Family Historian User Group

Lately I have been unexpectedly seeing this message.

I opened FH>Tools>External File Links.

I made no changes and I closed that window (I pressed 'OK').

I then went to Tools>Plugins>Check for Unlinked Media>Run>List Unlinked Media.

I closed the small Plugin window and then closed the larger window.

Again, I made no changes and yet the mesaage "Save changes to Family Tree. ged" appeared.

Should this happen?!

Yes, there is a problem with Tools > External File Links that has existed since at least FH V5.

If you close it with OK instead of Cancel then every Multimedia Update field is changed to now, and that is what is prompting the Save. It has been there for years and surprising no one has noticed before.

If there were no actual changes made the Update can be reversed by using Edit > Undo External File Links Update.

Oh dear...too late to edit .....all my media files show that they were updated today!

Have you a recent FH Backup to Restore to?

That is why it prompts on every exit.

Thanks Mike but it might be safer for me to leave things as they are!

Mike ...are you saying that if one media item is re-mapped via the 'External File Links' tool and 'OK' is pressed that every media file is marked as being updated at that precise time?

If so, then a large number of users have unwittingly marked each and every media file with exactly the same date as when the one change took place and have lost the accurate date of when individual changes are made to their individual media files!

Is my understanding accurate?

Yes, I'm afraid that is the case. This was reported during beta testing, but too late for the V6 release. It is in the list of outstanding issues for Calico Pie to look at.

Thanks Lorna,

It seems that the early users of FH6 have unwittingly become the 'Gamma' testers!!

Perhaps V6 should have come with some health warnings!

It's not actually a new "feature" it was the same in all earlier versions.