For those who don’t know the LTS-Branch: A Long Term Support version of Blender is a release branch maintained for production use over a fixed period, receiving only bug fixes and critical corrections. LTS versions explicitly exclude new features or workflow changes, allowing studios to lock software versions for long-running projects without unexpected behaviour changes or pipeline breakage.
Two LTS branches, one goal
The Blender Foundation has released Blender 4.5.6 LTS and Blender 4.2.17 LTS as maintenance updates. Both versions are part of Blender’s Long Term Support programme and are limited strictly to bug fixes. No new tools, interface changes, or behavioural updates are included.
According to the Foundation, LTS releases are designed to remain stable for studios and long running projects. Only critical bug fixes and regressions are addressed. Feature development continues exclusively in regular, non LTS releases.
Blender 4.5 LTS policy clarified
The official Blender 4.5 LTS documentation confirms that the 4.5 branch is supported until July 2027. During this period, users can expect corrective updates onyl. The Foundation explicitly states that LTS releases will not receive new features, performance experiments, or workflow changes.
Blender 4.5 LTS is positioned as the recommended baseline for production environments starting from mid 2025 onward. It replaces Blender 3.6 LTS as the primary long term support version once studios complete qualification and testing. This guidance comes directly from Blender’s own release policy and documentation.
The 4.5.6 update itself addresses approximately 60 reported issues compared to the previous LTS patch. These fixes span multiple subsystems including Grease Pencil stability, sculpt mode crashes, USD import behaviour, Video Sequencer errors, and various UI edge cases. Exact issue lists are maintained in Blender’s public bug tracker.
Blender 4.2 LTS remains in maintenance
Blender 4.2.17 LTS continues to receive maintenance updates and remains supported until July 2026. This branch is intended for productions that locked to 4.2 and are not yet ready to migrate to 4.5.
The 4.2.17 update includes a smaller number of fixes, around eight issues since the previous patch. These relate mainly to animation baking, linked object transforms, graph editor redraw issues, and naming consistency in NLA strips. No behavioural changes outside bug correction are documented.
What Blender means by long term support
Blender’s LTS model differs from rolling release strategies often used in open source software. The Foundation commits to maintaining LTS branches for two years, focusing exclusively on reliability. Security updates, crash fixes, and serious regressions are addressed, while experimental development is kept out.
This approach allows studios to standardise on a known version without fear of silent changes affecting shots mid production. It also allows add on developers and pipeline TDs to target a stable API surface for longer periods.
Production implications
For studios already on an LTS version, updating to the latest patch within the same branch is generally low risk, as no new functionality is introduced. However, Blender explicitly recommends testing updates in controlled environments before deploying them into active shows, particularly where custom add ons, USD interchange, or automated render workflows are involved.
As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in actual production environments, even when they are labelled as maintenance updates and LTS fixes, to avoid unexpected behaviour and pipline regressions.
The Blender Foundation has made it clear that stability, not novelty, is the defining goal of LTS, and these releases follow that policy closely, with no attempt to quietly slip features or workflow changes into the branch at this late stgae of the cycle.
// Blender 4.5 LTS official documentation
// https://www.blender.org/download/lts/4-5/
