Background:

If you are having issues upgrading your UniFi access points, a common issue that has recently occurred is a result of the UniFi access points running a very old firmware versions that require a staged upgrade to reach the current version. The UAP Gen1 series access points (UAP/UAP-LR/UAP-Outdoor/UAP-Outdoor-5) running firmware versions prior to 3.7.x require a staged upgrade and therefore will not automatically upgrade through the controller as the controller will attempt to apply the latest firmware version only.


Resolution:

Go to https://www.ui.com/download/unifi/unifi-ap download section and copy the firmware path for the device and firmware you want to upgrade to. Make sure to check the firmware release notes for upgrade requirements as some firmware versions require a minimum version to upgrade from. This can be found 


As we can see in the release notes to upgrade to v4.0.54 we require UAP to be on v4.0.10 or higher otherwise the upgrade will fail (if our UAP was on a version prior to 4.0.10 we need to check firmware v4.0.10 or earlier release notes for minimum requirements to help find the next version to upgrade to):

Accept the EULA and click Copy URL:


Paste the download URL into the Custom Upgrade path of the UAP configuration properties and initiate to upgrade from the UniFi Controller:


Further troubleshooting:

  • When upgrading from firmware version 3.7.56 or older use http:// instead of https:// in the URL. It is also recommended to test using http:// if the https upgrades are failing.
  • When using a link to a firmware binary on our https://ui.com, the UniFi device will need to be able to properly resolve the host (ui.com) via DNS/access the WAN. The custom upgrade would also work for a locally hosted FTP or HTTP server.
  • If this fails you can also attempt to upgrade via ssh with the command:
    "upgrade http://path_to_firmware/fw_filename.bin"


For more information on upgrading UniFi Access Points checkout Ubiquiti's official help resources:

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/204910064-UniFi-Changing-the-Firmware-of-a-UniFi-Device