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MC20 to MC21 - What user data gets automatically migrated?

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imeric:
@ferday my customsised Black didn't transfer I had to do it manually and same for the visualisaiton..Maybe it has something to do with what kstuart is suggesting.  I had the server on when I upgraded (I think but not sure...)

On my side aside from the MCE Remote guide issue (that fixed itself and as per another post), skins and visualisation everything else looks ok so far...I reconfigured the Televsion part but I recall that everything had transferred Ok.

However a little procedure on how to upgrade would be nice...To make sure we don't lose anything or know what to change. (ie quickly Explaining what gets transfered, what should be reconfigured due to changes in the software etc..., How the 2 versions can or can not run side by side etc..)

Nothing big but a couple of paragraphs.. I didn't see anything in the upgrade sections posted by Jimh.  If it's somewhere I'd like to know where.

thx

OverTheAir:
I agree that some guidance would have been helpful and thanks for the various comments following my original post.  A humble suggestion for the JR team that perhaps there is an opportunity for some "continuous improvement" in this area as part of an actual migration?  It seems a number of the previous observations are something that might be detected during a migration with an opportunity presented for the upgrader to take action.  For example suggesting the server be shut down, offering to disable auto start in the preceding version, offering to migrate over cover art? 

Most if not all of the commenters in this thread (excluding myself here) seem to be well versed in PC's and also with MC, but can still be caught out.  So a little hand holding would probably go even further for more casual, less technically savvy, time strapped users.

Just my 2c.

glynor:
Keep in mind that for the first 3-4 months of development, at least, MC21 is early status and should really be viewed as a "work in progress".  Things may, and probably will, break.

The smart money is on continuing to use MC20 as your "daily driver" unless you're okay with things breaking every once in a while.

That's why upgrading to the new version doesn't set itself as the default, and doesn't uninstall the old version. You can decide for yourself when you're ready to move over to it full time. Some of us crazy people on the beta board like to live on the "bleeding edge" all the time, and move to it right away, but we're also prepared to deal with it when things break here and there.

If you're not, then go ahead and install it and check it out, but then close it and go back to using MC20 for a while.

OverTheAir:
Normally deferring an upgrade on a "daily driver" is probably wise.  However, in the case of MC20 to MC21 some will need to migrate sooner than might otherwise be the case/prudent because of the recent "missing in action" EPG issue with MC20.  It was confirmed the EPG fix wasn't going to be rolled back into MC20.

Also, to clarify I would certainly agree that a user should be presented with options rather than mandatory default actions when upgrading, precisely to provide the type of flexibility you described. Having recently upgraded from MC19 to MC20 just prior to the release of MC21, I can confirm that a user may benefit from a more interactive migration at any point in time, even at the end of a development cycle, not just early in the development cycle.

glynor:
I don't necessarily disagree. I was just commenting that, in some ways, the fact that it leaves your existing system alone and you have to "switch to" the new version somewhat manually is a benefit. I do agree that it would be "easier" for many users for it to be more seamless and automatic.

On the other hand, there are benefits to how they carefully migrate the Library (by cloning it) and not all of the settings.  All settings can't always be migrated without substantial work on their end, first of all. Even attempting it hamstrings them a bit in major changes to the current "infrastructure" of the program (they'd think, I'd like to fix this, but then I have to spend two weeks perfecting the settings migration, so maybe next year).

There are also a lot of users each year who come along with some borked setting, then install the new version and then say "Hey, upgrading to MC21 fixed my issue." If you gave them the option, those same users would probably migrate their settings, and then still be sad with the new version. So, the once-a-year "reset to something known" (the defaults) can do a lot of good, particularly for users who like to fiddle (even when in over their heads).

Also, if the upgrade necessitates a backwards-incompatible Library change, migrating settings automatically could be very dangerous. That's because, one of the settings is (of course) the other Libraries you have loaded in the Library Manager. If they migrate that, and then the user switches to an alternate Library, and it is "upgraded" to the new version, there could be some serious hurt fee-fees when the user discovers the auxiliary (or perhaps main) Library can no longer be opened by the older version. They could work around that by a warning, of course, but then that's one more warning that people blindly click through (warning dialog overload is a serious issue, look no further than Vista's failure for an example).

And it is more code to write and maintain, and blah blah blah. So... There's stuff on both sides.

In my experience with MC for many, many, many major versions, you can basically always migrate almost all settings yourself by making a Library Backup in the old version, opening the new version, and restoring the Library Backup. That remains true here, with the possible exception of the ZoneSwitching rules (for which I believe there was some fairly major surgery behind the scenes).

I haven't thoroughly tested with MC21 yet, but in the past the rule was:
* The currently loaded Library in the old version is cloned and made the new default on the new version.
* Settings, other than those tied directly to the Library (Auto-Import settings and whatnot), are NOT migrated automatically. To get those, you have to restore a Library Backup and choose to restore the Settings.

That seems like a reasonable "middle of the road" solution. You can do it, but it only does the "safe" stuff (and necessary, as you'll need your Library) by default, and lets you perform the "less safe" migration yourself. That way, hopefully, you might notice if restoring the settings broke it, when it worked before.

It seems like this time, they might have actually done more than that automatically. But I'm not sure because I've been busy and I only have MC21 installed now in a VM, and not on any of my "real" systems.

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