If you have a backup before you installed PD 14, you can copy those PDS files to another SAFE location, not in the install area of Powerdirector. Preferable to an external Hard drive or maybe flash drive.

You not only need the pds files, you also need the media the pds files refer to.

The best way is Pack Project Materials in PD 13. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

If you ever opened any of those .pds files in PD14 then you won't be able to open them in PD13 again.

Hi Goofballfilms

It's not quite right what tomasc say ... If you just open the old project and cloce it again without saving no harm is done.

When I open old projects I do a "Save as" a new name to ensure the original project still can be used with the older PDR.

But of course to be on the save side make a copy of the project before open it in PDR14.

Be aware that neither the PD13 and PD14 are backward compatible when it comes to packed projects containing animated titles (titles without animation is ok), PiP and Particles. see: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/46294.page
Therefore Keep your old PDR on your PC.

Cheers, Anja PDR 14.0.4207.0 / Windows 10 64-bit / Asus / Intel i7-4790 3.60 GHz / 16GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / DirectX 12

Anja is correct in that respect. Looking for a reason why your old pds files won't open in a previous version of PD since you say that you are are an experienced and an organized user. Installing new versions of PD never deleted my previous pds files.

Hi,

Just a guess. An upgrade may have uninstalled the files IF you saved the pds files to the Program Files/CyberLink location.... which is not what I would do.
Dafydd

Quote: ...I keep all my .pds files in the same folder.

Where is/was that folder located?

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I too have had this same problem. I had 8 years worth of pds files that mysteriously dissappeared when I upgraded to PD14.

Unfortunately I didn't notice this until over 30 days after the upgrade so that my Carbonite back no longer had the pds files.

Can someone explain why PD14 deletes the previous version pds files? It doesn't make any sense.

BTW, The upgrade did not delete the files immediately. I checked after the upgrade and all my files were intact. I even did some edits with the older pds files and produced some final videos. Some time after the upgrade the files disappeared. Also, it only deleted pds files in the same directory. Any chance that these pds files were archived by PD14 using some other extension or name?

If not all my work is lost! I quess I should have had a better backup procedure. Still, it doesn't make sense that PD14 would do this.

Since I've lost almost all my investment in time to this product maybe its time to look at a different video editor. -StokeDog

Quote:
Can someone explain why PD14 deletes the previous version pds files? It doesn't make any sense.

Since I've lost almost all my investment in time to this product maybe its time to look at a different video editor.

It does not do this as explained by Anja in the 4th thread above.

All new versions of video editors do the same. Don’t open the old project file file with the new version software and then save it. None of the other older consumer video editors that I have tried allows you to open a project that had been altered and saved on the newer software.

If you intend to open an older PowerDirector pds file created by the older software then don't save it but if you do then save it using a new different name not the old name so the old file can be still be opened by the old software.

Let us know if this helps.

I assume that what you are saying is if you open a PD13 pds file with PD14 then do a "save as" instead of a save.

That would be fine. Unfortunately, my problem is all of the PD13 pds files are gone. I only opened a few with PD14 and they seem to work just fine before they disappeared.

So my questions are where did my files go, and, can they be recovered? -StokeDog

I have most versions of PD going back to PD9 and they all open their previous pds files. None of them ever got deleted from installing a newer version of PowerDirector. I do see the that the OP made the same claim. No one else other than the OP and you ever claimed that.

The default save for pds files is My Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector for all versions but I put it in the 14.0 subdirectory for PD14 to keep it separate from the others which is saved to their own subdirectory also. This keeps all my files created by different PD versions separate from each other. You only need to do this once for each version of PD that you have.

It is possible that an individual would put the pds file location in the preferences of an application temp folder and that would cause the problem you described.

You can start a ticket with Cyberlink support and make that claim and see what they say. They may suggest a different save location or ask you for your chosen save location that might cause the problem.

P.S. I assume that you already did a windows search on all your drives for .pds

tomasc,

You bought new versions of PD and kept the old. They upgraded. That may be the difference. Regards,
Dan
Power Director 21-Ultimate
v 21.0.3111.0
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Intel Core i9-10900 processor
(10 core, 20M Cache),
32GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD, 2TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD,
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6

Quote: You bought new versions of PD and kept the old. They upgraded. That may be the difference.

Some users in the forums have asked if the older pds file are compatible with the newer versions of PD if they upgrade but no one else has ever said their old pds files got deleted from an upgrade.

I am open to anyone starting a ticket with Cyberlink Support to report their old pds files missing soon after a PD upgrade. The answer should be posted in this forum for all to see in case that is true. I can only see that happening to someone who specifically changed the default location of their project files to a location where the previous PD version will be uninstalled. That does happen in an upgrade.

People, please direct the new poster to start a new topic of their own rather than hijack another editor's thread. I understand the issue here and I sympathize but I'm locking the thread and requesting StokeDog to start a new topic.
Please read the guides at the start of the forum.
Dafydd