Updates & renewals

Licensing and Updates Basics:

Your license is a 12-month update window, not a 12-month runtime.
Anything released within the window is yours forever, even after the license expires.
Updates released after expiry require a renewal to install, but your existing version keeps running.
Nothing about your data, recordings, or detection changes when a license lapses. Fregata keeps running.
Trials are the exception. When a 30-day trial runs out, Frigate stops and the app blocks and shows a buy-or-quit dialog — there’s no “lapse and keep running” path the way paid licenses have. See After the trial expires.

How update checks work

Once a day, Fregata checks for a new update.
If a newer version exists and your license covers it, the tray surfaces Update available: v<X.Y.Z>.
Updates are not auto-installed. You decide when. Click the menu item to open the download window.
Want to check right now? Open the tray menu → About Fregata… and click Check for Updates. It tells you on the spot whether you’re up to date, and offers a View… link if there’s an update — no need to wait for the daily check. If an update is found, the tray item appears too.

Before you install a major update

A major update — 0.17 to 0.18, say — migrates your config.yml in place, and that migration only runs forwards. Fregata copies your existing config aside first, naming it for the version you’re coming from:

~/Fregata/config/backup_config_0.17-0.yaml

That file is your way back to the older version. Keep it.

Your recordings are not at risk here. Database migrations only add new tables and columns, so an older Fregata reads a newer database without complaint — clips just won’t carry data the older version never knew about. The config is the one-way door. Going from 0.17 to 0.18, for example:

Masks get rewritten. Motion and object masks move from the older plain form to a structured one. 0.17 only understands the older form, so if you use any mask at all, 0.17 will refuse the migrated config.
GenAI settings get restructured, if you have a provider configured.
Deprecated settings are dropped — record.sync_recordings, record.export.timelapse_args, snapshots.clean_copy, ui.date_style, ui.time_style. An older version still starts without them, but those settings are gone and revert to their defaults.

Going back to an older version

Quit Fregata.

Restore the backup over your config:

cp ~/Fregata/config/backup_config_0.17-0.yaml ~/Fregata/config/config.yml

Install the older version and launch it. Your recordings need no action.

Skip step 2 and the older version will start, fail config validation, and stop — see FATAL: config validation failed.

When your license won’t cover a new release

If a version was released after your license expired, the tray shows a yellow indicator instead of the standard update item. The update window says something like:

Fregata 1.4.0 was released on 2026-08-12. Your license covers updates released up to 2026-06-15. Renew for $10 to install this update; your current version keeps running either way.

Renewing extends your update window forward by 12 months from the date you renew, not from the date your license lapsed. So a 30-day gap between expiry and renewal isn’t 30 days you “lose” — it just shifts the next year forward by a month.

Renewing

Two ways:

Click “Renew” in the update window. It opens fregata.app/renew pre-filled with your license email and key. Pay $10, return to the app, the new expiry shows up on the next heartbeat (within ~6 hours, usually minutes).
From the Fregata.app site. Go to fregata.app/manage-license, sign in with your license email, click Renew.

What if I never want updates?

Skip them. Don’t click. The prompt is a single tray menu item, and there’s no nag-screen. Your existing install with a paid license runs forever.

Keeping multiple Macs current

A license binds to one Mac. If you want Fregata on two, you have two options:

Two licenses. Buy a second one. Same email is fine; the manage-license page will show both licenses.
Volume licensing for businesses or households with several Macs — reply to your license email.