* Problem renaming projects

[Gene123]

I just tried renaming the 4 of my projects. The 2 I have in my own file structure work fine, but the 2 that are in the default Users/onedrive folder now wont open and now have a 1971 last used date. They have a "File path is not valid" error. If I use windows explorer to find them in the then click to open them that way I get the same message. and I cant rename them back to the old name either or I get the message shown. I dont use onedrive, no applications are open, I have closed eveything and then this is a fresh restart of FH

[NickWalker]

Try restarting the computer and then doing this before doing anything else.

[tatewise]

The Last Updated date/time of 1/1/1971 00:00 is the default when the Project cannot be opened or there is significant corruption to the folder & file structure.

You say your Projects are in two different locations, so do you change the Project Window Location: setting to swap between those two locations?

If you don't use OneDrive why are they in the OneDrive folder?

The FHUG Knowledge Base > Understanding Projects article explains under Project Structure how Project folders are organised.

[Gene123]

all 4 projects were working fine before I attempted to rename.

The 2 in the locations I chose I had created that structure and placed the gedcom there Then Imported and thats where they stayed. the 2 that are in the onedrive folder, I did not choose the location, those were imports directly from Legacy and they went where they went.

Many years ago I had tried onedrive, didnt like it and uninstalled it So I assume FH found and used what remained of it, but regardless, all 4 worked before the rename and after the rename ( Only adding "LIVE " before the existing name), they no longer work.

[tatewise]

AH! I misunderstood your original posting.
I thought it was the More Tasks... > Rename Project... process that was raising the error.

If all the Projects were working correctly after the rename and you are not changing the Location: setting shown in your screenshot as My Documents\Family Historian Projects then they must all be in the same folder C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Family Historian Projects\ and none of them can be in the OneDrive folder.
Maybe Legacy downloaded its GEDCOM into OneDrive but after importing to create a new Project FH will use the folder above.
OR did you use the direct import from Legacy to create the FH Project?

So please confirm that the folder above has five folders with the same names as the Project names and that you have not accidentally disrupted the folder structure of the two with a problem. Do they have the structure described in the FHUG Knowledge Base article?

BTW: Do you have backups or ways of recreating those two Projects?

[Gene123]

It turns out I was wrong about the location of the 2 that are working, while I thought they were in a different location it turns out they are not. So those are within the same folder structure as the 2 non-working. Which is a "documents" folder under the one drive folder. I dont know why that location is default but it is, I checked the regular Documents folder under users and its there but empty.
Yes I did use FH's "import from other software" to import legacy

That being said, I did have a backup of 1 of the non working and so that is now working, but of course my "main" project is the one not working.
The thing I find strange is yes it was fully working. I did the rename through tasks and looking at the folder structure in windows, everything Did rename properly, the folder names are correct with the new name the .fh_proj was renamed and shows the right number of individuals, the .ged was renamed and appears to be fully intact, BUT I see the media folder is now empty - Not good. I hoped that a rename actually copied the everyting to a newly named structure then deleted the old, but there is nothing in the recycle bin.


I'm at a loss...
I Think I'm at a point where I just give up on that file and reimport from Legacy and hope I can remember most of what I have updated.

Thank you for all of your help!!

[Gene123]

Holy poop!!

I Figured it out.
In the .ged the "FILE" line never renamed, everything did but not there. I manually renamed the folders and 2 files back to the old name and it works...

WHEW!!
Thanks again for the help!

[tatewise]

The reason the location is C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive\Documents\Family Historian Projects\ is that is one way of configuring OneDrive which redefines the path to My Documents and so FH follows that path instead of the usual one.

The More Tasks > Rename Project... command does literally that. It renames the folders and files in situ, just as you did manually. So there is no copying and deleting involved.

If it is only the Media file paths that are the problem, then I would not expect the error message that you posted with the dates of 1/1/1971 00:00.

I don't think the FILE tag path in the GEDCOM Header is of any significance so I guess you are talking about Media FILE paths.

There are two methods of specifying the Media path in the GEDCOM FILE tag.

1. Use a relative path that starts with the internal Media sub-folder. Since they are relative to the Project folders, any renaming of the Project and its folders requires no adjustment to the FILE paths. This is the preferred method.
2. Use an absolute path that starts with the drive letter and all the intervening folders. If all the Media files are outside the Project folders then again they are immune to Project renaming.

So I'm not sure why renaming the Project folders has the effect you describe, especially as it was derived from a Legacy direct import.
To throw some light on what FILE link paths are being used please run the Tools > External File Links... command.
For case 1. above they should start with Project Data Folder - Media
For case 2. above they will start with a drive letter and involve all the intermediate folders.
Please post a screenshot or provide some typical examples of the paths in use.