An outdated privacy system is a contradiction - the protections only hold while the patches do. Tails has a careful upgrade system designed around one treasure: your Persistent Storage. Here is how updating works and how not to lose everything doing it.
Tails releases arrive frequently and are mostly security maintenance: a new Tor Browser, a patched Tor client, a fixed kernel - occasionally an emergency release that closes a serious hole within days. The project is unusually candid in its release notes about what each fix prevents. Keeping current is not housekeeping; on a privacy system it is the main event. This page explains the two upgrade routes and the single mistake that destroys data.
When you start Tails and connect to Tor, the system checks for a newer release. If one exists, the Tails Upgrader offers it: download, apply, restart - and your Persistent Storage, settings and files are carried across untouched. Recent release notes show automatic upgrades are supported from the current major series onwards, which covers any stick kept reasonably current.
Some situations outrun the automatic path: the stick fell many versions behind, an automatic upgrade failed, or Tails will not start after one. The answer is a manual upgrade - using a second Tails (or another system following the official instructions) to upgrade your existing stick. Performed as an upgrade, it preserves Persistent Storage; the official documentation walks through it step by step.
Note the subtlety that saves data: the manual-upgrade procedure uses an intermediary - effectively cloning the up-to-date system onto your stick as an upgrade. Follow the project's manual-upgrade page exactly rather than improvising, because one wrong menu choice turns it into the thing described next.
The Tails website prints this warning on release after release, and it is worth printing here too: the Persistent Storage on a USB stick is lost if you install instead of upgrading. A fresh installation formats the stick and builds a clean system. Your encrypted volume, and everything in it, is erased with the same finality as any format.
Build the habit the project assumes. Boot Tails regularly even between real uses, connect, and let it offer its upgrades, so you never face a multi-version jump under time pressure. Skim the release notes - they are short, plain and honest about severity, and an emergency release is your cue to upgrade before the next session, not after it.
Finally, keep the stick's role clear in your mind: it is a living system, not a souvenir of the day you made it. A Tails stick from a year ago, never updated, is not a privacy tool anymore - it is a museum of patched vulnerabilities, waiting to be used.
See a healthy, current Tails desktop in the review video - then make sure the version on your own stick looks the same.
▶️ Watch Full VideoNot if you upgrade. Automatic and manual upgrades are designed to preserve it. Only a fresh installation erases it - which is why the official site warns about the difference on every release page.
Possibly not automatically - automatic upgrade paths are published per release and have a starting version. Below that, the manual upgrade route exists precisely for you, and it still preserves your Persistent Storage when followed correctly.
Upgrades offered from inside Tails itself, over Tor, are the designed channel - trust those. Full images should only ever come from tails.net with the verification step performed, as covered in the install guide on this site.