Really struggling after upgrading to KNIME 5.5.0 – can’t open my workflow

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is a very basic or silly question — I’m just a beginner with KNIME, and things have gone completely wrong since I upgraded to version 5.5.0 for windows yesterday.

Everything was working fine before the upgrade. Here’s exactly what happened:

  1. The issue started when I opened a second KNIME session. It asked me to select a different workspace, so I did — a different folder with another project inside it.

  2. It then asked me to import a `.knwf` file. Since I only had a regular project folder, I zipped it and renamed it to `.knwf`. The import failed with an error (I don’t remember the exact message), and KNIME did not restart properly.

  3. I had to force-close both KNIME sessions using Task Manager.

  4. After that, when I tried to go back to the original workspace where I had been working all day and made very important changes, nothing loaded. It gave me the normal start screen but showed no recent workflows, even though the project folder is still there and includes the `workflow.knime` file.

  5. I tried to switch to that workspace again using File → Switch Workspace → Other and selected the correct folder where my workflow is saved. It does open, but KNIME shows me the same welcome screen with no project loaded, just the basic “New Workflow” and “Import Workflow” options — as if the workspace is empty.

  6. I can clearly see the folder still exists and contains everything, including the `workflow.knime` file. But KNIME is not recognizing or opening it.

I’m really worried I may have lost all the work I did today, and it was very important. I’d really appreciate any help or suggestions on how to recover my workflow and get things working again. Please keep any advice beginner-friendly.

Thank you so much