Symbols in Global and/or project specific libs

[Starter99]

Hi experts,
I wish to migrate from KiCad version 5.1.6 to version 5.1.7,

My question: if I simply download and install version 5.1.7 over 5.1.6, what would happen to my self created symbols in Global and project specific symbols?
Would these be lost irrevocably or would these be integrated automatically in the new KiCad version symbol lib?
What is the best way to save self created symbols in case of KiCad version migration?

Thanks for your advice in advance.
Best regards

[paulvdh]

What operating system are you on?

I’m on Linux and I expect V5.1.7 to trickle down with regular system updates in a few weeks without any user intervention from my part.

I would install minor versions updates without giving it any extra thought and fully expect it to “just work”.

That said.
I hope you have not placed your custom symbols in the same directories as KiCad’s default libraries. If you did that then I won’t give any guarantee what happens with them.

Links to project specific libraries are in the file sym-lib-table of each project, and therefore would not change. Your custom libraries should be in some self defined directory, and would therefore also be completely be ignored by KiCad updates.

[Starter99]

Hi paulvdh
I am using Windows 10 Home 64-bit version.

Since I was having problems with KiCad 5.1.6 and had received a tip here in forum that version 5.1.7 could solve the problem I rushed to install the latter. I deinstalled the Version 5.1.6 without caring much about my self-created symbols in the KiCad global lib.
I only realised my folly only after the clean installation of version 5.1.7 was complete and actually I was expecting to loose all my symbols. However to my great surprise I found that KiCad lib still had my self-created symbols.

Probably, during deinstallation of the older version, the KiCad symbol lib is not deleted and the new version intallation - if it detects an already existing symbol lib - does not overwrite it. This is of course a wild assumption and may not be true, you would know it better.
But anyway for today, all’s well that ends well

Thanks for your help anyway, I’ll keep your suggestion about custom libraries in mind.
Best regards

[Rene_Poschl]

@Starter99

Probably, during deinstallation of the older version, the KiCad symbol lib is not deleted and the new version intallation - if it detects an already existing symbol lib - does not overwrite it. This is of course a wild assumption and may not be true, you would know it better.
But anyway for today, all’s well that ends well

This is incorrect. You will get new libs (at least by default, maybe there is an option to disable library updates during the installation process). However, the library team makes sure that there are no design breaking changes in the official libs over minor version changes. Be aware that if you made personal changes to the system libs then these will be lost at an update (which is why the libs are by default in write protected locations)