* Apps for Android

[Jane]

It looks as it gedexplorer has opened a temporary copy. How did you select the file from the disk did you navigate to the folder in gedexplorer or some other method?

[AndrewEllis]

Hi Jane,

I'd navigated to the gedcom file through the second option, "other files" as it mentioned files stored on a memory card. Doing it again through the "local files" option and everything works fine!

Thanks for helping me find the solution

Andrew

[E Wilcock]

I can see that Gedexplorer will open a GEDCOM file so doesnt need the conversion required for Gedstar pro.
Thank you for the recommendation.

However I remain very confused by the Gedcom files in fh.
Please can someone who uses Gedexplorer on their Android phone tell me which file they open in Gedexplorer?

Is it an active fh Project file? Is it a copy or is it a Gedcom exported using the export gedcom plug in?

I would be moving it into drop box to do the transfer as that is done within the gedstar pro software.

[tatewise]

According to fhugdownloads:contents:utility_gedexplorer|> Utility ~ GedExplorer and reading between the lines of the previous postings, it opens the internal Project GEDCOM file even if encoded in the default UTF-16 Unicode format.
Although it is not clear whether it supports extensions such as Fact Witnesses and Place records or even standard Fact fields often not supported such as Address, Age and Cause.

However, to include media images the Project's Media folder must be supplied too.
Although it is not clear how it handles Link to Face frames.

So GedExplorer works with a copy of the GEDCOM file and Media folder from within the Project's .fh_data internal folder.

[mjashby]

Haven't used GEDexplorer personally but the developer states:

- "Once you have a GEDCOM file you need to transfer it to your Android device (typically by connecting your device to your computer with a USB cable)." He makes no mention of using a Cloud service such as DropBox, so it's possible that the method he suggests is necessary to ensure files transfers to the correct location on the mobile device for the app to manage.

- The full application help file is available here: https://www.sundin.nu/gedexplorer/help/ and the developer provides quite a bit of information on the GEDCOM requirements, so perhaps Tatewise (Mike Tate) will be able to scan the details and advise based on the work he has already done on the Gedcom Export Plugin.

- One minor concern is the developer statement that "GEDexplorer supports the most important information elements from the GEDCOM 5.5 and 5.5.1 standards.", which presumably means some unspecified information, which he has determined as unimportant, isn't supported.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

I've quickly reviewed the GedExplorer help, but it is not explicit enough to come to any firm conclusions.
Who knows what unimportant information it does not support. It does not even show detailed screenshots, only BMD years.
I suspect it may not support Media at all if you copy the internal FH GEDCOM file that uses nonstandard _FILE tags.
I doubt it supports FH style Place records as they are not compatible with GEDCOM 5.5, 5.5.1 or 5.5EL.
So either the Export > GEDCOM File command or Export Gedcom File Plugin may be better.

[Jane]

I simply sync my whole Family Historian Projects folder to my phone and open the gedcom file in the .fh_data folder, it just works. You don't need to mess about exporting anything.

To do the sync I have shared my Work folder on our internal network and use the Folder Sync app on the phone to copy everything which has changed to the phone / tablet each day. If you don't want to do that and use a sd card in your phone you can just copy everything on to that.

GedExplorer supports Place Records and Media (but not the "cut outs"), I found the developer very responsive when asked for this. It does not currently support witnesses, but for looking up information quickly it works well for me.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you Jane. I will probably stick with the Gedstar Pro. because of TMG witness entries.

[trevorrix]

I periodically upload a Family Historian GEDCOM to Ancestry, and use the Ancestry app on my smartphone to view.