# 1Password Preferences: Software Updates

To ensure browser compatibility and access to the latest features, it is important that you run the latest version of 1Password. 1Password is updated frequently so it is recommended that you enable automatic updates. 1Password can automatically download and install these new updates for you.

To see 1Password’s upgrade preferences, click 1Password > Preferences, then the Updates pane. Below are explanations for the features and options found in this pane.

### The “Check Now” button

The top area of the Updates pane briefly explains the update process, tells you the last time 1Password checked for an update, and offers a “Check Now” button on the right for performing a manual check.

## Automatically check for updates

Automatic updates mean that you can stay updated with the latest and greatest version of 1Password. If enabled, 1Password will notify you when a new version is available and ask permission to download and automatically install it. By default, 1Password is set to check weekly, but you can change this to Daily or Monthly, or disable the automatic check altogether. Note: Because browsers are updated frequently and we update 1Password often to keep up, disabling automatic updates is usually not recommended.

### Early Access to New Releases

If you like to get early access to new features and improvements, you can instruct 1Password to check for beta versions. To do so, check the Include Beta versions option.

Note: Beta versions are not tested as thoroughly as final versions and are usually less stable. They are also released more often so when this option is enabled, 1Password will check for an update every time it’s launched.

## Include beta versions

We often allow users to help us test pre-release 1Password updates before releasing them to the public. These updates are called “beta” because they may include new features or fixes that are not fully tested, and sometimes have bugs or other work to finish. Beta testing is a great help to us because we get more eyeballs and case scenarios with which to polish 1Password, but it can sometimes lead to odd behavior that not all users want to deal with.

This feature is disabled by default. But if you like to submit feedback about new features and fixes, feel free to enable this feature and opt into our beta program.

## A note about manually upgrading

It is strongly recommended that you do not upgrade manually as there are some important steps that must be taken to upgrade 1Password properly.

If you must update 1Password manually for whatever reason, please quit all web browsers and 1Password before replacing 1Password in your /Applications folder. If you don’t quit all browsers, the update will likely not be able to complete successfully, leaving you with a damaged installation. If this happens to you, move the 1Password application to the Trash and download a fresh copy and try again. Your data isn’t stored inside the application, so you don’t have to worry about damaging or losing it by re-downloading and replacing it.