How to Upgrade or Downgrade Poly Firmware Stuck on Old Firmware

Updated: 11/04/2024

Objective

Upgrade or downgrade your Poly phone that is stuck on an old unsupported firmware.
This ensures a rewrite of any potentially corrupt firmware, and that it is updated to a currently supported revision.

Applies To

  • Poly Phones
  • Firmware

Pre-Requisite

Because HP has retired Poly's long-standing firmware server, 8x8 has replaced it with a new one.
This new 8x8 server only allows whitelisted traffic, so to complete the Procedure below, customers must:
  1. Obtain their public IP address(es) (as an example, https://ip.me/ will display your public IP).
  2. Then Create a Case with 8x8 Support.
  3. In the case, provide your Public IP addresses that require whitelisting.
  4. After a security review is confirmed, phones connected through your requested public IP addresses will be authorized to connect to the 8x8 firmware server, and you can continue with the firmware procedure below.
Important: To ensure that you provide the correct IP address(es), you must perform the public IP address lookup from a computer that is connected to the same network as the phones which you are upgrading firmware on.

Procedure

Provision the phone to 8x8's Poly Firmware Server.
Attention! It is not recommended to use the firmware update drop-down inside the Poly WebGUI. If this option is used, the phone will no longer receive updates from 8x8 without using the Clear Upgrade Server option.

Provision the Phone to the Poly Firmware Server

  1. Obtain your phone's administrator password.
  2. Reboot the phone (from Home/Menu, select Settings > Advanced > Reboot Phone).
  3. While the phone is booting up, press the Setup soft key. It may take some time for the key to appear.
  4. Enter your phone's password, then press OK. Note: If the phone has been factory reset, the password is 456. To enter the password, select the a/A/1 key to switch between lower case letters, upper case letters, and numbers.
  5. Scroll down to and select Provisioning Server Menu.
  6. On Server Type, press Edit.
  7. Scroll left arrow key until HTTP is selected, then press OK.
  8. On Server Address, press Edit.
  9. Enter the appropriate server address for your phone model. Note: To enter a the server address, select the a/A/1 key to switch between lower case letters, upper case letters, and numbers.
    • SoundPoint IP models: pcfw.8x8.com/4015
    • SoundStation IP Speaker phones: pcfw.8x8.com/4015
    • VVX models: pcfw.8x8.com/646b
      • 101, 201, 301, 311, 401, 411, 501, 601, 150
    • Legacy VVX models: pcfw.8x8.com/598
      • 300, 310, 400, 410, 500, 600, 1500
  10. Expand DHCP Menu, change Boot Server to Static.
  11. Press OK.
  12. Press Exit twice (IP 335 users: Left arrow key), then Save & Reboot.
  13. The phone will reboot twice and update.
No other changes are required at this point.
The process is complete after the phone stops rebooting after firmware upgrade. This may take up to 10 to 15 minutes total time, depending on what firmware version the phone is upgrading from.

Enable Logging in Poly Web GUI to Troubleshooting Firmware Upgrade Issues

  1. Log in to the phone's Web GUI.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Provisioning Server, expand this section.
    • Server Type: HTTP
    • Server Address: pcfw.8x8.com/646b (or one of the other URLs depending on the phone model, e.g., pcfw.8x8.com/598)
  3. Expand DHCP Menu.
  4. Set Boot Server to Static.
  5. Confirm Boot Server Option is 160.
  6. Save.
  7. Navigate to Settings > Logging.
  8. Ensure Global Log Level Limit is set to Debug.
  9. Set Log File Size (Kbytes) to the maximum. Typically the max is 180, and can be as high as 1000 for newer phone models.
  10. Expand Module Log Level Limits.
  11. Locate Configuration and set this to Debug > Save.
  12. Navigate to Utilities > Reboot Phone.
  13. Log back in to Web GUI once the phone comes back online.
  14. Navigate to Diagnostics > View & Download Logs.
  15. Export both App + Boot logs and attach to your case for review by 8x8 Support.

Additional Information

For more information on firmware versions, see What is the recommended firmware for 8x8 phones and analog adapters?