Ubuntu 25.10 has been made available for download as of October 9, but users on Ubuntu 25.04 may have noticed they haven’t received an upgrade notification yet. Canonical’s Matthieu Clemenceau announced that upgrades from version 25.04 (Plucky) to version 25.10 (Questing) are expected to be enabled “on or before October 23rd.”
While it might be common to see this upgrade notification appear within around 12 hours of the ISO’s release, it can sometimes take several weeks. The timing usually depends on the specific release’s contents, any bugs discovered, and fixes that need to be packaged and tested before regular users can upgrade seamlessly.
For those eager to upgrade, it is possible to do so via the command line using sudo do-release-upgrade -d, but this method is considered opt-in and unsupported. Thus, if the upgrade fails or causes issues, the responsibility falls on the user to resolve them.
The reason for the delayed rollout of the official upgrade is not necessarily a delay in the release but rather a typical part of the process in Ubuntu’s upgrade cycle. There’s a historical precedent for staggered upgrade prompts, where a small percentage of users receive upgrade notifications first. If no major issues are reported, the prompt expands to a larger percentage of users over time.
Unlike before, when upgrades were enabled too hastily resulting in significant user issues, Canonical is now prioritizing system reliability and user experience. Given the runtime challenges that significant updates can cause and the number of configurations users may have, this caution is reasonable. Recent upgrades have highlighted the potential for errors, including package conflicts that require careful debugging and resolution.
For instance, an issue with Flatpak applications in Ubuntu 25.10 arose soon after the release, which has since been addressed. Had the upgrade been enabled immediately, it could have disrupted many users’ workflows.
In summary, while waiting for an upgrade can be frustrating for those looking forward to the new features of Ubuntu 25.10, the extra time taken is aimed at ensuring a smoother upgrade experience for everyone. Users should keep an eye out for upgrade prompts or stay tuned for guides as the upgrade period opens.