* A Tale of Two Laptops, FH v6 & v7, & Crossover!

[Nicola]

I seem to have created a very complicated situation so I hope someone can help me unpick it!

I was running FHv6 on a notebook but, fed up with the tiny screen, I installed Crossover on my iMac and ran FHv6 via that instead. No problems...

I upgraded to FHv7 on my iMac (in Crossover) but have since experienced too many issues to continue with it comfortably or confidently so have now purchased a Windows laptop in order to move FHv7 to it.

My query is this:

should I migrate v6 from the notebook to the laptop, upgrade to v7 as my second device, then transfer my projects from Crossover via Gedcom?

Or should I try to migrate v7 directly from Crossover to the new laptop?

Or does my notebook with v6 count as my second device so I must upgrade that to v7 then migrate the whole thing to the new laptop?

Or should I simply download v7 from the website to my new laptop and then Gedcom the projects from Crossover?

Sorry about this - I'm sure I must be missing the obvious!

Thanks.

[tatewise]

I presume eventually, you are going to uninstall FH V6 from the Netbook and delete all the FH Projects, etc.
Also, I assume the iMac holds all your latest customisation settings, Project folders, etc, and the Netbook is out of date.
Please explain any differences if those assumptions are incorrect.

An important consideration is, do you have significant customisations of Diagrams, Reports, Queries, Fact Sets, Plugins, Records Window Columns, etc, etc? They must be migrated along with the Projects that must include Media and not just the GEDCOM, which I guess you must have done when migrating from Netbook to iMac.

For a general guide see the FHUG Knowledge Base Family Historian Copy and Migration Guide.

That guide talks in terms of the source PC and the target PC.
Assuming there are no customisation settings worth worrying about on the Netbook, then migrate FH V7 directly from the iMac as source PC to the Windows target PC following the guide.

[Mark1834]

Nicola,

You are permitted to have 2 copies of FH7, so that will be your iMac and your new Windows laptop. When you activate FH7 on your new laptop, the Calico Pie servers should ignore FH6 on the old laptop.

It is important that you do not deactivate FH7 on the iMac, even after your new laptop is fully set up, unless you are certain you will never use it again. Deactivations cannot be reversed, so if FH7.1 is more emulator-tolerant than FH7, you will have lost the right to a free in-version upgrade in the future.

It’s worth also reading the Upgrading and Activation guides to get a fuller overview.

[ EDIT: A discussion of FH V7 licences continues in FH v7 Licences & Crossover (19183). ]

[Nicola]

Thank you both for your advice.

I'll have a go tomorrow.

UPDATE: I have just tried to double check the version on my Mac and the latest updates refuse to open so the only one usable is v7.0.2. Luckily, I have small back-ups of the data but it does add an extra complication?

[Nicola]

Managed to get the latest update opened but am unable to load the Backup and Restore plug in so cannot follow the instructions in the KB copy & migration file!

Suggestions please?

[tatewise]

Try the advice in Running Family Historian on Crossover under Plugins that offers workarounds.

[Nicola]

Thanks Mike.

I did eventually get the plug-in to work and I copied the backup files across to the laptop via Dropbox. Sadly, nothing happened when I tried to open it - I assume because FH is not installed on the laptop?

It doesn't really help that I have no idea what I'm doing!

What about if I download the free trial version of v7 onto the laptop and sign in with my current (paid for) registration info? I can then Gedcom my projects over. As far as I can recall, I have no customisations or plug-ins or anything other than BMD data and a few notes. Would this approach work?

[tatewise]

Yes, Plugins only work in FH.

Install FH V7.0.3 from https://www.family-historian.co.uk/lnk/ ... .0.3.0.exe and enter the activation code as you did on the iMac.
This is also the way to update the iMac in the same Crossover bottle as it is best if both machines use the same FH version prior to migration.

You should be following the Family Historian Copy and Migration Guide which I think explains why each step is necessary.
It explains how to copy your Project Data and Media. You must have done something similar to get from Netbook to iMac.

If you don't believe you have any customisations then don't worry about using the Plugin to Restore from the backup.
You have it available if you need it later.

[Nicola]

Mike, that is exactly how I did it before when I moved it to the Mac and, of course, it has worked perfectly this time too! I got myself tied up in knots with crossover and different versions so couldn't see the obvious.

Thank you for your help and your patience.