Software updates

When updates land, how to pick the reboot window, and how to sideload a dish that has fallen too far behind.

Last updated Aug 18, 2026View as Markdown

Overview

Updates download in the background and apply during a reboot. You do not install them, but you can choose roughly when the reboot happens, and you have to intervene if a dish has been offline long enough to fall out of date.

Schedule

  • Released roughly every two weeks, though timing varies, and never on fixed days.
  • Downloaded automatically in the background, applied on reboot.
  • Update data does not count against your priority data. Starlink zero-counts update and telemetry traffic.
  • Updates can be installed even while service is paused or inactive. Use the app.

By default the dish reboots to apply updates at 3:00 AM local time, plus or minus 30 minutes. Local time here means the physical location of the hardware, not the billing, service or shipping address on your account.

Choose the reboot window

  1. Open the Starlink app.
  2. Go to Settings → Starlink → Software Updates.
  3. Pick Overnight, Morning, Afternoon or Evening.

When it does not update on its own

Update the Starlink app itself first; an old app is a common cause.

An online dish downloads and installs firmware overnight without asking. While it is updating, the app shows an indicator under the status title on the status screen. There is no other notification.

A dish that has been disconnected or offline for more than a few months may need a manual update before it can get back online. Follow the steps the app offers.

Sideloading

Sideloading manually pushes an update to a kit that cannot fetch one itself.

Check whether you need it

  1. Connect a computer directly to the ethernet port on the Starlink power supply.
  2. Check the computer’s IP address.
  3. If it is in the 206.214.x.x range, sideloading applies.

If the address is something else, this is not your problem. Try ordinary troubleshooting or contact support.

Reaching the sideload screen

All three options end at the same place in the app:

  1. Home screen.
  2. Menu button, the three lines at the top left.
  3. On the subscription screen, the circled i at the bottom right.
  4. Scroll to Debug Data, then Sideload.
  5. Tap Update Now and wait.

Connect your phone to the Starlink router through the app, then follow the steps above.

Option 2: Your own wireless router

Works with ordinary wireless routers only. Not switches, not firewalls, not enterprise routers.

Add this static route on the third-party router:

Setting Value
Destination network 192.168.100.0
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway Blank, or 0.0.0.0, or “none”
Interface WAN

Then follow the app steps above.

Option 3: Phone and an ethernet adapter

  1. Put the phone in airplane mode first.
  2. Use a phone with USB-C and a USB-C to ethernet adapter.
  3. Connect the adapter directly to the kit’s ethernet port.
  4. Follow the app steps above.