cPanel update looping on "Switching to version"

Symptoms

cPanel updates (upcp) are looping on "Switching to version" and never completing. This will look as follows in the update log.

# = Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync (13494) at Fri Jun 12 22:17:36 2026 [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Running version '11.132.0.35' of updatenow.static. [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Detected version '11.132.0.16' from version file. [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Target version set to '11.136.0.22' [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] First upgrading to 11.134.0.39 before upgrading to final version. [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Switching to version 11.134.0.39 of updatenow to determine if we can reach that version without failure. [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Retrieving and staging /cpanelsync/11.134.0.39/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static.bz2 [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Using mirror '184.94.200.3' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [2026-06-12 22:17:36 +0300] Become an updatenow.static for version: 11.134.0.39 = Log closed Fri Jun 12 22:17:36 2026 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync (13494) at Fri Jun 12 22:17:39 2026 [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Running version '11.134.0.39' of updatenow.static. [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Detected version '11.132.0.16' from version file. [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Target version set to '11.136.0.22' [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] First upgrading to 11.132.0.35 before upgrading to final version. [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Switching to version 11.132.0.35 of updatenow to determine if we can reach that version without failure. [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Retrieving and staging /cpanelsync/11.132.0.35/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static.bz2 [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Using mirror '184.94.200.3' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [2026-06-12 22:17:39 +0300] Become an updatenow.static for version: 11.132.0.35 = Log closed Fri Jun 12 22:17:39 2026 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = Log opened from

Cause

This issue is caused by an update being interrupted unexpectedly, preventing cleanup. For example, at certain stages, a reboot is performed while an update is running. Most commonly, this problem occurred during reboots while updates were running.

Resolution

1. Check the current cPanel version.

   # whmapi1 version

2. Open /etc/cpupdate.conf with your preferred text editor and set the CPANEL= line to your current release tier. The example below sets the release tier to v132.

   # CPANEL=132

3. Run the cPanel update.

   # /scripts/upcp

4. Set the CPANEL= line back to the original setting.

5. Run the cPanel update again.

   # /scripts/upcp