What's new (NVivo 15 Windows)

NVivo updates (2025–March 2026) introduced generative AI features for summarization, coding suggestions, and sentiment analysis, along with improved collaboration and advanced analytics tools. The updates also enhanced usability, performance, integrations, and stability through interface improvements, new visualizations, and numerous bug fixes.

Sep 15, 2026
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What's new (NVivo 15 Windows)

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About NVivo 15 Windows

What's new (NVivo 15 Windows)

NVivo is under continual improvement, adding new features and improving the user experience.

If you want to make a feature request or report a bug, go here.

September 2026 (NVivo 15.6.0)

Feature	Description
AI Assistant	The new AI Assistant: Paper Search option lets you describe a research topic to find relevant academic papers, preview them, and import them directly into your project as files.
General	Resolved a "Machine fingerprint has changed" error when launching NVivo on a machine cloned from an activated image. Fixed an unexpected error that occurred when system time backdating was detected. You are now prompted to correct your system time or deactivate your license. Resolved an issue where Learn & Connect content was not displaying on the Welcome screen. Fixed a bug where the Matrix Coding Query chart did not update when the cell content was changed to Row Percentage. Resolved an issue where silent command line installation launched the standard install dialog instead of running silently. Fixed a bug with the quick coding toolbar shortcut and uncoding via coding stripes not working when opened from a code. Resolved unexpected errors in cloud projects when a background sync occurred while closing or switching projects.

Feature

Description

AI Assistant

The new AI Assistant: Paper Search option lets you describe a research topic to find relevant academic papers, preview them, and import them directly into your project as files.

General

Resolved a "Machine fingerprint has changed" error when launching NVivo on a machine cloned from an activated image.
Fixed an unexpected error that occurred when system time backdating was detected. You are now prompted to correct your system time or deactivate your license.
Resolved an issue where Learn & Connect content was not displaying on the Welcome screen.
Fixed a bug where the Matrix Coding Query chart did not update when the cell content was changed to Row Percentage.
Resolved an issue where silent command line installation launched the standard install dialog instead of running silently.
Fixed a bug with the quick coding toolbar shortcut and uncoding via coding stripes not working when opened from a code.
Resolved unexpected errors in cloud projects when a background sync occurred while closing or switching projects.

June 2026 (NVivo 15.5.2) Hotfix

Feature	Description
General	Resolved an issue with hosted-floating license not reactivating after initial command-line activation.

June 2026 (NVivo 15.5.1) Hotfix

Feature	Description
General	Resolved NVivo crash on launch. Resolved NVivo crash when opening a second instance.

May 2026 (NVivo 15.5.0)

Feature	Description
Coding Stripes	Improved support for coding stripes functionality in large surveys.
Matrix coding query	Performance enhancements to deliver significantly faster query processing.
Project creation	This enhancement streamlines project creation with a simplified user interface.
General	Resolved freezing issues while editing queries. Autocode sentiment now works in Japanese. Autocoded sentiment references are now correctly associated with the 'AI' user profile.

March 2026 (NVivo 15.4.0)

Feature	Description
Autocoding	The Identify sentiment option leverages generative Artificial Intelligence for sentiment analysis providing faster processing and improved sentiment analysis results. See Automatically detect and code sentiment (NVivo 15 Windows).
General	Resolved problems with accessing context menu while a word cloud is zoomed in. Fixed an issue where highlights were being reset when hovering over coding stripes. Fixed a bug with Edit mode in mind maps. Resolved an issue with visibility of the editing tools for memos in Edit mode. Localization inconsistencies in icons and menus for Japanese have been fixed. Improved handling of Excel tables with a large number of columns. Fixed a bug affecting the coding bar shortcut.

Feature

Description

Autocoding

The Identify sentiment option leverages generative Artificial Intelligence for sentiment analysis providing faster processing and improved sentiment analysis results. See Automatically detect and code sentiment (NVivo 15 Windows).

General

Resolved problems with accessing context menu while a word cloud is zoomed in.
Fixed an issue where highlights were being reset when hovering over coding stripes.
Fixed a bug with Edit mode in mind maps.
Resolved an issue with visibility of the editing tools for memos in Edit mode.
Localization inconsistencies in icons and menus for Japanese have been fixed.
Improved handling of Excel tables with a large number of columns.
Fixed a bug affecting the coding bar shortcut.

January 2026 (NVivo 15.3.2)

Feature	Description
Collaboration Cloud	Improved collaboration cloud reliability by detecting issues with system folders.
General	Resolved issues with coding stripes color settings. Fixed object reference error that occurred when coding audio/video transcripts. Fixed issue where highlights were being reset when hovering over coding stripes. Addressed issue where uncoding from a document caused the document to automatically scroll to the top.

November 2025 (NVivo 15.3.1)

Feature	Description
Coding	Users can now successfully code contents from cases.
Detail View	Minor user interface localization improvements.
General	Resolved crashing issues in coding export and docking Detail View. Coding query results can now be exported without any errors. Resolved toolbar issues with coding stripes and Twitter documents. Resolved icon display issue when deleting annotations. Fixed user interface issue with exporting Box Plot in Crosstab Query.

October 2025 (NVivo 15.3.0)

Feature	Description
AI Assistant: Summarize Coded Content	In the Framework Matrix, you can now generate summaries of coded content automatically with the help of the AI Assistant. See AI Assistant: Summarize Coded Content (NVivo 15 Windows).
Disable AI Features	You can disable AI Assistant features via Registry Key. See Disable AI Features.
Mixed Methods Research	Crosstab query now displays descriptive statistics such as mean, median, and quartiles in the table as well as a new box plot visualization. Additionally, a principal components analysis (PCA) biplot visualization is available in the crosstab query. See Mixed Methods Research.
XLSTAT Export	A new option allows you to export coding frequencies across cases or different case types within your project. The exported Excel file can be used in applications like Excel or XLSTAT for statistical analysis. See XLSTAT Export (NVivo 15 Windows).
Audio and Video	A redesigned waveform with intuitive playback controls has been added for audio/video documents. For more information, see Play audio and video (NVivo 15 Windows).
Coding stripes	A new mode is added so that you can view coding stripes for all codes and cases that code the content which is currently in view.
Detail View	The context ribbon is replaced with a more accessible and intuitive toolbar that is available in the Detail View for the items such as Documents, PDFs, audio, video, picture, survey, code, etc.
General	Resolved crashing issues in cluster analysis and See-Also links. Fixed issues with printing to PDF with coding stripes.

August 2025 (NVivo 15.2.2)

Feature	Description
Add from Citavi	Citavi projects can now be shared to NVivo across cloud regions.
Command line installation	Resolved an issue with the software update check setting.
License activation	Fixed a license activation issue that occurred after trial expiry.
General	Fixed crashes that could occur at startup.

July 2025 (NVivo 15.2.1)

Feature	Description
Audio and video	Resolved crashing when docking and undocking media player.
Collaboration Cloud with NVivo 15	Improved error messaging in collaboration cloud.
Activation	Resolved issues with command line activation and software upgrade issues.
Application options	You can now set NVivo to automatically check for software updates every day.
Coding Stripes	Improvements to scrolling while viewing coding stripes.
Framework matrix	Fixed an issue with exporting transposed framework matrix.
Coding	Resolved an issue related to assigning multiple codes to a coded content.
General	Fixed a crash that could occur during startup. Fixed a crash that could occur when opening a project.

June 2025 (NVivo 15.2.0)

Please note the Windows auto update will only be available for users on 15.1.2.

Feature	Description
Audio and video	Implemented new intuitive playback controls for audio/video documents. For more information, see Play audio and video (NVivo 15 Windows).
Coding stripes	Enhanced highlighting in documents when hovering over coding stripes, making it quicker and easier to identify what is coded to which code. Improved usability for selecting and deselecting coding stripes. For more information, see Tip.
See-Also links in Documents and Memos	The sidebar indicators for See-Also links are made interactive in the Detail View. Clicking the icons selects the corresponding link text, and right-clicking them opens a context menu. The See-Also link sidebar icons and text highlights are made more intuitive to easily differentiate between 'From Item' and 'To Item'. The See-Also Links tab in the Detail View now displays both From and To items' data. For more information, see Identify From Item and To Item in a Document.
Annotations in Documents and Memos	Like See-Also links, the sidebar icons for Annotations are made interactive in the Detail View. Clicking the icons selects the corresponding annotated text, and right-clicking them opens a context menu.
Detail View	For specific file types, NVivo can now display multiple indicators for the same line where necessary.
AI Assistant: Summarize	Added an indicator to notify users when a new memo is created or updated by AI Assistant.
OneNote Online	Added support to enable the organization account login for OneNote authentication.
Collaboration Cloud with NVivo 15	Enabled the use of special characters in the email address when inviting collaborators to a project.
Performance Improvements	Optimized Word Cloud view by significantly improving the loading speed. Reduced the loading time for opening NVivo projects from welcome screen and code references in Detail View.
Usability and User Interface Improvements	Added user friendly indicator while opening an NVivo project. Survey wizard now also works on small screens. Minor user interface enhancements to coding stripes. Improved user interface when cloning or uploading a cloud project. Table header dividers are now properly visible, which makes it much easier to resize table columns.
Terminology Update	Renamed 'Dataset' files to 'Survey' to better reflect their actual use in practice.
Framework matrix	You can now transpose the columns and rows in Framework matrix.
General	Fixes included in this release: Fixed error when exporting framework matrices with certain locales. “Add shapes” panel is now correctly hidden when opening concept maps. Fixed rendering issue on tab close buttons in Windows 11. Disabled “insert sibling” on root node of mind maps, which cannot have siblings. Fixed a rendering issue with Annotation and See-Also link indicators. Fixed a crash when editing mind map, concept map, or project map. Added missing tooltips. Fixed a crash on the welcome screen. Fixed an issue where code stripes did not align properly with text. Fixed an issue where auto coding was not working. Fixed an issue where survey import was not working. Fixed a rendering issue with the audio waveform on HiDPI screens. Fixed a crash when attempting to download a corrupted project from collaboration cloud. Reduced flickering of coding stripes when scrolling.

April 2025 (NVivo 15.1.2)

Feature	Description
Licensing	Improved workflows for on-premise organization license provisioning and activation.
Activation	Users can now perform offline activation seamlessly.

January 2025 (NVivo 15.1.1)

Feature	Description
Trial license	Users can now seamlessly uninstall and reinstall NVivo with trial license.
Activation	Resolved error occurred during user sign-up and activation.

January 2025 (NVivo 15.1.0)

Feature	Description
License management	Improved workflows for license provisioning and activation.
AI Assistant (NVivo 15 Windows)	Minor user interface localization improvements.
AI Assistant: Summarize (NVivo 15 Windows)	AI Assistant: Summarize option, previously called AI Assistant: Summarize Document(s), now supports summarization of codes and cases.
AI Assistant: Suggest Child Codes (NVivo 15 Windows)	Users can now use AI Assistant to generate child code in their preferred language.
NCapture (NVivo 15 Windows)	Added support for Chrome manifest v3. Upgraded NCapture to support Twitter API version 2. Resolved issues with capturing Twitter data. Fixed Twitter user timeline capturing issues.

NVivo 15.0.0

Feature	Description
AI Assistant	AI Assistant is a generative artificial intelligent tool that is embedded within NVivo to enhance your data analysis. Using AI assistant, you can leverage coding suggestions and summarize texts or documents.

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