I didn't know that random answer order was broken in 4.3.5 and I am supremely screwed.

Can someone tell me the last version of the software in which it worked?

Or can someone tell me what I need to do to export/import a survey from 4.3.5 to 3.23.1?

The bug report has it listed as 4.2.2

bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=16229

it looks as though 4.1.18 does not have the issue, can anyone tell me if there are other things broken in this version I should be wary of?

vadindot wrote: it looks as though 4.1.18 does not have the issue, can anyone tell me if there are other things broken in this version I should be wary of?

You are in a deadlock situation.
There is no backwards compatibility to import LS4 LSS files into LS3.
Using 4.1.18 to run your survey might cause other issues.
You can check a few in the changelog.
github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/ma...cs/release_notes.txt

I cannot recommend any LS4 version for production use. The amount of hidden issues and changes to the basecode looks to high to be quickly fixed and stabilized. You need to test everything after every update.

Or can someone tell me what I need to do to export/import a survey from 4.3.5 to 3.23.1?

Unfortunately, you can not import surveys into LS 3.x that were exported from LS 4.x (the file structure has changed significantly).

In my opinion LS 4.x should currently NOT be used in production, because there still are just too many issues with this branch of Limesurvey.

I honestly would probably recreate the survey in LS 3.x LTS rather than risking going down to LS 4.1.18 from LS 4.3.5. While your innitial problem might be solved, you most probably inherit a lot of other issues, that have been solved between 4.1.18 and 4.3.5.

Here, for each version you can see the improvements/bug fixes since the last version. Have a look. There is probably a lot of changes and bug fixes since 4.1.18 and these bugs will haunt you later.

can anyone give advice on quickly moving survey from 4 to 3? My survey is really long and very very complex, and I am on a severe time crunch.

Switching to 4.1.18 has now confronted me with bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=16203

Anything that can help me move it faster would be hugely helpful because I am about to curl up and cry.

As the LSS-files of LS 4.x contain a lot more information, or at least information in a different structure, I think it would be a lot of work to adapt the LSS file to work with LS 3.x and it would also be prone to errors.

In my opinion, it would probably take more time to reformat/write the LSS file than to create the survey new.

Maybe you could try to export/import through TSV, but I am not sure. But it is certainly worth a try.

I am about to curl up and cry.

It sometimes helps...

What are we talking about, when you say "long and very very complex"?

I know it is annoying and I would be frustrated too. But in my experience, a lot of the time that you spent before can be skipped, because you solved the problems already before and you know how to get where you need to get to.

Here in the forum we preach all the time to keep the hands of LS 4.x for production. I know this doesn't help now, and it frustrates us volunteers here in the forum as well. We try to warn as much as possible, to avoid what you are currently going through.

113 questions, 3 languages and most of the questions have logic that have conditions on anywhere from 2-8 other questions.

Sadly I set up a new domain and used Softaculous to install limesurvey, so I ended up with this version.

Hey there! We are sorry to hear about your issues - as a workaround, you can use tsv export -> delete the columns that do not exist in LS3 -> try import the survey in LS3 .

delete the columns that do not exist in LS3

How does one know which columns do not exist in LS3?

LimeSurvey devs should consider introducing a LS3 export routine into LS4.
The suffixes might no longer be .LSS but .LS3 and .LS4 to prevent people running into complete deadlock situation.

LimeSurvey devs should consider introducing a LS3 export routine into LS4.

Actually a good idea, but I am not sure if this is within the scope at the moment. But actually, this should have been considered from the beginning, when it was clear that LSS files from LS4 are not compatible with LS3 or below.