Foundry VTT Updated April 27, 2026

Updating Foundry VTT

How to perform minor in-app updates and major version upgrades for Foundry VTT without losing world data.

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Overview

Foundry VTT updates fall into two categories: minor updates (within the same major version, e.g., v14.1 to v14.3) and major version upgrades (e.g., v13 to v14). Minor updates can be applied through the built-in updater. Major version upgrades require replacing application files manually and may require a Node.js version upgrade.

The application/data directory separation makes updates safe: you only ever touch /foundry-app/. Your /foundry-data/ directory is never modified during an update.

Before Any Update

Always back up your data before updating:

tar -czf /backups/foundry-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /foundry-data/

See Backing Up and Restoring Your Foundry Data for full backup procedures.

Minor Updates (In-App Updater)

For updates within the same major version:

  1. Access the Setup menu
  2. Look for the "Update" button or an update notification banner
  3. Click "Update" and confirm
  4. Foundry downloads and applies the update, then restarts

The in-app updater only modifies files inside the application directory. Your data directory is untouched.

After the update, verify the version number in the Setup menu footer matches the expected version.

Major Version Upgrades (Manual)

Major version upgrades (e.g., v13 → v14) require downloading new application files and replacing the application directory. They may also require upgrading Node.js.

1. Check Node.js requirements for the new version:

  • Foundry v14 requires Node.js 24
  • Foundry v10–v13 requires Node.js 20–22
node --version

If your Node.js version is too old, upgrade it before proceeding. Foundry will not start or will emit startup errors if the Node.js version is insufficient.

2. Download the new Foundry version:

Log in at foundryvtt.com → Purchased Licenses → download the Node.js .zip for the target version.

3. Stop the running Foundry server.

4. Replace the application directory:

# Move old app aside (do NOT delete yet — keep for rollback)
mv /foundry-app /foundry-app-v13-backup

# Create new app directory and extract
mkdir /foundry-app
cd /foundry-app
unzip ~/foundryvtt-<new-version>.zip

5. Verify main.mjs is present:

ls /foundry-app/main.mjs

6. Start Foundry with the same data path:

node /foundry-app/main.mjs --dataPath=/foundry-data

7. Access the Setup menu and confirm the version number.

Foundry may prompt to migrate world data to the new version format on first launch. This migration is typically automatic. Do not interrupt it.

Rollback

If the new version causes problems:

  1. Stop Foundry
  2. Restore the old application directory: 
    rm -rf /foundry-app
mv /foundry-app-v13-backup /foundry-app
  3. Restore the pre-update data backup if needed (major versions may have migrated data forward — a data backup is essential for rollbacks across major versions)
  4. Restart Foundry

Pterodactyl / WISP Panel Updates

In panel environments, the egg manages application files. For minor updates, use the in-app updater. For major version upgrades, you typically need to:

  1. Update the NODE_VERSION egg variable to the required version
  2. Generate a new Timed URL from your Foundry account
  3. Update the FOUNDRY_TIMED_URL variable
  4. Reinstall the server through the panel (this replaces app files, not data)

Your data in /home/container/data/ is preserved through panel reinstalls as long as you do not wipe the volume.

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