Library Compatibility Across Versions ?

[Leeward]

Hello all !

I'm in the process of doing housekeeping on my computers and I have a question I have been avoiding...

My wife has a laptop running OSX 10.6.8 and using calibre 1.4.8
My laptop runs OSX 10.9.x and also has calibre 1.4.8

The newest versions of Calibre won't run on OSX 10.6.x

Both of our laptops are configured to use a single library located on a shared network drive. (which is on a computer running OSX 10.6.8 and has calibre 1.4.8 running in server mode for use with our ebook readers.)

Question:
If I use the library with the current 2.20 version, will that screw things up for her using that same library with 1.4.8. ?

This is of course assuming we don't both access it at the same time.

I can't seem to find any info about library compatibility across major version changes.


P.S. Upgrading either OSX 10.6.8 machine is not an option

[eschwartz]

Generally, the database is compatible, there haven't been any radical changes. Just to be on the safe side, though, you can use the old version of calibre on the new computer -- unless there is some new feature you really want?

Old releases are archived here: http://download.calibre-ebook.com/

[Leeward]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Generally, the database is compatible, there haven't been any radical changes. Just to be on the safe side, though, you can use the old version of calibre on the new computer -- unless there is some new feature you really want?

Sorry for the late reply.

Yeah I CAN use the older version but what fun would that be ? LOL

Truthfully I haven't run into anything that I would prefer to have as a feature in the old version.

I just kept updating until the day it complained I needed to update to one of the newer, IMO worse, versions of OSX if I wanted to continue updating Calibre. Since then I've never really thought about it because I was using Snow Leopard on every system. FWIW: I'm starting to dislike Mavericks and may switch back. Other than the occasional fix for bugs, none of which I have run into so far, I haven't paid much attention to what the newer versions of calibre contained.
It wasn't until I upgraded OSX on a single machine, that I wondered if the database was compatible across versions.

I figured it would be good to start a thread. You never know if someone else will have the same question.

If someone does use a newer version to access an older database, I wonder if the system will notice a database difference and let you know when it doesn't match and needs updating ? Might be a good feature.

I've had some software simply upgrade data files and you don't realize it did it until you try access the data and find it's no longer backwards compatible.

[eschwartz]

Silent upgrades I am afraid. Or so I believe -- I don't think the schema has changed in quite some time. (Another reason not to worry.)

OTOH everything is backed up in plaintext xml (the OPF files) and json (per-library prefs) so database issues can be resolved with a simple Library Maintenance ==> Restore database.