Cloning projects when updating to a new engine version

I have two projects right now, one is the original one from version 4.9 and weights 7 GB alltogheter, then the cloned one from the original, version 4.15 that weights 3,84 GB wich is working fine.

Now i want to clone it again for updating to 4.17, and now i dont know exactly how the cloning works.

They are independent to each other? The diferent weights make me think that the project from version 4.15 is using data from the original, if i clone the project 4.15 it will lose data from the original or the new cloned one will use the two old versions?

If i delete the original, will i lose the whole project?

If you clone, your project discards some of the binaries and intermediate files in these folders. That’s probably the main reason your project size went smaller in the first place. After you cloned the project, there are no dependencies from the new project to the old one. So, yes, they are independent to each other.

I understand now

Just created a new 4.8 project, the premade car project, then cloned and switched to 4.9, then cloned the last one and switched to 4.15, and they are exactly clones, no important difference in weight and deleted the old ones without problems.

So cloning is just this, like you say it has to be the binaries and intermediate files and the projects are truly independent, anyway will check all files and look for that weight difference before cloning it again if there’s some bugs or something missing.

Much apreciated for your answer mate !

Just found one important thing when cloning big weight projects,

The launcher doesn’t show the actual process time when cloning, so you don’t know what’s really happening, if you close the launcher before ending the process, the cloning stops and the project weight will be smaller than the original.

I’m just saying that we’ll need to be aware that a process is being running and its not instant. Something that seems soo logic ain’t it?

When it finishes, the cloned project is being showed to the launcher, so we know when it finish.

This is maybe what happened to me, but if this really happened to me, then i don’t have a clue how it’s still working since they are independent, in this case i think Ninjin provided the answer.

Omg ty Boscox