FileMaker 15 introduced a much welcomed improvement to the updating process: you can now upgrade your FileMaker Pro directly in Pro itself, instead of needing to hunt for an updater on a separate web page. But that’s not all – the updaters are significantly smaller in size, making downloads faster. With these changes FileMaker has modernized the updating process, which should ultimately result in more users on the latest version, a goal that aligns with FMI’s continued focus on security.

How it works

If there’s a new minor version available, you will be asked when you open FileMaker Pro if you’d like to install the update. You can elect to either install it, be reminded later or skip the version entirely. Unlike the previous versions of Pro where you would be taken to the Updates web page, the new version will be downloaded all within Pro itself. Once downloaded, you will be prompted to install the update and relaunch Pro. Doing so will complete the update process by replacing the current version of Pro with the new one.

Some odds and ends

• In-product updates are only available on Pro. Server updates will still require going to the Updates page.
• You can check for a new version at any time via Help–>Check for Updates, just like you could in previous versions.
  
• You can turn off new version alerts the same way you could in previous versions, via unchecking the “Notify me when an update is available” option under Preferences.
  
• In-product updates only apply to minor versions (e.g. 15v1 to 15v2). Major versions (e.g. 15 to 16) will still require downloading and running an installer outside of Pro.

Conclusion

Like all great features, in-product updates will become so natural so quickly that people will assume upgrading always worked this way. And now that the process is nearly effortless for users, I hope to see more frequent releases from FMI. As the popular software development saying goes, release early, and release often!