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[pat1066]

My Media Center 10 worked fine with Windows 7 but after a clean install of Windows 8 and reinstalling MC10 (as I have done many times - using a copy of my old JRiver "data" file and library) I can't make any changes.

I successfully import new photos and put them in new playlists where they seem to work fine until I restart, then they, and the playlists, are gone from MC. I can still view all my old photos and play music, via old playlists, fine in MC.

Also, when I open "Options", it crashes MC on closing (Error message that "Media Core" has a problem) so I can't make any changes there. When I restart after the crash, I just see my original "Options" settings which I used under Windows 7.

If I buy MC18 will I be able to retain my old data?

Specifically: will my playlists and playlist-groups still exist and will they be linked correctly to my photo and music files as they are at present?

How "seamless" will an upgrade be? I have been putting off upgrading for the past 10 years as I fear the worst!

[Matt]

There's a free trial of MC18.  You could make a library backup in MC10, install MC18, and restore the library.

You've made it a little harder on yourself by waiting a decade, but I think it will work.

[pat1066]

Thanks, Matt. I'll give it a try. Presumably I can have MC10 and MC18-trial installed at the same time?

[pat1066]

I installed MC18 and restored the library from a backup I made in MC10. This restored my playlists but when I import my files they are not linked to the playlists (I.e. the playlists appear empty) although I can see the files in the library folders (Audio, Images) and can search for them by filename.

I have tried a lot of messing about but I don't know how files are linked to playlists in MC10. There does not seem to be a "playlist" field in the MC10 tags.

Does anyone (Matt?) know how i can use info from my MC10 installation to reproduce the link between my files in MC18 and my imported playlists? (Under Windows8)

Thanks, Pat.
( I must get a few hours sleep now!)

[MrC]

You shouldn't have to re-import.  Did you move where the media files were located?

When you restore the library, all the file links should stay intact, so if MC no longer finds the files (and you had to import), this is suspect...

[pat1066]

When I say "restore the library" I mean that I created a backup (File/Library/Backup Library) in MC 10 (producing a file like "MC Library Backup (Default -10-07-2013).zip" I then installed MC18 and in MC18 did: File/Library/Restore Library using the MC10 backup I just made.

I looked at the .zip file produced and can't see any obvious file/playlist links in it.

Maybe the actual library is an entity that I should be moving?

[pat1066]

So, no - i did not change anything - I have MC10 and MC18 installed on the same machine

[MrC]

The Library contains database entries that point to your files.  Once you do a Restore from Backup, so long as the files have not been moved, the restore should work.  But Matt did warn there may be issues.   I wonder if you could do incremental updates, say, from MC10 to something like 14, and move from there.

Inside of MC18, do the media files play?

[pat1066]

Yes, Media files play fine in MC13. Everything seems fine except for empty playlists and search not finding anything that is not in the filename.
I'm a bit baffled as to how MC10 stored the "file-playlist link" Library info. I see 5 files in the backup zip:
browser.jmd
curplaylist.jmd
mediafiles.jmd
playlistx.jmd
removable.jmd
But none seem to contain the file-playlist link. (just a list of the playgroups/playlists) When I have (always successfully) reinstalled MC10 in the past and present I copied and pasted the previous "Data" folder and contents as well as restoring the Library from a .zip Library backup file.
Perhaps the file-playlist link is stored on the files themselves in a form not readable by MC18?

The incremental update idea sounds interesting but rather hard work - I wonder which version to start with - presuming they are still available?

[pat1066]

The incremental update worked fine! (MC14 as suggested)
And it was fast and easy.
Thanks for your help.

I did get MC10 working OK on Win8 (Compatibility and as Administrator) but I will splash out on MC18 to get the improvements (and, as I now feel a certain moral obligation...) 

Pat.

[MrC]

That's great news.  And thanks for reporting the success so that any other 10-year stragglers might have some success too! :-)