# Update a one-click app without losing data

> Who updates what after a one-click install, how to take a copy you can go back to, and where each app's own update steps are.

Source: https://rack4.io/help/update-one-click-apps · Updated: 2026-11-06

To update an app you installed with a one-click install, take a [snapshot](https://rack4.io/help/snapshots) and the app's own backup, read the app's release notes, then run the update steps for that app listed below. We install the app on the server's first boot; after that it's yours to run and update, and each app updates in its own way, so there's no single command that's safe for all of them.

## What updates by itself, and what doesn't

- **The operating system's security fixes.** For many apps, among them LEMP, WordPress, Vaultwarden, Nextcloud, Immich, Ghost and BookStack, we turn on automatic security updates, once a day, security fixes only; each app's page says whether it gets them. The server never reboots by itself, so reboot after a kernel update. See [automatic security updates](https://rack4.io/help/automatic-security-updates).
- **Apps installed as system packages** (nginx, Caddy, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Redis, WireGuard, Tailscale, and Jellyfin and Synapse on Ubuntu and Debian) update when you run `apt upgrade` or `dnf upgrade`, within the version your distribution or the project's repository offers.
- **Apps in containers or from a release** (Vaultwarden, Immich, Ghost, Plausible, Umami, n8n, Uptime Kuma and others) don't update with the system. Their images and releases stay where they are until you update them.
- **A few update themselves**: Coolify by default, Nextcloud All-in-One when you press its update button (or nightly, if you turn that on), and WordPress for minor core releases.

## Before any update

1. **Read the release notes** for the version you're moving to. Major versions often need extra steps or change the database for good.
2. **Take the app's own backup**, the one its guide describes (a database dump, an export, or its data folder), and copy it off the server.
3. **Take a snapshot** from the server's **Backups** tab, under **Snapshots**, named something like `before-upgrade`. The server is down for about a minute while it's taken. It's the quickest way back if the update goes wrong.

## Find your app's update steps

Each app's page lists its update and backup steps under **Backups and upgrades**, and the apps with their own guide have an **Updates and backups** (or **Update**) section:

| App | Where the steps are |
| --- | --- |
| Vaultwarden | [Vaultwarden guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-vaultwarden#updates-and-backups) |
| Nextcloud | [Nextcloud guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-nextcloud#updates-and-backups) |
| Immich | [Immich guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-immich#updates-and-backups) |
| Ghost | [Ghost guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-ghost#updates-and-backups) |
| Plausible | [Plausible guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-plausible#updates-and-backups) |
| Umami | [Umami guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-umami#updates-and-backups) |
| n8n | [n8n guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-n8n#update) |
| OpenClaw | [OpenClaw guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-openclaw#update) |
| Jellyfin | [Jellyfin guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-jellyfin#updates-and-backups) |
| AdGuard Home | [AdGuard Home guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-adguard-home#updates-and-backups) |
| Forgejo | [Forgejo guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-forgejo#updates-and-backups) |
| Matrix Synapse | [Synapse guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-matrix-synapse#updates-and-backups) |
| BookStack | [BookStack guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-bookstack#updates-and-backups) |
| Ollama + Open WebUI | [Ollama guide](https://rack4.io/help/self-host-ollama#updates-and-backups) |
| Minecraft (Paper) | [Minecraft guide](https://rack4.io/help/minecraft-server-on-a-vps#updating) |
| WordPress | [WordPress guide](https://rack4.io/help/wordpress-on-a-vps#keep-it-safe) |
| Uptime Kuma, Docker, Coolify, LEMP, Node.js and the rest | the app's page, from the [apps list](https://rack4.io/apps) |

## Check it worked

- Open the app the way your users do, log in, and look at something recent: the newest photo, the last post, yesterday's stats.
- Look at its logs for errors: `docker compose logs --tail 50` in the app's folder for Compose apps, `docker logs --tail 50 <container>` for a single container, or `journalctl -u <service> -n 50` for a system service.
- Keep the snapshot for a few days, until you're sure. Delete it afterwards.

## If it went wrong

- **The app won't start, or data looks wrong:** [revert to the snapshot](https://rack4.io/help/snapshots#revert-to-one). The whole disk goes back to the moment you took it, so anything written since, by the app or by you, is lost. That's usually what you want right after a failed update.
- **You only notice days later:** reverting would throw away days of new data. Restore the app's own backup instead, following its guide, or ask the app's community what the new version changed.
- **Going back a version:** most apps can't simply run the old version again after a new one has changed the database. That's why the snapshot comes first.

If the server itself stops answering after an update, start with [the unreachable checklist](https://rack4.io/help/server-unreachable-checklist).