diff --git a/backend/src/services/release.ts b/backend/src/services/release.ts
index 94518f064..ed24957e3 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/release.ts
+++ b/backend/src/services/release.ts
@@ -197,7 +197,10 @@ export async function updateRelease(user: UserInterface, modelId: string, semver
     })
   }
 
-  const updatedRelease = await Release.findOneAndUpdate({ modelId, semver }, { $set: release })
+  const updatedRelease = await Release.findOneAndUpdate(
+    { modelId, semver: semverStringToObject(semver) },
+    { $set: release },
+  )
 
   if (!updatedRelease) {
     throw NotFound(`The requested release was not found.`, { modelId, semver })
diff --git a/backend/test/services/release.spec.ts b/backend/test/services/release.spec.ts
index bc2dd2b72..6d6d241e6 100644
--- a/backend/test/services/release.spec.ts
+++ b/backend/test/services/release.spec.ts
@@ -361,7 +361,6 @@ describe('services > release', () => {
     expect(releaseModelMocks.sort.mock.calls.at(0)).toMatchSnapshot()
     expect(releaseModelMocks.lookup.mock.calls.at(0)).toMatchSnapshot()
     expect(releaseModelMocks.append.mock.calls.at(0)).toMatchSnapshot()
-    // expect(releaseModelMocks.lookup.mock.calls.at(0)).toMatchSnapshot()
   })
 
   //test good - give good semver range with lower and upper bounds, returns valid query