# Upgrading backups to 8.3 without restoring gateway

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [January 30, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666 "2026-01-30T17:48:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![akivabrookler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@akivabrookler](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/akivabrookler)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666/1 "2026-01-30T17:48:52Z")

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Is there a way to upgrade Ignition 8.1 backups to 8.3 without running the gateway? I have a bunch of old 8.1 gateway backups that I want to convert to 8.3. Is there a way to do this without restoring each backup, running the upgrade, and then taking a new backup? Does the gateway command line utility have some feature I can use here?

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666/2 "2026-01-30T17:53:37Z")

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No. The upgrading functionality is part of the software, run on startup when old version content is detected.

In theory you could automate something using Docker.

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**Author:** ![akivabrookler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@akivabrookler](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/akivabrookler)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666/3 "2026-01-30T18:04:03Z")

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would it be possible to use the sdk to expose the upgrading functionality?

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/upgrading-backups-to-8-3-without-restoring-gateway/113666/4 "2026-01-30T18:12:45Z")

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No. The decisions about what and how to upgrade are up to individual modules, and nothing has been written with the assumption of being able to run in a vacuum.

Let's take a step back:  
What goal do you expect to achieve by "pre upgrading" a bunch (how many?) of gateway backups?