I hit an annoying OpenClaw upgrade problem that looked like a failed update but was really a failed restart.

The control UI said it was updating. Then the page disappeared. After reconnecting, it looked like nothing had changed. That is a confusing state because part of the update did succeed.

The symptom pattern

• You click update in the web UI.
• The UI shows updating and then vanishes or reloads awkwardly.
• openclaw logs --help shows the newer version is installed.
• But openclaw status still shows the gateway running the old version.

That split is the clue: the package update completed, but the running gateway process never switched over to the new build.

What actually happened

In my case, the logs showed the update itself finished successfully, then the restart step was ignored:

update.run completed ... status=ok
SIGUSR1 restart ignored (not authorized; commands.restart=false or use gateway tool).

So the real problem was not "upgrade failed". It was "upgrade installed, but the gateway did not restart into the new version".

The fix that worked

Restart the gateway manually:

openclaw gateway restart

Then verify the running version:

openclaw status

After the restart, the gateway version matched the installed version again and everything came back normally.

How to confirm you are in this exact failure mode

1. Run openclaw status and note the gateway app version.
2. Run openclaw logs --help and compare the CLI/app version shown there.
3. If the installed version is newer than the running gateway version, check recent logs with openclaw logs --plain --local-time.
4. Look for an update.run completed ... status=ok line followed by a restart warning.

Why this is so annoying

Because it feels like one problem, but it is really two steps:

1. Install the new version
2. Restart the gateway into that version

If step one works and step two fails, the UI experience makes it easy to assume the whole upgrade failed. It did not. You are just stuck on the old running process.

Quick recovery checklist

• Check installed version: openclaw logs --help
• Check running version: openclaw status
• Inspect logs: openclaw logs --plain --local-time
• Restart gateway: openclaw gateway restart
• Verify channels and health again with openclaw status

The main lesson: if OpenClaw says it updated but the UI behavior feels weird afterwards, do not assume the package install failed. First check whether the restart was skipped.

Related OpenClaw fix

If your problem is not the updater but authentication breaking before replies, see How to Fix OpenClaw OAuth Token Refresh Failed (openai-codex).