I have a hex RB750Gr3 currently running v6.49.19 and everything appears to be running fine. It says that there are no updates on the stable channel. However it does say that there is an upgrade to v7. So my question is should I upgrade to v7 or just stay with v6 for now?
I don’t do much with my router. It’s a small home network and I just didn’t want to use any of the stuff from my ISP. I prefer to roll my own.
No. Unless you need Wireguard or some v7 only feature (like managing wifi AX devices with new capsman).
As indicated.
You can but you don't have to.
Having said that, I have not a single device running ROS6. Not for a long time already.
If everything is working fine, "why fix it"?
There are advantages and disadvantages with v7. I am not aware of any security issues with v6.49.19 (but I have never used v6, except when I got my first RB760iGS, and then it was just for the duration of upgrading to v7).
As we go forward, there will be less and less info about v6. MikroTik has already thrown out useful info that was on the old wiki support site. See Old wiki.mikrotik.com vs help.mikrotik.com
If you do upgrade stick with 7.19.6.
So far the jury is still out for any of the 7.20 versions.
Yes you should. After do Netinstall and revert back. You can do it each Tuesday, why not. Call it “upgrade day”, meet friends, buy beer etc.
If it's working, and you're not in need of any new features (like Wireguard)...
Perhaps wait for a "long-term" V7 and re-eval then?
Honestly, I doubt long-term branch will exist at all anymore.
I would agree with that sentiment, MT seems to be making significant changes to code all the time, and more often than naught, creating more bugs in the process,,,,,,,,,,,,so LTS seems like a pipedream.
Oh that's a bit cynical, now when is a fair question. Until they declare "long term", they'll still patch V6 for major security issues. Now after a long-term for v7, IDK if they still commit to fixes to V6 after that.
So, good thing V6 is working. Most "security fixes" in V7 are about preventing dumb users from being part of DoS/botnets, than "actual" vulnerabilities.
But, all I know is I'd have more device on V6 still, if I didn't need MBIM support for LTE/5G and now use ZeroTier and WireGuard.
Dont get me wrong I love playing with the latest betas, I just dont think they have the resources to reach an LTS anytime soon.
Thank you all for your replies. Very much appreciated. I have no need for any thing that requires v7 so if v6 is satisfactory, security patch wise, then I think I’ll stay with that for now at least.
Found this thread while looking for release notes for 6.49.19. Thought I’d quote those here, since I think they’re pertinent, at least a bit. The last bullet point makes it sound like they’re planning on getting out of the V6 business.
What's new in 6.49.19 (2026-Jan-13 12:15):
*) console - updated copyright notice;
*) lte - added support for R11e-LTE6 v039 firmware release;
*) security - allow only "http:" and "https:" schemas in relevant dst fields;
*) system - fixed v6 to v7 upgrade from separate packages;
*) system - improved upgrade procedure reliability;
*) upgrade - the upgrade, testing, and development channels now direct to
the latest long-term version of RouterOS v7;
I guess that was the plan ever since introduction of ROS v7. But it does seem like they decided that now is the right time to do it. First step was introduction of v7 long-term. Next is to make upgrade from v6 to v7 as easy and fail-safe as possible.
I’m OK with upgrading to 7 I guess. But the question is how painless will it be? Will it keep all my current settings or will I have to start from scratch again? It took me a while but I think I’m failry comfortable with 6 now. Am I going to have to start all over again like a new born babe learning 7?
I would suggest to upgrade to v7, basically for everyone at this point.
As always, take the update slow. By this, I mean to choose a quiet time when you can adequately try things out and roll back if necessary.
In general, v7 has only minor differences, and the solutions that you have developed will only require minor adjustments. Mikrotik's auto-upgrade works surprisingly well, but (and especially when bridging many versions) it may need manual fix-ups and definitely needs verification.
I think that releasing an LTS version signals that they are committed to keep a v7 version around (and patched) for a longer period of time with no breaking changes or new featured that may break old workflows. Let's hope it becomes all that it's meant to be.
What's new in 6.49.19 (2026-Jan-13 12:15)
what exactly changed in 6.49.19 since 2025-07-07? the same version but RouterOS thinks it still needs an update
I think the improved IPv6 support alone makes it worth to update to ROSv7.
i'd assume that the "What's new in..." line is quoted from the changelog. So the accurate answer is: the things listed in the changelog have changed 
RouterOS notifies you that there is a newer version. You're of course free to decide to upgrade or not. At this point there are only very minor changes to v6 in terms of functionality, so unless there is some specific issue that impacts you, or there is some serious security issue that is patched, there really isn't much motivation to upgrade.
On the other hand, since there are no really impactful changes, there is very little risk in simply choosing to always be up to date.
We upgraded our core CCR1072 to v7 long-term a week ago and the hell broke loose…
We went back to v6 long-term and everthing worked.
v7 is far away from “stable”, even they released a long-term, this is simply a lie. Its not stable. Maybe for simple set-ups, but for more complex things with multicast-routing, multiple routing-tables, mangling… it is simply not production-ready. If they want or not, they have to maintain v6, till they fix v7 further.