To open a project that was created in an earlier version of MAXQDA, launch MAXQDA and select Open project. A dialog window will appear, from which you can select the file type which corresponds to your project.

MAXQDA 12 for Windows can read the following project formats:
- MAXQDA 12 (Ending: MX12)
- MAXQDA 11 for Windows (MX5)
- MAXQDA 10 (MX4)
- MAXQDA 2007 (MX3)
- MAXQDA 2 (MX2)
- MAXQDA (M2K)
- MAXQDA Exchange files (MEX), that were created with MAXQDA for Mac versions 11.2.2 or newer.
- MAXQDA Exchange files (MEX), that were created with MAXQDA for Windows
- MAXQDA 12 for Mac can read the following file formats:
- MAXQDA 12 (Ending: MX12)
- MAXQDA 11 for Mac (MX11)
- MAXQDA Exchange Files (MEX), that were created with MAXQDA for Mac version 11.2.2 or newer.
- MAXQDA Exchange Files (MEX), that were created with MAXQDA for Windows version 11.1.0 or newer.