Upgrade to RH2020 Failed and Now the RH2017 Content is Not Available in RH2017

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 15, 2021
25 replies
334 views

I've been using RGH2017 for a long time. I installed RH2020 recently. I can open my .XPJ in RH2017 but all the topics are missing. I made a full copy of the entire project in a separate folder before I used RH2020 to protect it when I upgraded. The topics are missing in that folder as well. When I attempt to view topics from the TOC, all the links are broken.

I tried to upgrade my RH2017 project to RH2020. The conversion process took only 3 seconds. The new output does not have any topics, just a few images. Nothing has been converted. I ran the output as responsive HTML5 to see what was generated and all I got were folders. There was no content.

I can't even work on my project in RH2017 anymore. And I honestly dread having to rebuild four years of content all over again.

What did I do wrong?

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bfreed01Author

Known Participant

RoboHelp 2017 will no longer create a valid .CPD file. Because I do not have a valid .CPD file, I cannot upgrade the project to RoboHelp 2020. In the past, RoboHelp has easily re-created a new .CPD file. So, some other element is in play.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

So the files are there in the RH2017 project folders, but if you launch RH2017 and then load the project's .xpj file, the topics aren't showing? Have you tried deleting the project's .cpd file? RH will rebuild it upon starting up the project.

bfreed01Author

Known Participant

The files are intact in their project folders. However, they do not load when I open RH2017. Nor do they get upgraded when I try to upgrade the project through RH2020.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I was about to respond but then I saw Jeff's reply and confirm the upgrade process is done with a copy that RoboHelp creates so that is not why your Classic projects are not working. The loss of the files must have occurred before the upgrade and that is why it took so little time.

Have you looked at the projects in File Explorer to see if the files are there and it is just that they are not showing in RoboHelp?

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Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

The upgrade process leaves the original Classic project intact, so it sounds like something messed up the source even before the conversion process started. How did you back the original up? Is there any source control at play here? You must have other backups kicking around, don't you?

On another note - make sure your RH2020 is running the latest patch (#3) before trying to convert - the process has improved since the first release.

bfreed01Author

Known Participant

I just found out about the patch this afternoon. I backed up the originals before I started the attempt to upgrade. No source control.

I installed RH2020 then immediately started having trouble using RH2017 on the RH2017 project files.

I had not opened and run RH2020 at that time; I was waiting until I had ample time to deal with the upgrade.

I made the backup before I launched RH2020 to start the upgrade.

Now, I can't do anything.

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