Family Historian User Group

As you suggested Mike, I now have my main project on Google's Drive which now takes up 17.1 GB and it syncs every time I add a new person, fact, etc, which can be annoying as it interferes with my current additions. Is there a way to make it sync when I've finished adding to my project at the end of the day or on a daily basis?
I understood from you that the media files are kept in my FH Project on my PC's hard drive as well as on Google Drive and I back them up to a portable hard drive too. Should I delete the folder for photos on the PC's hard drive which also contains the same media in order to save space?

John, I presume your File > Project Window > Location is E:\Documents\Google Drive\Family Historian Projects
Perhaps confusingly, there are two things called Googe Drive:
1) That Google Drive folder that exists in your Documents folder on your PC hard drive.
2) The Google Drive cloud storage system that exists in Google disk drives on their servers.

Your entire Project is on your hard drive E: in that E:\Documents\Google Drive\Family Historian Projects folder.
So the GEDCOM file and all the Media files inside the Project are all together on PC hard drive E:.
A backup copy is synchronised with the Google Drive cloud storage system.
If you delete the hard drive files then the synchronised Google copy will also get deleted. So don't do that.

I suspect 17.1 GB is the size of the entire Project including all the Media files, etc.
When you add new people & facts only the GEDCOM file is changed plus perhaps one or two Media files if you add Media.
They will be a tiny tiny fraction of that 17.1 GB so should synchronise almost instantly.

Please explain how that interferes with your current additions.

You can manually switch Google synchronisation on and off but affects everything in the Google Drive folder and not just your FH Project. It is not possible to selectively synchronise on a daily basis.

Mike, could it be the synchronising of the large thumbnail cache which is the problem? That will change when a new image is added.

I stopped using Google drive because it locks the entire folder whilst syncing. I also have the thumb cache switched off.

My project is as you say, Mike at E:\Documents\Google Drive\Family Historian Projects folder. The Google Cloud Drive syncs with it I guess as I use FH7 to add more people, facts and media about them. As I input each person, fact, census, photo, etc, the arrow in the cloud in my toolbar rotates and when it does so, it stops me inputting anything else as the mouse shows the blue wheel rotating as if I'm connecting to the internet? So there is a momentary pause before I can enter more?
As far as I know, the cloud is only used to sync my FH7 project, other important documents on there are static.

As has been suggested, it is possible the image thumbnail cache file has grown large and is the cause of the sync delay.
This is a recurring problem with FH.

I cannot remember the name of your Project but let us pretend it is JohnsTree.
I advise that you delete the thumbnail cache file which is at:
E:\Documents\Google Drive\Family Historian Projects\JohnsTree\JohnsTree.fh_data\Cache\ThumbCache.dat
It is perfectly safe to delete that ThumbCache.dat file but do not delete anything else.
That file can be deleted again periodically because it grows full of unused thumbnails and gets rebuilt when needed.

@johnmorrisoniom: Remind me how you switch off the cache entirely. I did not realise that was possible.

@tatewise
Tools> Preferences> General tab - Advanced
Change Thumbnail Images ti "Load When Needed"

John

I've managed to do that and it had 1.3 GB in it, Mike and I saw also in the same thumbnail cache that FMP and My Heritage have items there too. Would it be OK to delete them as well especially as this seems to cause the FMP and MH 'hints' not to work at times? When you go to the FH7 page regarding that problem it says that a cloud drive cache may be the problem?

I haven't used johnmorrisoniom's version yet?

Do NOT delete the FindMyPastCache or MyHeritageCache that keep track of which hints have been accepted and rejected.
If you delete them you may have to start reviewing all the hints over again from scratch.
I don't know which FH V7 page you are talking about ~ please be more specific.

Did deleting the ThumbCache.dat file resolve the Google Drive sync delays?
If so then just make a note to repeat that whenever sync gets slow.

I'm not sure the setting that johnmorrisoniom mentions totally inhibits the ThumbCache.dat file.
However, it is worth a try.

See also this topic: ThumbCache.dat (18604)
Using a Symbolic Link may help.

Thank you Mike that makes the program work much better.