Update Failed
Oura Smart Ring
Severity: MinorWhat Does This Error Mean?
Oura shows 'Update failed' in the app when a firmware update was interrupted partway through.
The ring is not bricked — Oura has a recovery mechanism that lets the next attempt resume from a clean state.
Cause is usually the ring slipping off the charger, the phone going to sleep, or Bluetooth dropping during the long update.
Place the ring back on the charger, leave the phone awake nearby, and try again.
Affected Models
- Oura Ring Generation 3 Heritage
- Oura Ring Generation 3 Horizon
- Oura Ring Generation 4
Common Causes
- Ring removed from charger during update
- Phone went to sleep mid-update
- Bluetooth disconnected during transfer
- App force-closed by the OS during the update window
- Battery on the ring too low to complete the update
- Oura update server brief outage
How to Fix It
-
Place ring on charger.
Set the ring on the charging dock with a known-good USB cable.
Confirm the green charging LED appears.
Updates only proceed when the ring is on power. -
Wake and keep the phone awake.
Open the Oura app.
Set the phone screen to never sleep during the update — Settings → Display → Auto-Lock → Never (you can revert after).
Phone sleeping kills the Bluetooth connection mid-update. -
Stay close.
Keep the phone within 6 feet of the charger during the entire update.
Bluetooth Low Energy is range-sensitive.
Walking to the kitchen partway through means a dropped connection and a fresh 'Update failed'. -
Force-quit and reopen Oura app.
If the app is showing the failure banner, force-close it completely.
Reopen.
The app should detect the partial update state and prompt to retry. -
Tap Retry from the prompt.
Oura's update flow usually shows a Retry option after a failure.
Tap it.
The app picks up where it left off, often completing within 5-10 minutes. -
Charge fully if battery is the cause.
If the ring battery dropped below the safe-update threshold, leave it on the charger overnight.
Try the update again in the morning with a 100% battery.
Updates need both power and a charged battery to proceed safely. -
Contact Oura support if stuck.
If three retries all fail, the ring may need a recovery procedure that Oura support can guide.
Open Help in the app or email support.oura.com — they can issue a recovery firmware push that bypasses the normal update path.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the ring be bricked by a failed update?
Oura's update process is designed to fail safe.
Even a fully interrupted update leaves the ring running on its previous firmware.
You may not get the new feature until the update completes, but the ring keeps working as before.