Biber is outdated compared to biblatex

Question

I have the following error while compiling my memoir. Here is a MWE that also gives this error:

\documentclass[b4paper,14pt,english,twoside]{memoir}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % For Fappendixrench accents
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern, textcomp}
\usepackage{fixcmex} %fixing lmodern and textcomp

\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames,svgnames,table]{xcolor}


    \usepackage{biblatex}
    \usepackage{hyperref}
    \hypersetup{
    colorlinks = true,
    linkcolor = blue,
    linkbordercolor = {white},
    citecolor = blue,
    }

    \addbibresource{References.bib}
   %  \AtBeginBibliography{%
   % \renewcommand*{\mkbibnamefirst}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   % \renewcommand*{\mkbibnamelast}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   % \renewcommand*{\mkbibnameprefix}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   % \renewcommand*{\mkbibnameaffix}[1]{\mkbibbold{#1}}%
   % }


    \begin{document}
      \section{test}
    % \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
    % \bibliography{References}
    \printbibliography
    \end{document}

---

Running 'biber  "Memoir-DS_Julien"'
------------
INFO - This is Biber 2.12
INFO - Logfile is 'Memoir-DS_Julien.blg'
INFO - Reading 'Memoir-DS_Julien.bcf'
ERROR - Error: Found biblatex control file version 3.6, expected version 3.5.
This means that your biber (2.12) and biblatex (3.13) versions are incompatible.
See compat matrix in biblatex or biber PDF documentation.
INFO - ERRORS: 1
Biber error: [131] Utils.pm:209> ERROR - Error: Found biblatex control file version 3.6, expected version 3.5.

References.bib:

  @article{roy1973methode,
  title={La M{\'e}thode ELECTRE II(Une application au m{\'e}dia-planning...)},
  author={Roy, Bernard and Bertier, Patrice},
  year={1973},
  publisher={Metra international}
}

I know this is duplicate but I couldn't find any working solutions in the following questions:

How can one install biber on miktex 64-bit?

Install Biber in MiKTeX on a 64-bit version of Windows

I am learning LaTeX by my own so this error is a bit harsh for me to correct. I've tried to reinstall biber and biblatex. I've tried to install a new version of biber (2.13) thanks to a local texmf tree as well, but that didn't work. Biber is still under 2.12, I don't know why.

What should I do? How to check if I miss-installed biber 2.13? I'm on windows 10 64bits, I use MikTeX 2.9 and I compile thanks to the following command:

latexmk  -shell-escape -pdf ./Memoir-DS_Julien.tex

Answer 1

Before we start Do not update biblatex or Biber manually.

All big TeX distributions ship biblatex and Biber in matching versions so that usually things should work out just fine it you update your packages via the usual means of your TeX distribution. See How do I update my TeX distribution?.

If you are using MikTeX, keep in mind that you may have to run the updater in user and admin mode (this is explained in the linked question in more detail with pictures).

In case you tried to update biblatex or Biber manually, remove all the files from those attempts and let your TeX distribution figure things out.

In the rare event that your TeX distribution indeed does not ship matching versions of biblatex and Biber alert the maintainers (TeX live via the mailing list https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-live and MikTeX on GitHub https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex-packaging/issues), issues like this are usually fixed very quickly.

After a biblatex/Biber update you may have to remove temporary files (.aux, .bbl, .bcf, ...) for a smoother experience, since those files can contain version-specific definitions.

A few days ago there was a tiny glitch in the MikTeX package database. The version information of the Biber packages (for example https://miktex.org/packages/biber-windows-x64) says "2.12", but the binaries that are installed are version 2.13. This has been reported at https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex-packaging/issues/126 and was resolved a few days later. But it was only a cosmetic issue, it did not impact functionality at all, since the correct version of Biber was distributed, just the package info was incorrect.

Answer 2

You can download an uptodate version of biber (v 2.13) from the links on https://ctan.org/pkg/biber And install it manually.