KDE has released Frameworks 6.32, the latest update to its collection of libraries that provide essential functionality for Plasma and KDE applications.
One important change concerns KIO, KDE’s file access framework. File transfers to removable devices like USB drives now handle data flushing more carefully. When copying files, KIO guarantees data is written to the destination before reporting success. In addition, when moving files, the original files are deleted only after the destination data has been flushed.
The update also improves transfers to slower devices by writing data progressively instead of allowing large amounts to accumulate in memory.
Another change relates to Baloo, KDE’s file indexing and desktop search engine. Frameworks 6.32 introduces more precise search scopes, letting queries target filenames, file contents, or specific metadata. The indexing backend has also been reworked to improve how it stores and processes search terms.
Moreover, Baloo now supports D-Bus activation for its main daemon, while its command-line tools gain options to list supported search properties and file types. Several fixes address query parsing, metadata updates, and handling invalid search expressions.
Image handling also improves through KImageFormats. The release expands support for DDS images with BC4, BC5, BC6H, and BC7 compression formats commonly used for textures in games and graphics applications. OpenEXR support gains compatibility with lossy HTJ2K compression introduced in OpenEXR 3.5, while HEIF images now correctly handle additional rotation and mirroring combinations.
KTextEditor, the editing component used by applications such as Kate and KWrite, receives fixes for code folding, snippets, and Vim-style editing. Entering Visual Mode now preserves existing selections, while improvements to Save As prevent conflicts when the destination file is already open in another document.
The update also fixes selection highlighting, cursor rendering with adjusted line heights, and several memory-related issues.
For applications built with Kirigami, Frameworks 6.32 corrects mouse-wheel handling on Wayland, fixes actions that could trigger twice, and improves icon alignment during window resizing. There are also visual refinements to form controls, dialogs, and Material-style components.
KArchive receives improvements to ZIP filename handling, including better compatibility with Unicode filenames and archives using older character encodings. Meanwhile, KWallet improves the initial wallet setup experience, and KWidgetsAddons updates its character selection data to Unicode 18.0.
Finally, the update includes fixes to configuration handling, calendar recurrence processing, and application window state restoration, alongside new icons in the Breeze icon theme.
For more information, see the announcement.
KDE Frameworks 6.32 is expected to be available first through the software repositories of rolling-release Linux distributions, with others providing the update according to their release schedules.
