Blowhorn Download

Update Blowhorn

Install a newer Blowhorn from the app, follow each step as it runs, and what to do if an update stalls.

Blowhorn tells you when a newer version is out and installs it for you. You need no GitHub account, and your settings, data and background service are kept.

Start an update

When a newer release is out, the menu-bar popup shows a card with the new version and an update button. The Home screen and the Setup screen offer the same update. Press update in any of them.

The app also checks each time you open it. If that check finds a newer release, a prompt in the console window asks before anything is downloaded.

What you see while it updates

The card names each step as it happens:

  1. downloading, with a progress bar, the percent done, how many MB of the total have arrived, and about how long is left. The time left comes from how fast the download has been going over the last few seconds.
  2. verifying checksum and signature. The download is compared with the release's SHA256SUMS.txt to catch a corrupted file, then the new app must be signed with the same Apple Developer ID team as the app you are running, and macOS Gatekeeper must accept it.
  3. installing. The new app is copied into Applications and swapped in. If anything fails, your current version is put back.
  4. finishing setup. Blowhorn checks its Chrome connection with blowhorn setup and, if you installed blowhorn-axi globally, updates it too. This usually takes a few seconds. If it fails, your current version is put back.
  5. relaunching. Blowhorn closes and the new version opens. If Blowhorn asks what to do about work in progress before it closes and you choose stay open, the new version stays installed and opens the next time you start Blowhorn, or when you press update again.

Verifying, installing and finishing setup have no bytes to count, so the bar sweeps and the card says how long the step usually takes, for example "usually about 25 seconds". Blowhorn times these steps on your Mac each time it updates and uses those timings next time. Until it has its own, it uses timings measured on an Intel iMac: about 24 seconds to verify, 20 seconds to copy the app and a few seconds to finish setup.

If an update stalls

If the download stops moving for 30 seconds, or a step runs for well over its usual time, the card says so and offers two buttons:

  • retry stops the update and starts it again. Your current version stays installed until the new one has been verified. Once the new version is in Applications, retry cannot stop the update: if finishing setup ends well, Blowhorn reopens on the new version, and if it fails, your current version is put back. Nothing is downloaded again.
  • release page opens the release on GitHub so you can update by hand.

The info button after the two buttons says how long nothing has moved.

If the new version is installed but Blowhorn could not reopen itself, the card says so instead of opening the release page. Quit Blowhorn and open it again to start the new version.

Update by hand

On the release page, download Blowhorn-<version>-mac-universal.dmg, open it, and drag Blowhorn to Applications, replacing the old copy. The update in the app does exactly this for you, after checking the download. See Install the app for how to check a download yourself.

Last modified October 18, 2026