bug: Updating Windows App and Robot Software with automated prompts gives out of sync version numbers and broken communication

[chris-discopharma]

Overview

I got a prompt to upgrade from 8.6.0 (working fine on both Windows PC and OT Flex) to 8.8.0. I followed the automated prompts.

After "successful install", I got "robot unavailable via API at " error. Upon further investigation, Windows App showed version number v8.8.0, but the robot showed only v8.7.0 - this is despite some features available in the robot settings (such as camera settings) suggesting the upgrade on the robot was partially successful.

My guess is there is something wrong with the robot firmware v8.8.0, as the Windows app runs fine.

For now I have downgraded both to v8.7.0 and communication is restored between Windows PC and OT-Flex.

Steps to reproduce

No response

Current behavior

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Operating system

None

System and robot setup or anything else?

No response

[SGHY-IVD]

I encountered the same "unavailable" state after the update. I decided to investigate a bit further before downgrading.

My Findings: I accessed the robot's terminal via Jupyter and checked the service status (systemctl status opentrons-robot-server). I noticed that the service was running, but it was throwing 500 - LegacyError specifically on requests like GET /protocols/ids.

My Hypothesis & Fix: This led me to suspect that there might be a compatibility issue with the legacy protocol history or the database structure in the new version.

Based on this clue, I tried resetting/clearing the protocol run history on the robot. Surprisingly, this immediately resolved the issue for me, and the API requests returned to normal.

Note: Please be aware that this operation will wipe your past run logs, but it might be worth trying if you want to stay on v8.8.0.