In general it’s advised to always update your device’s firmware to the latest available version as new firmware usually brings either new features or some security fixes or improvements.
Only firmware versions featuring major security fixes are mandatory, others are voluntary so it’s really up to you.
We understand that BTC and crypto is about hodl and big number of users may not use their Trezor on regular basis but rather use it from time to time to check or spend their precious sats. In general this shouldn’ŧ be a problem but from time to time a firmware update is necessary.
Some coins do undergo updates or upgrades to its code and functionality and some of these changes are not backwards compatible, hence you may need update the firmware in order to access/send/receive given coin (please, note that this is not matter of Trezor Wallet but the coin itself, we need to update the code so the coin can be used with Trezor).
we don’t only send an email about the updates. We post the blog article along with the updates as well. You can also verify what we post on social medias, where we mention it as well. If still not sure, you can always ask us. This new update is from yesterday is 21.5.1 version actually.
Hi there - I’ve not updated my firmware but now it’s not letting me access any etherium smart contracts through metamask. It’s saying I need to update firmware but it’s working fine on smart chain and others just not ETH. I can’t update firmware currently as I don’t have my seed key to hand. How can I access my funds without the firmware update?
I use Trezor suite regularly and never had a notice saying that I’d be unable to access ETH smart contracts due to not updating firmware. And obviously I cant update firmware without my seed.
Also just seen I can’t access contracts on Matic and Moonriver chains without firmware upgrade. When did this happen I was using it barely 2 weeks ago and without warning V 1.10.0 won’t work on these networks.
Absolutely crazy there were no notifications on Trezor Suite flagging this, I use TS almost every day and it just says “Update Firmware” not “Update Firmware within 10 days or you’ll lose access to ERC20, Matic and Movr chains”.
Any help much appreciated - got all my BSC assets off of Trezor now as I don’t trust this will cease to work like the others!
I transferred my BTC onto my Trezor in early 2021 and haven’t touched the device since. It sounds like as long as I’m not planning on using the device, I do not need to worry about downloading Trezor Suite, installing firmware updates, etc. Is that correct? I can just deal with all that stuff when I’m ready to plug in my Trezor again, whether than be in a month, 2 yrs, or 10 yrs?
As is said in the first post by Kolin, some firmware updates may be necessary – important security fixes and changes to coin codes or blockchains. If it’s the latter you may not be able to access your coins until you update the Trezor firmware.
Sometimes a coin will change to a new blockchain and abandon the old one after a period, even a short period. That happened a while ago (I forgot the coin’s name) and many people were simply locked out. It wasn’t Trezor’s fault though. Perhaps it’s been fixed now, I don’t know. It depends if SatoshiLabs have received the data they need from the coin maker to fix it.
I’d advice you to follow the development of your coins. If there are changes to the coin codes, blockchains or protocols, then you should update your firmware.
Also, I believe it’s necessary to update the firmware sequentially, beginning with the oldest, until you are at the current level. At least it was like that before.
Thank you very much for your reply, Petosiris. I appreciate your time and info.
I’m not sure I was super clear with my question – I was really just wanting to make sure that there’s no way I could permanently/irrevocably lose access to my BTC simply because of not keeping up with firmware updates over the course of many years. From Kolin’s post and yours, it sounds like that isn’t something I need to worry about. It sounds like the worst case scenario would be that I would temporarily not be able to access the BTC… but then once I caught up with all the firmware updates, I would be able to access the BTC. Do I understand correctly?
Note: I only own BTC (no other coins) and only ever intend to own BTC. Just mentioning this in case it informs/affects your response at all.
Yeah, Bitcoin is the most important coin of all crypto so you can relax. It’s always maintained good by both the community responsible for its maintenance and development, and SatoshiLabs with the Trezor devices.
So what I said above, about a coin abandoning its blockchain with a short notice and switching to a new one isn’t something that’ll ever happen with Bitcoin.
There have been some changes to Bitcoin too not long ago, and there’ll be more coming, but that won’t lock you out of your BTCs in the blockchain.
There may still be security fixes to your Trezor device though.
If I was you, I’d update the firmware once in a while and check your funds between each update, even if you don’t have to.
One thing I forgot to mention in my last message is that in the newest version of Trezor Suite you can choose to install the general firmware or just firmware for Bitcoin. Since you only HODL Bitcoin you may want to select the Bitcoin firmware only, since it may simplify things – smaller and faster download and perhaps less chance of disconnect while updating the firmware, plus maybe other advantages too (less complex firmware means less potential problems? I don’t know).