Updating

Releases are on the Releases page, each with its notes and its firmware files. The flasher page always carries the latest release and shows its version under the button.

From the flasher page (the recovery way)

Flash the new version from the page exactly as in Installing, with one difference: when the page offers to erase the device, leave that unchecked. Your Wi-Fi, fixtures, PIN and saved sign-in stay, and the box comes back on the network with the new firmware. Check erase only for a clean start.

Updating this way means fetching the box and a computer with Chrome or Edge. It is the recovery floor: whatever state a box is in, this path brings it back.

Over the air (if you have ESPHome installed)

A release ships an over-the-air image for each chip. With ESPHome on a computer on the same network:

esphome upload amble-home.yaml --device amble-home-xxxxxx.local --file amble-home-esp32s3.ota.bin

For a C6 box, use amble-home-c6.yaml and amble-home-esp32c6.ota.bin. The upload takes about 25 seconds, the box reboots and is back on the mesh within another 15, and everything on it is kept. The YAML files are in the repository; they describe the box to ESPHome, nothing on the box depends on them.

From Home Assistant (the easy way)

The box checks for a new release once after it boots and every hour after that, by fetching the flasher page's manifest. When there is one, the box's device page in Home Assistant shows an Update row with the new version, the release notes link and an Install button. Press it: the box downloads the release over HTTPS, checks it, reboots into it and is back on the mesh within a minute, with everything on it kept. The same update also appears under Settings → Updates, beside your other devices and add-ons, with the same Install and Skip buttons; the box only checks hourly, so a Restart from the device page makes it look at once. The box never installs an update on its own; it only tells you one exists.

A box flashed with a release older than 1.1.0 does not have the feed. Update that box once from the flasher page or over the air, and from then on Home Assistant offers the rest.

What you keep

An update keeps the box's Wi-Fi, its fixtures and keys, its PIN, its saved sign-in and its place in Home Assistant (the device is anchored to the box's hardware address, not the firmware). The box's mesh address is kept too, so your lights carry on answering it.

One exception: a box flashed before 2026-10-30 carries an older flash layout, and the first install of a current release from the flasher page lays the flash out afresh. That box asks for its Wi-Fi and its fixtures once more, erase checked or not. Every update after that keeps everything.

Going back

If a new image fails to boot, the box's bootloader returns to the previous one on its own; you would see the old version still running. To go back on purpose, download the older release's files from the Releases page and send its .ota.bin over the air as above, or flash its factory image with ESPHome's command line. The flasher page offers only the latest.

After an erase

An erased box is a new box to your lights: it picks itself a fresh mesh address at first boot and needs Wi-Fi and an import again. There is a 1 in 16,384 chance it lands on an address it used before, in which case the lights may ignore it after the re-import; the fix is to erase and flash once more.