Hello David, and a good new year to you too. As I presume that you don't have access to a recent backup (and I'll take this as a New Year Resolution for us all to remember to make regular back-ups!) I might have an idea for you... I am running FTM 9, which allows me to load up a file created using older versions of FTM, edit it, and then save it in the right format for any version of FTM between 4 and 9, or as a GED file. If you can email me a copy of your file, I can try to salvage it using my version of FTM - assuming that the error message it gave you was a genuine one and not indicating a totally corrupt file. Also, if you can send me the backup file it creates (a file with the same name in the same folder but with a "FBK" suffix) I can work on that one if the first one is more problematic. The only problem with this approach may be the size of your family file; my email can take any size file, but I can't remember what the size limit is with Hotmail - is it 20Mb? You might need to copy it to a 'Zip' file to make it smaller (from the Windows File explorer file menu, you select "new" and then "compressed (zipped) folder" and copy the file into there). best regards, Colin Fenn London David Kindred <kindred_david@hotmail.com> writes >I have been using an older version of Family Tree Maker for many years. >I have version 6.0. >SuddenlyI am unable to open my files! I have a message which reads: >"The file you are trying to load is from a NEWER version of Family Tree >Maker and cannot be loaded."