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.
Geneious Cloud - The simplest and most reliable transfer method is through Geneious Cloud. Upload your data to your Geneious Cloud workspace from your old machine, then activate Geneious Prime on your new machine and access it through the Geneious Cloud tab. See Geneious Cloud FAQ and How to Start using Geneious Cloud for more details.
Backup and Restore function : Alternatively, you can transfer your Geneious database to another computer by creating a backup of your data in the old machine, 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 be stored securely as a backup and 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. Therefore, if you wish to keep any files in the current database, export those prior to restoring the backup so you can add them after restoration.
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...
It is possible to move your 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.