Analysis results open incorrectly in older versions of Prism 10 while opening files in the .pzf/.pzfx file format created with Prism 10.1.0 or newer
The Problem
Analysis results may be unexpectedly updated for files that were originally saved using Prism 10.1.0 or newer in the legacy .pzf or .pzfx file format while in compatibility mode, and then re-opened in Prism versions 10.0.0-10.0.3 on macOS or versions 10.0.0-10.0.2 on Windows.
As an example, the "Simulate XY data" analysis could be performed with the option "Match another simulation" using the new "custom random seed" option introduced in Prism 10.1.0. If this file was then saved in a legacy file format (.pzf or .pzfx), opening this file in an older version of Prism will result in different values being displayed on the results sheets in this earlier version than in Prism 10.1.0 or newer.
What can I do? How can I avoid this problem?
The easiest solution is to ensure that you're using the .prism file format when working with Prism 10. The problem described on this page is not present when using the .prism file format, and all versions of Prism 10 will open this file and display the results correctly.
You may also want to ensure that anyone using the file is using the most up-to-date version of Prism. This issue is only observed when opening the file with an older version of Prism (version 10.0.0-10.0.3 for macOS or 10.0.0-10.0.2 for Windows). To update Prism, go to Help > Check for updates or download the most up-to-date installer from the Prism updates page.
If for some specific reason you must use a legacy file format (.pzf or .pzfx), then as a workaround for this issue, you should manually freeze the results before saving the file.
Note that if you do save the file in the legacy format (.pzfx or .pzf) using Prism 10.1.0, this file will be opened in older versions of Prism 10 as an "Untitled" (unsaved) file. As a result, the original file is unchanged (and you may open it in a newer version of Prism again to view the correct results). However, if you overwrite this original file by saving the "Untitled" file with the same name and file location, the originally generated (correct) results may be lost.
Why does this happen?
The source of this issue has to do with how older versions of Prism 10 (10.0.0-10.0.3 on macOS and 10.0.0-10.0.2 on Windows) read the results of analyses from files saved in Prism version 10.1.0 or newer.
Typically, when an older version of Prism opens a file saved using a newer version, any results sheets that contain new features (that aren't present in the older version) will be frozen to prevent automatic recalculations. However, Prism versions 10.0.0-10.0.3 on macOS and 10.0.0-10.0.2 on Windows do not properly freeze results sheets when opening a file in the legacy format (.pzfx or .pzf) that was saved using Prism version 10.1.0 or newer. As a result, the analysis results are recalculated using older algorithms, causing an inconsistency between the results values in the different versions.