Since it is so hard to communicate through blog comments when you are trying to get your point across, I’m putting this post up to show what I get when I try to import a GEDCOM file into my copy of Family Tree Maker 2012. I’m just trying to help the information process, so that everyone involved can get a better picture of what is happening. Poor Russ Worthington is trying to help, but is probably more frustrated then anyone involved.
I didn’t even realize I had this issue, until I was reading my blog reader this morning and stumbled across Randy Seaver’s ongoing “adventures”. This is basically me saying, “ME TOO!”
Here is my process, to show my re-creation:
This shows that my 3rd Great Grandfather, William H Moore, has a census image attached to his birth citation. There are other images attached to him that you can see in the middle media column of the fact page on the right. However, we only need to see that there is actually media present in the file. Also please excuse the really crazy address citations there. I’ve since condensed them into a better looking format.
Next I exported a selective file. I chose only my direct ancestral line and I made sure to “Include media files”.
I have done this step with both ANSI and UTF-8 character sets. The same result both times.
Next I did Russ’ recommended step of searching the gedcom for jpg links. Nothing there, so I knew there would be no links when I imported. For the sake of documentation I’ll carry on.
I imported the gedcom file into a new Family Tree Maker file. You can see that there are no multimedia links present.
Here is William H Moore’s new fact page in the new Family Tree Maker file. Notice how the media column is all zeros. This tells us there are no links to any present or missing media.
Here is my lonely, empty Media section.
Like I told Russ in his post, I merely tried to re-create Randy’s problem out of curiosity. I often do this when I see people are having some sort of issue in software. I’m not a computer programmer, I’m not a particulary smart person. I’ve just always loved messing with things and getting them to work. So this started as an experiment (I do many) to see if I could re-create Randy’s exact problem. Sometimes I might notice where someone missed a step or set something wrong and can even help, (not often, I ain’t no genius, that’s my brother, HA).
So here’s a second example of the problem Randy is experiencing. In a normal import, there should be something in the media section showing that there are missing media files, not the images themselves, but links. I always understood that. I was just flabbergasted that my file had none of those links! I’ve had those in previous versions of Family Tree Maker, so I know them when I see them.
Am I completely a geek when I say that this was a very fun way to spend an afternoon for me? Even if I did have to do laundry and make pudding too.
Hi Kathleen,
Okay, I don’t feel so alone and dumb about this. I’m about to send an FTM file and zipped media folder to Russ to see if he can duplicate my (our) problem!
I think it’s in the GEDCOM creation step somewhere. I’ve noticed other problems too with GEDCOM.
Thanks for the post!
I’m glad I could throw another example into the mix.
I’m sure you’re right and it has to do with the creation of the GEDCOM file, because the links aren’t showing up in the GEDCOM right after export. So for some reason they aren’t getting put in there. I’m going to test more things and see what happens. No harm in trying things out!
I’ll be interested to see if Russ can figure it out in the files you send. Most especially in the FTM file. If he can’t re-create it using the file then there must be a setting we’re missing somewhere!
Kathleen
Kathleen,
This is too weird. I can duplicate Randy’s problem with his file, but I can NOT with my own file.
Still looking.
What is really interesting is that the 3 of us has New Jersey folk in the files we are using. May be that’s the issue. Oh, I am the only one in New Jersey, but no one in my file is.
Russ
Kathleen,
I have a quick question.
Where did your tree start? Was it created on Ancestry, or was is created within the Family Tree Maker program? If so, which version?
Thank you,
Russ
Russ,
Actually, I thought of that too on the first day of testing. I also tried creating a brand new member tree and downloading it to FTM2012, then exported one person from that tree. The main file I was using to export was a FTM2012 file that was copied from my FTM2010 file when I installed the new program. When I installed FTM2012, I copied my old file completely and used did the upgrade when I first opened it. However, when my FTM2012 file got corrupted, the only way to get it working again was to use a GEDCOM backup. Not even my FTM backups would work after restoring them.
Kathleen,
I just created an AMT, downloaded and Linked it. All is well. Exported 2 of 3 people, to a GEDCOM. Opened that GEDCOM and it worked as expected.
I can ONLY duplicate the problem with Randy’s file.
Hum
Russ
Okay Russ, I just opened up the files you sent and I got the same result Randy got in his post. Everything was okay.
Just to be sure, since I didn’t touch it yesterday, I went ahead and made an AMT using people on my mother’s side of the family. Then I downloaded to FTM2012. The interesting thing is, not all my media transferred over. A death record image, that was put in through Ancestry.com, didn’t make the transfer. I got screencaps of the process, but I thought that was interesting.
Then, since the death record image didn’t transfer over, I added my own scanned copy of it to the file and exported that person into his own GEDCOM. Same settings we’ve been using the whole time. None of the census images or the death record links copied over.
I’m going to switch over to my desktop computer in a few minutes and start making a post to document the things I’ve tried so I don’t forget!
Kathleen
By the way, I used my mother’s side so we could test the “New Jersey” theory. haha.
Kathleen,
When you didn’t see that Death Record, did you go to the Media Workspace and either do the CTRL+F5 or Find Missing Media? Did you check the Plan Workspace, right window to see if the Media Download had completed?
Russ
Yup Russ, I checked all that! It was weird.
I had attached through Ancestry 2 census records and the death record. The census records downloaded and the death record didn’t. I double checked on the online tree to make sure I had in fact attached the death record and I had. Funny enough, I tried it a second time just a few minutes ago because I had deleted the tree when it didn’t work and I wanted to be sure I checked everything. This time all the media came through the download. So maybe my internet cut out at just the right moment on the previous attempt. That’s been known to happen.
However, when I did the gedcom export and import, no media links and no missing media icons.
Russ, if you want to try downloading my online tree and testing from that, I can invite you to it. Just let me know!
Kathleen,
I can not download your tree. ONLY the User can download a tree.
Russ
Kathleen , I have a question about FTM2012 downloads /gedcoms & TNG . When you upload a FTM2012 gedcom with images/pdf files , ect appropiated to the individuals to your website on TNG ( V. 9 ) ……………did it work ??
Or did you do the upload Media files one by one to TNG ??
Trying to find a faster way here ……..lot of pans in the fire .
Magda
Hey Magda, unfortunately I’ve done them one by one but I haven’t had image files in my FTM file before. So let me try really quick on my test site and see what happens!
Okay after a quick test, I uploaded a gedcom that had a tombstone photo for William Wallace Love and a portrait for Jane Menzies-Love. It looks like it tried, but that it didn’t actually upload the pictures. This might be why I’ve just done it manually all these years. I have a lot of issues with importing in my past. I’ll look further into it and test more!
Okay, sorry for all the posts one after another. I got it to work, but I had to upload the photos separately. However, once they were in the photos folder, they showed on the pages. I didn’t have to add them individually to each person. That would save a ton of time.
You do have to manually change the category for things like the headstones and documents. That’s easy though a quick change of the “collection” under Edit Media and it all works!