diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index d1c0a1b76a4d0eacfb2f8ec09a4aa56a68c555a6..932cf60bdb3939abd073dbb1dcc9f24f1127f232 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+Changes in synapse v0.17.0-rc4 (2016-08-05)
+===========================================
+
+Changes:
+
+* Change the way we summarize URLs when previewing (PR #973)
+* Add new /state_ids federation API (PR #979)
+* Speed up processing of /state/ response (PR #986)
+
+Bug fixes:
+
+* Fix event persistence when event has already been partially persisted
+  (PR #975, #983, #985)
+* Fix port script to also copy across backfilled events (PR #982)
+
+
 Changes in synapse v0.17.0-rc3 (2016-08-02)
 ===========================================
 
diff --git a/synapse/__init__.py b/synapse/__init__.py
index 67231e8d97a0f6f9321c75f4390c9567c898dc26..67ea8a8a9d43a58b877069b13abf99427fe5a740 100644
--- a/synapse/__init__.py
+++ b/synapse/__init__.py
@@ -16,4 +16,4 @@
 """ This is a reference implementation of a Matrix home server.
 """
 
-__version__ = "0.17.0-rc3"
+__version__ = "0.17.0-rc4"