Database
Why FTVDB Keeps Only Live Links
FTVDB is meant to surface working update links, not archive dead ones, and the long-term goal is automated verification and cleanup.
One thing to know about FTVDB is that I verify submitted URLs and keep only the live ones.
That means you may not find some older links that once worked. This is intentional. The purpose of FTVDB is not to keep a catalog of dead links. I want the database to show working links that people can actually use.
Why some old links are missing
Amazon update infrastructure changes over time. Some links disappear, some are replaced, and some simply stop working.
When that happens, I do not want the database to fill up with entries that lead nowhere. A clean database with live links is more useful than a larger one full of broken records.
What comes next
Right now I verify submitted links as part of the workflow, but later I plan to implement verification for all stored entries as well.
The goal is to automatically re-check existing records and remove links that have been deleted or are no longer valid. That will keep the database useful over time without turning it into a graveyard of broken URLs.
FTVDB does not store files
Another important point is that FTVDB does not store firmware or app files.
The project is about preserving links and preserving update history, not hosting the data itself. That distinction matters. FTVDB exists to organize and track public update URLs, not to mirror binaries.
Build your own tools on top of the database
If you want to work with the raw data, I invite you to visit the GitHub database directly:
https://github.com/FTVDB/FTVDB/tree/main/database
The structure is intentionally simple. You can read it easily, build your own scripts to analyze it, and pull newly captured URLs into your own workflows.
That is part of the bigger idea behind FTVDB. If more people inspect, analyze, and build on top of the database, then together we can preserve update history much more effectively.