@LinkMeBaby, not sure what confuses you.

• Updates will always affect the backup image, but never the actively running image.
• After a firmware update you either change the backup image to become the next startup image and reboot the switch or you check the checkbox Reboot the switch... below to have the switch automatically do this for you:

• When updating the existing firmware version with the same firmware version which was installed already, it will show no change in firmwares since nothing has changed.
• When installing a new firmware version and activating the new one/rebooting the switch, the boot config will show the newly activated firmware version as the running image which is the current image to be started on boot:

• When preparing to start the backup image on next reboot, the boot config shows the backup image as the next startup image and the backup image has become the new backup image still currently running until reboot:

Why would you want to change the name of the two flash partitions? How would you call them? flashA and flashB? storage-I and storage-II?

LinkMeBaby wrote

I am on 2 different builds 4.0.0 Build 20190530 Rel.52928(s) 4.0.0 Build 20180828 Rel.38293(s) so i am seeing this doesn't break down the builds??? that makes it difficult to manage.

From where did you download the 20180828 version? I see the following versions for V4 hardware on the US support site:

First version 12/2018: https://static.tp-link.com/2018/201812/20181211/T2600G-28TS(UN)_v4_181010.zip

contains T2600G-28TSv4_en_4.0.0_[20181010-rel45384]_up.bin

Published 07/2019: https://static.tp-link.com/2019/201907/20190711/T2600G-28TS(UN)_v4_20190530.zip

contains T2600G-28TSv4_en_4.0.0_[20190530-rel52928]_up.bin

Published 12/2019: https://static.tp-link.com/2019/201912/20191231/T2600G-28TS(UN)_v4_20191112.zip

contains T2600G-28TSv4_en_4.0.1_[20191112-rel40459]_up.bin

The version number 4.0.0 for two different releases is indeed pretty weird. You're right that this makes management difficult if the boot config doesn't display the date. Maybe TP-Link can add the release date in the boot config information.

Beside this, I recommend to always update to the latest firmware version.

is the recommendation to have both the primary and the backup at the same level?

I don't think so. Anyway, it's just a mechanism. You can choose to use this mechanism as you like.

As for the backup/startup image you can basically choose from two common schemes:

• Save original (very first firmware version) in backup image2 for as long as it makes sense to you and always install latest firmware as startup image1. Can be achieved by assigning image1 as the backup image just before an upgrade and then activate it as startup image again right after the upgrade.
• Or save always previous firmware image in backup imageX by upgrading the backup image to the latest firmware, then changing startup image to just upgraded backup imageY right after the upgrade.

In my opinion it makes not much sense to have always both images at the same firmware version, but if you choose to do so, why not?

OTOH, having a backup image with previous firmware is useful to have the chance to downgrade in case the new firmware version changes something which breaks an existing setup or has an unexpected bug.

@LinkMeBaby,

see international website: https://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/t2600g-28ts/#Firmware 

Seems that the U.S. site is not (yet) up-to-date.