New Release: Tails 6.0

New features

Error detection on the Persistent Storage

Tails 6.0 warns you about errors when reading or writing from your Tails USB stick.

These alerts can help you diagnose hardware failures on your USB stick and backup your Persistent Storage before it's too late.

Mount external devices automatically

When you plug in an external storage device, a USB stick or an external hard disk, Tails 6.0 mounts it automatically. If the storage device contains an encrypted partition, Tails 6.0 offers you to unlock the encryption automatically.

This feature also simplifies how to unlock VeraCrypt encrypted volumes.

Protection against malicious USB devices

If an attacker manages to plug a malicious USB device in your computer, they could run software that breaks the security built in Tails without your knowledge.

To protect from such attacks while you are away from your computer, Tails 6.0 ignores any USB device that is plugged in while your screen is locked.

You can only use new USB devices if they are plugged in while the screen is unlocked.

Dark Mode and Night Light

From the system menu of Tails 6.0, you can now switch between:

• The default light mode with colder colors and more brightness
• A dark mode
• A night light mode with warmer colors and less brightness
• A combination of both the dark mode and night light mode

Easier screenshots and screencasts

GNOME 43 introduces a new shortcut in the system menu that makes it easier to take a screenshot or record a screencast.

Easier Gmail in Thunderbird

Thanks to changes in both Thunderbird and Gmail, it's much easier to configure a Gmail account in Thunderbird in Tails 6.0.

• You don't have to configure anything special in your Gmail account, other than the usual 2-Step Verification.
• You can sign in to your Gmail account directly when configuring it in Thunderbird.

Diceware passphrases in 5 more languages

When creating a Persistent Storage, suggested passphrases are now also generated in Catalan, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Thanks to jawlensky who created the word lists for Catalan, Italian, and Spanish for Tails, but also made them available to all users of diceware.

Changes and updates

Included software

Tails 6.0 updates most of the applications included in Tails, among others:

• Tor Browser to 13.0.10.
• Electrum from 4.0.9 to 4.3.4
  • Improve support for the Lightning protocol and hardware wallets.
• KeePassXC from 2.6.2 to 2.7.4
  • Add entry tags.
  • Support dark mode.
  • Redesign history view.
• Metadata Cleaner from 1.0.2 to 2.4.0
  • Redesign the whole user interface.
  • Support dark mode.
  • Add support for AIFF and HEIC files.
• Text Editor from gedit to gnome-text-editor
  • Support dark mode.
• Inkscape from 1.0.2 to 1.2.2
• Audacity from 2.4.2 to 3.2.4
• Gimp from 2.10.22 to 2.10.34
• Kleopatra from 4:20.08 to 4:22.12

Removed features

• Remove the icons on the desktop.

The extension of GNOME Shell that we used to provide this feature is not well integrated into GNOME and created other problems. (#19920)

• Remove the item Wipe and Wipe available disk space from the shortcut menu of the Files browser.

Secure deletion is not reliable enough on USB sticks and Solid-State Drives (SSDs) for us to keep advertising this feature.

We updated our documentation on secure deletion to new recommendations: use encrypted volumes, overwrite the entire device, or disintegrate it physically.

• Remove the item Remove metadata from the shortcut menu of the Files browser.

The developers of MAT2, the metadata removal library used by Metadata Cleaner are not providing this option anymore.

• Remove GtkHash

You can still install GtkHash as Additional Software.

Fixed problems

• Fix several issues with special characters and non-Latin scripts in the screen keyboard. (#18076)

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

• OnionShare is still included as version 2.2.

We tried to include OnionShare 2.6 in Tails 6.0, but it has several issues that had security implications. (#20135 and #20140)

• Mounting external devices automatically interferes with the Back Up Persistent Storage utility. (#20143)

Get Tails 6.0

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your Persistent Storage

• Automatic upgrades are only available from Tails 6.0~rc1 to 6.0.

All other users have to do a manual upgrade.

To install Tails 6.0 on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

• Install from Windows

• Install from macOS

• Install from Linux

• Install from Debian or Ubuntu using the command line and GnuPG

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 6.0 directly:

• For USB sticks (USB image)

• For DVDs and virtual machines (ISO image)

Support and feedback

For support and feedback, visit the Support section on the Tails website.