[[!meta title="Upgrading a Tails USB stick"]]

Tails includes an automatic mechanism to upgrade a USB stick to the latest version of Tails. When an automatic upgrade is performed, only an *upgrade package* is downloaded. The upgrade package contains all the changes made to Tails since Tails was first installed or was last manually upgraded.

In some cases, it is impossible to do an **automatic upgrade** and you might have to do a **manual upgrade**. This page describes both techniques.

<div class="note">

<p>Your Persistent Storage will be preserved by both automatic and
manual upgrades.</p>

</div>

If you use Tails from a DVD, you need to [[burn a new DVD|install/dvd]].

[[!toc levels=2]]

<h1 id="check-version">Checking which version of Tails you are currently running</h1>

To check which version of Tails you are currently running, choose **Applications&nbsp;▸ Tails&nbsp;▸ About Tails**.

In the **About Tails** utility, you can click **Check for Upgrades** to check whether a new version of Tails is available. This check is also done automatically every time you start Tails and connect to the Tor network.

<h1 id="automatic">Automatic upgrade using <i>Tails Upgrader</i></h1>

After starting Tails and connecting to Tor, *Tails Upgrader* automatically checks if upgrades are available and then proposes you to upgrade your USB stick. The upgrades are checked for and downloaded through Tor.

The advantages of automatic upgrades are the following:

You only need a single Tails USB stick. The upgrade is done on the fly from a running Tails. After upgrading, you can restart and use the new version.

- The upgrade is much smaller to download than a full USB image.

The upgrade is much smaller to download than a full USB image.

The upgrade mechanism includes cryptographic verification of the upgrade. You don't have to verify the USB image yourself anymore.

Requirements:

- A Tails USB stick

A Tails USB stick

- An Internet connection

An Internet connection