Migrating from KiCad 5 to 7

[paulvdh]

Keeping a backup of the old project never hurts of course…

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 I’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 it’s often not backed up).

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

What are the cache and rescue libs and how does the schematic rescue dialog work? (KiCad version 5.x and earlier)

The purpose of the cache library KiCad version 5 and earlier do not include symbol information in the schematic file format. Without any counter measure changes to the libs would change the schematic without user control (worst case a symbol is deleted from the lib and the project looses its information). This is where the cache lib comes in. Anytime a user adds a symbol to the project it is copied to the cache lib for save keeping (unless the same symbol is already in the cache). If now the li…

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