Runner version is deprecated and cannot receive messages

Before you start

• Shell access to a runner machine, or kubectl access to the runner pods if you use Actions Runner Controller.
• The runner's log or container output from its start-up.
• For the API checks: the gh CLI or a token with admin access to the repository or organization.

Work out which cause you have

A few questions to narrow the list. Every answer ends in a command that confirms or rules the cause out — this cannot see your cluster, so nothing here is a certainty until you have checked.

Check it with a tool

• What a container's exit code means→
• CI/CD security: insecure system configuration→

Or diagnose it manually

In this order. The first command usually contains the whole answer.

1. Step 1

   ./bin/Runner.Listener --version

   Run in the runner's install directory: the version the runner reports to GitHub.

   Look for Compare with the latest release on github.com/actions/runner/releases

2. Step 2

   gh api orgs/ORG/actions/runners --paginate --jq '.runners[] | [.name, .version, .status] | @tsv'

   Every self-hosted runner in the organization with its version, so you find all the old ones, not just the one you noticed.

   Look for Versions older than the latest release, and runners shown offline

3. Step 3

   gh api orgs/ORG/actions/runners/deprecations/2.330.0

   Since 3 Sep 2026 GitHub answers, per version, when registration and runtime support end. The repository-level path is repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runners/deprecations/VERSION.

   Look for registration_deprecates_at and runtime_deprecates_at

Every cause, and how to fix it

Ordered by how often each one turns out to be the answer.

cd ~/actions-runner   # the runner's install directory
./bin/Runner.Listener --version
grep -i disableupdate .runner

kubectl get pods -n RUNNER_NAMESPACE -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\t"}{.spec.containers[*].image}{"\n"}{end}'
grep -rnE 'actions-runner:|RUNNER_VERSION' .

image: ghcr.io/actions/actions-runner:2.338.0

./bin/Runner.Listener --version
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/actions/runner/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name"'

How to know it is actually fixed

• ✓The runner starts and prints Listening for Jobs instead of the deprecated message.
• ✓Queued jobs for its labels start, and the runner shows as Idle or Active in the repository or organization settings.
• ✓The deprecations endpoint shows runtime_deprecates_at in the future, or null, for the version you now run.

Stopping it happening again

• Leave automatic updates on unless you have a reason; if you turn them off, schedule the update inside 30 days of each release.
• Set ACTIONS_RUNNER_RETURN_VERSION_DEPRECATED_EXIT_CODE=1 on runners from v2.333.0, so an outdated runner exits with code 7 that your monitoring or autoscaler can alert on, instead of 0.
• Alert before the deadline: a scheduled job that reads each runner's version and the deprecations endpoint, and warns when runtime_deprecates_at is a week away.
• Read the warning annotations GitHub adds to jobs that ran on an outdated runner; they arrive before the hard stop.

Security considerations

• Do not work around this by keeping an old runner alive: GitHub also stops queueing jobs until a critical security update is applied, so the version you are holding back may be the one with the vulnerability.
• Take the runner from the actions/runner releases or the ghcr.io/actions/actions-runner image, not from a copy someone posted, and check the release's SHA-256 checksum, which each release lists.
• A token used for the deprecations API needs admin access to the repository or organization. Use a short-lived one, and do not paste it into a ticket or a log.