# change from production to development and vice versa

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907>\
**Category:** Product support\
**Created:** [February 18, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907 "2020-02-18T06:38:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alvar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@alvar](https://forums.balena.io/u/alvar)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/1 "2020-02-18T06:38:46Z")

</div>

Is it possible to change a running image in the field from development to production and vice versa?  
How can this be done?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anujdeshpande](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/anujdeshpande/32/3155_2.png) [@anujdeshpande](https://forums.balena.io/u/anujdeshpande)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 9:18am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/4 "2020-02-18T09:18:04Z")

</div>

Hi

This is something that we are working on internally. We don’t have a toggle switch though - it will be a hostOS update from dev to production.

For the time being, you should stick to using development images in a controlled environment as there are security implications here. See our documentation on this here - [https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/overview/2.x/#development-vs-production-images](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/overview/2.x/#development-vs-production-images)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Timple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Timple](https://forums.balena.io/u/Timple)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 5:49am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/6 "2023-04-17T05:49:04Z")

</div>

Sorry for the bump, but is there any solution for this now?

This was never followed-up.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JaidenSantino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/db5fbb/32.png) [@JaidenSantino](https://forums.balena.io/u/JaidenSantino)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/7 "2023-05-09T21:14:11Z")

</div>

> [@alvar](#):
>
> Is it possible to change a running image in the field from development to production and vice versa?  
> How can this be done?

If you have containerized your application using tools like Docker, you can build and tag different versions of your image. You can deploy the desired image version to the corresponding environment, replacing the previous version. This can be done updating the container configuration or orchestrator settings to point to the new image.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrisys](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/chrisys/32/1731_2.png) [@chrisys](https://forums.balena.io/u/chrisys)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2023, 9:55am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/8 "2023-05-11T09:55:58Z")

</div>

@Timple @JaidenSantino @alvar you can modify the `/mnt/boot/config.json` file on the device to remove the ‘developmentMode: true’ value. As always, be careful modifying this file though, as any corruption or inability to read it could render the device inaccessible. In the future we plan to allow the transition from development to production from the dashboard.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anathan84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dc4da7/32.png) [@anathan84](https://forums.balena.io/u/anathan84)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/change-from-production-to-development-and-vice-versa/63907/9 "2025-10-15T20:16:12Z")

</div>

Sorry old thread, but did you guys ever add this to the dashboard?