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I currently have an older Mac system running High Sierra, that has Mathematica version 8.0.4 installed on it and it still works fine. I was thinking of trying out a newer trial version of Mathematica 12.2 (that is the last version that supports High Sierra). Anyway, I'm trying to make sure that if I install this new version of Mathematica, that it won't cause problems with the old version.

I've done a little research and found mention of a couple of issues that could be real problems. One has to do with the existing license file being overwritten, so that I would then be unable to run the old 8.0.4 software - can anyone verify that this is the case? Have read that making a spare copy of the license file before installing trial version is a good idea, or is there some other solution, and then just manually flip the license files before running the desired version. Seems rather a pain, so is there a better solution?

Another has to do with there being many files that are shared between all/most versions of Mathematica, like the ~/Library/Mathematica/FrontEnd/init.m file (my 8.0.4 version has 390 lines in it currently) and ~/Library/Preferences/com.wolfram.Mathematica.plist and many others. I would guess that the new version of the software would make changes to these shared files that would be incompatible with the older versions.

Has anyone experienced this sort of issue? What is the best way of dealing with this scenario before I do the trial installation? What are the range of problems that can be expected if I did try to run the old version of the software after installing the new version?

Anyone have any ideas on how best to deal with this situation? Installing the new trial as a completely different user is one idea but if there are system level files that get used/modified this would not prevent that, or install on a completely different system is another. I only have one Mac so this second solution is not a real option.

Basically, I'm trying to make sure I don't corrupt my old setup while trying out the new version of the software.

And most importantly what is the recommended procedure when switching from new to old or old to new?

I've seen some comments that this is not a problem, but given the above examples I find it hard to believe that this might not be a major problem if you do need to run the old software after installing the new version. I really don't want to risk having to do a full account or system restore when I discover there is a problem later on after the harm has already been done.

Thanks very much...

Bob
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    I have had multiple versions installed at the same time (specify different folders when installing) and they coexisted peacefully. Gleaning from comments in this forum, having multiple versions installed at the same time is not at all uncommon. Having said that, Wolfram Support would be able to answer your question more authoritatively. – MarcoB Aug 24 '22 at 18:48
  • Which versions do you have installed and on what OS? Do you do anything special like run some shell script that copies/moves startup files around before running Mathematica or ??? Given the specific examples of files that the question talks about (init.m and com.wolfram.Mathematica.plist preferences files just as obvious examples) and their common shared usage between various Mathematica versions how could there not be issues? Do all the versions have the same serial number in license file? I've contacted Wolfram support but have not gotten a reply as of yet. When I do will update status. – Bob Aug 28 '22 at 00:04
  • See also: Will Version 9 functions all work in Version 10?, Preserving customizations when upgrading to Mathematica 10.3, Can Mathematica 9 peacefully coexist with Mathematica 8 on Windows?, and Uninstall one of few Mathematica versions on Linux for past discussions of this very topic on this forum. They all indicate that multiple versions can be installed together. – MarcoB Aug 28 '22 at 02:59
  • I personally routinely keep two versions installed (on Windows 10) whenever I install an upgrade. I run no script. If something goes wrong with the upgrade or if I somehow lose functionality, I just keep using the old version until the problem is resolved. I've done that for every upgrade for at least a couple of years now. When I'm satisfied that the new version works for me, then I uninstall the old one. Each version is installed in a different folder whose name contains the version number. – MarcoB Aug 28 '22 at 03:01
  • MarcoB - you're using Windows versions of Mathematica, correct? Do they store the files I mentioned in a global folder like macOS does or in an install specific folder (perhaps in the folder that the application is stored in)? I'm on a macOS system so perhaps there is a difference in the way that Mathematica works? I did read one of your linked comments about setting up a version specific front end files using the command SetOptions[$FrontEnd, "VersionedPreferences"->True] -- but all the comments about people using multiple versions seem to be about the Windows version of Mathematica... – Bob Nov 10 '22 at 12:58
  • I did eventually hear from Mathematica support and they never really addressed my concerns so I never did try to do the install of the new version of Mathematica as didn't want to face the possibility of having to restore a bunch of stuff from backups. And they never mentioned the SetOptions[$FrontEnd, "VersionedPreferences"->True] either. Very odd they didn't at least talk about that. Thanks for the input... – Bob Nov 10 '22 at 13:01

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