Mastodon Release Notes

Changelog

Security

Temporarily disable HEIF support

Fixes

Fix relative privacy policy links in subscription emails (#40486 by @crafkaz)

Fix canonical email blocks interfering with freezing or approving users (#40463 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix 500 error when trying to upload a non-custom-filter JSON import (#40449 and #40451 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix 500 error when submitting a status twice (#40439 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix self-deleted accounts not being un-deleted when using tootctl accounts create --reattach (#40430 by @mjankowski)

Fix account deletion not deleting generated annual reports (#40394 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix notifications not being cleaned up when notification requests are deleted in bulk (#40393 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.7.2, use git fetch && git checkout v4.7.2.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.7.0.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.7.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes

Original source

Changelog

Security

Temporarily disable HEIF support

Fixes

Fix relative privacy policy links in subscription emails (#40486 by @crafkaz)

Fix canonical email blocks interfering with freezing or approving users (#40463 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix 500 error when submitting a status twice (#40439 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix account deletion not deleting generated annual reports (#40394 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix notifications not being cleaned up when notification requests are deleted in bulk (#40393 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.6.8, use git fetch && git checkout v4.6.8.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.6.7.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.6.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Changelog

Security

Temporarily disable HEIF support

Fixes

Fix canonical email blocks interfering with freezing or approving users (#40463 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix account deletion not deleting generated annual reports (#40394 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix notifications not being cleaned up when notification requests are deleted in bulk (#40393 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.5.18, use git fetch && git checkout v4.5.18.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.5.0.

Ruby: 3.2 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 20.19 or newer

libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer

ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.5.16.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.5.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Note

While we continue to support Mastodon 4.4 and release patches for it, please note that Mastodon 4.6 is available with new features, changes and fixes. We encourage administrators to update to the latest 4.6 version when they can.

Changelog

Security

Temporarily disable HEIF support

Fixes

Fix canonical email blocks interfering with freezing or approving users (#40463 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix account deletion not deleting generated annual reports (#40394 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix notifications not being cleaned up when notification requests are deleted in bulk (#40393 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.4.25, use git fetch && git checkout v4.4.25.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.4.1:

• Ruby: 3.2 or newer
• PostgreSQL: 13 or newer
• Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)
• LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer
• Redis: 6.2 or newer
• Node: 20 or newer
• libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer
• ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.4.24.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.4.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Changelog

Security

Fix password authentication bypass in 2FA auth for LDAP/PAM/SSO accounts (GHSA-vx32-x96w-qq65)

Fix Denial of Service when processing pathological JSON-LD activities (GHSA-vgm8-frgh-rh2v)

Fix disabled staff accounts still having access to admin API (GHSA-62j4-hvj7-px3f)

Fixes

Fix invited-without-approval-bypass not being asked for a textual reason (#40332 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix email blocks domain filter not being kept through pagination (#40254 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix config/ directory missing from Bootsnap precompilation options in Dockerfile (#40255 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix some of 4.7 migrations not re-running cleanly when interrupted (#40264 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix account creation failing on ActiveRecord::Encryption configuration in mastodon:setup rake task (#40275 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.7.1, use git fetch && git checkout v4.7.1.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.7.0.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.7.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Tip

The charlock_holmes gem may fail to build on some systems with recent versions of gcc.

If you run into this issue, try BUNDLE_BUILD__CHARLOCK_HOLMES="--with-cxxflags=-std=c++17" bundle install.

Install dependencies with bundle install

Restart all Mastodon processes.

When using Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Upgrade overview

This release contains upgrade notes that deviate from the norm:

ℹ️ Requires assets recompilation

For more information, view the complete release notes and scroll down to the upgrade instructions section.

Changelog

Security

Update dependencies

Fix password authentication bypass in 2FA auth for LDAP/PAM/SSO accounts (GHSA-vx32-x96w-qq65)

Fix Denial of Service when processing pathological JSON-LD activities (GHSA-vgm8-frgh-rh2v)

Fix disabled staff accounts still having access to admin API (GHSA-62j4-hvj7-px3f)

Fixes

Fix config/ directory missing from Bootsnap precompilation options in Dockerfile (#40255 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix autosuggestions overstaying their welcome in languages that don't use spaces (#40217 by @Gargron)

Fix error when processing remote actors with null public keys (#40194 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix various off-by-one errors in statistics time ranges (#40193 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.6.7, use git fetch && git checkout v4.6.7.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.6.6.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.6.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Tip

The charlock_holmes gem may fail to build on some systems with recent versions of gcc.

If you run into this issue, try BUNDLE_BUILD__CHARLOCK_HOLMES="--with-cxxflags=-std=c++17" bundle install.

Install dependencies with bundle install

Precompile the assets: RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails assets:precompile

Restart all Mastodon processes.

When using Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Changelog

Security

Update dependencies

Fix password authentication bypass in 2FA auth for LDAP/PAM/SSO accounts (GHSA-vx32-x96w-qq65)

Fix Denial of Service when processing pathological JSON-LD activities (GHSA-vgm8-frgh-rh2v)

Fix disabled staff accounts still having access to admin API (GHSA-62j4-hvj7-px3f)

Fixes

Fix config/ directory missing from Bootsnap precompilation options in Dockerfile (#40255 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix various off-by-one errors in statistics time ranges (#40193 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.5.17, use git fetch && git checkout v4.5.17.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.5.0.

Ruby: 3.2 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 20.19 or newer

libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer

ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.5.16.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.5.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Tip

The charlock_holmes gem may fail to build on some systems with recent versions of gcc.

If you run into this issue, try BUNDLE_BUILD__CHARLOCK_HOLMES="--with-cxxflags=-std=c++17" bundle install.

Install dependencies with bundle install

Restart all Mastodon processes.

When using Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Note

While we continue to support Mastodon 4.4 and release patches for it, please note that Mastodon 4.6 is available with new features, changes and fixes. We encourage administrators to update to the latest 4.6 version when they can.

Changelog

Security

Update dependencies

Fix password authentication bypass in 2FA auth for LDAP/PAM/SSO accounts (GHSA-vx32-x96w-qq65)

Fix Denial of Service when processing pathological JSON-LD activities (GHSA-vgm8-frgh-rh2v)

Fix disabled staff accounts still having access to admin API (GHSA-62j4-hvj7-px3f)

Fixes

Fix config/ directory missing from Bootsnap precompilation options in Dockerfile (#40255 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix various off-by-one errors in statistics time ranges (#40193 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.4.24, use git fetch && git checkout v4.4.24.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.4.1:

• Ruby: 3.2 or newer
• PostgreSQL: 13 or newer
• Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)
• LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer
• Redis: 6.2 or newer
• Node: 20 or newer
• libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer
• ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.4.23.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.4.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Tip

The charlock_holmes gem may fail to build on some systems with recent versions of gcc.

If you run into this issue, try BUNDLE_BUILD__CHARLOCK_HOLMES="--with-cxxflags=-std=c++17" bundle install.

Install dependencies with bundle install

Restart all Mastodon processes.

When using Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

This version introduces very few user-facing changes but substantially reworks Mastodon's internals to increase security, support new protocols, and pave the way for new features. Updating to this version will be required for zero-downtime migration to the upcoming Mastodon 5.0.

Upgrade overview

This release contains upgrade notes that deviate from the norm:

• ℹ️ Requires assets recompilation
• ℹ️ Requires streaming server restart
• ℹ️ Requires unusually long database migrations

For more information, view the complete release notes and scroll down to the upgrade instructions section.

Changelog

Added

• Add audit logs for Hashtags (#39473, #39337 and #39670 by @arte7)
• Add search field to admin ip blocks (#39404 by @arte7)
• Add notifications for out-of-support versions of Mastodon (#39732 and #39734 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Add Elasticsearch request timeout of 10s (can be overridden through ES_QUERY_TIMEOUT) (#40064 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Add ActivityPub attributes to current span when processing Activities (#40041 by @jhbabon)
• Add OTel span attribute to deprecated endpoints (#40030 by @jhbabon)
• Add default permission check to admin area (#39974 by @oneiros)
• Add uniqueness constraint on Account uri (#39882, #39999 and #39861 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Add new theme tokens bg-blend, bg-highlight, and border-strong (#39786 by @diondiondion)
• Add support for Link objects in attachment (FEP-8967) (#36104, #39977 and #39983 by @Gargron, @TheEssem and @shleeable)

Mastodon will use the first Link attachment, if any, as preview card.

If there is no Link attachment, Mastodon will still scan the message content's to populate one. This may change in a later release.

Mastodon sets a Link attachment for outgoing posts with a preview card.

• Add support for remote accounts changing handles (#39785, #39850, #39865 and #40045 by @ClearlyClaire)

ActivityPub actor id is now used as the primary identifier, instead of webfinger handle.

Remote actors that change handles are now renamed instead of a duplicate account being created then the two merged.

Mastodon does not offer its users to change handles yet.

The concept of “invalid handles” has been added to handle some edge cases. An account with an invalid handle

is an account for which the handle cannot be currently verified, but is otherwise valid.

In the REST API, they have their username and domain attribute overridden and this is made explicit through the invalid_handle attribute.

• Add outgoing RFC9421 HTTP Message Signatures as fallback to earlier draft (#39756 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Change how local users' keypairs are stored (#39658, #39668, #39662, #39684, #39686, #39690 and #40138 by @ClearlyClaire)

This moves local users' keypairs to the dedicated table that was created in 4.6.

Private keys are now encrypted at rest, and the new infrastructure will allow for key rotation in the future.

• Add support for expires in Linked Data Signatures and Object Integrity Proofs (#39701 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Add verification of FEP-8b32 Object Integrity Proofs (#39530, #39728, #39754, #39760, #39522 and #39747 by @ClearlyClaire)

Both eddsa-jcs-2022 and mldsa44-jcs-2024 are supported.

mldsa44-jcs-2024 verification requires OpenSSL >= 3.5 to be verified.

• Add support for Ed25519 signatures in HTTP Message Signatures (#39518 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Add inbound support for FEP-521a (#39497, #39618, and #39725 by @ClearlyClaire and @shleeable)

Fixed

• Fix autosuggestions overstaying their welcome in languages that don't use spaces (#40217 by @Gargron)
• Fix error when processing remote actors with null public keys (#40194 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix various off-by-one errors in statistics time ranges (#40193 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix /deck being removed from path when resizing window (#40180 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix error in tootctl media refresh when cleaning some incompletely processed files (#40056 by @shleeable)
• Fix plain-text formatter not treating <BR> as newline (#40079 by @shleeable)
• Fix performance of listing follow requests by adding appropriate index (#40033 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix missing on_delete: :cascade on GeneratedAnnualReport foreign key (#40063 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix DeleteAccountService#purge_favourites! only invalidating deprecated cache keys (#40048 by @shleeable)
• Fix spam-filtered scheduled posts raising an error rather than being silently ignored (#40051 by @shleeable)
• Fix error when processing backups for deleted accounts (#40053 by @shleeable)
• Fix notification filter selection after settings change (#39872 by @sharlayan)
• Fix timeline unable to load more when the last item is a inline-follow-suggestions (#39773 by @sharlayan)
• Fix embedded videos restarting when interacting with post (or other posts in the same feed) (#39746 by @diondiondion)
• Fix N+1 queries when rendering accounts on the admin collection page (#39738 by @rubys)
• Fix authored posts not immediately appearing in timelines (#39733 by @ChaosExAnima)
• Fix newletter button display on some e-mail clients (#39634 by @diondiondion)
• Fix handling of rdf:langString in media summary and name (#39590 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Fix error when rejecting appeal of already-deleted user (#39490 by @shleeable)
• Fix navigation switching to user “Account” category when viewing appeal for moderation interface (#39476, #39619 and #40026 by @ClearlyClaire and @shleeable)

Changed

• Change follow recommendation materialized views to manually-maintained tables (#40039 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Change database schema to distinguish deleted-but-not-suspended accounts (#23617, #40027, #40029, #40034, #40083 and #40078 by @ClearlyClaire and @shleeable)
• Change reblogs to be deduplicated within the last 80 posts instead of the last 40 (#39784 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Change AttachmentBatch to reset retry attempt counter for each S3 batch (#39979 by @shleeable)
• Change featured tag recommendation criteria (#39567 by @renchap)

Removed

• Remove inbox processing of collections of activities (#39932 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Remove support for Reject and Accept of QuoteRequest that cannot be found by id (#39833 by @ClearlyClaire)
• Remove deprecated bin/update script (#39443 by @mjankowski)
• Remove support for pre-Mastodon 4.3.0 cookies (#38918 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.7.0, use git fetch && git checkout v4.7.0.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Cookies from pre-4.3.0 Mastodon

This version drops compatibility with cookies issued by Mastodon v4.2 and earlier. This means that any user who has not visited your server after you updated to Mastodon 4.3 or newer will be logged out.

Lengthy database migrations

This version includes very substantial database migrations. They do not require unusual update steps, but they can take a long time. Expect up to a couple hours for very large servers. These database migrations do not require downtime if you are migrating from Mastodon 4.6 and doing post-deployment migrations in a separate step as described in the upgrade instructions.

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.6.6, 4.6.7-beta.1 or 4.6.7-rc.1.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.6.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Tip

The charlock_holmes gem may fail to build on some systems with recent versions of gcc.

If you run into this issue, try BUNDLE_BUILD__CHARLOCK_HOLMES="--with-cxxflags=-std=c++17" bundle install.

If you are using rbenv, update the list of available versions and install the proper Ruby version by doing RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--with-jemalloc rbenv install in the Mastodon install directory (e.g. /home/mastodon/live)

Install dependencies with bundle install and yarn install --immutable

Precompile the assets: RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails assets:precompile

Run the pre-deployment database migrations by specifying the SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true environment variable: SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:migrate

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Run the post-deployment database migrations: RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:migrate

When using Docker

Run the pre-deployment database migrations by specifying the SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true environment variable: docker-compose run --rm -e SKIP_POST_DEPLOYMENT_MIGRATIONS=true web bundle exec rails db:migrate

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Run the post-deployment database migrations: docker-compose run --rm web bundle exec rails db:migrate

Original source

This release of Mastodon focuses entirely on technical improvements that are not necessarily visible on the user side, ahead of the ambitiously user-focused Mastodon 5.0 release later this year. Our goal is to improve compatibility with other fediverse platforms, improve performance, and fix various bugs that we’ve found. So this post will be very technical. If you’re into that, read on.

This release features multiple long-running database migrations, as we tackled several long-standing issues in our database structure that made some features difficult or even impossible to implement, and made some migrations unnecessarily complicated. Zero-downtime migration from Mastodon 4.6 to 4.7 is supported, as will be zero-downtime migration from 4.7 to the next version. However, Mastodon 4.7 will be a required stop for zero-downtime migrations.

Private keys of local users used for ActivityPub authentication are now encrypted in the database to reduce the risk of leaks, for example from backup files or external database providers. They are also stored in a way that will allow us to seamlessly use different signature algorithms and properly rotate keys in the future.

We now have better support for account handle changes for accounts hosted elsewhere on the fediverse. You can’t change your Mastodon handle for now, but this is a necessary step towards being able to do so in the future.

Mastodon 4.7 now also supports FEP-8967 to represent and process link previews, which in the future will allow us to let users chose which link they want to have a preview whenever they’re composing a post with multiple links in it. For now, Mastodon does not require other servers to use FEP-8967 and will fall back to scanning the post’s links when a remote server does not include a FEP-8967 link preview, but that may change in future versions.

We have made several improvements to how we handle cryptographic signatures in ActivityPub, allowing the ecosystem to move past old specification drafts and make it easier to change signature algorithms in the future:

• We now support RSA, Ed25519 and as a post-quantum algorithm, ML-DSA-44 public keys represented using FEP-521a.
• We now emit RFC 9421 signatures when requests fail using the previous draft specification, allowing compatibility between Mastodon 4.7 and servers that only implement the final RFC 9421 specification, while retaining compatibility with servers that only implement the previous draft specification (most current implementations), and have added support for verification of RFC 9421 signatures made with Ed25519 keys.
• We now support verifying FEP-8b32 Object Integrity Proofs using either eddsa-jcs-2022 or mldsa44-jcs-2024.

If none of this makes sense to you, don’t worry. There is absolutely no need to understand any of this to enjoy using Mastodon. This is only relevant to you if you are developing or running your own fediverse platform. Our next big release, Mastodon 5.0, will be a lot more interesting for everyone!

In conclusion

Mastodon is the result of the work of our engineering team and community contributors who submit patches, file bug reports, and translate Mastodon into their native languages. From our heart: Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release, either through code, feedback, or by funding our mission.

Delivering handcrafted code that runs on tens of thousands of servers and serves hundreds of thousands of users is not an easy task. We don’t take venture capital, we don’t use AI, we don’t sell ads, and we don’t sell your data—unlike many other platforms out there. Please support our mission, so that we can continue to make Mastodon better, and work towards an internet that is diverse, fun, and free from corporate control.

Thank you for supporting Mastodon

We develop and maintain the free and open source software that powers the social web. There is no capital behind this — we rely entirely on your support.

Original source

Upgrade overview

This release contains upgrade notes that deviate from the norm:

ℹ️ Requires assets recompilation

For more information, view the complete release notes and scroll down to the upgrade instructions section.

Changelog

Changed

Change mastodon:setup task warning about trademark to match masto but ignore subdomains (#40143 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fixed

Fix connection errors when processing fediverse:creator preventing creation of preview cards (#40135 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix Web UI being inaccessible with URLs ending with .zip (#40134 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix semitransparent background of picture-in-picture video player (#40132 by @diondiondion)

Fix title tooltip appearing for fullscreen videos (#40127 by @diondiondion)

Fix image preview too dark in alt text editor dialog (#40126 by @diondiondion)

Fix domain block impact queries being rejected (#40122 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix mobile navigation scrolling to top while opening (#40042 by @sharlayan)

Fix selected account being lost when creating a collection (#39897 and #40133 by @diondiondion and @sharlayan)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.6.6, use git fetch && git checkout v4.6.6.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.6.0.

Ruby: 3.3 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 22 or newer

libvips: 8.13 or newer

FFMpeg: 5.1 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.6.5.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.6.0 release notes.

Non-Docker

Precompile the assets: RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails assets:precompile

Restart all Mastodon processes.

When using Docker

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Changelog

Changed

Change mastodon:setup task warning about trademark to match masto but ignore subdomains (#40143 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fixed

Fix connection errors when processing fediverse:creator preventing creation of preview cards (#40135 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix Web UI being inaccessible with URLs ending with .zip (#40134 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix domain block impact queries being rejected (#40122 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.5.16, use git fetch && git checkout v4.5.16.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.5.0.

Ruby: 3.2 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 20.19 or newer

libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer

ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.5.15.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.5.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Note

While we continue to support Mastodon 4.4 and release patches for it, please note that Mastodon 4.6 is available with new features, changes and fixes. We encourage administrators to update to the latest 4.6 version when they can.

Changelog

Changed

Change mastodon:setup task warning about trademark to match masto but ignore subdomains (#40143 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fixed

Fix connection errors when processing fediverse:creator preventing creation of preview cards (#40135 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix Web UI being inaccessible with URLs ending with .zip (#40134 by @ClearlyClaire)

Fix domain block impact queries being rejected (#40122 by @ClearlyClaire)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.4.23, use git fetch && git checkout v4.4.23.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.4.1:

Ruby: 3.2 or newer

PostgreSQL: 13 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 6.2 or newer

Node: 20 or newer

libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer

ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.4.22.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.4.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Changelog

Fixed

Fix typo in embedded quote handling code (#40049 by @shleeable)

Fix account merging worker incorrectly merging Appeal and AccountWarning records (#39982 by @shleeable)

Fix off-by-one in handling of updated remote posts allowing up to 5 attachments (#39978 by @shleeable)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.5.15, use git fetch && git checkout v4.5.15.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.5.0.

Ruby: 3.2 or newer

PostgreSQL: 14 or newer

Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)

LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer

Redis: 7.0 or newer

Node: 20.19 or newer

libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer

ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.5.14.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.5.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source

Note

While we continue to support Mastodon 4.4 and release patches for it, please note that Mastodon 4.6 is available with new features, changes and fixes. We encourage administrators to update to the latest 4.6 version when they can.

Changelog

Fixed

Fix typo in embedded quote handling code (#40049 by @shleeable)

Fix account merging worker incorrectly merging Appeal and AccountWarning records (#39982 by @shleeable)

Fix off-by-one in handling of updated remote posts allowing up to 5 attachments (#39978 by @shleeable)

Upgrade notes

To get the code for v4.4.22, use git fetch && git checkout v4.4.22.

Note

As always, make sure you have backups of the database before performing any upgrades. If you are using docker-compose, this is how a backup command might look: docker exec mastodon_db_1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres postgres > name_of_the_backup.dump

Dependencies

External dependencies have not changed since v4.4.1:

• Ruby: 3.2 or newer
• PostgreSQL: 13 or newer
• Elasticsearch (recommended, for full-text search): 7.x (OpenSearch should also work)
• LibreTranslate (optional, for translations): 1.3.3 or newer
• Redis: 6.2 or newer
• Node: 20 or newer
• libvips (optional, instead of ImageMagick): 8.13 or newer
• ImageMagick (optional if using libvips): 6.9.7-7 or newer

Update steps

The following instructions are for updating from 4.4.21.

If you are upgrading directly from an earlier release, please carefully read the upgrade notes for the skipped releases as well, as they often require extra steps such as database migrations. In particular, it is very important to read the 4.4.0 release notes.

Restart all Mastodon processes.

Original source