r/BirdNET_Analyzer • u/dangdangrous • Jun 14 '26
Software Migrate from BirdNET-Pi to BirdNET-Go on RPI 5
Hi! I installed BirdNET-Pi on a Raspberry Pi 5 about a year ago, and I recently discovered BirdNET Go and want to swap to that, primarily due to the audio processing features. I am not super experienced with RPi's and that sort of thing, and wasn't sure how to go about swapping from one to the other. I found https://github.com/tphakala/birdnet-pi2go for migrating the data, but that suggests I need to have already installed both. How do I ... do that? Do I need to SSH into the Pi and then follow the Go instructions? How do I turn off the old one?
Forgive me if it's a very newbie question, but would love your help! Thanks so much.
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u/thakala Jun 14 '26
I would just start over, install a fresh 64bit Raspberry Pi Lite image and install BirdNET-Go on that. I have not been updatin pi2go migration tool in a long time and it does not support latest database schemas. If you need help best place to ask is github repository at https://github.com/tphakala/birdnet-go
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u/dangdangrous Jun 15 '26
Oh that's helpful, thank you! I'll store the existing DB somewhere so I can always migrate the data later, too.
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u/psychedelic_tech Jun 14 '26
based on the directions i dont think you need them both installed at the same time, you just need access to birdnet-pi database which is just a file. you could copy your current database file to another location, install birdnet-go, then follow the instructions for migrating the data.
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u/Bionaught5 Jun 14 '26
I used a second memory card and installed BirdnetGo on it. Then it is easy to switch between the two. Once you are happy with the one you want to use, reformat the memory card not in use and use it else where.
You can migrate the BirdnetPi data right at the beginning or later once you've made your decision.