Embodiments of the invention disclose a system upgrading method and apparatus. The method comprises: in a recovery mode, upgrading a first system file with an obtained first patch file in a system upgrade package; ending the recovery mode after completing the operation of upgrading the first system file, and starting a system according to the upgraded first system file; and upgrading a second system file with a second patch file in the system upgrade package. According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiments of the invention, an existing system upgrade mechanism can be optimized, the upgrade time in the recovery mode can be shortened, and the user experience can be improved.