diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index b6eef669..50365994 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
 *
 !target
-!VERSION
diff --git a/.github/workflows/generic_build.yml b/.github/workflows/generic_build.yml
index 0561587f..b81c94de 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/generic_build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/generic_build.yml
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           submodules: recursive
 
-      # Can potentially be replaced by: `${{ hashFiles('target/**', 'Dockerfile', 'VERSION') }}`
+      # Can potentially be replaced by: `${{ hashFiles('target/**', 'Dockerfile') }}`
       # Must not be affected by file metadata changes and have a consistent sort order:
       # https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/expressions#hashfiles
       # Keying by the relevant build context is more re-usable than a commit SHA.
@@ -40,10 +40,7 @@ jobs:
         id: derive-image-cache-key
         shell: bash
         run: |
-          ADDITIONAL_FILES=(
-            'Dockerfile'
-            'VERSION'
-          )
+          ADDITIONAL_FILES=( 'Dockerfile' )
 
           # Recursively collect file paths from `target/` and pipe a list of
           # checksums to be sorted (by hash value) and finally generate a checksum
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b0409511..8ca4bdcb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. The format
   - DMS v14 mistakenly relocated the _getmail state directory_ to the _DMS Config Volume_ as a `getmail/` subdirectory.
     - This has been corrected to `/var/lib/getmail` (_if you have mounted a DMS State Volume to `/var/mail-state`, `/var/lib/getmail` will be symlinked to `/var/mail-state/lib-getmail`_).
     - To preserve this state when upgrading to DMS v15, **you must manually migrate `getmail/` from the _DMS Config Volume_ to `lib-getmail/` in the _DMS State Volume_.**
+- **removed `VERSION`** file that was used for checking version updates ([#3677](https://github.com/docker-mailserver/docker-mailserver/issues/3677),[#4321](https://github.com/docker-mailserver/docker-mailserver/pull/4321))
 
 ### Security
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b964e96..00000000
--- a/VERSION
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-14.0.0