Workplace Server and Desktop 8.5
March 25, 2021
Release Notes
We're pleased to announce the release of Workplace Server and Desktop 8.5. The stability of our service is always central to our development efforts, and all service updates contain improvements related to that goal. In addition to the items listed below, we continue to make minor adjustments to the interface and implement general enhancements to improve security, performance, and your overall end-user experience.
Enhancements and changes
We've made sync speed increases in Workplace Desktop a priority in this release. These enhancements include a number of back end changes that will improve sync performance across the service, as well as the addition of a new Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for Windows. Our improvements should result in up to two times our previous transfer speeds. We think you'll find these enhancements noticeable.
As you know, Workplace Desktop displays notifications having to do with Workplace functions, connectivity, etc. These notifications were sometimes a distraction and, at times, overlapped with notifications displayed by your own operating system, resulting in a less than ideal user experience.
In this release, we've leveraged the notification systems native to your operating system to remove redundancy and provide a more customizable experience. You can now control your Workplace notification settings as you would for any app:
Windows
Windows menu > Settings > Notification & actions
Mac
Apple menu > System Settings, click Notifications in the sidebar
We've changed the Workplace for Windows Settings interface to provide a more modern look and feel.
We've also streamlined the Workplace app Network tab to be responsive to your team's policy profile settings and to display only the necessary settings.
As the proverb goes, all good things must come to an end; the time has come for us to retire our support for Workplace Desktop for Windows v8.1. Consequently, you'll want to make sure that you're running a current and supported version of Workplace.
To check the version status of your own Workplace machines, go to the Devices page in Workplace Online to see if you're due for an update.
If you're a Workplace Administrator, please check the Manage Devices page in Workplace Online to confirm that all of your users' Windows devices are running the most recent version of Workplace possible.
Issue resolutions
In addition to a variety of minor enhancements and stability improvements, the following issue was resolved in this release:
It was not possible for an SSO-linked user to create a Workplace project from a local folder via Workplace Server. The issue has been resolved.