I upgraded to KiCad 9.0 and followed the user manual instructions to upgrade my custom footprint models from v8.0 to v9.0. That worked for a while, it seemed, but now KiCad 9.0 shows that I have a custom My.pretty (example filename) library defined but there are no models displayed in the Footprints Editor or elsewhere. As a result, ALL of my custom footprints are inaccessible in KiCad 9.0. The actual footprint model files are in the directory specified. I opened one of the model files with Notepad and verified that it states that the footprint generator program was indeed KiCad 9.0. Everything looks right to me, but KiCad 9.0 doesn’t “see” those footprint models. To me, this is a major problem. The only workaround that I can think of is to rebuild each custom footprint that I need to work with today.
The other is to go back to V8.
To go back to V8, I would lose all the work done since upgrading to V9 … right? Six or more hours of PCB layout work in V9. I’ll try loading my latest project and PCB layout in V8, but even if that seemed to work I would wonder what unseen gremlins may appear later. Also, I guess that would mean giving up on V9 … until when?
Nope. KiCad V8 PCB Editor won’t load my V9 PCB.
The first thing to check is to look at Preferences → Manage Footprint Libraries…
As long as the files you looked at in notepad are still ok, you should be able to add them back using the preferences dialog.
I assumed that a while in:
Was max few minutes 
Thanks for the note, Steve. I have checked that repeatedly. I’ve deleted and recreated that Preferences–>Manage Footprint Libraries many times. The result is that the manager utility seems happy. It shows my library in the list. It shows the correct path to the _.pretty directory. But when I open the Footprint Editor, it also shows my custom library name but with no contents (ie., no footprint models displayed by KiCad, thus inaccessible inside KiCad). Let me say again that the footprint models (*.kicad_mod files) are absolutely there when I look using Windows File Explorer.
I did the footprints upgrade work on Saturday afternoon. Things seemed OK afterwards. When I returned to use KiCad v9 again on Sunday, the footprint models failed to appear and have not been accessible in KiCad 9 since then. I will gladly try any suggestion that others may give.
I remember someone here after moving V7 → V8 had the problems like you and (if remember well) at the end he found that with file manager he was looking into different directory than KiCad (minor difference in the path name).
What is the feature in V9 that you must have?
I have never moved to new version until it was X.0.3 or at least X.0.2 just to skip most buggy versions.
I am not working with KiCad since few months and not plan in next 2…3 months.
Are you talking about 3D models?
Have you checked that your paths in “Configure Paths…” are correct?
Can you share some screenshots of your library configuration?
I wish it were so simple.
No. Not 3D models. I’m trying to fix a problem accessing custom (my own) footprint models. The Footprint Library definition is correct (checked and rechecked many times) but KiCad’s Footprint Editor sees only the directory but no footprint models within that directory.
Are you adding your custom library as Global or a Project-specific?
I recommend using Help → Report Bug to report a bug with your library attached.
Just call them footprints, calling them footprint models risks people confusing them with 3D models.
3 screenshots: File Explorer shows the kicad_mod files in the directory (at top of image) … the Preferences screenshot shows the path to my footprints library … then the Footprints Editor shows the library name but with no contents
Can you try moving it to a local drive instead of using Dropbox?
These network drives have issues with KiCad sometimes.
KiCad 9.0 has now corrupted my .pcb file. Opening __.kicad_pcb shows no footprints and totally garbled mess of random traces (all on the backside of the board where I had very, very few traces before). Even the auto-generated KiCad backup PCBs are showing the same garbled mess, so I suppose it must be the PCB Editor program that’s ruining everything. I can’t spend any more time trying to troubleshoot KiCad 9. I will rip it off of both of my computers tonight and go back to using KiCad 8. It’s clear (to me anyway) that KiCad 9 is catastrophically broken.
