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[Lunatique]

I used to try to copy files manually between versions, but today when I installed MC16 beta, I decided to try something different, which was to simply rename the entire MC14's folder in the Users/AppData/Roaming/J River directory to MC16 instead. I was afraid that this would totally screw things up for MC16 since it might be incompatible with MC14's previous folder structure, but MC16 booted up just fine and everything looks to be ok.

So, am I all good or was that a really bad idea?

[jack wallstreet]

Hmmm!   I tried to do that with just the library folder and it didn't work for me (I don't think).  I ended up creating (as you are supposed to do), an empty library in the mc16 folder and then doing a restore from a backed up library.  Did you actually get your library to work?

What you did seems a bit worrisome to me or at least could leave a bunch of old mc15 stuff lying around in the folder for future confusion.  Let's see what others say.

[rick.ca]

I'd call it a "bad idea." A "really bad idea" is one that doesn't work at all.

[Lunatique]

Jack - Hmm, it's working fine on my end. What do you mean you did it with just the library folder?

What I did was to go into the Users/AppData/Roaming/J River folder, which contains these folders:

Cache
Generic
Media Center 14
Media Center 16

And then I rename the Media Center 16 folder to something else (I just added a - at the end), and then renamed Media Center 14 to 16 instead. That's all.

[jack wallstreet]

I did some more testing and found that you can just point to an mc15 library and it appears to come up.  However, I don't think it is recommended and I wouldn't do it considering how easy it is to do it correctly

When I said I did it with a library folder, I mean taking the mc15 library folder (in the Media Center 15 folder) and copying it to the Media Center 16 folder.  That seems functionally equivalent of what you did.  If I were you, I would use mc15 to create an MC15 backup of all your libraries.  I would then rename you media center 16 folder to something else and let MC16 create a new empty folder on start-up.  Then I would restore the main library.  Then I would create (add) empty libraries and restore to them (while active) and other libraries you have.

I don't think you should do what you did, because I had the feeling some significant structural changes might have been done by jriver and at some point you may get unexpected results that noone can then help you with (if you don't use a clean media center 16 folder).

[Lunatique]

If I import the old library the "proper' way, would my custom smart-lists get imported as well?

[jack wallstreet]

I believe so.  My very limited ones did.  I think you have the option of restore settings nowadays when the restore dialog box comes up, in addition.  I don't recall seeing people have problems with this on the forum.  It would seem that the lines would be burning with complaints if there was a problem with that.  It's very easy to try it out and is a no risk test.

[JimH]

I did some more testing and found that you can just point to an mc15 library and it appears to come up.  However, I don't think it is recommended and I would do it considering how easy it is to do it correctly

I think that will also convert the MC15 library to the MC16 format, so it won't be useable from MC15 any more.

[Lunatique]

Ok, so just to be clear.

I should just import the library from MC14 (I skipped version 15), and then choose to import all my MC14 settings, including the smartlists and views and so on, and then that's it?

But are there any problems with me simply renaming the MC14 folder to MC16 instead? That's what I have done and so far I have not experienced any problems. Can someone from J River please state whether this method has any drawbacks?

[JimH]

Ok, so just to be clear.

I should just import the library from MC14 (I skipped version 15), and then choose to import all my MC14 settings, including the smartlists and views and so on, and then that's it?

But are there any problems with me simply renaming the MC14 folder to MC16 instead? That's what I have done and so far I have not experienced any problems. Can someone from J River please state whether this method has any drawbacks?

I would not try the rename, but that's me. 

MC14 doesn't export settings, so you can't import them in MC16.  MC15 does.

[Lunatique]

I would not try the rename, but that's me. 

MC14 doesn't export settings, so you can't import them in MC16.  MC15 does.

Okay, so what exactly am I supposed to do? I skipped 15 so I only have 14, yet 14 can't export these settings. At the same time, the renaming did the trick just fine, and MC16 booted up with all my MC14 settings fully intact, and no crashes. Can you please tell me what problems I am supposed to be experiencing after I did the renaming? What exactly do you suggest I do?

[Alex B]

The library database files contain the actual file data, all view configuration and playlists. A normal library restore from a library backup file would have restored these as well.

The MC16 application data location may contain some new folders and files that don't exist in the MC14 application data location. Other than that I don't see anything incompatible in the MC14 application data files. The actual settings (i.e. practically anything you can set in "Tools > Options", "DSP Studio", and "Playback Options") are stored in the Windows registry, not in the application data location.

Since you already renamed the folder, MC may have created the possibly missing files automatically, but you might want to reinstall MC16 on top of the current installation just to make sure that all needed files are present.

In general, if someone wants to preserve the already build thumbnail cache, that can be achieved by copying only two "application data" folders:
... \J River\Media Center 14\Library
... \J River\Media Center 14\Thumbnails

To
... \J River\Media Center 16\Library
... \J River\Media Center 16\Thumbnails

-- assuming only the default library in the default location is in use. Close both MC instances and remove the existing MC16 Library and Thumbnail files before proceeding.

EDIT

The MC14 application data location may contain also the "Cover Art" folder. This is the default storage location for the actual cover art files. The possible library links to this location will not be changed and the image files will not be moved automatically. It is possible to use the "Cover Art > Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options..." tool for relocating and relinking the image files.

[Sauzee]

In general, if someone wants to preserve the already build thumbnail cache that can be achieved by copying only two "application data" folders:
... \J River\Media Center 14\Library
... \J River\Media Center 14\Thumbnails

To
... \J River\Media Center 16\Library
... \J River\Media Center 16\Thumbnails

-- assuming only the default library in the default location is in use. Close both MC instances and remove the existing MC16 Library and Thumbnail files before proceeding.

I've just done that to transfer thumbnail cache from v15 to 16. Seems to have worked fine. Manually rebuilding the thumbnail cache would have taken absolutely ages. Is there a catch, a downside to doing this? If it's as simple as that maybe it should be built in to MC 16 install process, as rebuilding thumbnails for large libraries is very time consuming.