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[SdanceDJ]

Our nonprofit dance group has an old version of Media Center which we absolutely love, version 15.0.95. It is running on a older PC, maybe 7 years old, with Windows 7. We will need to replace the computer soon which will have the latest version of Windows, probably Windows 10. We want to be able to transfer our 3000 songs and their Media Center inputted details to the new computer with a new version of Media Center, MC 24. Can this be done by installing MC 24 on our current computer, somehow transfer our songs and song details from version 15 to MC 24, then install MC 24 with our songs and song details on the new computer? Thank you.

[Spike1000]

Two quick tips:

Library backup and restore is your friend here.
I'd install MC v15 on the new PC and restore your library into it. I'd then upgrade to the latest version. This leaves the original PC untouched in case things go wrong.
Note: You probably need to go through some intermediate versions as changes made over years have resulted in internal changes that make backups/restores incompatible across some versions. Old versions are still downloadable.

Also if your media is stored under the same drive letter/path on the new PC then things will just work. If it moves then there's additional work to update the database to point to the new location.

Some videos in my footer may help here.

Spike

[SdanceDJ]

Spike,

Thanks much for the tips, very helpful. I thought it might be the case that intermediate versions would need to be used to step up from MC 15 to MC 24. Instead of just trying until it works, is there anyway to determine or does someone know which versions between 15 and 24 either 1) can be skipped or 2) must be used? It would be helpful to not have to go through all of them if I didn't have to. Thanks again.

[Awesome Donkey]

The easiest way I'd say is to make a library backup in MC15, then install MC24 and start it and restore the backup made from MC15 and see if it works.

There's an article on the wiki about this: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Backup

I'd give that a try first and see what happens. But as for your 3000 music files, you'll have to back those up on something like a external USB hard drive or thumb drive or even SD card, depending on the size of the music files, because MC can't back those up. Once on the new PC, just recreate the directory in the same place the music was on the old PC, and restoring the library backup *should* allow it to work right then and there without needing to use the Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool. Like say the music files are located in C:\Multimedia\Music on the old PC, just recreate those directories on the new PC and move your backed up music files from the USB hard drive or thumb drive into that directory.

[Spike1000]

I have a memory of something changing in MC 20 (or 22) but it's been a while since I read that. Each step only takes a couple of minutes really and you would only need to restore if the upgrade process didn't keep your settings (which it sometimes doesn't).

I'd do 15 - 19 - 20 - 22 - 24 and see where that takes you. There may be shorter routes as suggested, but suck it and see as it's a separate copy and you can always scrap it and start again.

If you have the media in the same place on the new machine it's easy to see if everything's working at each step.

Spike

[ErikN]

I upgraded from MC21 to MC24 and it went smoothly.  Others might recall going from an earlier version to MC21 to help fill in your minimal upgrade route.

[SdanceDJ]

Thank you all, AwesomeDonkey, Spike (again), and ErikN for your assistance. I now have options and some work to do. Happy holidays to all.