diff --git a/backend/config/management/commands/ta_startup.py b/backend/config/management/commands/ta_startup.py
index 57b1691e..a39c5c7f 100644
--- a/backend/config/management/commands/ta_startup.py
+++ b/backend/config/management/commands/ta_startup.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ from common.src.env_settings import EnvironmentSettings
 from common.src.es_connect import ElasticWrap, IndexPaginate
 from common.src.helper import clear_dl_cache, get_channels
 from common.src.ta_redis import RedisArchivist
+from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
 from django.utils import dateformat
 from django_celery_beat.models import CrontabSchedule, PeriodicTasks
@@ -53,6 +54,10 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
         self._update_schedule_tz()
         self._init_app_config()
         self._set_ta_startup_time()
+
+        if self.skip_migrations:
+            return
+
         self._mig_add_default_playlist_sort()
         self._mig_set_channel_tabs()
         self._mig_set_video_channel_tabs()
@@ -62,6 +67,34 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
         self._mig_fix_channel_description()
         self._mig_fix_video_description()
 
+    @property
+    def skip_migrations(self) -> bool:
+        """
+        check if migrations should be skipped.
+        Experimental, might get replaced in the future.
+        """
+        current_version = settings.TA_VERSION.rstrip("-unstable").upper()
+        env_var = f"TA_MIG_SKIP_{current_version}"
+        skipping = bool(os.environ.get(env_var))
+
+        self.stdout.write("[MIGRATION] check, experimental")
+        if skipping:
+            self.stdout.write(
+                self.style.SUCCESS(
+                    f"    {env_var} is set, skipping migration check"
+                )
+            )
+        else:
+            self.stdout.write(
+                self.style.SUCCESS(
+                    "    Running migrations. "
+                    + "If migrations have run for this release, "
+                    + f"you can set {env_var} to skip the check"
+                )
+            )
+
+        return skipping
+
     def _make_folders(self):
         """make expected cache folders"""
         self.stdout.write("[1] create expected cache folders")
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 5bde3ac0..9a5f10dd 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ deepdiff==8.6.1
 django-auth-ldap==5.3.0
 django-celery-beat==2.8.1
 django-cors-headers==4.9.0
-Django==5.2.10
+Django==5.2.11
 djangorestframework==3.16.1
 drf-spectacular==0.28.0  # rc:ignore
 Pillow==12.1.0
@@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ redis==7.1.0
 requests==2.32.5
 ryd-client==0.0.6
 uvicorn==0.40.0
-yt-dlp[default]==2026.1.29
+yt-dlp[default]==2026.2.4
diff --git a/docker_assets/nginx.conf b/docker_assets/nginx.conf
index ee2841ab..75014784 100644
--- a/docker_assets/nginx.conf
+++ b/docker_assets/nginx.conf
@@ -57,14 +57,13 @@ server {
     location = /index.html {
         add_header Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate";
         add_header Pragma "no-cache";
-        add_header Expires 0;
         expires 0;
     }
 
     location / {
         add_header Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate";
         add_header Pragma "no-cache";
-        add_header Expires 0;
+        expires 0;
         try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html =404;
     }
 }
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index b944b1d3..6f3351d8 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 -r backend/requirements.txt
-ipython==9.9.0
+ipython==9.10.0
 pre-commit==4.5.1
 pylint-django==2.7.0
 pylint==4.0.4