The time has finally come to upgrade one of my machines to the newer versions as I need to start testing on the 2021 releases. 

Currently I have 2018.12.11 installed on my HP ZBook. 

What is the currently accepted knowledge for installing the 2021 release? Do I need to fully uninstall 2018 before installing 2021 or can i just hit "Update" from Avid Link and have it do the rest? 

The install guide says to completely remove the old version but I'd like this to be as clean as poosible so are there any old files that the Avid uninstaller leaves that need to be deleted manually etc? I seem to remember someone had written some sort of guide to this but I'm drawing a blank. Maybe Freddy but I couldn't find it.

As this is a very large version jump I want to try and minimise the possibility of any old leftover files screwing up the new ones.

Thanks for any tips or links,

Andi

ripvanmarlowe:

The time has finally come to upgrade one of my machines to the newer versions as I need to start testing on the 2021 releases. 

Currently I have 2018.12.11 installed on my HP ZBook. 

What is the currently accepted knowledge for installing the 2021 release? Do I need to fully uninstall 2018 before installing 2021 or can i just hit "Update" from Avid Link and have it do the rest? 

The install guide says to completely remove the old version but I'd like this to be as clean as poosible so are there any old files that the Avid uninstaller leaves that need to be deleted manually etc? I seem to remember someone had written some sort of guide to this but I'm drawing a blank. Maybe Freddy but I couldn't find it.

As this is a very large version jump I want to try and minimise the possibility of any old leftover files screwing up the new ones.

Thanks for any tips or links,

Andi

I wouldn't do anything via the avid link application. Absolutely not. 

I would manually un-install the old version in the control panel, then simply install the new one. 

Be sure to completely re-build your avid user settings, and I might even re-build my avid media database files. 

GL!

Don't do it Andi, you get so upset on the forum already!

Haha I know! You can expect a barrage of complaints and moaning over the next few months I'm sure. Sorry Avid! I do it because I care! Might hold off upgrading until 2021.9 so I can reap the rewards of all that sweet sweet column resizing!

Andi

David Yardley:

Don't do it Andi, you get so upset on the forum already!

 

Lol, on every avid what's a new youtube video I see Andy's comments: "So you've given us back the colour scheme we had in the 2018 versions? Remarkable. And you're slowly fixing what should have been working years ago in the title tool? Congrats." hahahaha.

On the plus side, not many new features have been introduced so the latest versions should in theory be fairly stable, as these releases mostly had bug fixes and no new features to break things. 

Docking panels and the UME media engine are big+'s for me. 

Rather than using Avid Link, I've always just downloaded updates from the Download Center. I also don't uninstall anything before running an update; I just run the installer and let it do its thing. This has worked well for me for as long as I can recall.

Hello !

I would suggest that you uninstall with Avid Uninstallers (mac) or with the application settings (windows). Before reinstalling, I would go to Users\Public\Documents\Avid Media Composer and delete everything there including your user settings.

To reinstall, run the installer from the root of your local drive.

Lastly, if you have numerous projects that will be upgraded to 2021, zip and move your attics : I have encountered slow bin response after upgrading and cleaning the attics helped a lot.

de-activate, uninstall, restart, install, restart, activate. Done.  Edit.

Thanks for the advice folks!

Andi

FWIW: I usually download and install updates (eg from 2018.1 to 2018.2) on top of the old version, while I first uninstall and manually delete whatever folders are left over by the uninstaller (except for third party plugins) when installing upgrades (EG going to 2018.x to 2021.x. You'll need to display hidden files in Windows explorer to spot all of the junk. If the box has seen several major releases I also run a registry cleaner, this has fixed background tasks issues in the past. Just my 2c