FAQ How do I upgrade Eclipse IDE?

Upgrading existing Eclipse IDE and Installed Features

Upgrading from previous Eclipse IDE package to Neon (4.6) is NOT supported NOTE: Due to structural changes you cannot update from a Mars (or prior) all-in-one package to a Neon version. If interested in the technical details, see bug 332989 and bug 490515. So to use Eclipse Neon IDE, you have to go for a #Fresh Install. Fron Neon to Oxygen and later, the usual upgrade process detailed below works.

If upgrading the platform itself to the next full release (for example, from 4.2 to 4.3), except in the case of Mars (4.5) to Neon (4.6) - see above

1. You first need to add the new release's repository as follows:
   1. Window > Preferences > Install/Update > Available Software Sites
   2. Click 'Add'
   3. Enter the URL of the new repository (for example, http://download.eclipse.org/releases/mars/ for Mars (4.5)).
   4. Click 'Ok'
2. Help > Check for Updates
3. If updates are found, proceed through the install wizard and restart the IDE when prompted.

Beta-testing milestones and release candidates

The same process as above can be used to enable update to milestones or release candidates of the Eclipse IDE (which have already been partially tested before being published, but might still contain unknown issues for you to report to Bugzilla). The only difference is that you should add the 2 following URLs as Available sites before running Check for updates in order to let Eclipse IDE locate the milestones/release-candidates:

• Assuming next release name is oxygen
  • http://download.eclipse.org/staging/oxygen/
  • http://download.eclipse.org/releases/oxygen/ (this is the same URL that will be used for release)
• Assuming next release name is photon
  • http://download.eclipse.org/staging/photon/
  • http://download.eclipse.org/releases/photon/ (this is the same URL that will be used for release)

Note: The sites for the future release are not created immediately upon previous release and are usually produced from M4 (~December)

Fresh install

Occasionally you won't be able to upgrade Eclipse or certain features due to incompatible changes in the update technology. In these cases you will need to download a fresh install.

Download a new build from the Eclipse download Web site (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads) and run the installer or unzip the archive in a new directory. We strongly recommend against installing/unzipping over your existing version of Eclipse IDE as it may corrupt your installation.

Windows specifics

Upgrades may require administrator privileges to succeed and may fail with error messages claiming "Only one of the following can be installed:" otherwise. Start Eclipse with "Run as administrator...".

Older versions (deprecated)

If you're using Ganymede (3.4): To upgrade installed software, do the following:

1. Help > Software Updates...
2. Switch to the 'Installed Software' pane
3. Select one or more installed items to be upgraded. If nothing is selected, it will search for updates to all installed software
4. Select 'Update', and proceed through the wizard if updates are found

If you're using Europa (3.3) and below: Run the Update Manager, using Help > Software Updates > Find and Install... > Search for updates of the currently installed features. The Update Manager will visit the Update site(s) for all your installed features/plugins and offer updates if any exist. However, in Eclipse 3.3 or earlier, it is NOT possible to upgrade the Eclipse platform itself, only its features. So, you could for example upgrade the CVS feature or the PDE feature from 3.2.0 to 3.2.1, but not eclipse.exe itself.

Upgrading Other Features

Upgrading other features (like CDT, PDT, WTP...) can be done without the need to download a new platform binary, but because many projects align very closely (eg., the Eclipse 3.2 / Callisto or Eclipse 3.3 / Europa release trains) you will likely need to upgrade the Eclipse platform as well.

See Also:

• FAQ_How_do_I_update_Eclipse?
• FAQ_What_is_the_Update_Manager?
• How to upgrade Eclipse for Java EE Developers from Juno to Kepler?

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This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.