Compatibility of dotMemory snapshots between versions

Question

Are dotMemory snapshots forward-compatible? For example, can one open a snapshot collected with dotMemory 2019.X in dotMemory 2021.X?

Answer

The dotMemory snapshot format, .dmw, is not designed to be forward-compatible. The structure of the snapshot file changes between releases to support new features, optimizations, and data collection methods.

Because of these changes, a newer version of dotMemory cannot reliably read and interpret the data from a snapshot created by an older version. There is limited version support for opening snapshots from slightly older builds within the same major release, but this compatibility does not extend across major version changes.

For example, a snapshot collected with dotMemory 2019.3.x can only be opened by versions up to and including dotMemory 2019.3.4. It cannot be opened with dotMemory 2020.1 or any later version.

One can refer to the Snapshot compatibility table for more information.