Updates and renewals

Your licence includes one year of updates and support from the date you buy. During that year you can install every release we publish. After it ends, your install keeps working on the version it has.

Updates replace code only

An update never touches your data. Your database, uploads, website pages and content, settings and everything in secure_data/ stay exactly as they are. New database columns are added automatically on the first request after an update.

Update by hand

1. Open Updates in the admin console. It shows the installed version, the latest version available to you and when it last checked.
2. Click Check for updates.
3. If a newer release is available, start the update and confirm.

The updater then:

1. downloads the release package,
2. checks its SHA-256 checksum and its Ed25519 signature against the public key built into your install, and refuses a package that fails either check,
3. refuses a release that is not newer than the installed one, or that belongs to a different release channel,
4. backs up the current code, and stops if the backup fails,
5. unpacks the release into a staging folder outside the web root, then copies it in, restoring the backup if copying fails,
6. removes files that the new release no longer ships,
7. records the new version.

The update and its result appear in the recent updates list on the same screen.

Automatic updates

On the same screen:

• Turn on Install updates automatically.
• Choose how often to check: daily, weekly or monthly.
• Set a preferred install time. It is an hour of the day in UTC; automatic updates only install during that hour.
• Or turn on Disable auto-updates entirely if you want to review every release yourself.

Automatic updates need the software update check from Scheduled jobs. Check for updates works either way.

Renewing

A renewal adds one year of updates and support:

• If your update year has not ended, the new year starts at your current end date, so you lose no days.
• If it has already ended, the new year starts on the day you renew.

Renewing is optional. Nothing in the app stops working if you never renew. A licence problem, an expired update year or an unreachable licence server only pauses updates. You keep full access to your install and your data.

See Licences, domains and renewals for the full licence terms.