I see so many questions regarding Silhouette Studio Updates, so let’s discuss some information about a software update.

Update vs Upgrade

First, a Silhouette Studio update is different than a Studio upgrade.

A Silhouette software upgrade is a product you can purchase that unlocks additional features in the Silhouette software. There are 3 levels: Designer Edition, Designer Edition Plus and Business Edition.

Check out this chart by Silhouette America on what features are unlocked with each upgrade. Click on the video camera icon next to each feature to see a short demo video.

A software upgrade can be purchased from a Silhouette retailer such as Swing Design or direct from Silhouette America. The code can be either a digital code or a physical card mailed to you. I would suggest a digital code as it’s much faster and no shipping.

A software upgrade unlocks features that are already in the Silhouette software program. You can purchase the upgrade in steps or go directly to the one you want. For instance, if you have the Basic Software (free), you can go directly from Silhouette Studio to Business (the highest level) by purchasing the correct upgrade option.

A software update is something that makes changes to the actual program. An update is rolled out for many reasons such as adding new features or fixing a bug in a previous software version.

There is a lot of anxiety around a software update. So here are some tips about Silhouette software updates that I’ve picked up through using the software, teaching, and troubleshooting.

Tips for Silhouette Software Updates

• Back up your Silhouette library. It is ALWAYS a good time to make a backup. Get in the habit of making a back up of the library monthly or weekly. This is especially important if you store your personal files in the Silhouette library.
  I highly recommend storing your personal files to an outside source or at the very least making a backup of the library. Just keep in mind that no place is 100% safe, so having multiple backups is a good idea too.

  This is direct from the Silhouette website regarding the Silhouette Cloud library “Silhouette America’s Cloud Storage is a syncing service rather than a backup service. Files deleted locally will be deleted on the cloud. We strongly recommend users save important and/or valuable files to another location outside of the cloud or local library, or to a third-party backup service.”
  
  I see so many users who say they’ve lost their designs and there can be many reasons for this happening.
  Another reason I highly recommend making a back up of your library and a back up of your external storage as well.Personally, I store all my files to an external hard drive which I also back up on a regular basis (probably should do it more than I do).

  To find out more information about the Silhouette cloud library click HERE to go directly to the Silhouette Cloud Overview.

  How do you backup the library in the v4.1 software?

  There are 2 sections of the Silhouette library – the Local User (computer specific) and the Cloud (email address & below). You must back these up separately.

  Local User

  Right click on the Local User section and choose Export. Save this file to a safe location. I like to save mine with the date included.

  

  Cloud (email address and below)

  Right click on the email address, choose Export and save this to a safe location. I add the date and ‘Cloud’ to the name of this file, so I can tell the difference in the files.

  

• The “Check for Updates” option under the Help menu does not work. This will give you a message that there are No Updates available.
• Download the Silhouette updates direct from the Silhouette website. If you are prompted for an update through the software, I highly recommend that you choose Later and then when you are ready, update directly from the Silhouette website.
  You can find the current software updates HERE on the Silhouette America site. Click on the option for MAC or Windows to download it to your computer.
• Change how the software checks for updates. Under the Preferences you can change the Check for Updates option to Daily, Weekly, or Never.The Preferences can also be found under the Edit menu in the top left corner or by using the keyboard short cut Ctrl + K.

  

  Personally, I have mine set to “Never”. I can go out to the Silhouette America website and check if there are any software updates that have been released and download it directly.

  Once you change the Preference, then click the Apply and the Ok button.

  It is a complete personal preference on how you have the updates set to check.

Software updates are not bad.

There are many good reasons for an update. I love that the Silhouette software is such a powerful graphics program and it is amazing all that is included in this software. There are even more great things coming with the Silhouette Studio v4.2 release. It is still in the Beta testing phase and Silhouette is continuing to work to fix software bugs that pop up.

If you ever do get an update that has a bug you cannot live with or perhaps your software program updated to the Beta version, you can simply uninstall the Silhouette software from your Computer operating system and then reinstall the version you would like to roll back to.

Previous software versions can be found on the Silhouette America site under the Legacy section of the Software updates.

Do you have to update?

No.
You do not have to update your Silhouette software unless you want to. If you have the “Check for updates” set to Daily or Weekly, it will ask you when there is a new update if you want to update. If you are not paying attention or happen to share a computer with another person and the Ok gets pushed on the Update, the software will download the update.

If you choose not to update, you may not have access to all of the Silhouette features available to you. Features released are not retro-active, so if you would like access to new released features, you will need to update the software to at least the version where that feature was released.

Can you have multiple versions of the software installed?

Yes.
Something that not many do not know about is that you can have multiple versions of the Silhouette Studio installed on both a PC and a MAC.

I would not suggest this for the average user unless there is a specific reason that you want more than one version installed, such as downloading the Beta version to test it.

On a MAC, it will download another version with no additional steps needed. After the software downloads, you will need to make sure you change which Silhouette application is docked and make sure you are opening the correct version that you want.

On a PC, there are several steps and Kelly Wayment over at Finding Time to Create has a great post on this. You can find her post on “How to Install Multiple Versions of the Silhouette Studio – Windows 10” on her blog HERE.

I love how Kelly explains things. Kelly is also the voice behind many of the Silhouette America videos on Youtube, the writer behind the ebooks from Silhouette and many product videos for Silhouette.
If you have not seen the new Silhouette 101 blog, check it out HERE – there is lots of information on there.

Again, I would not recommend multiple versions for the average user. But, it can come in handy for certain reasons.

How do you have the Check for Updates set? Did you know you could change it?
I would love to hear – comment below or find me on my Facebook group at
Silhouette Secrets+ with EllyMae.

Enjoy!

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