Updating OpenELEC

Updaing OpenELEC isn't like updating any other operating system you'll have used before. There's no package manager, and no terminal usage. In fact, updating OpenELEC is more like updating the firmware on your broadband router!

Update Methods

There are three methods available, automatic updates (the prefered method), manual updates and none.

If "automatic updates" is enabled, OpenELEC will check online for an update. If it finds one the update will be downloaded and unpacked. You will then be notified that a reboot is required to apply the update.

If "no updates" is selected, the system will not update itself - even if the updates are provided to it.

If "manual updating" is selected then you will need to provide the update to OpenELEC. This is ideal if the OpenELEC machine is not internet connected as you can download them elsewhere and provide them to OpenELEC. The process for manually updating OpenELEC is provided below.

Manually Updating OpenELEC

First of all, head over to the downloads page and download the latest release of OpenELEC. Use your favourite archiving utility to extract the files from the archive you've downloaded (7zip is my favourite Windows archiver). Now, from your Windows PC, open a second Explorer window and browse to the IP address of the OpenELEC machine. If you don't know what the IP address is, go to the menu of the OpenELEC machine and click the "Info" button on your remote control. This will open a page that shows the IP address, so type this into the address bar of the explorer window. For example, if your IP address is 192.168.1.92, browse to:

\\192.168.1.92

Once the window appears, open the update share. There shouldn't be anything inside the share, unless you have another update pending.

From the folder you extracted the new release into, open the target folder. Inside you should find four files. Grab KERNEL and SYSTEM from here (ignore the MD5 files) and copy them to the update share on the OpenELEC machine.

Once the files have copied, reboot the OpenELEC machine and it should update to the latest release.