I’m trying to restore teh system database from SQL 2012 to SQL 2019 using a back up. Booted the server in single user mode and tried to issue this command in SQLCMD and run as admin but getting this error:

“The backup of the system database on the device D:xDB_Backup_DO_NOT_DELETELIVEBK_Model.bak cannot be restored because it was created by a different version of the server (11.00.2100) than this server (15.00.4365)”

I know you can’t restore from new to old but this is the other way around. Also I am able to restore the user databases from 2012 to 2019 without any hassle. The SQL Server 2012 is in an old box which was never upgraded and can’t now due to it being old.

Any ideas please?

Tried to relocating the files and copied the mdf and ldf files to the new location but still not working.