# 1.9.0 Migration Guide

It is recommended to do a fresh install. However, if you wish to use an existing copy of SillyTavern, please follow the instructions below.

IMPORTANT! Before doing anything, make a complete backup of your installation. You may lose your data in the process, so don't ignore this warning.

Not sure of which files to back up? See the list here: How to Update SillyTavern

1. Open a terminal prompt (cmd, PowerShell, Termux, etc) in your SillyTavern installation folder.
2. Type git fetch and then git pull to pull the updates.
3. You may lose your settings. Have you made a backup? git switch release or git switch staging will change your branch, respectively

4. Skip to next item if you have no errors. You may have something like:

   error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
        config.conf
        public/css/bg_load.css
        public/settings.json

   You will see a list of files affected. If you do not care about those settings files being replaced git switch -f release or git switch -f staging will set your branch. If you do care to save those changes restore from backup.

5. Type npm install and then npm run start to test that everything behaves correctly.
6. Enjoy! Restore your data from a backup if needed.

This may happen if you cloned just a single branch from an old remote (before migration to the organization repo). To fix this, you need to add and fetch a branch from a new remote:

git remote add st https://github.com/SillyTavern/SillyTavern
git fetch st
git checkout -t st/release

Then proceed from step 5.

Nothing changes for you. Just download the branch/release ZIP like usual.