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Multiple Max installations on a single machine

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    You are able to install and use multiple installations of Max on a single machine/user account. However, you may need to rename your Max application (Mac) or the containing folder (Windows) to prevent the newer version from overwriting the older one.

    Mac

    Max 7, Max 8, and Max 9 all show up as “Max” in your applications folder. This means if you have Max 8 installed and go to install Max 9, you will be asked if you want to write over the previous version. If you want both installed, change the name of the Max 8 application from “Max” to “Max 8”.

    This also applies to installing different versions of the same major release of Max, for example, Max 8.5.5 and 8.6.4. Simply rename the existing copy before adding the new one. Be sure to avoid special characters such as a forward or backslashes in the new folder name.

    Windows

    Installing Max 9 will not affect installations of Max 8.6.4 (and lower). However, it will overwrite any currently installed versions of Max that are 9 or greater. You can maintain multiple versions of Max 9 by renaming the folder containing the Max.exe (C:\Program Files\Cycling ‘74\Max 9) before installing the newer version. 

    If you are downloading an earlier version of Max 9 and attempt to install it with a later version of Max 9 already installed, you will get a message that the installation can't continue as you are already updated. To avoid this, follow the above directions to rename the folder, then uninstall Max 9 using the add/remove Programs and Features Control Panel. If you rename the folder first, the currently installed version of Max won't actually be removed. Performing the "uninstall" just removes hidden files from your machine that prevent Windows from installing an earlier version of Max.

    Be sure to avoid special characters such as a forward or backslashes in the new folder name. One good approach is to rename the folder with the version number you want to keep. For example, C:\Program Files\Cycling ‘74\Max 9.0. This also makes it much easier to know which version you are opening.

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