Existing Meta Data Overwritten

Hi, first I installed the latest version of Yoast, but when I activated it, it wiped out all the existing meta data. Then I installed version 2.3.5 since the general consensus is that it’s a better version. A few posts imported the exisitng meta data into Yoast, but about 99% didn’t. I tried using the appropriate variables in the correct fields but that didn’t work either.

My questions are:
1) does anyone know about a workaround to get Yoast to import existing meta data into the plugin?
2) does the paid version address this issue?
3) if you have the paid version, what’s the support like? is it worth it?

Thanks!

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wordpress-seo/