* Have lost access to FH on desktop and laptop (OneDrive)

[erowland]

I use V7 and operate on both computers using OneDrive Laptop on holidays and Desktop while at home. For reasons which I cannot explain I am unable to access my projects on either computer. Project list is not activating although the Sample Project is accessable..
This problem coincided with OneDrive telling me that I had exceeded my 5GB allowance and perhaps in trying to resolve that problem I may have upset FH programme. Any help appreciated.

[tatewise]

Please don't change anything while performing this analysis unless asked to change something.

Use Windows File Explorer to perform these checks.

Is OneDrive now synchronising across the two PC?

Does the Family Historian Projects folder exist in the OneDrive folder?
If so what is the full folder path?
Does it hold any Project folders?

In the FH File > Project Window... does the Location: refer to that folder path?

[erowland]

Thank you Mike

I attempted to upload a word doc to OneDrive which failed "The server storage quota has been exceeded"

Family Historian projects folder esists in the OneDrive folder
a. Family Historian Sample project
b. Rowland Fam desktop
also in OneDrive documents
a.Family Historian Projects
b. Bowen Family
c. Rowland Family
d. Sharon Gibbons Tree

In the FH File Project Window does the location refer to the folder path

Current project Sharon Gibbons Tree

Family Historian Projects
Family Historian Sample Project
Location. My documents\family Historian Projects

Edward

[tatewise]

It sounds like your OneDrive storage has virtually no spare capacity, so you must either reduce the quantity of files in OneDrive or pay for increased storage. Until that is resolved, the FH use of OneDrive is fraught with risk.

Fixing these types of problems requires very precise details, which is why I asked for the full file path in OneDrive.
e.g.
C:\Users\Mike\OneDrive\Documents\Family Historian Projects\

If you have two Family Historian Projects folders in OneDrive then that is a significant problem.
If they both hold all the files of several Projects then that is duplicating OneDrive storage unnecessarily.
Fixing that may resolve your OneDrive space problem.
That is why I need full file path details, otherwise I'm guessing your folder structure.

You say the current project is Sharon Gibbons Tree which I guess is the Default Project.
So in Tools > Preferences > Startup what is the Default Startup File full file path?
( Use Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C to copy it and paste it here. )

It looks like the FH Project Window Location: has reverted to the default My Documents\Family Historian Projects
Have you reinstalled FH recently?
Is there a Family Historian Projects folder outside OneDrive at a path such as:
C:\Users\Rowland\Documents\Family Historian Projects\

I recall you had issues before in Using FH program on my laptop and computer (12872).
Did you fix all those issues and delete all unwanted copies of the Family Historian Projects folder?

[NickWalker]

I realise that costs may be a little different because you live in Dublin, but the cost of OneDrive in the UK is remarkably good value. Currently on Amazon, Microsoft 365 is £48 for a single user or £67 for a family of up to 6 for a year and this gives a massive 1TB (1000 Gig) per person of OneDrive storage with the added benefit of being able to use Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) too. At various times of year such as Black Friday you can get even better pricing (and you can buy multiple years at the same time and stack them up) - I got 3 years for my family for £90 last year - 6 people able to use 1TB each of OneDrive for £2.50 a month is incredible value. The peace of mind of knowing my data including 10s of thousands of photographs, videos, etc. are all synced into the cloud from my computers and my phone makes this a 'no brainer' (the OneDrive phone app can be set to automatically upload any photos you take too).

[erowland]

Mike
I did have issues a few years ago and you sorted them out. I am reasonably sure that I followed carefully your instructions at that time. At the beginning of this year I purchased a new laptop and had the computer shop transfer the contents of my old LT to the new one "He cloned it" I have been using the new LT since without difficulties.
My list of projects were :
Bowen Family
Family Historian Sample project
Rowland family
Sharon Gibbons
The Rowland project is the primary one.
When I open the Family Historian Focus Window Sharon Gibbons appears and only Family Historian Sample Project appears. The Location given is "My Documents\Family Historian Projects"
Using Tools, preferences the Default startup file is
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects\Sharon Gibbons Tree\Sharon Gibbons Tree.fh_data\Sharon Gibbons Tree.ged
I have not reinstalled FH recently unless the transfer to the new LT would constitute a reinstallation.
I have OneDrive folder and a OneDrive documents folder. I do not recall why this was set up as such.
In OneDrive documents when I click it opens "One-Drive-Personal>OneDrive Documents>FamilyHistorian Projects" and the following file folders are listed:
Bowen Family
Family Historian Project
Rowland Family
Sharons Gibbons Tree

In the Documents folder in the Desktop there is a path "c:\users\Edward\documents\Rowland family.zip\. I think that is a back up approx size 775mb
As before I appreciate your help

Edward

[tatewise]

Edward, when providing details can you please identify which PC (Desktop or Laptop) they apply to.
It seems that most of the information you have provided relates to the Laptop but your last paragraph mentions the Desktop.

Please answer the following questions for both the Desktop and the Laptop, so that I have a detailed analysis of what Project folder structures exist on both PC.

Do you understand why there should only be one Family Historian Projects folder on each PC and that it should match the Project Window Location: setting on each PC?

When you had the issues a few years ago your Username was Rowland, i.e. C:\Users\Rowland\...
Now your Username seems to be Edward, i.e. C:\Users\Edward\...
What is your Username on each PC?

Earlier you said there were two Family Historian Projects folders in OneDrive but now you say there is only one.
Use Windows File Explorer to check on both the Desktop and Laptop whether any of the following exist.
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Edward\Documents\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Rowland\OneDrive\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Rowland\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Rowland\Documents\Family Historian Projects\

For the ones that do exist, which of the four Project names are listed within each Family Historian Projects folder?
Identify which Projects are in which Family Historian Projects folder on which PC.

What is the fh Project Window Location: setting on both Desktop and Laptop?

Notice that in FH the full file path for the Default Startup File is very different to the Location: file path.
What is the Default Startup File path and the Location: setting on both PC?

[erowland]

Mike
Yes I do understand that there should only be one Family Historian Projects folder and that it should match the Project Window Location setting on each PC.

User name Desktop:
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects
Bowen Family
Family Historian Sample Project
Rowland Family
Sharon Gibbons Tree

C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents
THis is listing: FamilyHistorian Projects> Family Historian 27 March 2016; Family Historian Sample Project 2015; >Rowland Fam desktop 22/12/2015.
There are many Zip files as backups up to 2019 which are very large. This may be causing the storage problem in OneDrive.

User Name Laptop (HP purchased Jan 2023))
C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\Family Historian Projects\Rowland Fam desktop 22/12/2015 (27.3.16).fh_data

C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\FamilyHistorian\FamilyHistorian Projects\Rowland Family.

C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\FamilyHistorian\Family Historian Projects\Rowland Fam desktop 22.12.2015(27.3.2016).fh_data

This has Bowen Family
Family History Sample project.
Family Historian Projects
Rowland Family
Rowland Family (2)
Sharon Gibbons Tree
I have now used the FH App on the Laptop and opened the Family Historian programme. In the Project Window it states Current Project: None. Under Family Historian Projects it lists:
Bowen Family
Family Historian Sample Project
Rowland Family(2)
Rowland Family
Sharon Gibbons Tree
Location My Documents\Family Historian Projects
When I purchased the HP Laptop in Jan of this year the shop transferred the contents of the Toshiba Laptop to the HP LT by cloning! There would appear to have been different user names used for LT and desktop.

On the Desktop using the FH app only Sharon Gibbons Family 6 Nov 2018 appears as Root person
The Project Window shows: Current Project: Sharon Gibbons Tree
Family Historian Projects: Family Historian Sample Project 5/06/ 2023
Location: My Documents\Family Historian Projects

Edward

[Little.auk]

This problem coincided with OneDrive telling me that I had exceeded my 5GB allowance and perhaps in trying to resolve that problem I may have upset FH programme. Any help appreciated.

Are you saying that you have only 5GB of storage allowance on OneDrive? If that is so I don't see how you could possibly use OneDrive to synchronise an FH7 project between two computers without rapidly running into problems. My own FH7 family project is relatively small at just over 1000 people, but it's project folder takes up almost 10GB of space on OneDrive.

I think your priority needs to be to significantly increase your OneDrive allowance ASAP, or you will soon be experiencing the same problem again - as Nick Walker says, cloud storage is great value for money.

Regarding the zip files you mentioned - if these are backup files then keeping four years worth means masses of duplicated data and lots of wasted storage space. If these files are in your OneDrive folder then I would suggest that you move them to a "Backup Archive" folder outside the OneDrive folder, to reduce the OneDrive load. Then consider how many of them you really need to keep.

[tatewise]

Edward, I have seen your posting and need to consider my reply tomorrow.

[tatewise]

Sorry, but the details you posted are more muddled than I expected and I am really busy this weekend so it will be difficult to find the time to analyse those details and propose solutions. I might find time tomorrow evening.

My first reaction is that if you know there should only be one Family Historian Projects folder why are there several?
Secondly, the OneDrive folder contents are different on the Laptop compared to the Desktop so OneDrive is not syncing!
Therefore, several issues need to be resolved and I'm not sure which one to tackle first.

In the meantime, as Little.auk suggests, delete the old Project Backup ZIP files. You only need the latest one for each Project.

Also, rename each Family Historian Projects folder that is not the one that should be used by FH.
Rename them to something that reflects the actual contents. But if unsure about this then do nothing.

[NickWalker]

My first reaction is that if you know there should only be one Family Historian Projects folder why are there several?
Secondly, the OneDrive folder contents are different on the Laptop compared to the Desktop so OneDrive is not syncing!
Therefore, several issues need to be resolved and I'm not sure which one to tackle first.

It isn't going to sync because his 5GB OneDrive is full. I did point out a really cheap way to resolve that problem.

[tatewise]

Yes Nick, I realise OneDrive is not syncing now, but it seems it has never synced because the folder names are very different.

[NickWalker]

Yes Nick, I realise OneDrive is not syncing now, but it seems it has never synced because the folder names are very different.

Yes but it's going to be practically impossible for you to help him to resolve this if you also have to work around a 5GB limit. I know it costs money but the UK cost of buying 1000GB of OneDrive is about 86p a week which is less than the price of a pint of milk.

[tatewise]

In his earlier Using FH program on my laptop and computer (12872) thread Edward was guided through deleting excessive FH Snapshot files and old Backup ZIP files to get OneDrive syncing successfully.

I suspect Edward has not kept up that regime for deleting old files, and if they are deleted now, OneDrive will sync again.

The usernames and OneDrive folders have changed dramatically since that previous thread and it is not clear why.

Nick, you are welcome to offer whatever assistance you think might help Edward while I am busy this weekend.

[erowland]

Nick
Thank you for your observations.
Hopefilly as part of dealing with my problem acquiring additional storage on OndDrive will contribute. I will attend to that

Regards

Edward

[Little.auk]

Edward,

In a previous post you showed your file paths as below

Desktop:

C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects

Laptop (HP purchased Jan 2023))

C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\Family Historian Projects\
C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\FamilyHistorian\Family Historian Projects
and
C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\FamilyHistorian\FamilyHistorian Projects

You have listed four different paths! (unless the missing space in the last FamilyHistorian Projects entry is a typo).

You cannot synchronise your Family Historian Projects with these settings - the file path within the \OneDrive\ folder must be the same on both computers -

If you use \OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects\ on your PC you must use exactly the same path on your Laptop. Otherwise you will end up with each computer having a PC project and a Laptop project in different places in OneDrive - the PC working on one and the Laptop working on the other, and neither synchronising with the other.

Like Mike, I am pretty sure that either the Laptop or the PC (or both) have not been communicating with OneDrive, as if they both were you would find the PC path OneDrive Documents on your Laptop.

I think that before you can do anything to get synchronising working, you need to address the OneDrive space issue. Clearing out files will help in the short term, but 5GB is way too little to run a genealogy project.

[erowland]

I am very conscious that it is all a muddle. I have purchased additional storage from Microsoft and am in that regard at least returned to within the fold.
I am hesitant of taking further action lest I complicate matters further.
Again thank you all for your help and advice

Edward

[Little.auk]

FOR MIKE

From his post Edward appears to have his FH Project working on his PC, so you should be able to help him check that his FH Project is OK on his PC.

The laptop, I think, is a different kettle of fish.

What concerns me is the fact that the PC and the laptop have different user names. Microsoft help says that OneDrive "expects" the user name to be the same on both machines (so not "requires"). However, having different names does raise the question in my mind as to whether the two computers are actually using the same cloud instance of OneDrive.

I suggest that Edward should take that (and probably the PC as well) back to the people who cloned it from the Toshiba laptop and get them to unlink OneDrive from the Toshiba user, and then duplicate the Edward user and set up OneDrive there - If syncing then works OneDrive will automatically create all the folders and files on the laptop.

[AdrianBruce]

... What concerns me is the fact that the PC and the laptop have different user names. Microsoft help says that OneDrive "expects" the user name to be the same on both machines (so not "requires"). However, having different names does raise the question in my mind as to whether the two computers are actually using the same cloud instance of OneDrive. ...

Without spending way too long waiting for it to logon, I'm fairly certain that my desktop and laptop have different user-names but happily synch. Indeed, I have to use the set-up to stop my admin user synching to OneDrive and that has clearly has a different user-name from my daily user. What surely matters is that you log onto the same Microsoft account on each machine, and then the same folders are chosen to be available on each PC?

If the different user-names both occur in a sub-folder of OneDrive, then that's another ball-game...

[tatewise]

Adrian is correct, the C:\Users\ name is completely independent of the Microsoft Account / OneDrive sign-in username.
I was just highlighting that they had radically changed on both PC since Edward's previous thread 18 months ago.

For OneDrive sync to work the same Microsoft Account / OneDrive sign-in username must be used on both PC.

[Little.auk]

Adrian is correct, the C:\Users\ name is completely independent of the Microsoft Account / OneDrive sign-in username.
I was just highlighting that they had radically changed on both PC since Edward's previous thread 18 months ago.

For OneDrive sync to work the same Microsoft Account / OneDrive sign-in username must be used on both PC.

I may be a relative newbie to FH7, but I worked in IT for the last twenty years of my working life - so I know exactly how cloud storage works. I was just suggesting it as a possibility, since it appears the two computers have never synchronised and the OneDrive folder contents bear little resemblance to each other.

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the people who originally set up the Toshiba laptop also created a "Toshiba" OneDrive account for it.

I don't know how the cloning process was carried out for the new laptop, but it is not best practice to copy an existing cloud folder AND its contents across to a new computer. The transfer should preferably be done via the cloud.

First sync the old computer with the cloud to ensure all it's contents are uploaded,

Create the OneDrive folder on the new computer and sign in to the cloud account.

Let OneDrive populate the new OneDrive folder.

There is a very good reason for using this method as it ensures that the cloud storage is working before the computer is handed over to the client.

If this process was followed in this case, then the folder structure created on the laptop bears no resemblance to the PC. The only way that could happen is if they were using different OneDrive accounts.

This possibility needs to be tested or eliminated, which is why my recommendation is that a user 'Edward' should be created on the laptop and a OneDrive folder created and linked to the cloud and the folder allowed to populate.

This preserves the 'Toshiba' OneDrive folder in case there is a need to carry out a comparison between the FH files there and the PC, so that any data added on the laptop that have not synced to the PC can be recovered.

[tatewise]

Peter, when Edward started this thread he admitted there was a OneDrive sync problem due to a lack of cloud storage.
Side effects of that may also have led to different OneDrive folders.
Back in 2021, it seems the Desktop path was:
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\FamilyHistorian Projects\
( Although sometimes Edward was replaced by Rowland )
Currently, the Desktop path does seem to be the same:
C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive Documents\Family Historian Projects\
So that is more consistent than I originally thought.

Edward, can you confirm you are using the same Microsoft Account on both the Desktop and the Laptop.
Back in 2021, that account was either [redacted]@eircom.net or perhaps [redacted]45@gmail.com but unfortunately that old thread ended without any confirmation of success.

Edward, now you have much more OneDrive storage are the PC synchronising?
If so then the folders within the OneDrive folder will be identical on both PC. Is that the case?

Once OneDrive is syncing we can start resolving the muddle.

[erowland]

Mike
I have saved a Word document to Desktop OneDrive. This has synced with OneDrive documents on the Laptop.
I sign into Microsoft account with [redacted email one] and also [redacted email two] to both computers.
The path for the Word document on the Desktop was C:\Users\Edward\OneDrive\OneDrive documents
The path for the Wodr Doc on the Laptop was: Edward-Personal\OneDrive Documents
Please note that on the Laptop I have OneDrive and OneDrive Documents. The path for OneDrive is:
Local DiscC:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive

There is another path on OneDrive C:\Users\Toshiba\OneDrive\Family Historian Projects\Rowland Fam desktop 22 12 2015(27.3.16).fh_data

Edward

(edited by moderator to remove plain text email addresses).

[tatewise]

You cannot successfully sync the two PC unless you stick to just one Microsoft Account.
Please describe how you sign-in to the PC and to OneDrive.
e.g.
Do you sign-in to the PC Windows user accounts using a local username & password or PIN?
Do you sign-in to the PC Windows user accounts using the Microsoft Account Email address?
Do you sign-in to OneDrive using the same or a different Microsoft Account Email address?

Each Microsoft Account Email address relates to a different OneDrive online store.
Which one did you use to purchase the extra storage?
That is the one and only Microsoft Account Email address you must use with OneDrive to sync that extra storage.

In this discussion, we are not talking about sign-in to Email services where you can legitimately have many Email addresses.
We are specifically talking about your Microsoft Account used with OneDrive.