On 2019-05-06, at 14:51, John Weinshel <[email protected]> wrote: > .fmp12 (Filemaker Pro 11-17) can't open files that old. My memory is that > .fp5 (.fp3-5) could. If you still have older file formats, try stepping up > through them, starting with the first one that will open the file(s). > > If you can get to .fp5, you can convert those with .fp7 (Filemaker 7-11), > and from there to .fmp12.
John - thanks for your prompt. I do have FMPA 9, 14 & 17 installed on my present Mac. I had thought that I needed to get back to FMP 6 or even earlier in order to be able to open a V1 type file. These ones do not have even have filename extensions on them, so I am not really sure what version of FMP I used to create them. They just show a black “exec” icon in the Mac filesystem. So, when FMPA 17 said they were V1 files, I didn’t bother trying any of my earlier versions of FMPA. Turns out that not bothering with that route was a silly omission. FMPA 9 opened both my problem files gracefully, saving them with the .fp7 filename extension. (So maybe they were not REALLY as old as V1 after all, if I didn’t need to go through the .fp3 or .fp5 stage.) I could then open the .fp7 files in FMPA 17 which saved them with a .fmp12 extension. Sorry to have bothered the list with a question caused chiefly by my own false assumptions - and laziness! > Filemaker is more forgiving with PC's than Macs about allowing old > versions to run on newer machines. My memory is that Filemaker Pro v3 was the first cross-platform version. Just before it was announced, I was using a FMP solution I’d developed on older versions for a volunteer organisation, and needed to hand the system over to an incoming person who was Windows-only. I was stuck for how to do it until FMP v3 came out and solved my problem. I feel fairly sure that the file format changed at the point it became cross-platform, too. So I was expecting files identifed as V1 to be Mac-only. I agree that programs/applications on Mac can be quite sniffy about what hardware/OS they will run on, but in my experience the files do not suffer those sort of problems. I had lots of fun in a previous life successfully transferring files from HP minicomputers and mess-dos desktop computers to my first Mac Plus. in friendship Rowland | Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ... | <[email protected]> http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk | Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
