I'm looking to upgrade from a very old (but very reliable) version 4.7. If I buy the current version, is there an upgrade path?

You should be able to just update without buying anything, licenses were perpetual.

1 hour ago, birdman said:

I'm looking to upgrade from a very old (but very reliable) version 4.7. If I buy the current version, is there an upgrade path?

Your old licence will still be valid so you may not even need to upgrade as old (legacy) licences do not expire and are valid for all Unraid releases.

You do not mention which version you have (Basic, Plus or Pro)?

Pro is functionally equivalent to the current Unleashed Lifetime licence.

The Basic and Plus legacy licences can be upgraded to Plus/Pro legacy licences.

26 minutes ago, itimpi said:

The Basic

Note that the basic license for Unraid 4 and 5 was the free license that allows up to 3 devices, so if it's that one, then you will need to buy one.

Just now, JorgeB said:

Note that the basic license for Unraid 4 and 5 was the free license that allows up to 3 devices, so if it's that one, then you will need to buy one.

Forgot that there used to ve a free licence 😊. Did v4 have any licence levels other then Pro one?

I believe the Plus also existed, at least with v5, but it supported less than 12 devices, maybe 6 or 8?

On 12/6/2025 at 1:43 PM, JorgeB said:

I believe the Plus also existed, at least with v5, but it supported less than 12 devices, maybe 6 or 8?

Wayback machine for 20071011 shows that. I did order a server with 4.7 Pro around that time:

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by hawihoney

given that the titel says basic, are you sure about that?



i did try to fire up 4.7 but all my old pcs are too new, 5.0.6 says basic without key

If it really is Basic, it will be the free version, so the OP will need to purchase a license; a Starter will do, since he must be using no more than 3 devices.

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Yes, it really is Basic, the free version, and I intend to purchase a licence.

I'm very sorry - I wasn't clear. What I was trying to ask originally was - once I get the licence, what will I need to do to upgrade my system? I assume I just start by powering off, swapping the usb drives and then powering back on. But then what? Will I need to change the file system and recopy my files or some other process, or wil it just recognize my current config and work out of the box? If there is a process I need to go through, where could I find documentation about it?

Again, thank you to everyone who replied. It is very much appreciated.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by birdman

You will need to move onto a new version but it should be possible to bring up your old configuration once you have a valid key file and put that into the ‘config’ folder on the flash drive. Note that any plugins will not be compatible as old Unraid versions were 32 bit whereas ever since Unraid v6 it has been 64 bit.

The current drives will be in ReiserFS format which is now deprecated although current Unraid versions will still support existing drives in that format. At some point you would want to look at migrating the drives to a newer file system type.

I don't know where you are on your conversion journey but I put together some very basic instructions while Unraid moved from version 5 to version 6.0 back in 2015. Basically, Unraid moved from a 32bit kernel to a 64 bit kernel of Linux. No 32 bit support libraries were included so it broke basically all plugins! As I recall Version 4.X to Version 5.X was a much simpler procedure. (Point of disclosure— I never run 4.X but started using the beta versions of version 5.0 so I never actually did the version 4 to version5 upgrade.) There is one other gotcha, you will have to run the 'New Permissions' tool in the TOOL menu of the version 7.X GUI. Run it on the 'Shares' not 'Disks'. Read and observe the cautions of the shares not to run it on. As I recall in version 4.X, the owner of all array files was 'root' and, as I recall, the group was not 'users'. The New Permissions tool will fix this issue.

I am attaching that file for your review.

Upgrading from Version 5 to Version 6 of unRAID-rev2.pdf

Edited January 3Jan 3 by Frank1940