Update your Playdate before 15 October

If your Playdate hasn't been updated in a while, do it this week. On 15 October 2026, "the secure certificate used by older versions of Playdate OS will expire," Panic warns in an email to owners. "After that date, your Playdate will no longer be able to connect to our servers."

The fix is simply updating to Playdate OS 3.0.5 or later. The Verge reports that Panic began emailing owners of systems on older software ahead of Season Three's 8 October launch. If your Playdate is already on 3.0.5 or newer, you don't need to do anything.

How to update

Panic's steps:

1. Plug your Playdate in and let it charge ("overnight, if it's been a while").
2. Connect it to Wi-Fi.
3. Press the Menu button and choose Settings.
4. Go to System, then System Update. (Panic's email calls it "Software Update", but Panic's help pages and the Playdate OS 3.0 notes both say System Update.)

"If your Playdate is running a really old Playdate OS, you may have to update it more than once," Panic says. You're "all clear" at version 3.0.5 or higher. The latest version, as of Panic's email, is 3.1.2. Keep the console on, unlocked and ideally plugged into USB power while it updates. Panic's help page says this should take "no more than a minute or two".

What if I miss the deadline?

Your Playdate will keep working. Panic says "you can still use your system, but after this date you'll need to take a number of steps to manually update your system to connect to our servers." The Verge calls this "a more complicated manual update". Panic hasn't published those manual steps yet, so updating now is the easy route.