HeadRush's own release notes for firmware 5.1.0 open by telling you to back up every rig, setlist, model preset, clone, loop, and impulse response first. That is not boilerplate. It sits above the instructions rather than below them, which is a deliberate choice.
Almost nobody does it. As long as the board is on your network, HeadRush pushes new firmware to it as soon as the release goes live, so the update arrives on the touchscreen and tapping yes takes about four seconds. There is no friction, which is exactly the problem.
You are doing all this to get the TONE3000 library on your touchscreen, so it is worth twenty careful minutes rather than five careless ones.
Here is where it goes wrong. When you have finished copying, you have to unmount the HeadRush drive from your computer properly. The release notes warn that file corruption may occur if you skip that, and they are not exaggerating.
Then tap Sync on the board itself to commit the changes, and leave the cable alone until it finishes. Two separate steps, both easy to forget, both capable of eating the thing you were trying to protect.
Rigs and setlists you could rebuild if you had to. Third-party IRs you can download again. Clones you captured yourself with the board's Amp Cloner, off a borrowed head or an amp you have since sold, exist nowhere else on earth. Those are the files worth being paranoid about.
Anything you send to the Cloud goes straight to the wider community. That is the design. It is a sharing platform that happens to store your files, not a private locker.
For private storage, two better options exist. The rear USB-A port takes an ordinary thumb drive, and Menu, then Browse, then Export writes your selected rigs and files straight onto it. Nothing leaves the room.
Dropbox works too, and it is more convenient once you have set it up. Turn on Wi-Fi, go to Menu, then Browse, then Dropbox, and the board shows a login code that stays valid for five minutes. You enter that code at dropbox.headrushfx.com on your phone, authorize the account, and the board then treats your Dropbox like an attached drive.
The USB route exists for when Wi-Fi is flaky or the download stalls. You grab the Firmware Updater for your specific model from the HeadRush downloads page, connect over USB-B, tap the Firmware Update icon, confirm the shutdown, then run the updater application on your computer and click the button.
That path needs Windows 10 or macOS 11 and a real USB 2.0 host port on the computer itself. Passing the board through a bus-powered hub is asking for a failed flash, so plug straight into the machine.
Do not disconnect anything or power down either device while it runs. A firmware update interrupted halfway is a different class of problem from a lost preset.
Putting your files back works the same way in reverse. Mount the board in USB Transfer, drag the saved folders across, eject cleanly, and sync. Anything sitting on a thumb drive instead goes through Menu, then Browse, where you pick the rig, tap Load, and save the copy to the unit.
Afterwards, check the version at startup or under the INFO tab in Global Settings. It should read 5.1.0. If the board behaves oddly and you want a clean slate, holding footswitches 11 and 12 on the Prime during power-up restores the factory rigs, and the screen shows Reverting while it works.
Almost nobody does it. As long as the board is on your network, HeadRush pushes new firmware to it as soon as the release goes live, so the update arrives on the touchscreen and tapping yes takes about four seconds. There is no friction, which is exactly the problem.
You are doing all this to get the TONE3000 library on your touchscreen, so it is worth twenty careful minutes rather than five careless ones.
The step that corrupts files is ejecting the drive
To pull a full backup, plug your computer into the board's USB-B port, power both on, and tap USB Transfer in the Menu. The board mounts as a mass-storage device. From there, it is drag and drop, same as any thumb drive.Here is where it goes wrong. When you have finished copying, you have to unmount the HeadRush drive from your computer properly. The release notes warn that file corruption may occur if you skip that, and they are not exaggerating.
Then tap Sync on the board itself to commit the changes, and leave the cable alone until it finishes. Two separate steps, both easy to forget, both capable of eating the thing you were trying to protect.
Rigs and setlists you could rebuild if you had to. Third-party IRs you can download again. Clones you captured yourself with the board's Amp Cloner, off a borrowed head or an amp you have since sold, exist nowhere else on earth. Those are the files worth being paranoid about.
Cloud backup shares your rigs with everyone
HeadRush Cloud looks like the obvious backup destination. It is built in, it is free, and rigs upload from the setlist screen in two taps. It is also public.Anything you send to the Cloud goes straight to the wider community. That is the design. It is a sharing platform that happens to store your files, not a private locker.
For private storage, two better options exist. The rear USB-A port takes an ordinary thumb drive, and Menu, then Browse, then Export writes your selected rigs and files straight onto it. Nothing leaves the room.
Dropbox works too, and it is more convenient once you have set it up. Turn on Wi-Fi, go to Menu, then Browse, then Dropbox, and the board shows a login code that stays valid for five minutes. You enter that code at dropbox.headrushfx.com on your phone, authorize the account, and the board then treats your Dropbox like an attached drive.
Wi-Fi is the easy path, and USB is the reliable one
With a clean backup of every rig and setlist sitting on your computer, the update itself is simple. Over Wi-Fi, you switch the radio on in Global Settings, join your network, back out to the Menu, tap Firmware Update, and choose Via Wi-Fi. The board reboots itself when it has finished.The USB route exists for when Wi-Fi is flaky or the download stalls. You grab the Firmware Updater for your specific model from the HeadRush downloads page, connect over USB-B, tap the Firmware Update icon, confirm the shutdown, then run the updater application on your computer and click the button.
That path needs Windows 10 or macOS 11 and a real USB 2.0 host port on the computer itself. Passing the board through a bus-powered hub is asking for a failed flash, so plug straight into the machine.
Do not disconnect anything or power down either device while it runs. A firmware update interrupted halfway is a different class of problem from a lost preset.
Putting your files back works the same way in reverse. Mount the board in USB Transfer, drag the saved folders across, eject cleanly, and sync. Anything sitting on a thumb drive instead goes through Menu, then Browse, where you pick the rig, tap Load, and save the copy to the unit.
Afterwards, check the version at startup or under the INFO tab in Global Settings. It should read 5.1.0. If the board behaves oddly and you want a clean slate, holding footswitches 11 and 12 on the Prime during power-up restores the factory rigs, and the screen shows Reverting while it works.
