Skip to main content
trickyweb
trickyweb
Participating Frequently
November 21, 2016
Answered

Site Defenitions lost on upgrade to Dreamweaver CC 2017

  • November 21, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 2057 views

On "upgrading" to Dreamweaver 2017 - all the existing sites are visible within the Files tab up to H. I can re-create the sites beginning I - Z from scratch -which is time consuming - has anyone had the same problem and found a way to recover the site definitions (all on localhost - running under a XAMP stack)? I have been told by Adobe support this is part of the "default workflow"

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Jon Fritz

Thanks Jon - just got to get back to 2015 now! I guess that's uninstall DW 2017 and hunt around the Adobe website for the DW 2015 set-up executable? Oh joy!


Installing older versions is simple and is done right from the CC Desktop App...

1. Open the CC Desktop App
2. Click the Apps tab
3. Scroll down to the FIND ADDITIONAL APPS header (not the PREVIOUS VERSIONS header, that's just the installed previous versions)
4. Click the blue link on the right of the FIND ADDITIONAL APPS bar
5. Choose the Previous Versions link from the bottom of the menu that appears
6. The FIND ADDITIONAL APPS header will now be populated with programs click DW's install icon
7. Choose the version you want to install (CS6, CC, CC2014 or CC 2015)

3 replies

trickyweb
trickywebAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 22, 2016

All very interesting but not sure it's relevant to the original thread - you may be better off in future moani84043 starting your own thread?

As a word of caution - think VERY carefully about moving from DW2015 to DW2017 - particularly if you are developing in Wordpress and/or PHP the new live preview is not for you. On a personal note it may be an idea for the Dreamweaver update to tell you it may lose all your site definitions and to back-up and ALWAYS keep the old version. This has been the most difficult update since I first started using DW back in the days of Ultradev Studio - well done Adobe.

Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Jon FritzCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 22, 2016

I honestly would recommend against moving to CC2017 in the short term, especially if you work in javascript or json files a lot: Dreamweaver Help | Known issues | Dreamweaver CC 2017 at least until the first patch comes out.

trickyweb
trickywebAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 22, 2016

Thanks Jon - just got to get back to 2015 now! I guess that's uninstall DW 2017 and hunt around the Adobe website for the DW 2015 set-up executable? Oh joy!

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 21, 2016

My Preferences were Synced to the Creative Cloud so my site definitions migrated over to 2017, no problem.   Edit > Preferences > Sync Settings.

Nancy O.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
trickyweb
trickywebAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 21, 2016

Thanks Nancy - Gave it a try - Gives me a message saying No Internet Connection (which is incorrect). As I don't think I had Enable Automatic Sync checked not sure this will make a difference even if it worked

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 21, 2016

Well, if you didn't Sync settings, there's nothing to sync with.  Sorry about that.

Sync Settings is a great time saver when migrating to new product versions.  So I do recommend using it once in a while.

Nancy O.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Jon FritzCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 21, 2016

If you still have your old version of DW installed, you can...

1. Open the old DW
2. Got to Site > Manage Sites > Export to export all of your sites as .ste files
3. Close the old version and open the new

4. Go to Site > Manage Sites > Import to bring in the .ste files in

I'm guessing the tech support person you talked to has probably never opened DW.

trickyweb
trickywebAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 21, 2016

Thanks Jon - I installed DW 2017 through the Creative Cloud Apps and it wiped 2015. So I guess I know the answer - recreate all the sites individually as Site > New SIte. Seriously unhappy with DW 2017 the 'live preview' through an iFrame broke the way I work through previewing on localhost and now I've lost 3/4 of my site definitions.

Think you're right on the support side - when I asked why the "default workflow" only applied to sites beginning from I - Z they hung up.

Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Jon FritzCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 21, 2016

Yeah, I still don't understand why Adobe defaulted the installer to remove older versions, seems extremely silly when you can have them all installed at the same time without issue.

For future reference, when installing from the CC Desktop App, make sure to click the Advanced Options link on the bottom of the installation dialogue so you can un-check the box for "Remove Older Versions".

Live Preview didn't work well for me either before I moved back to CC2015. It would just randomly stop working when I clicked on it and only come back after restarting the program. There is a hidden "old style" Preview in Browser still in the program (who knows for how much longer) that can be accessed by either right-clicking the document window's named tab or the file name from the list in the Files window. You then choose Open in Browser from the list that appears and select a browser to preview without the "Live" functionality.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices