HIMSA encourages all locations to upgrade to the latest Noah 4 version, but in some cases, you may need to go back to an earlier version. Maybe one workstation in a large network was updated in error, or a location wants to use a Noah compatible business system that is based on an earlier version of Noah.

  • If the machine that was updated and needs to go back is a client in a Noah network, you can just uninstall and reinstall the version of Noah to match the rest of the network. 
  • If you need to go back to an earlier version of Noah on a server, or a Noah standalone, you will need to take a few extra steps.  Noah 4.15 makes use of a SQLite database. Previous versions of Noah used the Microsoft Compact Edition (CE) database. This means that backups created in previous versions of Noah cannot be directly restored in Noah 4.15.

The default backup location for Noah is C:\ProgramData\HIMSA\Noah\Backup. When Noah is updated to version 4.15, the database backups that were made with Noah 4.14 and earlier are moved to a folder called “DatabaseCEBackup” in this folder.

If you need to go back to an earlier version of Noah after an upgrade to Noah 4.15 you will need to Restore a Noah backup from version 4.14 following the instructions below.

Before you uninstall Noah 4.15:

  • Locate the latest Noah 4.14 database Backup. The installation of Noah 4.15 created a backup called ‘NoahSystemDBMaintenance’. Backup files are located at: C:\ProgramData\HIMSA\Noah\Backup\ DatabaseCEBackup
  • If you have added or updated any patient records in Noah 4.15, export those patients from Noah. You can use Advanced search in Noah to only export the records added or updated in a specific time period.

Steps to go back to Noah 4.14 (or earlier) from Noah 4.15:

1. Uninstall Noah 4.15 from Installed Apps

2. Uninstall HIMSA Basic modules

4. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\HIMSA Shared

5. Locate the Noah SQLite database file, right click, and rename the file:

  • rename the NOAHDatabaseCoreSQLite.db to NOAHDatabaseCoreSQLite.db.old

6. Rename the directory C:\ProgramData\HIMSA to C:\ProgramData\HIMSAold

7. Restart your computer

8. Install Noah 4.14.2

9. Launch Noah 4.14.2

10. Verify you have a blank database and check version under Help, About Noah

11. Close Noah

12. Launch the Noah Console, at Tools Restore the Noah database backup you located above. It will now be at: C:\ProgramData\HIMSAold\Noah\Backup\DatabaseCEBackup

13. Import any records that were exported

14. In order to make the eventual update to Noah 4.15 run successfully, it is necessary to rename the .orig file that was created when the initial migration was started. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\HIMSA Shared\NOAHDatabaseCoreSqlCompact.sdf.orig and rename to NOAHDatabaseCoreSqlCompact.sdf.orig.old.

* Pro tip – Depending on the situation and level of comfort, in Step 12 the NOAHDatabaseCoreSqlCompact.sdf.orig file could be renamed to NOAHDatabaseCoreSqlCompact.sdf instead of Restoring a backup. This makes step 14 unnecessary.

** Note the Activity log is restored with the database in Noah 4.14.2 and earlier.

  1. If you need to restore the WSI database, follow these steps:
    1. Stop the Noah Server service.
    2. Go to C:\ProgramData\HIMSA\NoahBS and delete NOAHBSIntegServerDatabase.sdf
    3. In the NoahBS folder, rename NOAHBSIntegServerDatabase.sdf.orig by removing “.orig” from the file name.
    4. Start Noah Server service.

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