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

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.

To check which version of Tails you are currently running, choose
<span class="menuchoice">
<span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸
<span class="guisubmenu">Tails</span>&nbsp;▸
<span class="guimenuitem">About Tails</span></span>.

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

After starting Tails and connecting to Tor, <span class="application">Tails
Upgrader</span> 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 mechanism includes cryptographic verification of the upgrade. You don't have to verify the USB image yourself anymore.

- An Internet connection

After connecting to Tor, if an upgrade is available, a dialog appears and proposes you to upgrade your USB stick.

<p>If you cannot upgrade at startup (for example, if you have no network
connection by then), you can start <span class="application">Tails
Upgrader</span> later by opening a terminal and executing the following
command:</p>

[[file:///usr/share/doc/tails/website/doc/upgrade/error/install.en.html|upgrade/error/install]]

<h1 id="manual">Manual upgrade using <i>Tails Cloner</i></h1>

It might not always be possible to do an automatic upgrade as described [[above|upgrade#automatic]]. For example, when:

- No automatic upgrade is available from our website for this version.

The automatic upgrade is impossible for technical reasons (not enough memory, not enough free space on the USB stick, and so on). For example, if you get the following error message:

- The automatic upgrade failed and you need to repair a Tails USB stick.

You want to upgrade by cloning from another Tails USB stick which is already up-to-date, for example, when working offline or with a slow Internet connection.

After connecting to Tor, a dialog informs you if you have to
upgrade your USB stick using <span class="application">Tails Cloner</span>
to a newer version of Tails.