Updating Open WebUI

Stay current without losing your data.

Your data (chats, users, settings, uploads) lives in a Docker volume or local database, not inside the container. Updating Open WebUI means swapping the container image for a newer one. Your data stays exactly where it is.

Choose Your Update Strategy​

Before running any commands, decide how you want to track releases. The right choice depends on how you use Open WebUI.

:main vs. Pinned Versions​

The :main tag always points to the latest build. It's convenient but can include breaking changes without warning.

For stability, pin a specific release tag:

ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.9.5
ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.9.5-cuda
ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.9.5-ollama

Browse all available tags on the GitHub releases page.

Before You Update​

1. Back up your data (see Backup & Restore below). Especially important before releases with database migrations, which can be hard to undo.
2. Check the release notes for breaking changes.
3. Clear your browser cache after updating (Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+Shift+R) to avoid stale frontend assets.

Manual Update​

# 1. Stop and remove the container (data in the volume is preserved)
docker rm -f open-webui

# 2. Pull the latest image (or replace :main with a pinned version)
docker pull ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

# 3. Recreate the container
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  -e WEBUI_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key" \
  --name open-webui --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

services:
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    ports:
      - "3000:8080"
    volumes:
      - open-webui:/app/backend/data
    environment:
      - WEBUI_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  open-webui:

pip install -U open-webui

open-webui serve

Verify the Update​

After updating, confirm everything is working:

1. Check version in logs:

   docker logs open-webui 2>&1 | head -20

2. Load the UI at http://localhost:3000. You should see the login page.
3. If the UI looks broken, clear your browser cache (Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+Shift+R).
4. If you see migration errors in the logs, check the release notes for known issues and the Connection Errors troubleshooting page.

Rolling Back​

If an update causes problems, you can go back to a previous version by pinning its tag.

docker rm -f open-webui
docker pull ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.8.3
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  -e WEBUI_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key" \
  --name open-webui --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.8.3

image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.8.3

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

pip install open-webui==0.8.3
open-webui serve

Stay Notified About Updates​

Instead of checking manually, use a tool to monitor for new releases. Options are listed from safest to most hands-on.

Diun​

Notification-only. Alerts you when updates are available (email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, etc.) without touching your containers. You decide when and how to update.

services:
  diun:
    image: crazymax/diun:latest
    container_name: diun
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./data:/data
    environment:
      - TZ=America/New_York
      - LOG_LEVEL=info
      - DIUN_WATCH_WORKERS=10
      - DIUN_WATCH_SCHEDULE=0 */6 * * *  # Every 6 hours
      - DIUN_PROVIDERS_DOCKER=true
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_PORT=587
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_USERNAME=your-email@gmail.com
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_PASSWORD=your-app-password
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_FROM=your-email@gmail.com
      - DIUN_NOTIF_MAIL_TO=your-email@gmail.com
    restart: unless-stopped

See Diun documentation for full setup and notification options.

What's Up Docker (WUD)​

Web UI for monitoring container updates and triggering them manually. See WUD documentation for setup.

Watchtower​

Fully automated. Pulls new images and recreates containers without intervention.

One-time update:

docker run --rm \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  nickfedor/watchtower --run-once open-webui

Continuous (check every 6 hours):

docker run -d --name watchtower --restart unless-stopped \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  nickfedor/watchtower --interval 21600 open-webui

Set WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP=true to auto-remove old images. See Watchtower docs for scheduling, notifications, and monitor-only mode.

Backup & Restore​

All data lives in the open-webui Docker volume, including:

• Database: chats, users, settings, admin configuration
• Uploaded files: documents, images, knowledge base content
• Generated content: image generation outputs, exported data

Backup​

docker run --rm -v open-webui:/data -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/openwebui-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /data

Back up before every update and on a regular schedule (daily or weekly, depending on how actively you use Open WebUI).

Restore​

docker stop open-webui
docker run --rm -v open-webui:/data -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine sh -c "rm -rf /data/* && tar xzf /backup/openwebui-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz -C /"
docker start open-webui

Replace YYYYMMDD with the actual date of your backup file.

For database-specific recovery, see the Manual Database Migration guide.

Related Guides​

• Scaling Open WebUI: multi-worker and multi-instance deployments
• Connection Errors: troubleshooting post-update connectivity issues
• Environment Variable Reference: all configuration options including WEBUI_SECRET_KEY
• Release Notes: changelog for every version