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Privacy

5DO is a local desktop application. It does not include analytics, crash reporting, advertising, or an automatic update service.

Update checks

The desktop shell and CLI check GitHub's public release feed once at startup (cached for several hours). The request contains only the public repository URL and a client user agent; no user, machine, game, settings, or diagnostics data is sent. GitHub receives the usual HTTP metadata (IP address, user agent, and requested URL) under its privacy policy.

The update check is enabled by default and can be disabled with Settings > Video > Check for updates when 5DO starts, --no-update-check, or FIVEDO_UPDATE_CHECK=0. Opening the download page uses the system browser. 5DO never downloads or installs an update automatically.

What stays on your machine

The desktop app stores its state in the local 5DO data directory:

  • settings.json — configuration and paths.
  • nvram.ram and per-game NVRAM images — console save memory.
  • states/ — save slots and thumbnails.
  • cheats/ — per-game cheat files.
  • library-state.json and library-metadata.json — favorites, play time, and offline library metadata.
  • library-cache.json - scanned game metadata.
  • update-check.json - the last successful GitHub release check.
  • logs/ - rolling diagnostic logs.

Use Settings > Paths or About to see the exact directory. Portable mode keeps the same data beside the executable.

Diagnostics bundles

Help > Save Diagnostics Bundle... and the diagnostics bundle CLI command create a local ZIP archive for support. Before writing the archive, 5DO:

  • replaces the user profile, app directory, and temp directory with placeholders;
  • replaces the account name when it is at least three characters long;
  • removes known path-valued settings;
  • replaces path-like values in settings JSON with <path>;
  • includes only the state, frame, or movie evidence you explicitly select.

A bundle can contain:

  • manifest.json — product, version, OS, architecture, and included evidence.
  • environment.txt — runtime and environment details.
  • settings.json — sanitized settings, when selected.
  • logs/*.log — the newest log files, truncated to the configured limit.
  • state.bin, frame.png, input.replay — optional evidence, when selected.

Review a bundle before uploading it. Screenshots and save states can still contain game content, and a log can contain a title or path that the scrubber did not recognize.

Network access

The emulator and game rendering run locally and do not need a network connection. The startup update check and the optional launch-statistics request are the only requests made by the application itself; both are best-effort and can be disabled. The documentation site is a static GitHub Pages site. GitHub may collect standard web-server logs according to GitHub's privacy statement. The docs theme may load web fonts from Google Fonts; the emulator does not.

Bug reports, discussions, and pull requests are hosted by GitHub and are subject to GitHub's terms and privacy policy.

Copyrighted content

Do not upload BIOS ROMs, game images, or extracted game assets to issues, discussions, pull requests, or diagnostics bundles. Describe the file and provide hashes or synthetic fixtures instead. See Licensing.