Today I opened M.Y.O.B. accounting files from 1999-2001. The files cannot be upgraded because they experienced some data corruption. The only way to access the files is to run the versions of M.Y.O.B. that they were created with.
The solution was to run Mac OS 10.6 inside a VM, which unfortunately, is a violation of the Apple EULA for Mac OS 10.6. Oops. The reason for using 10.6 is that it’s the last version of Mac OS X with support for Rosetta, the PowerPC emulator that lets Mac OS X apps written for PowerPC run on newer Macs with Intel CPUs.
Rosetta allows AccountEdge (the versions of MYOB written for Mac OS X) to run, but one of the files I wanted to access was from 1999, and it requires MYOB Accounting Plus v9, which is a classic application. For that, I turned to SheepShaver, a Mac OS Classic emulator, running Mac OS 9 within the 10.6 VM.
In summary, the solution was to run two emulators within a VM. With that, I’m able to run every version of MYOB within a single VM.
I also have a VM that runs AppleWorks, for those rare occasions when I stumble across a very old file that I would like to upgrade to the latest version of AppleWorks, so that I can further upgrade it to something that’ll run on Mac OS X Lion.
Also, since I couldn’t find one online, I also created a table of the MYOB versions, their marketing names, release numbers, and year of release.
| Name | Version | Release | DB ver. | Year | Company |
| MYOB | 5 | 5.0.8 | 5 | 1994 | Best! Ware |
| MYOB | 6 | 6.0.1 | 1996 | Best! Ware | |
| MYOB | 7 | 7.0.3 | 7 | 1996 | Best! Ware |
| MYOB Plus | 8 | 2.0.5 | 2 | 1999 | Best! Ware |
| MYOB Accounting Plus | 9 | 3.0.4 | 3.5 | 1999 | MYOB LImited |
| AccountEdge | 1 | 4.7.0 | 2001 | MYOB Limited | |
| AccountEdge | 2 | 5.5.3 | 2001 | MYOB Limited | |
| AccountEdge | 3 | 6.5.3 | 2002 | MYOB Limited | |
| AccountEdge 2004 | 4 | 7.5.0 | 2003 | MYOB Technology Pty Ltd | |
| AccountEdge 2008 | 8 | 12.0.6 | 2008 | ||
| AccountEdge Pro 2012 | 12 | 16.1.4C | 2012 | Acclivity Group LLC |
Hi, I own a copy of MYOB V5.0.8 Copyright Best! Ware.
Is there still copyright protection on such Legacy Software and who would own or care about it. Or be willing to sell me a licence for a different club.