diff --git a/scripts/upgrade.sh b/scripts/upgrade.sh
index 2c8908d0..0f2009d7 100755
--- a/scripts/upgrade.sh
+++ b/scripts/upgrade.sh
@@ -1405,11 +1405,16 @@ PYEOF
 fi
 
 # --- Atomic VERSION promotion (Fix B) ---
-# The staged VERSION from Phase 3 lands only now, after full verification.
-# On any prior failure, on_failure removes VERSION.pending and the live
-# VERSION file remains at the pre-upgrade value — so upgrade-check.sh
-# correctly reports "upgrade available" on the next check.
-if [[ "$VERIFY_FAILED" != "true" ]] && [[ -f "$UPGRADE_DIR/VERSION.pending" ]]; then
+# The staged VERSION from Phase 3 lands now that we've reached the end of
+# Phase 7 without on_failure firing. Promote regardless of VERIFY_FAILED —
+# that flag is a soft health-check warning (e.g. "admin slow to respond"),
+# not an upgrade failure. The tarball is extracted, containers are up, and
+# write_result below will record success=true. Gating promotion on
+# VERIFY_FAILED previously caused a "stuck at old VERSION" bug where a
+# transient admin healthcheck warning pinned the install back.
+# Hard failures (SIGTERM, exit !=0) still prevent promotion via on_failure,
+# which rm -f's VERSION.pending before it can be promoted.
+if [[ -f "$UPGRADE_DIR/VERSION.pending" ]]; then
   mv "$UPGRADE_DIR/VERSION.pending" "$PROJECT_DIR/VERSION"
   success "VERSION promoted to $(head -1 "$PROJECT_DIR/VERSION" 2>/dev/null || echo "?")"
 fi