Windows
3.4.12
Cannot open past version after update to 3.4.12.
When reverting to September 2025 version, I get a pop-up, with a Safe Mode option.
"An error occured: Fatal error:
Unknown profile version. Most likely this is an old version..."
The safe Mode does not open.
What can be done?
I believe these are the notes from the previous version:
@jop welcome to the forum.
Joplin 3.4.12 is a September 2025 version. In fact at the time of writing this it is the current "full-release version".
3.4.12 has an internal profile for its data storage which is at v48. You can install any older version of Joplin that also shares that internal profile version. So the earliest version you can go back to is v3.4.4 (a pre-release from 04AUG25).
IF however you have installed a pre-release version of Joplin of v3.5.5 or later it will have upgraded the internal profile to v49 and that will only work with v3.5.5 or above (see chart).
Providing the whole error message would be helpful for suggesting options because it details the version numbers in question.
tks for quick response. These are the versions that I struggled with:
Problems cropped with the 20250817 version when I entered Safe Mode as instructed. On and off, I believe many new profiles were created!
The full error message and the directories follows (only one image for message)
:
Looking forward to a solution! Tks!
You are using Joplin Portable. That will create a data folder (JoplinProfile) in the same folder that the JoplinPortable exe file was run. I do not know where the .resource and some of the other folders have come from so I have no idea what else you have been doing.
Note that the files in the resources folder found in the JoplinProfile folder are not your notes, they are any files that have been attached to your notes. The notes are in the file database.sqlite.
Anyway, the error message indicates you are trying to use v2.13.11 that was released in December 2023 (not Sept 2025) using internal profile v44. Your data uses v48.
I can see no reason that you would need to use such an old version of Joplin so, as shown above, you can download any Joplin version that uses internal profile v48 and it will read your data. The latest version that reads v48 is Joplin 3.4.12 (link below), use that and leave the old versions alone.
The “resources” files just magically appeared. after clicking the “safe mode” after each update, 3 on Oct 5, and 3 today, one from the desktop version. I have no idea what the “.pak” folder is from.
There are now 3 database.sqlite files, all dated today, but of different sizes. But none from 2025; are those lost or have they been updated by the new installation today?
Is it possible to create a new profile, and then copy over the necessary files from previous versions?
Tks!
The d:\Joplin folder looks like this:
The “jop” folder was created when during an earlier update that didn’t install improperly, there was an imstruction to create a new folder
and in one of the “resources” file are collected the jpg/png attachment to the notes:
Sorry about unloading all this info!
The folder structures are so messy I am having trouble working out what you have actually done.
It looks like you have set d:\jop as a sync folder. Ignore it for the moment. That is data for syncing between clients. Do not edit it.
You must have double-clicked on a file called JoplinPortable.exe to get the error message you saw.
Replace that JoplinPortable.exe with a current version from GitHub (see link above).
Run it.
Did you have many notes or notes of any importance?
two decades of research, alas. i have everything backup-ed to a NAS, and it’s a replica of the mess.
let me reboot and then install
You said you previously chose safe mode but that time it did not open. Now it has. Try clicking on "Disable safe mode and restart" in the orange banner.
Wow, tks! Everything seems ok, only missing a few most recent captures. Sorry for delay in replying; joplin made me wait 21 hours before I can resume posting!
Now I need help with extensive house-keeping, removing all the extraneous folders and starting afresh!
House-cleaning steps taken:
1 export all notes (MD directory)
2 installed Joplin in a new directory: Joplin2026
3 import exported notes; looks good up to now
But: two problems:
1 web-clipper no longer working;
2 a virus alert:
3 c:\user directories are a mess. what would a clean install look like?
Tks
"web-clipper no longer working" - That is not enough information. Do you press the clipper button and nothing happens? Do you press the clipper button and get an error? Do you press the clipper button and it requests permission to run?
Apparently IDP.Generic is an "Identity Protection" classification only used by AVG / Avast. Articles online say that these reports are often false positives. You could run the file through VirusTotal to see what other AV engines say. Alternatively I believe that Avast has a system where you can report a file for checking as a false positive. I assume that you got the JoplinPortable file from Joplin's GitHub repository. These files are signed using a code-signing certificate, so if you got it elsewhere and if it had been tampered with Windows itself would not let it run. Regardless it seems a bit odd that even though the file is allegedly quarantined you have been able to open the app to import your notes...
A "clean" JoplinPortable setup looks like this:
Picture 1 - The user has created a folder called JoplinPortable on their D: drive. (1)
Picture 2 - Inside that folder they have placed JoplinPortable.exe (2) and run it. This automatically creates the JoplinProfile data folder (3)
Picture 3 - Inside the JoplinProfile folder are all the files required for Joplin to run. I believe that the JoplinBackup folder only appears after a backup has been run, so it may not initially be present. Note that if the user has created additional profiles within Joplin using File > Switch profile > Create new profile... the JoplinProfile folder will also contain the data folders for these additional profiles (4). If additional profiles have not been created there will be no folders starting profile-.
Picture 4 - The additional profile data folder contains data similar to the main JoplinProfile folder. I believe that the JoplinBackup folder only appears after that profile has been used to run a backup, so it may not initially be present.
Thanks for the follow up.
1 Web-clipper: forgot I needed to connect via options in Joplin; last did that a decade ago.
2 Spent a day scouring the registry. There were over 50 Joplin related directories and entries under c:\users, and over 100 entries in the registry, even though I only use the portable version! The best choice was to go cold turkey by deleting and removing all those entries, making a fresh install and importing an exported “md directory” version.
All seems OK, with the new directory basically matching the directory you uploaded. So it’s like being at the creation, all ready to go, but:
3 …some notes “for a while” were flagged as Rich Text File format, but upon reboot all seemed normal. Odd.
4 Since the Avast virus alert is a false alarm, I will be updating to the latest 3.5.11 version, fingers crossed.
Thanks again
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