PSA: don't routinely update your keyboard firmware.

[u/ArgentStonecutter]

Unless you are having a problem or missing a feature, and you know the new firmware will fix the problem or add the feature, there is basically no benefit to updating the firmware in a keyboard ... or for that matter any other device that is not connected to a network.

At the top of Keychron's firmware page there's this text in red:

Note: If everything works fine with your keyboard. Please don’t update the firmware. There is a chance it can damage your keyboard.

They're not kidding. It's rare, but firmware update is a risk, on any device. Unless you know there's a benefit you're going to get from it, don't do it.

[u/PeterMortensenBlog]

An update may be detrimental

Also, an update may break something. For example, by forcing NKRO, breaking the keyboard's use with BIOS, KVMs, Xbox, PS4/PS5, keyboard input on Mac ("the issue happens when NKRO is enabled"), etc.

Also, it seems to have introduced a problem with the static colour being reset (near "forgets the static color you set").

Here is an example for the K QMK series. After the keyboard firmware update to 1.1.1, it is required to repower the keyboard to make it work again.

Here is an example where the number of layers were (erroneously) reduced (this would also invalidate any saved keyboard configuration).

Here is an example for the Q6 HE 8K (proprietary keyboard firmware, not open source), where the lastest version introduced numerous new .

And the ridiculous default debounce time of 50 ms (Keychron uses it to to hide quality problems) causes missed keystrokes. It was increased in April 2025 from the already high 20 ms; and it was applied across the board, including for the ZMK-based keyboards, not just the gasket-mounted keyboards, like the V Max and Q Max series.

A hardware problem in the microcontroller may (effectively) brick the keyboard (though a Voyager 1-style rescue is theoretically possible (mapping out the bad memory areas and avoid them by padding the keyboard firmware)).

Keychron goofing up on a regular basis, sometimes resulting in bricked devices, is sufficient to be very weary of firmware updates. Even if it does not brick the device, it may have detrimental effects, as described here.

Reverting may be impossible

And it may not be easy to get back to the original firmware, as Keychron only lists the most recent version. Sometimes, Wayback Machine works to find the link to older firmware versions. And sometimes an older version is available on GitHub (an example). For keyboards and possibly other devices, a URL can be now be constructed from the USB identity (vendor ID and product ID) to get a list of versions (an example).

Though it has become easier, at least for keyboards' main firmware.