How to update a Control4 Driver in Composer

How to update a Control4 Driver in Composer

The following documentation outlines how to manually update a driver using Control4 Composer Pro software.

Close any open window of Composer Pro before proceeding. Composer only loads new driver files in the Control4 Driver folder into memory on startup. 

Step 1: Download the latest driver from Blackwire

Driver's are constantly being improved and updated to resolve issues and add new features. Make sure you have the latest version downloaded before proceeding to the next step. 

The driver download interface at on the Blackwire has the following information:
  1. The driver name
  2. The developer, control system, version number, and date of the version release
  3. A button to download a Zip file containing the driver
  4. Special features that are built into the driver licensing such as, Showroom Demo or trial license support
Release notes for each driver version can also be found in the information area on the driver's product page.


Click the Download Now button to download the compressed Zip file containing the control4 driver.

Save this zip file to a known location on your computer, typically your user's Download folder.

Unzip the file to extract the Control4 C4Z driver file or files. 

Control4 drivers will have the file extension of C4Z (example-driver.c4z). If you cannot see your file extensions you may want to turn them on to verify the file you are  working with is the correct file. Blackwire has many drivers which contain two or more drivers in a single compressed Zip file.

Step 2: Move the downloaded drivers to your Control4 Drivers folder

Move all of the extracted C4Z driver files into the Control4 drivers folder. This folder is located in: My Documents\Control4\Drivers

Warning: Driver files must retain the original file name from the zip file. Some operating systems will append new characters if a duplicate filename is found in the same folder. Please keep in mind that these renamed drivers will not work in Control4. Delete the old version of the file and remove the extra characters added by the operating system.



Step 3: Launch Composer Pro and connect to your controller

Composer Pro software will only load drivers contained in the Control4 Drivers folder when started. The software will not import drivers from any other location in the system.

Step 4: Update the driver on the controller with the new driver

There are two ways to update a driver in Composer. Either option can be used. 

Option 1: Use the right-click update menu option to update a single driver

While in the System Design tab, right click the driver you wish to update, and then select the new driver file that you have moved to the Control4 Drivers Folder. The driver file MUST have the same filename as the driver installed on director. 



Composer will display a message indicating that the driver update was successful. 


Option 2: Use the Control4 Driver Update Manager to update the Driver file

Press Ctrl+M or select the Manage Drivers and Agents from the Driver menu in Composer.


The driver update manager can be used to quickly find and update drivers that may be out of date on the controller. In the example below, the Local Version of the MTX UI driver (stored in the Control4 Drivers folder) is 266 and the version running on the controller is 261. To update:
  1. Click on the driver you wish to update.
  2. Click the Update... button at the bottom of the screen
  3. On the next dialog confirm the update