The electron impact-induced fragmentation of 2,2-dimethyl-and 2-ethyI-l,findandione, 1 and 2, and their isomers, 3-isopropylidene-and 3-propylidenephthalide, 3 and 4, respectively, was studied in detail by mass-analysed ion kinetic energy (MIKE) and collision-induced dissociation (CID-MIKE) spectrometry, including 'H and I3C-labelled analogues of 1 and 2. In all regimes of internal energy, the molecular ions 1" -4" interconvert by up to seven consecutive, reversible isomerization steps prior to the main fragmentation processes, viz. loss of CH,' and C,H,. 1,3-Indandione and 3-methylenephthalide ions with identical alkylidene moieties (i.e. 1 +' e 3" and 2+' e 4+') equilibrate rapidly and completely prior to fragmentation, whereas these pairs of isomers interconvert only slowly via a five-step rearrangement of the indandione ions 1+'=2+'. Distinct from the behaviour of simpler ionized carbonyl species, a 1,2-C shift of a (formally) neutral carbonyl group is found to occur along with that of a protonated one. Also distinct from simpler cases, methyl loss does not take place from the ionized enol intermediates formed within the interconversion 1 +' + 2" of the diketone ions but rather from the n-propylidenephthalide ions 4+'. This follows from CID-MIKE spectrometry of the IM -CH,] + ions of 1-4 and two reference C,oH70,+ (m/z 159) ions of authentic structures (protonated 2-methylene-l,3-indaodione and protonated 1,4-naphthoquinone). The characteristic CID fragmentation of the C, oH70, + ions is rationalized. Finally, the multistep isomerization of ionized 1,J-indandiones apparently also extends to higher homologues leg. 5" from 2-etbyl-2-methyl-1,3-indandione (5) and 6" from 2,2-diethyl-1,3-indandione (6)] : the ionized phthaloyl group of 1,findandione radical cations l+', 2+', 5+' and 6+', originally attached with its two acyl functionalities to the same carbon of the aliphatic chain, performs, in fact, a 'multi-step migration'.