diff --git a/src/app/root-view.coffee b/src/app/root-view.coffee
index 5adee2902..3b14e4378 100644
--- a/src/app/root-view.coffee
+++ b/src/app/root-view.coffee
@@ -23,9 +23,13 @@ class RootView extends View
         @div id: 'vertical', outlet: 'vertical', =>
           @div id: 'panes', outlet: 'panes'
 
-  @deserialize: ({ projectState, panesViewState, packageStates }) ->
-    project = Project.deserialize(projectState) if projectState
-    rootView = new RootView(project, packageStates: packageStates, suppressOpen: true)
+  @deserialize: ({ projectState, panesViewState, packageStates, projectPath }) ->
+    if projectState
+      projectOrPathToOpen = Project.deserialize(projectState) 
+    else
+      projectOrPathToOpen = projectPath # This will migrate people over to the new project serialization scheme. It should be removed eventually.
+      
+    rootView = new RootView(projectOrPathToOpen , packageStates: packageStates, suppressOpen: true)
     rootView.setRootPane(rootView.deserializeView(panesViewState)) if panesViewState
     rootView
 
@@ -38,7 +42,7 @@ class RootView extends View
     @packageStates ?= {}
     @packageModules = {}
 
-    if not projectOrPathToOpen or _.isString(projectOrPathToOpen)
+    if not projectOrPathToOpen or _.isString(projectOrPathToOpen)      
       pathToOpen = projectOrPathToOpen
       @project = new Project(projectOrPathToOpen)
     else