Family Historian User Group

Hi All,

Maybe I am going round the twist, but for the life of me, I cannot workout what has happened. I recently bought a new laptop, so I deactivated the licence on my old one then activated it on my new laptop, no issues there, but now, whenever I add media to a record, individual or family using drag and drop, it insists on putting the media in the Project media folder, as I have historically only ever linked to media wherever it resides on my computer, this is annoying. I am having to edit the link to correct it. What am I doing wrong, it does not behave that way on my desktop computer. I cant seem to find anything in my settings, maybe its just me getting old lol.

Thanks

Did you transfer all your settings over, as described here: Family Historian Copy and Migration Guide

Yes, I think it is since the last update, because I have just updated my desktop to 7018 and now it does it too. fwiw, I use a program called Beyond Compare to back up all my files and settings, have done so for years.

Are you no longer getting the small Add Media to Project window, asking you whether you want to copy the file to the default location within the Project folder, and giving you the option to <Don't Copy - link only> ?

I think it must be me, I have shut down and rebooted my computer and now it is fine, god knows, I must be getting senile lol

davepacey wrote: ↑

30 Nov 2022 15:44

I think it must be me, I have shut down and rebooted my computer and now it is fine, god knows, I must be getting senile lol

I'm not sure it's just you, when I do this I get to chose a location "within the project folder" not elsewhere, I also manage all my media outside the project folder.

This wasn't a big snag for me as I worked these files as regards renaming and adding Titles when they were segregated in the project folder then just redistributed them to my own folder structure.

The fix broken links routine will do all the link updating for you, see my recent video here

Vyger wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2022 16:18

I'm not sure it's just you, when I do this I get to chose a location "within the project folder" not elsewhere, I also manage all my media outside the project folder.

Although the option to copy to the <Default Location wihin Project Folder> is the one shown by default, the drop down menu always offers the option to <Don't copy - link only>, followed by the default option, followed by a list of any sub-folders you have in the default Media folder.

Admittedly if you don't want it in the Project Media folder the only alternative is to link to it in its present position. Did you want to be able to choose a new location outside the Project?

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2022 16:38

Vyger wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2022 16:18

I'm not sure it's just you, when I do this I get to chose a location "within the project folder" not elsewhere, I also manage all my media outside the project folder.

Although the option to copy to the <Default Location wihin Project Folder> is the one shown by default, the drop down menu always offers the option to <Don't copy - link only>, followed by the default option, followed by a list of any sub-folders you have in the default Media folder.

Admittedly if you don't want it in the Project Media folder the only alternative is to link to it in its present position. Did you want to be able to choose a new location outside the Project?

Lorna, that would be the case when Add New Media was the selection but not when Pasting Media as the media file needs to be saved somewhere on one's computer.

OK, I thought you were talking about using Drag-and-Drop when the file is already stored in the computer. I believe that was what the OP meant, as he said: "whenever I add media to a record, individual or family using drag and drop, it insists on putting the media in the Project media folder, as I have historically only ever linked to media wherever it resides on my computer, this is annoying."

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2022 18:13

OK, I thought you were talking about using Drag-and-Drop when the file is already stored in the computer. I believe that was what the OP meant, as he said: "whenever I add media to a record, individual or family using drag and drop, it insists on putting the media in the Project media folder, as I have historically only ever linked to media wherever it resides on my computer, this is annoying."

You are correct, I always use the "link only" option which I believe is the default, but one can also drag and drop from the web browser.

I probably need to read things more carefully.

Yes, I store my images in various locations on my computer, mainly as I use 3 other genealogy programs (long story), and they all link to the same images. If I had them all in their own media folders, that would be a lot of duplication.

When using drag and drop, if I select don't copy - Link only, the file is linked correctly, the confusing part is, you are still able to click the location button, but as the file is going to be linked to, it is redundant, maybe the location button would be better greyed out or made inactive when the link only option is selected.

the confusing part is, you are still able to click the location button, but as the file is going to be linked to, it is redundant, maybe the location button would be better greyed out or made inactive when the link only option is selected.

That could be awkward if a user were to move a linked file to a different location or edit the file/folder name, as it wouldn't be possible to reflect the change by correcting the link in FH (or in any other Family History software used).

Mervyn

mjashby wrote: ↑

03 Dec 2022 10:12

the confusing part is, you are still able to click the location button, but as the file is going to be linked to, it is redundant, maybe the location button would be better greyed out or made inactive when the link only option is selected.

That could be awkward if a user were to move a linked file to a different location or edit the file/folder name, as it wouldn't be possible to reflect the change by correcting the link in FH (or in any other Family History software used).

Mervyn

If you use drag and drop, then click the location, it switches from Don't Copy - Link only to default location in media folder as it would be copying the file to the new location not linking to it, so I fail to see how your comment stands.

davepacey wrote: ↑

03 Dec 2022 09:36

the confusing part is, you are still able to click the location button, but as the file is going to be linked to, it is redundant, maybe the location button would be better greyed out or made inactive when the link only option is selected.

I agree that's a bit odd, because the Location button just lets you choose from a list of existing sub-folders (if you have created sub-folders) within the Project Media folder, so it should be inactive when you have chosen the option to Link only. Another oddity is that the same list of sub-folders is displayed in the main Copy File(s) to menu, so there are two ways of getting to the same list. Incidentally, whatever option/location you choose becomes the default next time you add media this way, which is probably sensible. (I can't now remember what the default was first time.)

mjashby wrote: ↑

03 Dec 2022 10:12

That could be awkward if a user were to move a linked file to a different location or edit the file/folder name, as it wouldn't be possible to reflect the change by correcting the link in FH (or in any other Family History software used).

Like Dave, I'm puzzled by this comment. The Auto Repair Links button in Tools > External File Links can repair links if files have been moved or renamed. The Help file explains:
"This button will prompt Family Historian to attempt to find missing media files and fix any 'broken' links. This can be a slow process, but a progress dialog is displayed so you can stop the search at any time if you wish. The search will begin with the current project folder, and ripple outwards from the current project, eventually including other fixed drives on your PC if necessary ..."

The Auto Repair Links button probably won't work if the filename is changed (rather than the folder path).
That is where the Edit... (or Re-Map...) button comes into play.
Alternatively, the Media record File link can be manually corrected via the Records Window or the Media Window.

Yes I overlooked that. But as you say it is still perfectly possible to correct the link in FH, so I don't understand Mevyn's point.

mjashby wrote: ↑

03 Dec 2022 10:12

That could be awkward if a user were to move a linked file to a different location or edit the file/folder name, as it wouldn't be possible to reflect the change by correcting the link in FH (or in any other Family History software used).

Mervyn

There have been many changes in recent updates, one is the ability to Rename files to more meaningful file names from within FH, the update notes will describe the others. It is also possible to split out filename only to the media list and sort on that to correct those Ancestry non descript numeric file names. That leaves that option available in FH, FTM, and LFT, see table below.

It is also possible to filter on Broken Links only, something long wished for in my previous software.

The Auto Repair Links will search far and wide as Lorna has quoted from the Help file and relink any files which have been moved to anywhere on the computer providing they have NOT been renamed outside FH really no genealogy software can track such user changes made in the OS. Sometimes this all or nothing approach is painful as I can have up to nine drives attached so the search takes quite a bit of time, in my previous software I had the option to target a folder including the sub folders in my case Documents\Genealogy and make that relinking process much less time consuming.

I attempted to cover every possible Media related feature in my video, but as we all know there are many ways to achieve things in Family Historian.