I just tried to upgrade from v0.12.0 to v.0.16.2 Server seemed to take the upgrade but when I go to upgrade netclient I get [netclient.exe] 2022-11-01 19:08:08 error installing: error creating node 502 Bad Gateway Bad Gateway

There are a number of breaking changes between those two versions and a direct upgrade is not possible.

so i should just start clean?

Yes

ok thank you