Yesterday, I wrote about Org-9.6 failing to load after my weekly update. I’m happy to report that due to the advice of the excellent Irreal readers Fran Burstall and Mike S, I have resolved the problem.
The problem turns out to be that files from the builtin Org 9.5.5 were out of date and causing the org-assert-version macro to fail. The secret is to install the new Org before any .org files are loaded causing files from the builtin Org to be loaded. That can happen, for example, if you have Org agenda files, which will be loaded before you’ve done anything with Emacs other than load it.
If you’re having the same problem, here’s what I did to resolve it:
- Uninstall Org-9.6
- Make sure the Org-9.6 directory in your Elpa repository is deleted
- Start Emacs with the
-Qoption - Install Org-9.6 with
package.el - Quit Emacs and restart it.
- Check that you’re running Org-9.6 with Meta+x
org-version
My understanding is that this problem occurs because Org has a builtin version which can easily interfere with a later version that you’re trying to load. It’s a good thing to keep in mind.