How to revert Playmaker to older version?

[Christoph]

So with all the latest issues I had I'm trying to revert Playmaker. First I want to go to 1.9.6, then if it still gives issues, to 1.9.5 which I know worked before.

I tried to delete the Playmaker folders in the project, then drag and drop the playmaker 1.9.6 unity package back in, but now the window for playmaker install/update is not appearing anymore due to the hundreds of errors in the console.

How to proceed?

[Christoph]

So I have been able to revert to 1.9.6 but still some problems left.

What I did:
1. added the 1.9.6 package to ~/Library/Unity/Asset Store-5.x/Unity Technologies/ (I'm on a Mac)
2. deleted literally all files/scripts that were pointed out as errors in the console
3. Now the Playmaker "About" window appeared and I could install Playmaker 1.9.6 from there

Problem I still face is an error that it can't update the PlayMakerEditor.dll:

Unable to update following assemblies:Assets/PlayMaker/Editor/PlayMakerEditor.dll (Name = PlayMakerEditor, Error = 131) (Output: /var/folders/w5/y4l8442j1gd4sdk967p3lws00000gn/T/tmp1916a03c.tmp)

This I guess not good, right?

I'm now installing all the files I deleted in step 2... will report back again.

[Christoph]

Ok, added Playmaker Cinemachine, Playmaker Utils and my own Resources folder (with the project's globals) back to the project. Also re-installed GameAnalytics and Easy Save actions. That was pretty much it. And seems project is fully functional again, now with Playmaker v1.9.6. Yeeeey!!!

It's good to know that I can mess up things like that and break everything, and still get it all working again haha.

I also just built on device (iOS) and seems one of the issues I had with the latest Playmaker v1.9.7 is that my device got extremely hot when playing my game. Seems version 1.9.6 doesn't have that issue which would be really good. Now hoping that this version doesn't corrupt my Prefab issues I outlined in this https://hutonggames.com/playmakerforum/index.php?topic=25656.0 and I'll be a happy Panda.

One question remains: what with the error message I got when reverting back and re-installing Playmaker?

Unable to update following assemblies:Assets/PlayMaker/Editor/PlayMakerEditor.dll (Name = PlayMakerEditor, Error = 131) (Output: /var/folders/w5/y4l8442j1gd4sdk967p3lws00000gn/T/tmp1916a03c.tmp)

Edit:
I get this error now even when I install something else... Like there's definitely something unresolved left behind?

[Broken Stylus]

It's an arduous process but before downgrading your project, you may want to create two custom packages.

The first one is a package of all the Playmaker related stuff you created.
Keep that package for later on, you will have to import it once you have installed the older version of Playmaker.

Leave out the Playmaker supportive scripts added to other third party assets by their respective developers.

Then make another package of all the other material that doesn't belong to Playmaker that you have created for your project, and create a separate package of that.

From there, you may delete all Playmaker related stuff. Now, if you do it within Unity, you'll trigger plenty of warnings and errors because Unity will update itself constantly. Your FSMs might be missing actions or entire official namespaces. To me, this would be long and annoying.

The Library folder can be entirely deleted, Unity will rebuild it and in 99.99% of cases, it won't create any problem.
EDIT: I'm talking about the folder in the Unity project, not the one close to the root of the OS directory tree.

If you can fall back onto an old version on PM 1.9.5 where you would only have to import the second unity custom package you're created, what I would do is probably start from a new project and rebuild it, add PM at the end, then import the two custom packages.

[Christoph]

What I did the second time, reverting from 1.9.6 to 1.9.5f3, is the following:

1. Replace the package of playmaker with version 1.9.5f3 on ~/Library/Unity/Asset Store-5.x/Unity Technologies/ (I'm on a Mac). This is the place where the package manager downloads the assets. So once it's in there, when you go to the package manager it will show that version.

2. Instead of updating, hit "Import" in the package manager. This will override the current Playmaker version and become ready to be installed.

3. Open Playmaker/Welcome Screen and click on Install Playmaker. Then confirm a second time with Install PlayMaker x.x.x (the version you put in the asset folder in step 1). It will behave now as if you would upgrade, but in this case we downgrade instead.

That seems to have worked flawlessly and you don't need to delete anything previously, nor have a mess with tons of errors.

I'm sure there are some versions where this wouldn't work and you might have to go through the hustle of deleting everything before.

Having said this, if anyone else tries this on his/her own, definitely make a backup first so whatever happens you could easily go back.

And knowing that this works pretty well, I from now on will always make a backup of the playmaker unity package when I update in the package manager. This way I have all Playmaker versions available and can revert back if needed.

[Broken Stylus]

I think you were rather lucky with this method because it replaces newer files with older ones and is prone to generate some kind of garbage in the hierarchy.
You may not have errors but more warnings. Only a thorough testing of your project would tell you if some late assets would need newer versions of the Playmaker tools.

[Christoph]

So you're saying that it would be best to delete all playmaker related folders first, then get rid of all related files (mostly custom actions or scripts referencing playmaker namespace). Then install the previous package and re-install all deleted things again? This is what I did the first time and it worked as well pretty well, just that it was way more arduous.

On the bright side, project seems to work perfectly fine in every sense. I play tested it quite a bit.

[djaydino]

Hi.
Careful with deleting the Playmaker folder as Globals data is inside it.
you need to make a backup of PlayMakerGlobals which is inside the Resources folder.