# New Release: Ultralytics v8.4.2

**URL:** <https://community.ultralytics.com/t/new-release-ultralytics-v8-4-2/1752>\
**Category:** Discussion\
**Tags:** ultralytics-official, releases, announcements\
**Created:** [January 15, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://community.ultralytics.com/t/new-release-ultralytics-v8-4-2/1752 "2026-01-15T13:17:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![glenn-jocher](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.ultralytics.com/glenn-jocher/32/83_2.png) [@glenn-jocher](https://community.ultralytics.com/u/glenn-jocher)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://community.ultralytics.com/t/new-release-ultralytics-v8-4-2/1752/1 "2026-01-15T13:17:29Z")

</div>

## 🚀 Ultralytics v8.4.2 is out!

**TL;DR:** Ultralytics **v8.4.2** unblocks **Ultralytics Platform (`ul://` / NDJSON) classification training** by converting datasets into the correct on-disk layout + validating properly, with a few helpful QoL and CI/docs updates 🛠✅

If you train classification from **Ultralytics Platform datasets** or `.ndjson` exports, this is a **must update** 🎉

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## 🌟 New Features / Key Changes

### 🧩🏷 Platform Classification Training Fix (most important)

**PR:** [Fix Platform Classify training (ultralytics 8.4.2)](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/23217) by [@glenn-jocher](https://github.com/glenn-jocher)

What changed:

- NDJSON conversion now detects `task == "classify"` and creates an **ImageNet-style layout** :
  - `{split}/{class_name}/...`

- Detection/segmentation/pose/OBB conversions are unchanged (still using `data.yaml`, `images/{split}/`, `labels/{split}/`)
- Downloads are more robust: **parent directories are created** before saving images pulled from URLs
- Trainer improvement: `Trainer.get_dataset()` now **always resolves `ul://` / `.ndjson` into a local dataset first** , then runs the correct dataset validation for the task ✅

Why it matters:

- Prevents failures caused by the **wrong folder structure** when training classification from Platform datasets
- Ensures the trainer validates the dataset in a **task-correct** way

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## 🧠📋 Improvements

### 🔍 Classification results: `Results.summary()` now returns top-5

**PR:** [Return Classify top5 in Results summary](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/23215) by [@glenn-jocher](https://github.com/glenn-jocher)

- `Results.summary()` for classification is intended to return **top-5 classes + confidences** , not just top-1
- Note: the diff suggests each top-5 entry may be appended twice (likely unintended) ⚠  
If you spot duplicates in `summary()` output, please reply with a minimal repro.

### 📁🔧 Allow overriding `save_dir` reliably

**PR:** [Exclude `save_dir` from argument validation](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/23191) by [@Y-T-G](https://github.com/Y-T-G)

- `save_dir` is now treated as an allowed override/config key
- Makes output directory overrides more consistent across CLI/Python workflows (notebooks, sweeps, CI, etc.)

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## 🧪💻 CI / Testing Updates

### ✅ Re-enable NCNN export tests on ARM64

**PR:** [Re-enable NCNN ARM64 exports in Tests CIs](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/23214) by [@lakshanthad](https://github.com/lakshanthad)

- Removes an ARM64 skip so **NCNN export tests run on Apple Silicon/ARM** CI
- Still guarded against PyTorch \< 2.0 due to known instability

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## 📚🔗 Docs / Branding Touch-ups

Included in **PR:** [Return Classify top5 in Results summary](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/23215) by [@glenn-jocher](https://github.com/glenn-jocher)

- Updates Kaggle model badge to **YOLO11** (branding)
- Fixes a billing link + updates a cloud-training docs path

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## ✅ How to Update

```bash
pip install -U ultralytics

```

Quick sanity check (classification example):

```python
from ultralytics import YOLO

model = YOLO("yolo26n-cls.pt") # YOLO26 recommended for new projects
results = model.predict("image.jpg")
print(results[0].summary())

```

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## 🔗 Release Links

You can review the full release details in the [v8.4.2 GitHub release](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/releases/tag/v8.4.2), and browse the complete diff in the [v8.4.1 → v8.4.2 changelog comparison](https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.4.1...v8.4.2).

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## 💬 Feedback Wanted

If you’re training classification via **Ultralytics Platform `ul://` datasets** or `.ndjson` exports, let us know:

- Did this resolve your training issues?
- Are you seeing duplicated entries in `Results.summary()` top-5 output?
- Any edge cases with class naming / splits / mixed datasets?

Thanks for helping improve YOLO for everyone—community reports and PRs are what keep things moving fast 🙌