We recommend doing a fresh installation of Geneious Prime on your new computer, rather than migrating the software across. This will ensure the licensing component of Geneious is set up correctly on your new computer. Installers are available from our Downloads and Previous Versions pages. The first time you run Geneious on your new computer you will need to activate your license again.
The Geneious database is stored separately from the Geneious application so to transfer your data you will need to move the database folder. The database is typically found in the User’s home directory in a folder called Geneious X.Y Data (where X.Y denotes the Geneious version). The safest way to transfer your Geneious database to another computer is to make a backup of your database using the Backup function in Geneious, then restore the database from the backup on the new machine.
There are two options available when using the Geneious Backup function. You can either:
A. Backup the entire database and all settings/preferences by selecting Archive all local data and settings. This option will create a zip archive which can then be stored securely as a backup and then later used to recover your database. To recover such a database, use the option File > Restore backup... and select the zip archive file (do not uncompress the file beforehand). Note that this option will open your backup as en entirely separate database and does not merge with the current working database. This option is best used during a fresh install of Geneious.
B. Backup your Local database or any subfolders by selecting the folder and using Export selected folder "Local" in the backup tool. This option will export the selected folder and all files within as a single geneious format file, which can then be transferred and opened on another instance of Geneious. To recover such a backup, simply drag the file into Geneious, or use File > Import > Files...
Alternatively, you can copy the Geneious data folder to the new computer and then set the data storage location to this folder in the Geneious Preferences. However, you must make sure the entire folder, including all hidden subfolders, is copied otherwise your database will become corrupted (Windows explorer may truncate file paths longer than 256 bytes, which will corrupt your database).
If you are no longer going to use Geneious on your old machine you should also release the license from this machine. This can be done by opening Geneious on your old computer and going to Help-Release License. Note that there are a limited number of releases available within a given period of time and trying to release too often may be misconstrued as a user trying to share a personal license with others. Only release a license when absolutely necessary.