OttoFMS Transition FAQs

We expect that you will have a lot of questions about the transition from Otto v3 to OttoFMS. We have tried to answer the most common ones here. If you have additional questions, please contact us at support@proofgeist.com

Can OttoFMS and Otto v3 work together?

No, they can not. Deployments can only be run between servers running OttoFMS, or between severs running Otto V3. You can not mix and match. A server running OttoFMS will not be able to work with a server running only Otto v3 and vice versa.

Can Otto V3 and OttoFMS be installed on the same server?

Yes, although we don’t recommend it. You can install OttoFMS on the same server as Otto v3. But if you perform deployments migrations or other Otto operations, using both copies of Otto at the same time, you may run into problems. If you only use one at a time, you should be fine.

Do I have to upgrade to OttoFMS?

Not right away. Otto v3 will continue to work for some time. See the next section for timelines. But we do hope that at some point you will be so excited about the new features in OttoFMS that you will want to upgrade.

How long will Otto v3 be supported

Otto 3 will be supported until July 31 2025. That is approximately 18 months from now. We hope that gives everyone plenty of time to move over to OttoFMS. We will ship a final release before that date. What will happen when Otto v3 support expires? We will not turn Otto v3 off. It will likely continue to work for sometime after that. But we will be unable to offer support or produce new versions. So at some point we expect Otto v3 will stop working.

If you find yourself stuck on Otto v3 after July 31, 2025 and you would like support, we do have additional support options available to purchase. Contact us if this happens to you. We will do our best to get you the support you need.

Is Otto v3 still available?

No, As of Jan 26, 2024 Otto v3 is not for sale. Existing customers can continue to use their licenses and receive support as normal until July 31 2025 at which time Otto v3 will reach its end of life.

Can I get a refund if I just paid for Otto v3?

If you purchased Otto or if your license renewed in 2024, we will give a you a full refund and cancel your license. Contact us at support@proofgeist.com

Will my current Otto v3 subscription auto-renew?

Yes, but only through December 31st 2024. After that we will cancel all auto-renew plans. The licenses will remain active. But you will no longer be charged.

You can cancel it before then if you like through your account at https://proofgeist.com/my-account (opens in a new tab). Your license will stay active until what would have been its next renewal date.

What if I need to expand my current Otto v3 License

Contact us. We will work something out with you.

How hard will it be to upgrade?

OttoFMS represents a major upgrade to our Otto product line. It is such a big change that there isn’t an automatic upgrade path. Depending on how you used Otto v3 and Migrator, it might take you some time to move your workloads over to OttoFMS. We will be making additional tools available that will ease some parts of the transition. We hope to make this easier as we learn more about what issues are blocking. Please post your feedback in our community forum (opens in a new tab).

Please see the the Should I Upgrade Yet guide for more information.

Why such a big change?

About 6 years ago the release of the data migration tool opened up a bunch of new opportunities to make deployment and migration easier than ever. It was such a game changer that a lot of the old patterns and ideas didn’t fit. So we had to make new ones.

Since then we have learned so much from you, our customers, about what patterns and practices make sense in this space. Plus, FileMaker itself has changed. For example, there was no Admin API when we released the first versions of Otto—we had to build and maintain our own.

We decided that the only way to move Otto forward at the same pace or faster as the FileMaker platform itself was to start over on a better foundation.

We didn’t make this choice lightly. We knew that a major move like this could be disruptive, but we felt we needed to do it, especially if we were going to make the next version of Otto free, which is something we also felt was important.

Why is OttoFMS Free?

We believe that modern FileMaker apps need OttoFMS. And not just for the Deployments. The easy webhooks are another critical feature for modern applications. We believe it so strongly that we think it has the potential to become a standard, but in order to do that it has to be free. We want everyone to have the chance to build and architect apps the way we do.