This is my first post. Hello Umbrel community!
As a Linux user for over 20 years now, I have learned to be wary of seemingly innocuous system updates, especially when they are thrust into center stage by package managers and/or ecosystems where it’s so easy to click the Y key after “Do you want to continue? [Y/n]” or that shiny “UPDATE” button in the top right corner.
I have completely borked my system numerous times over the years simply running “apt-get upgrade” or “pacman -Syu”
The stakes are FAR HIGHER now with literally my livelihood (bitcoin) on the line.
Today I saw there was a notification on the Umbrel App Store to update Bitcoin Core to version 26.0 with not a single disclaimer or warning. Every single bone in my body is telling me NOT to hit the update button.
I recently joined this forum, and noticed a concerning trend… I see quite a lot of people on here experiencing the same sorts of system/app failures that I’ve gone through countless times over the years on my linux machines after an update job.
I know this is probably a contentious topic… My question is to the Umbrel team: Is the Umbrel ecosystem designed to be promptly updated whenever new versions come out OR ELSE? Or has any thought or planning been given to the scenarios where a user may not want to upgrade?
I like to read changelogs and take note of any security fixes, then make the decision to risk everything by upgrading. I also like to wait and arbitrary amount of time before an upgrade(months, perhaps years), monitoring community chatter to ensure no one else is having issues with the upgrades. Is this sort of behavior acceptable on the Umbrel platform?
Thanks. Stay Dry!
Jerry
your bitcoin lives on chain as long as you have your keys you can recover it in any wallet.
Back up your lightning channels if you have them
bitcoin.org should have all the release notes for bitcoin core if you want to read through them
glad to know Im not the only one that reads that stuff.
also GitHub - bitcoin/bitcoin: Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree
EDIT - Added the github
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On chain is fine. Lightning is where you will have problems if things go awry. I had an update 6-8 months ago that put me in some sort of chain sync loop. It would hit about 10% after days then start over. I had 7-10 channels open at that time with a not insignificant amount in those channels.
Took weeks for me to sort it out, get sync’d and luckily all my channels restored w/o any closures. Not being able to close channels to settle on chain with channel partners you dont know was nerve racking.
I have not pressed Update…Yet.
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Hi @JerrySwiner thanks for sharing your feedback and concerns- I will share this with the team.
When we push an update to the app-store we include release notes, which mentions the changes and also a link the project’s changelogs.
As we are open-source, you can also review the update directly e.g.
Update Bitcoin to 26.0 (#935) · getumbrel/umbrel-apps@ae5c5e9 · GitHub
It is fine to delay update apps if you would like too 
@JerrySwiner your point is valid – and not limited to Umbrel or crypto, except that the stakes can be higher. The same could be said for updates to hardware wallet interfaces, hot wallets, MSFT and AAPL products and other patches that seem to appear almost daily, usually for good reason. Here’s my take: if it’s not an urgent zero-day vulnerability patch, I’ll wait 7-14 days minimum, to let all the new bugs shake out. Sometimes, even longer and be diligent to make backups and more backups before the upgrade. Good points on this thread for sure!!
