ISP Wireless - Guide to Device Firmware Management

This article will describe firmware management for ISP Wireless devices, including how to determine which firmware to download/upgrade, as well as steps for manual upgrade (if you're not already using UISP management platform).

• Best Practices
• Choosing the Correct Firmware (airMAX M vs. AC)
• Steps: Manually Update Firmware
• Potential Issues

Best Practices

Ubiquiti recommends managing your ISP wireless devices via the UISP management platform. UISP's built-in firmware manager enables mass upgrades for all supported devices. You can choose to upload the firmware manually or enable automatic downloads directly from ui.com. The task manager makes it easy to manage and schedule upgrades.

Ubiquiti also recommends subscribing for notifications on the official Community Release section. In this way, you can be notified as soon as Releases post for every product/platform you choose, and review/provide feedback for each firmware release — including Early Access releases.

For security reasons, Ubiquiti also recommends running the latest stable firmware on all your devices.

Choosing the Correct Firmware (airMAX M vs. AC)

In 2015, the new airMAX AC line of products was released. This platform requires different firmware than the XM/XW used with the airMAX M line. The airMAX AC products use either XC or WA. You can easily check to see which firmware is needed for your specific model by checking the Main Dashboard of the airOS webUI. In general, XW or XM platforms refer to an airMAX M devices; the XC or WA platforms, airMAX AC devices. 

Notes: The "correct firmware" will always be the latest release. The airMAX team is hard at work adding improvements to each new version. For security reasons, please be prompt to update all your devices to the latest firmware available in the Downloads page.

If you wish to test Early Access (Beta) firmware versions, you will need to sign up for Early Access and then navigate to the Releases section of our Community. Once there, select RC (Release Candidate) status, choose to filter by Category and Beta and then select airMAX from the ISP grouping.

airMAX M

The airMAX M devices use XW or XM platforms. Identify which one by looking at the firmware version in the device's SYSTEM tab; or by checking the firmware version in the MAIN tab.

XW devices will display an 'XW' before the firmware version. In the example above, the firmware is 6.1.6 and for XW devices. XM devices will show an 'XM' before the firmware version.

Older M devices are XM while most new M devices are XW. The first Rocket Titaniums were TI, but new Titanium Rockets are also XW. These changes were rolled in over an extended period of time.

If you cannot log into a device to check the board version, it is safe to attempt the wrong firmware first. You will only see an error.

airMAX AC

Identify if your airMAX AC product uses XC or WA platform by looking at the firmware version in your device's System tab. The device's platform (XC, WA, 2XC, 2WA) as well as the firmware version will appear next to firmware version.

For those rare cases where logging into the device is not possible, use this table to see which firmware is required for each AC device.

airMAX AC Board List

Steps: Updating the Firmware

Potential Issues

• If you see a message stating "File size too large," ensure you are not uploading the firmware in the Configuration Management Upload Configuration box. Also ensure you are using the proper firmware for your device. 
• Firmware for the airMAX M devices and older Legacy (non-airMAX) devices are found under two separate menus on the download page.

Note: In the event your firmware update does not go through after multiple attempts, or if you cannot access the airOS Web UI, you can perform a TFTP firmware recovery by following the steps in this article.