# How to install the latest metaphlan reference DB?

**URL:** <https://forum.biobakery.org/t/how-to-install-the-latest-metaphlan-reference-db/3522>\
**Category:** MetaPhlAn\
**Created:** [May 2, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/how-to-install-the-latest-metaphlan-reference-db/3522 "2022-05-02T13:52:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 14

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rda](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/rda)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/how-to-install-the-latest-metaphlan-reference-db/3522/14 "2023-03-22T22:04:38Z")

</div>

```auto
$ humann --version
humann v3.6.1
$ metaphlan --version
MetaPhlAn version 4.0.6 (1 Mar 2023)
$ biobakery_workflows --version
biobakery_workflows v3.1

```

When running:

```auto
humann --input /u/home/staff1/cusgunx/ATS-TEST/biobakery/output_data3/kneaddata/main/HD32R1_subsample.fastq.gz --output /u/home/staff1/cusgunx/ATS-TEST/biobakery/output_data3/humann/main --o-log /u/home/staff1/cusgunx/ATS-TEST/biobakery/output_data3/humann/main/HD32R1_subsample.log --threads 1 --taxonomic-profile /u/home/staff1/cusgunx/ATS-TEST/biobakery/output_data3/metaphlan/main/HD32R1_subsample_taxonomic_profile.tsv

```

I get:

```auto
ERROR: The MetaPhlAn taxonomic profile provided was not generated with the database version v3 or vJan21 . Please update your version of MetaPhlAn to at least v3.0 or if you are using MetaPhlAn v4 please use the database vJan21.

```

Indeed when downloading the metaphlan DB with:

`metaphlan --install`

the db installed is: vOct22

this is a consequence of: [http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan\_databases/mpa\_latest](http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan_databases/mpa_latest) containing:

```auto
mpa_vOct22_CHOCOPhlAnSGB_202212

```

I downloaded the precomputed version of the bt2 database from: [http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan\_databases/bowtie2\_indexes/mpa\_vJan21\_CHOCOPhlAnSGB\_202103\_bt2.tar](http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan_databases/bowtie2_indexes/mpa_vJan21_CHOCOPhlAnSGB_202103_bt2.tar) (as suggested in [How to install the latest metaphlan reference DB? - #13 by aitor.blancomiguez](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/how-to-install-the-latest-metaphlan-reference-db/3522/13) and I untarred the file and placed the bt2l files in the methaplan\_databases directory but even after doing so I still get the same error. Possibly because I miss a pkl and a csv file for the vJan21?

**Question 1** : is there a way to force a specific version to be downloaded and computed?

**Question 2** : what is the command to perform the computation locally after downloading the files from [Index of /biobakery4/metaphlan\_databases](http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan_databases/) for vJan21?

**Question 3** : I see that vJan21 is hardcoded in many files humann and metaphlan (e.g., humann/config.py, humann-3.6.1-py3.9.egg-info/SOURCES.txt, MetaPhlAn-4.0.6.dist-info/METADATA, etc.), shouldn’t accordingly mpa\_latest in [Index of /biobakery4/metaphlan\_databases](http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery4/metaphlan_databases/) point to vJan21 and not vOct22 or the version be updated in humann and metaphlan?

Thanks,

RD

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