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AEH
AEH
Visitor III
June 14, 2026
Question

Cannot upgrade FortiGate firmware version for unlicensed appliances

  • June 14, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 152 views

Dear Fortinet Community,

I am currently experiencing an issue with a FortiOS upgrade. I have unboxed two newly acquired FortiGate devices (200G and 90G), both of which are not yet license-activated.

I attempted to upgrade their firmware to version 7.4.12. The FortiGate 200G was initially running 7.2.11, and I was able to upgrade it to 7.4.11, but the upgrade to 7.4.12 did not succeed. The FortiGate 90G was running 7.4.8, and I was unable to upgrade it to any other version.

I am aware that from the 7.4.x branch onward, upgrades are generally limited to patch-level changes. However, in my case, this behavior is not consistent as expected.

Any assistance in resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

2 replies

Toshi_Esumi
SuperUser
Toshi_Esumi
SuperUser
June 14, 2026

After 7.4.9 without a valid FortiCare license/registration confirmation via FortiGuard,  it won’t be fully functional. Only limited functions/commands, just to connect to the internet and to FortiGuard to confirm registration, are available. I wouldn’t expect upgrade to work. Due to too much trouble, as you can imagine, they added 7-Day registration (grace) period after 7.4.10. But upgrade might not be included.

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.4.0/new-features/509319/seven-day-setup-period-for-gui-and-cli-configuration-7-4-10

I would suggest you connect the new FGTs to the internet/FTGD with the version you have now then register/activate the FortiCare license first before further upgraded it to whatever the version your final version might be..

Toshi

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