Control Oracle APEX Upgrades

Oracle maintains Oracle APEX instance in your Autonomous AI Database by applying new releases and Patch Set Bundles. When a new APEX release becomes available in your region, you can choose when to apply it during the upgrade window. Oracle applies Patch Set Bundles automatically during scheduled maintenance windows.

About Oracle APEX Upgrades and Patches

Autonomous AI Database receives two types of Oracle APEX updates:

New releases update APEX to a new feature release, for example, from 24.2.17 to 26.1.0. They include bug fixes and new product features. It may take 2-5 weeks for your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) region to receive the new release after it becomes available for download on oracle.com. When a new release becomes available in your region, you can apply it during the 45-day upgrade window. Customers with paid instances can extend the window to 90 days. If you take no action, Oracle applies the release automatically at the end of the upgrade window.
Patch Set Bundles update APEX within the same release family, for example, from 26.1.0 to 26.1.1. Patch Set Bundles include bug fixes and no new functionality. Oracle applies patches automatically during scheduled database maintenance windows when the Dictionary component is patched.

Autonomous AI Databases at the Early patch level receive new APEX releases and Patch Set Bundles one week before databases at the Regular patch level. See Set the Patch Level for more information.

To validate a new APEX release before you upgrade your production database, clone your database, apply the new release to the clone, and test your applications on the clone. See Clone an Autonomous AI Database Instance for more information.

Oracle APEX Upgrade and Patch Notifications

Oracle uses three notification channels to announce Oracle APEX releases and Patch Set Bundles:

Banner in APEX App Builder: When a new APEX release becomes available to your Autonomous AI Database, developers will see an announcement banner when they sign in to APEX App Builder.
Email notifications: Oracle sends an email to the customer contacts for each Autonomous AI Database when a new APEX release becomes available in that region. This email describes what’s new in this APEX release and explains how to deploy it to your database. To subscribe, see View and Manage Customer Contacts for Operational Issues and Announcements.
OCI Information events: Autonomous AI Database emits APEXUpgradeAvailable event when a new APEX release becomes available. It emits APEXUpgradeBegin event when an APEX upgrade or patch begins deployment, and APEXUpgradeEnd event when it completes deployment. See Information Events on Autonomous AI Database and Get Notified of Autonomous AI Database Events.

If your database does not use APEX, Autonomous AI Database does not emit Information events related to APEX.

View Current Oracle APEX Upgrade Window

You can view the current Oracle APEX upgrade window in the following locations:

Administration Services: The Available Updates section displays whether a new release is available, the scheduled automatic upgrade date, and the current upgrade window.
App Builder: When a new release is available, the App Builder home page displays the upgrade status. Developers can view the status, but only instance administrators can apply the upgrade.

To view the current upgrade window in Administration Services:

Open APEX Administration Services.

See Access Oracle APEX Administration Services for more information.
Review the Available Updates section in the right sidebar.

Set Oracle APEX Upgrade Window

Use the Available Updates dialog in Oracle APEX Administration Services to set the upgrade window for future releases.

You can change the upgrade window in Administration Services only when no upgrade is currently available. If you want to extend the upgrade window after a new release becomes available, use the PL/SQL API.

To set the APEX upgrade window:

Open APEX Administration Services.

See Access Oracle APEX Administration Services for more information.
Open the Available Updates dialog by clicking the gear icon next to Available Updates.
Select the desired Upgrade Window.

Description of the illustration adb_apex_available_updates.png
Click Apply Changes.

Notes for Setting the Oracle APEX Upgrade Window

You cannot schedule an APEX upgrade for a specific date and time. When a new release becomes available, you can either let Oracle automatically apply it on the scheduled date or apply it manually any time before that date.
If your database did not have APEX activity in the past 6 months, Oracle applies the next APEX upgrade automatically regardless of the upgrade window setting.

Apply Oracle APEX Upgrades

When a new APEX release becomes available, you can apply it at any time before the scheduled upgrade date. If you do not apply it manually, Oracle applies it automatically on the scheduled date shown in Available Updates.

The upgrade runs in the background and proceeds through these phases:

Create database schemas and database objects.
Migrate application metadata.
Migrate runtime data and switch to the new APEX version.
Migrate additional log and summary data.

Phases 1 and 4 do not block application end users. Phase 2 affects developers who modify applications. Phase 3 affects all APEX access and is expected to take up to 3 minutes. Oracle installs additional language support for the APEX development environment after phase 4.

To apply an APEX upgrade manually:

Open APEX Administration Services.

See Access Oracle APEX Administration Services for more information.
In Available Updates, click Upgrade Now.

If the Available Updates section displays System is up-to-date, your Autonomous AI Database is already running the latest APEX release available in your region.

Description of adb_apex_updates_deferred.png follows

Description of the illustration adb_apex_updates_deferred.png

After the upgrade starts, administrators can continue to monitor the status in Administration Services or using PL/SQL API, and developers can view the status in App Builder.

About Oracle APEX Upgrade PL/SQL API

Use the Oracle APEX PL/SQL API to view the upgrade status, change the upgrade window, and apply an available upgrade programmatically.

The following instance parameters control APEX upgrades in Autonomous AI Database:

UPGRADE_DATE: The scheduled date for the next APEX upgrade or NULL when no upgrade is scheduled. The value uses ISO 8601 format in UTC.
UPGRADE_DEFERRED: Controls the upgrade window for future APEX releases. Set it to N for the default window or Y for the extended window. If the next release is already scheduled, changing this value reschedules that release. Setting the value to Y again does not further extend the upgrade window.
UPGRADE_STATUS: Shows the status of the next APEX upgrade. Possible values are UP-TO-DATE, SCHEDULED, and RUNNING. Set it to RUN to apply the available upgrade.
UPGRADE_VERSION: The APEX version that the next scheduled upgrade will install or NULL when no upgrade is scheduled.

To examine the current parameter values, use APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.GET_PARAMETER PL/SQL API. To set parameter values, use APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.SET_PARAMETER. See Available Parameter Values in Oracle APEX API Reference for more information.

To view the current APEX upgrade status using the PL/SQL API:

Connect to the database as ADMIN or as another database user with APEX_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE role.

Run the following query:

select APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_STATUS') as upgrade_status,
       APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_DEFERRED') as upgrade_deferred,
       APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_VERSION') as upgrade_version,
       APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_DATE') as upgrade_date
  from dual;

If no upgrade is available, the query result will be similar to the following:

UPGRADE_STATUS UPGRADE_DEFERRED UPGRADE_VERSION UPGRADE_DATE
-------------- ---------------- --------------- ------------
UP-TO-DATE     Y                null            null

If an upgrade is available, the result will be similar to the following:

UPGRADE_STATUS UPGRADE_DEFERRED UPGRADE_VERSION UPGRADE_DATE
-------------- ---------------- --------------- --------------------
SCHEDULED      Y                26.1.0          2026-08-30T19:06:11Z

To set the APEX upgrade window using the PL/SQL API:

Connect to the database as ADMIN or as another database user with APEX_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE role.
Set UPGRADE_DEFERRED value to N for the default upgrade window or Y for the extended upgrade window.
```
begin
  APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.set_parameter('UPGRADE_DEFERRED', 'Y');
  commit;
end;
```

Verify the setting.

select APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_DEFERRED') as upgrade_deferred
  from dual;

To apply the available APEX upgrade using the PL/SQL API:

Connect to the database as ADMIN or as another database user with APEX_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE role.
Run the following PL/SQL block:
```
begin
  APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.set_parameter('UPGRADE_STATUS', 'RUN');
  commit;
end;
```
The PL/SQL block initiates the upgrade and returns immediately.

Verify that the upgrade has started.

select APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_STATUS') as upgrade_status
  from dual;

If the upgrade has started, the result will be similar to the following:

UPGRADE_STATUS
--------------
RUNNING