Can we install the 1.5.X beta on the same PC without affecting the current 1.4.X installation? Will it try to overwrite the previous version, or should I just just choose a different installation path? Is there anything else I need to know, e.g. will dokany/webDAV etc be overwritten even if I use different path for the beta installation? Any risk of overwriting windows registry settings or anything else that is needed for the main 1.4.X installation?
My main concern is that I need the old installation to be 100% unaffected until I decide to replace it much later. Can I run both versions simultaneously without affecting each other, and if yes, does this remain true even when 1.5.X goes out of beta (i.e. with probably a new non-beta installation of 1.5.x etc)?
hi. I’m not sure about the installation part of Cryptomator (I guess a Dev will clarify that or another user). But WebDAV/Dokany is not affected as you use just the same drivers.
But besides the Cryptomator question, if you are planning to use the same vault with 1.4x and 1.5x, this is not possible as 1.5x will change the vault format and make it incompatible with 1.4x.
And most important: do not use alpha software with critical data.
Thanks for the reply, good to know. I plan to test it only with entirely new disposable vaults, but I would still need the current 1.4.X installation to be completely unaffected. Could any dev confirm if this can be done please?
Since you asked about Dokany, I’m assuming your question is only about Windows:
Yes, you can install different Cryptomator versions to different paths, however they will share the same settings and vaults. Since you can easily uninstall and reinstall different versions, the two things you really need to worry about are:
your vaults (as Michael already mentioned, the vault format upgrade is a one-way street. with no exception.)
your settings located at %APPDATA%/Cryptomator (Cryptomator 1.4.x should ignore any new settings that 1.5.x adds. But sharing the settings between two versions is not a process I would consider stable.)
We strongly recommend making backups of your production vaults, if you want to migrate them to the new format of Cryptomator 1.5.0. But don’t worry, migration needs to be explicitly confirmed by the user and will not happend automatically. Just having a vault listed in the program doesn’t touch it.
Thank you for the detailed reply. This probably means that if I want to make sure to preserve the original settings I would have to keep a copy of %APPDATA%/Cryptomator folder for each version and switch them before using each corresponding version. Would it make any sense to have the beta version install its settings in e.g. %APPDATA%/Cryptomator-beta to avoid any interaction between the two versions? Or would that significantly reduce the effectiveness of beta testing?
Might be a good idea the next time we publish an alpha version. But for the beta we do want the real settings. After all we have to test if there are problems with the switch from 1.4.x to 1.5.x.
