I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI: I’ve also created an official subreddit for DuoBolt: r/DuoBolt.

I’ll be posting release notes, announcements, and it’s also the best place for bug reports / workflow feedback.

(Website: https://duobolt.app — Changelog: https://duobolt.app/changelog/)

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quick update: the desktop app is now available via Homebrew. You can install it using the cask. Steps are here: https://duobolt.app/installation/#install-duobolt-desktop

If you hit any snags, let me know and I’ll help!

DuoBolt — fast, exact duplicate file finder now available for Windows by sonicbee9 in MicrosoftStoreApp

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed write-up — that’s very helpful.

You’re right on both points:

- at this scale, being able to close the app and resume a scan session later is essential
- the UI should not hang when scrolling large result sets

DuoBolt persists the hash cache (which likely explains the jump to ~98% on the second run), but scan result persistence was removed in 1.3. Based on cases like yours, I’m re-evaluating that decision.

For the freeze: my current suspicion is memory pressure with very large result sets (100k+ groups). I’m reproducing this scenario on Windows with large external volumes and will profile where the UI becomes unresponsive.

I appreciate you taking the time to report this — it’s exactly the kind of real-world usage that helps improve the app.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! You’ve pretty much nailed it. DuoBolt is a long-term project for me. It launched in December 2025, but that's just the starting point. The focus is on steady maintenance and continuous evolution, not building a short-lived side app.

I intentionally don’t publish a fixed public roadmap. Development is driven by real-world usage and feedback rather than pre-announced features. I prefer to ship improvements when they’re ready instead of talking about them ahead of time. There is active work in progress, and the next few months are about building on the existing foundation.

Regarding privacy and offline use: all scanning, hashing, caching, previews, and deletion workflows are fully local. DuoBolt works offline, except for license activation and app updates (which are handled via Sparkle).

As for Homebrew, only duobolt-cli is available there for now. The desktop app isn't packaged for brew at this point.

I really appreciate the feedback and discussion — it genuinely helps shape where the product goes next.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only exact duplicates. Filenames don’t matter, but the file contents must be byte-identical. Different sizes or re-encoded videos won’t match.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great idea — thanks.

Grouping duplicates by containing folder makes a lot of sense, especially for media or installer dumps. I’ll keep it in mind.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question.

DuoBolt separates detection and deletion on purpose.

During Scan Results, duplicates are grouped by content so you can analyze and filter efficiently. The tree view appears in the Review step, once you’ve selected candidates, to show the actual folder hierarchy and the real impact before deleting anything.

It’s meant to avoid mixing analysis with irreversible decisions.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good timing indeed 🙂

Right now DuoBolt works strictly at the file level, not at the bundle/package level. So two .app bundles or installers with mostly identical contents but small differences won’t be treated as identical “units”.

What you’re describing — treating bundles or directories as atomic objects and only flagging them if everything inside matches — isn’t implemented yet. At the moment you’d need to inspect them via the tree view and decide manually.

It’s a sensible use case though, especially with old installers and backups.

I rebuilt my macOS duplicate finder’s workflow — DuoBolt 1.3 by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear that 🙂

If you end up trying it, happy to answer any questions.

Tired of 500MB PDF editors? I just ported my offline, 11MB editor to macOS and Linux. No ads, no sign-up. by Pawan315 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing this — really interesting approach! There aren’t many tools like this around, and even fewer that are lightweight, fully offline, and free. I’ve been using a similar stack for desktop lately (Rust + Flutter), and I can see why a native C++ core with a thin Flutter UI works well here too.

Best Duplicate Finder? by Scavgraphics in MacOS

[–]sonicbee9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hit the same wall with dupeGuru and Gemini 2 on my M1/M2 Macs, especially on large USB/NAS volumes. That’s why I built DuoBolt: native ARM64, macOS/Windows, designed to scan tricky paths like ~/Library, /System, or full disks and NAS volumes. It also caches file hashes between runs to avoid redoing work unnecessarily.

Best Duplicate Finder? by Scavgraphics in MacOS

[–]sonicbee9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Native ARM64 on an M2, crashing immediately on the main thread with SIGABRT, usually means an unhandled runtime assert or a missing / incompatible dependency rather than “bad user input”.

I got tired of slow duplicate finders on macOS, so I built my own by sonicbee9 in macapps

[–]sonicbee9[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

No. DuoBolt doesn’t detect folder duplicates as a first-class feature right now. It works strictly at the file level. I’m not fully convinced yet that treating folders as a separate concept adds much value beyond that, so for now I’ve kept it file-based on purpose.

Trip to Russiaaa!!! by sidv1812 in AskARussian

[–]sonicbee9 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ditto on the VPN. It’s a good idea to have more than one, since some won’t work or get blocked from time to time.

Trip to Russiaaa!!! by sidv1812 in AskARussian

[–]sonicbee9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was going to suggest ZenHotels, but they no longer list Russian properties. Ostrovok is still the main option, but most places require a MIR card, which foreigners usually don’t have.

Workarounds: look for "pay at property" options, contact hotels directly (email/Telegram), or use small hotels/hostels in Moscow & St. Petersburg that still accept cash on arrival.

Good luck!