Crytal Reports versions and compatability

[Former Member]

My office is running on several versions of Crystal Reports 2008.  3 of us have version 12.3.0.601.  One person got his copy about 14 months ago and is on version 14.0.4.738.  One person got her copy 4 months ago and has version 14.02.364RTM.  The people with the 2 newer versions get messages when they make changes to our reports saying that if they save them, people with older version will not be able to access the report.  I would like us all to be on the same version so that we are compatible.  Are versions 14.02.364RTM and 14.0.4.738 compatible?  Can and should I upgrade us all to 14.02.364RTM?   I am also wondering if I should upgrade all of us to Crystal Reports 2016.  My fear is that upgrading to CR 2016 will "mess up" our reports.  Our data is housed in an Access database running in Access 2016.  Is CR 2016 more compatible with Access 2016?  Will our reports created in CR 2008 be compatible and fully functional in Crystal 2016?  Thank you!

[abhilash_kumar · Accepted solution]

Hi Sara,

You may ignore the error as all of you are on CR 2008 or higher.

Reports created in higher versions don't work in CR 8.5 or lower (maybe even CR 9), however, most reports created in all lower versions should work fine in higher versions.

The version number 14.0.x.x indicates CR 2011 - your group seems to be using separate patches of the same version, so, it shouldn't really cause any troubles.

CR 2008, of course, is a version old, however, I don't see any issues in running reports in this version too.

Ideally, as a group, you should be using the same Version, Support Pack and Patch for CR.

CR 2016 should be able to connect to Access just like the older versions and it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade.

-Abhilash

[DellSC]

The internal structure of the .rpt files has changed very little since Crystal 2008 SP 3 (version 12.3.0.601).  If you don't use any new features (and there are very few of them) you should be able to open and save the report files in any of those three versions.  However, it would be best to upgrade to the latest version so that you don't have issues in the future.

-Dell