I’m a longtime user of RM migrating from Win 7 to Win 10. To date all but my latest platforms have been 32-bit hardware systems.that have shared a common file on MS OneDrive. One system travels, another stays in my office, and a 3rd serves as a backup to the other two. Sharing has worked great.
After reading the “If in doubt…” disclaimer, chose to install RM9 64-bit on my latest system. The update went flawlessly. I was surprised though that when opening it for the first time, it needed to “update” my database. That went well also and I thought I was done.
The problem came when I tried to access the updated DB with my other 32-bit systems. They both said the DB had been updated & I needed to update the RM8 app - which, of course is not possible. They don’t “do” 64-bit.)
Q: Is there an update coming to the “new 64-bit” DB that will allow 32-bit access? I’d like to continue to share one DB among my 3 systems. What’s the best solution here? Are my 32-bit systems suddenly obsolete?
What are the technical benefits of a 64-bit RM9 over a 32-bit RM9?
It is the format of the DB that has changed (columns and rows added) not the bit-edness (RM9 32-bit installations can also read the new format equally as well as RM9 64-bit). RM8 cannot read a RM9 database (period). It “sounds” like you may have not realized that opening a RM8 database (into RM9) would effectively update (change) that particular database file (right there in your RM8 Database files folder) to add those new columns and rows. Had you copied your RM8 database(s) to RM9 designated folder(s), you would have left your RM8 database files “unaffected”. You’re essentially going to need to restore your most recent RM8 database from a backup and use it for your non-RM9 program installations and/or use your RM9 installation file to install RM9 on those other two machines in order to read that “converted” database (now in RM9 format).
As Ken mentions it has nothing to do with being 32-bit or 64-bit. You can open the RM9 database in either the 32-bit or 64-bit version. The issue you are experiencing is having converted the RM8 database to the new RM9 file format. There is a warning when you open the RM8 database inside of RM9 that you should make a backup. Then you have to agree to convert it to the new file format. Once that happens it will no longer open in RM8.
You can install the 32-bit RM9 on your older, smaller machines. The 32-bit RM9 can read the same database as the 64-bit RM9. What can’t read the RM9 database is RM8.
Thanks guys - very helpful! I hadn’t thought the installation procedure could do both 32 and 64 bit. I knew I had a choice and had made a backup, but I didn’t think that one procedure would offer both.