Upgrade Windows Server 2012 to 2016 Essentials not possible

Question

I have to upgrade a Windows 2012 64 bit Server to Windows Server 2016 Essentials.
As installation media I have the ISO of 2016 Evaluation Version.
14393. 0.161119-1705.RS1_REFRESH_SERVERESSENTIALS_OEM_X64FRE_DE-DE.ISO
I follow the instructions I found: Start Setup, enable check for updates, enter the licence key.
As a result I can only install a completely new OS, I cannot keep personal files and apps.
The System tells me, keeping these files is not possible because I do use a different version of the OS.
What can I do to avoid a complete re-installation of the server?
All the hints I found so far lead to the procedure described above - and they don't work.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Just checking if there's any progress or updates? To the original ask it isn't possible to in-place upgrade via evaluation media. Just a reminder, please don't forget to close up the thread here by

Answer 2

and when i try server 2019:

die erforderlichen abbilder konnten nicht geladen werden

I wish, i could finally make a feature upgrade - to 2016 or 2019

About 2019: i guess, that my Seagate NAS don't have enough RAM...