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Alectrona Patch 3.9.1601

· 3 min read
Ryan Ball
Ryan Ball
Director of Engineering

Alectrona Patch 3.9.1601 adds new ActivationKey licensing to support upcoming Alectrona Cloud Services features (including a web dashboard and regional data residency), and includes richer Patch Report inventory fields.

Additionally, the Patch Menu Bar app gains a new alert notification style — a more prominent, dismissible floating card with an action that opens the Patch Menu Bar app — giving you another way to tune update notifications for your organization. Alert joins the existing Notification Center, popover, and banner delivery options.

Patch Alert Notification Patch Alert Notification

Alectrona Cloud Services Activation Key

Continue using License until devices are on Alectrona Patch 3.9 or later and your service has been migrated to Alectrona Cloud Services. Once migrated, you will be able to generate your own activation key. More details about account invitations and generating activation keys are coming soon.

Rollout Process

Release notes are published 7 days before broad rollout to the stable channel, giving teams time to validate with the rc channel.

This release will be automatically rolled out to the stable channel starting on October 27, 2026.

See: Release Rollout and Update Channels

New Features​

  • Alert notification delivery. The Patch Menu Bar app can now deliver update notifications as a floating alert card — a dismissible notification with an action that opens the Patch Menu Bar app. Configure with NotificationDeliveryType=alert and related preferences such as AlertNotificationPosition and BringToFrontOnAlertNotification. See Menu Bar App Preferences.
  • ActivationKey licensing. The new ActivationKey preference supersedes License and takes precedence when both are configured. Continue using License until devices are on 3.9 or later and your service has been migrated to Alectrona Cloud Services. See Patch Preferences.
  • Inventory update-scope fields. Patch Reports and install-log appSummary entries now include withinPatchUpdateScope and, when out of scope, outOfScopeCodes (notManaged, updateAllExcluded, macAppStoreUpdateDisabled). Patch Reports also expose patchInfo.updateMAS. See Reporting.

Bug Fixes​

  • Fixed incorrect inventory managementType in reports. Explicit InstallOrUpdate / UpdateOnly lists are now evaluated before UpdateAll, and Mac App Store / UpdateMAS scope is reported via withinPatchUpdateScope rather than folded into managementType.
  • Fixed patch compare selecting the wrong architecture-specific version or install command on Apple Silicon when the catalog returned Intel-default software metadata.