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Accessing "older" collections with C12 ?

Wolfgang Jaekel
I came across some older collections processed with C1-ver 4 - 6 some years ago. As far as I remember, the database management was changed in ver 6 or 7. So I wonder how I can access and open those collections or catalogues that had been created with the older versions in order to access the previews and settings I had done at that time. The old licences have been expired or disabled when upgrading to newer C1 versions, of course, so I cannot open the old programs anymore. I know that's it's no problem to upgrade and open the catalogues of the more recents versions with C1 ver12 but from what I've seen the old versions contain several folders different from the newer applications.

BTW, I still have some of the versions 3-11 installed on my older PCs. I guess that can delete those outdated programs without affecting the databases, previews and settings ? Sorry, if these are basic questions.

Thank you in advance
Wolfgang
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    I am not sure what you mean by "collections" in this context, and my memory of version 4 is that it didn't have catalogs. The file format for the catalogs and sessions changes with every version, not just at version 5 or 6, because the database has to be able to record details of new features that weren't catered for in the old database.

    The oldest versions of images I currently have (unless I have missed some somewhere) are on the version 6 processing engine. I can still edit them in Version 12 without updating the processing engine, or I can choose to update it if I want. I don't have sessions or catalogs on very old versions, but when I do open a session which was created with an older version of Capture One, the app tells me that it needs to update it to Version 12. It always keeps a backup of the old session file. (The same principle applies with catalogs.) You should be able to open an older session or catalog with Capture One 12, but be aware that once it has been updated to a version 12 catalog or session you can't open the new catalog or session file with an older version. (But it will have kept a backup of the old one.)

    I suggest you try it on one older session or catalog. To be prudent, make sure you have a backup created with whatever is your system backup solution of choice.

    Ian
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  • SFA
    I think Ian3 is right.

    There was a technical note somewhere a few versions back that indicated that the ability to support older versions (i.e. upgrade from simply by opening the old session in the then new version) was no longer possible. That would be Sessions back then and I think the cut off at that time was V3 or V4. Might have been V5.

    If you open an old session C1 will want to update the session database file but, providing it is still supported today, the old processing engine for the Variant will still be available although how it might work with some of the new versions of the tools might be a voyage of discovery depending upon which tools you used back then.

    There have been some significant changes to the processing engine over those years and at one or two points there have been very obvious advances that resulted in quite big differences in the appearance of images that were re-edited based on older version by simply updating the engine used.

    I rather suspect that you find greater satisfaction from selectively re-editing the older images afresh. You could try one or two of your favourites as new Variants of the original image and that would allow you to do very easy side by side comparisons.


    HTH.


    Grant
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  • Wolfgang Jaekel
    Thank you both for your comments. By "collections" I meant the raw files of a given location or photo project that had been imported from my folders or memory cards into the older C1 versions in question. I'm sorry if this has been misleading.
    Just to clarify, I know that I can update and open the session or catalogue file of a more recent C1 version, i.e ver 10 or 11 with C1-12 and decide to use the previous or present processing engine. This addresses the previews and adaptations of the images I had imported and/or processed at that time, of course. However, if I browse one of the older processing folders via the win explorer, for example of C1 ver 6, I just see the Capture One folder containing the "Cache" and "Settings" subfolders - with the "Cache" folder containing the *.cof and *.cop files in an additional "Proxies" subfolder and *.cos files and optional "capture one mask"-files in the Settingsxx folder. I didn't find any summarizing session or catalogue file to open and thus preview the settings and all files of the folder that had been altogether imported for a given project as possible with the more recent versions. I maybe can try to open separate files with C12 but as said, I wonder how to open the whole queue of the past workflow in C12 ?? I totally agree that the progress of the engine over the years and additional options surely lead to better appearances of the images by reprocessing them with the latest C1 version. But nevertheless it would be helpful to access and preview my past work as a starting point rather than to re-edit all hundreds or thousands of images from the scratch.

    BTW, C1 ver 6 still is listed in my license management, too, while ver 7-11 always had been upgraded to the next version and thus aren't shown there anymore, of course. So as assumed above, I probably can deinstall those versions 7-11, at least, without the risk of affecting the databases of my previous work ?

    As for C1-v6, there's no activation left in the license management, though. So as said, I cannot open this version anymore. Ian3 has mentioned that he still can edit his images of v6 in C1-12. I don't know if I missed or lost an additional file to open that database or just don't know how to proceed based on the cryptic files in the CaptureOne folders described above ? LR has been less confusing and more straight foreward in accessing older collections in the past, IMO. Anyway, as pointed out, I have no problems to access the sessions or catalogues of the more recent versions in C12. That said, regarding C1 ver 6 ,there's a button to reset all of the activations in my license management . Maybe I should risk to push that button and try to reactivate C1-6 if I there's no chance to open the database otherwise (?) Once opened I surely could save it and update it to C12 afterwards as Ian3 did.

    Finally, regarding the even older versions of CaptureOne, such as V4 and 5, I have not yet tried to access or open the preview queues or databases in that versions. As Grant said, I doubt that it still would work to address them in C12 if the licenses of those older programs are not valid anymore.They are not listed in the license management either. It certainly would make no sense to work with those very outdated programs anymore. Nevertheless, in the past it sometimes has been helpful to check the process history in older versions, at least, in order to see which folders of images had been edited with those applications.

    I hope that I could clarify the problem and I'd appreciate your further help and comments

    Thank you very much in advance again

    Wolfgang
    http://www.wjaekel-foto.de
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  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    However, if I browse one of the older processing folders via the win explorer, for example of C1 ver 6, I just see the Capture One folder containing the "Cache" and "Settings" subfolders - with the "Cache" folder containing the *.cof and *.cop files in an additional "Proxies" subfolder and *.cos files and optional "capture one mask"-files in the Settingsxx folder. I didn't find any summarizing session or catalogue file to open and thus preview the settings and all files of the folder that had been altogether imported for a given project as possible with the more recent versions.

    You could create a new session (or catalog) and import the images in the folders to it. In the import dialog box you'd need to be sure to check the box to include existing adjustments - that would mean that it would pick up the adjustments in the settings subfolders.

    Ian
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  • SFA
    Wolfgang,

    At some point things changes so that new licenses can be used with the older versions of the software and there is an option to download old version from the Phase web site.

    How far back that "use the new license for the older versions" goes I don't recall but I think it may stop for anything before V6. Possibly V5.

    It is likely to be possible to find the required information on the Phase web site.

    V12 allows me to open sessions that go back to V6. I don't think I have tried any from V5 days.

    If you have al f the settings files (and presumably the original image files they relate to as well), but cannot find the cosessiondb file that co-ordinates them (which may not be anywhere near the Settings folder of course) then simply add the parent folder of the Settings sub folder (the parent should contain the image files) to a new session and make it a Favourite folder and all should be well.

    I agree with your comment about not wanting the re-edit so many files of past work - but then would be really need to do that anyway?

    If you are working with sessions when a new version comes out the cosessiondb file needs to be updated to deal with new features but the editing engine version for the files can be left as it is. So you can make a decision about upgrading the edits based on C1 Engine version to be used on an image by image basis if you wish. There are good reasons to do so of course. In fact you can make the decision on a Variant by Variant basis and that allows you to create a version of your edits that uses the new latest processing engine and have them side by side to see how they compare with he older ones.

    For the much older versions I imagine it would be possible to find a version - say v6 or V7 - that you can still run on you machine and which would itself still read the oldest versions of sessions that you may still have not previously updated.

    If so you could, maybe, update V3 with V7 and that should allow you to update V7 to V12.

    Whether that is really worth doing only you can know!


    HTH.


    Grant
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