Are archived kdenlive projects safe to be reopened in later kdenlive versions? I remember an incompatible change in the title format. How can I make sure that my archived projects are still valid after a kdenlive update. Ok, I could always try to have the latest version of kdenlive installed and after each update open and re-archive every archived project which is not very comfortable with an increasing number of projects. How do you handle this?
I can’t speak first hand for if the archiving changes anything (though it shouldn’t) - but in theory you should always be able to open a project file in a later version of kdenlive (though the reverse isn’t always true).
There is code to migrate older project files to the way newer versions do things when there are changes or new features that aren’t backward compatible - and we try hard not to make such changes unless there is some really good reason forcing us to.
But that said, it’s hard to guarantee you will get exactly the same result as you did with an older version. Sometimes the differences will be good. Sometimes they will just be a little different. And very occasionally something you were using will disappear, sometimes outside of our control (deprecated 3rd party effects disappearing or changing in some incompatible way).
Best advice I can give is to always keep backup copies of old projects before opening them in a newer version. And if you’re using self-contained releases like the appimages, keep important versions of those around too in case you do ever need to revert to them for some quick and minor change in an old project.
And do report any issues you encounter with updating to a newer version. In an ideal world, that should always be painless, so if there is some bug that we can fix, we do want to know about it and try to fix it.
Do not change Kdenlive versions while editing a project. Some editors stay with old versions knowing they are stable for their needs.
Archive/keep the Kdenlive standalone version you have edited with, together with the archived project . On Linux: Kdenlive AppImage, Windows: Kdenlive Standalone.
Edit: If you have to edit an old project you have beside the archived project the corresponding Kdenlive version.
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Thanks Eugen! That’s good concise advice. And mostly what I actually do in practice, except I don’t use the built-in ‘archiving’ support because all my video resources are already structured for backup and archiving.
I do occasionally update old ‘finished’ projects to use a newer kdenlive, either to just do a new cut, or to make use of some new feature that’s available - but I agree that really should be considered in much the same way as creating an entirely new project. Everything will need to be checked, and some things may need updating to reconcile differences between the two versions in some acceptable way.