to it.
Quieter, cleaner CLI output for listing source types.
Bot defenses on signup. New accounts and newsletter signups now pass a lightweight captcha and a hidden honeypot, so the fake signups stop without you ever noticing a change.

What’s next

The threads from the Q2 recap are still the plan: refine cartridge matching, widen itch coverage, and keep working toward an open Universal Saves Format alongside open-sourcing the sync engine. More platforms for the redesigned app are coming too.

As always, if your setup does something strange, tell me on Discord or the forums.