I have been working on a project for a few months. I had first created the schematic and slowly built the board. After I had created the schematic on my laptop it, the laptop, started to fail. I quickly copied the project onto a stick before the final blue screen of death and then transferred the project onto a desktop and its been working great. I just ran into a situation where a parts vendor has changed a connector specification. I went to replace the connector and I am now getting a canāt find library message. Apparently, when I moved the project I brought with me the components in the schematic but no others. I believe the main library was left in the old laptop which crashed and burned. (I have no custom footprints). I have searched my current PC and no library directory is to be found. My project is nearly complete and I am asking myself, do I want to risk rocking the boat by upgrading? How much time will I have to spend learning the the new version? Right now I am on 7.1 (not 7.11) And, would I be best to reinstall 7.1 or even upgrading to 7.11 or the latest? I know that I want to upgrade but I donāt have much time to spend this month learning a new version. Any information or opinions are appreciated. Thanking you ahead of time. Chris.
If you are in a hurry, update to 7.0.11, which will feel the same but have drastically fewer bugs
Thank you. I have heard that itās less buggy. I just didnāt know if it would affect my project. Iāll search for it and check back here.
Neither of those versions are valid KiCad versions.
Itās almost certain it will just work smoothly. Increments in the third digit are only bug fix updates. There is no change in file formats or new functions. If functionality changed, then the second number (which is now a 0) would have changed. That is why itās important to use correct version numbers to avoid confusion.
It would have helped a bit if you posted the exact error message, this avoids ambiguity. But the most likely cause is that your symbol or footprint has a reference reference to some external library, and that library does not exist on that other PC, or the library does exist, but it is not mentioned in the library table. (KiCad ignores all libraries that are not explicitly listed in the library tables).
But itās not a problem. KiCad saves all used symbols and footprints in the schematic and PCB file. The message is mostly informal, and it may be important for some people, for example when working with database driven libraries.
You can export symbols (and/or footprints) from the File / Export menu, and KiCad can also update the links in your project to reference to the newly exported library. Another option is to simple ignore or disable this ERC / DRC message.
Okay 7.0.11, 7.01. 
Installed 7.0.11 and now I have no other categories populated beyond the āTypeā field. Please see the attachments. Only category with any items is audio connectors. Hmmmmmā¦
I havenāt seen the canāt find library message again but I will screenshot it if it pops up again.
I rebooted and the error message came back! I think Iām going in circles. (:
I think the symbol youāre trying to assign a footprint to has a footprint filter field that is restricting the candidate footprints.
The first two errors are directories, not libraries, so something is wrong
Possibly all three are bogus entries in fp-lib-table that werenāt flagged in earlier versions.
The 3rd looks like it is a valid name, but was on a different dive, maybe external
Assuming that each last number change means about 50 bugs fixed we get from 7.0.1 to 7.0.11 something about 9*50 = 950 bugs fixed.
It is possible (of course not sure) that you just found one of those long time ago fixed bugs.
Because in few first new version releases bugs of type ācomputer hangsā happens and Iām not a fun of adrenalin in work I moved to V7 when it was 7.0.3 or 7.0.4 and upgraded few days after each new stable version was released. I stayed with 7.0.11 till 8.0.3 was released and now I am at 8.0.7 (as it is already few days old).
Someone more conservative than me may migrate from V6 to the latest stable version of V7 when V8 is released.
Thank you to everyone with their helpful thoughts. After upgrading to 7.0.11 there are no library files to be found anywhere on the PC. I was thinking that installing the newer version would add the library but no. I think the only thing to do is to save/copy my project, uninstall KiCad and reinstall 7.0.11. It makes me very nervous to uninstall but I think itās the only thing left to do. I tried some suggested fixes but nothing has worked because the library is not be found. Iāll try to reinstall the upgrade one more time so it will be a while before I uninstall. Iād appreciate any suggestions or cautions about my thoughts?
I chickened out. I found the new required footprint and changed it on the board per a suggestion here to go this route and ignore the issue in DRC. I will upgrade to V8 before I start my next project. Thanks again to all that chimed in. It really helps to hear everyones thoughts.
In all of this you neglected to tell us what OS you are on.
It would have been an easy matter to check in the filesystem to see if the library files are missing or you were basing that conclusion from not finding suitable footprints for your symbol after filtering.
If they really are missing, in Windows one way it could happen is that you chose to install the lite version of the KiCad package, which omits the libraries for people who just want the patched programs and not the libraries again.
But we wonāt know now.
I donāt remember installing ever new version without uninstalling previous one. From time to time after uninstall I also ensure myself if really everything in directories KiCad installs in were deleted. I just like to have everything that I can have under control to knew that is as I expect it to be.
Libraries are always installed when KiCad is installed (Windows, installers of 1G+ size).
You can always run KiCad making it thinking that it is run for the first time at this PC, ever by just deleting the directories where KiCad have its configuration. I have read about it in getting started manual for KiCad V4 donāt knowing that everything I read is practically about V3 because I have read it before installing KiCad.
Uninstalling and re-installing KiCad rarely helps in any problems. It may help in case it didnāt install something at the first time, but even then it doesnāt fix problems in configuration.
Itās safe to start from scratch within the same major version, for example to go from 7.0.0 to 7.0.11. Or even vice versa, to downgrade from 7.0.11 to 7.0.0, if for some reason you want to.
However, you may still have a problem in your configuration. Rename your configuration folder and start KiCad again. See Where are the configuration files (settings, library tables)?.
I have noticed having to check the library select boxes in the full installer in the last two 8.0.x upgrades. This seems to be because i have been using the āliteā builds in Testing.
Probably. I have always used full version (even when few times installing Testing version). I always look through check-boxes, but never needed to modify anything there.
Libraries are installed, but library configuration files are not installed.
The problem @Gearbreaker is seeing is due to a broken library table as @retiredfeline suggested.
I recommend showing a screenshot of the dialogs: Preferences > Configure Paths and Preferences > Manage Footprint Libraries