I'll have to try the Unite option.
As for the file version, I think a lot of these files have actually been saved to an older version, but not sure which one. (I purchased the business this year after doing their design work for the last five years, and a lot of the designs are from before I was there. ) It's not uncommon for me to never open the file up in AI, because I just drop it into flexi. And occasionally when I do open a file it will give me some line about legacy something that I've tuned out from seeing it so much, so can't recall the exact wording. Terrible I know.