Updating
The supported way: over-the-air updates
The only supported way to update MicroPythonOS is the built-in OSUpdate app (over-the-air updates). OTA updates write the new OS to the inactive system partition and leave your storage partition untouched: installed apps, preferences (WiFi credentials, wallet-display configs, Nostr keys), and user data are all preserved.
When an update is available, the notification bar offers it, or you can open the OSUpdate app directly.
Reinstalling with the web installer is not an update
The WebSerial installer performs a clean install, and reflashing a device that already has MicroPythonOS on it can cost you your data:
- If you select "Erase device" during installation, your storage partition — all apps, settings, and keys — is certainly erased.
- Even without erasing, a newer version may use a different partition layout than the one on your device (this can happen from time to time as MicroPythonOS evolves). In that case the storage partition is reformatted on first boot, without any prompt.
So, just like for any electronics device: make a backup of important files before reinstalling the software. For example, over USB with mpremote:
mpremote fs cp -r :/apps :/prefs :/data ./mpos-backup/
Advanced: manual offline update
If a device has no network access, you can apply an update manually by
writing the over-the-air update file (for example
MicroPythonOS_esp32s3_0.17.3.ota from the
releases) to
the OTA application offsets in flash with esptool. For the esp32s3 build,
for example, the two OTA slots are at 0x20000 and 0x3A0000:
python3 -m esptool --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x20000 MicroPythonOS_esp32s3_0.17.3.ota
This writes the same bytes an OTA update would, so the storage partition is left alone — but it is an advanced action: the offsets differ per board/build, and writing to the wrong offset can corrupt the device's filesystem. Making a backup first is strongly advised.