Internals
Troubleshooting
#### Error Message When Opening an Incompatible Database File {#docs:internals:storage::error-message-when-opening-an-incompatible-database-file}  
When opening a database file that has been written by a different DuckDB version from the one you are using, the following error message may occur:  
```console
Error: unable to open database "...": Serialization Error: Failed to deserialize: ...
```  
The message implies that the database file was created with a newer DuckDB version and uses features that are backward incompatible with the DuckDB version used to read the file.  
There are two potential workarounds:  
1. Update your DuckDB version to the latest stable version.
2. Open the database with the latest version of DuckDB, export it to a standard format (e.g., Parquet), then import it using to any version of DuckDB. See the [`EXPORT/IMPORT DATABASE` statements](#docs:sql:statements:export) for details.