Flashing latest umbrelOS 1.7.x fresh on a Pi 4 that has an existing 0.5.4 install on its SSD — will first boot adopt the data, or must I flash 1.0 first?

Support and Troubleshooting
1

I’m on a Raspberry Pi 4 running umbrelOS 0.5.4 (legacy). My data lives on an external USB SSD — a fully-synced Bitcoin node (~950 GB) and a Lightning node with open channels. I understand the 0.5→1.x upgrade on Pi 4 is a microSD re-flash, not in-place, and that the SSD data is meant to be preserved.

My plan is to flash the latest image (umbrelos-pi4.img.zip, currently 1.7.4) onto a new microSD, keep the same SSD attached, and boot.

My question is specifically about that first boot:

Does flashing the latest 1.7.x image directly detect and adopt an existing 0.5.4-era install on the SSD (chain + app data + Lightning), so nothing re-syncs — or is that migration logic only present in the original 1.0 image, meaning I should flash 1.0 first, let it migrate, then update?

If I flash latest directly, is there any risk the first-boot setup treats the SSD as new and formats it? What’s the signal to watch for so I can stop before any data is touched?

Anything Pi 4-specific I should do to make sure the existing blockchain is recognised rather than re-synced/reindexed?

Node has real funds, so I’m taking full backups first (seed, SCB, off-box copy of the Lightning dir and chainstate) — just want to confirm the intended path before I start. Thanks!

2

Hey, you can flash the latest Pi 4 image directly. There’s no need to install 1.0 first, and reusing the same microSD is fine.

Before shutting down 0.5.4, check that the SSD is recognised as an existing Umbrel drive:

test -f /home/umbrel/umbrel/.umbrel && echo "Umbrel SSD marker found" || echo "STOP: marker missing"

If the marker is found, shut down cleanly, flash the microSD, reconnect the same SSD, and boot. Leave it plenty of time for the first startup and don’t interrupt it, as it may check the filesystem and migrate the old setup.

Your Bitcoin and Lightning data should be picked up without a fresh sync. If you see a new setup screen or an empty dashboard, stop and check that the SSD mounted correctly before reinstalling anything.