Migrating from KiCad 5 to 7

Hello first topic in this forum. :grinning:
Because I was having some trouble migrating from 4 to 5,
Like question marks in schematics and change of footprints and library paths etc,
I was reluctant to 5 after that upgrade.

After understanding the new features in 6 and 7 I would like to upgrade this time,
But afraid there will be troubles like last time and of opening old projects.

I hope you guys may give me some suggestions of how to migrate from 5 to 7.
Do I need to upgrade to 6 first?

Make sure you use 7.0.5 to import. Earlier v7 releases had an importer bug.

Is it worth going through 6 to get to 7 with the major change to schema. in 6?

One should not need to.

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@felix_fan

Make sure you use the ā€œRecommendedā€ procedure with installing when the installation gets to the library section. Install the newer Kicad libraries.

Have a backup to be able to do migration once more in case ofā€¦
Migrating to V6 I just spend some time opening all my V5 projects and saving them as V6. If remember well I have also opened all my symbol libraries and saved them as V6. Migrating to V7 I opened/saved all my projects once more.
V4 and V5 had the configuration files in the same directory. Since V6 each version has its own configuration so you can run several versions at the same PC.
I remember month or two ago someone trying to migrate V5-V7 and having problems. When I advice him to go through V6 he said it helped.
When you run V7 it asks if you want to use previous configuration or use default and it is able to find and copy V6 configuration (I donā€™t know how with V5 configuration), but it donā€™t copy private library lists (I use only my libraries) and when it comes to question about those lists it opens (I am at Windows) a file explorer window that not allows you to find those library lists as they are system or hidden files. So I had to copy them before it to folder accessible for that file explorer.
I migrated to 7.0.2. As:

may be something is different for 7.0.5.

Keeping a backup of the old project never hurts of courseā€¦

Also always backup the [Project]-cache.lib ( and [Project]-cache.lib file if present) together with your project. Quite often these files are not backed up with projects, and Iā€™ve often seen for example git repositories without the [Project]-cache.lib file.
Result is that your project is then dependent on the original libraries being installed on your PC. (And as this is often the case the -cache file seems redundant, and that is probably why itā€™s often not backed up).

For more info on these files, read the link below.

Also: From KiCad V6 and onward this file does not exist anymore, but instead the information is put in the schematic file itself.

**How to migrate KiCad 5 projects to KiCad 7.

Make backups before you start . . . read as many threads as you can about updating.

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Have you downloaded and installed 7 yet?

And if you get stuck and need more specific help please mention what Operating System you are using . . . and try and be as specific as you can.

Not yet!
Was working on some projects so I put it behind for now.

But the project is about to finish so it maybe the right time to investigate the upgrade. :pray:

Thank you for the advices.
I am using windows 10.

I hope I can upgrade directly to 7 without going through 6.
Some say no problem so I will try this soon.

When you do get around to migrating, there will be a question box about library installation.
Make sure you tick the ā€œrecommendedā€ installation.
This will install the Kicad 7 libraries with the program.

Thanks waiting for upgradeā€¦

From time to time the posts happen that I am thinking, thinking, thinking,ā€¦ and canā€™t get the point.

Samantha can introduce herself if she wants to, but looks like a potential spammer this farā€¦

Meh, itā€™s her first post, give her some breathing room.
Maybe she is just figuring out how things work here or was it an accidental ā€œcommitā€ of the message.

Hi im Samantha
'm trying to figure it all out, but Iā€™m afraid Iā€™m a blonde

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