* Lost photos

[Hely]

Hello,
I have somehow lost all the photos in my tree. The file names are there, but no images - just crosses. I think I can see them all in 'Media', from the multimedia box in 'properties', but I don't know how to get themall back again. They were 'inserted' - not links.
By the way, when I try to 'Edit Media item' I get the message - 'Unable to load object. Error on file open'. I have run 'validation' but it says there are no errors there. I am on v4
with updates and have been runnning it for years.

It was all my own fault, as I 'deleted' people from a chart - instead of 'hiding' them (just found out about that!), then I had to do a restore, which didn't include the photos, because it was on 'automatic save'.

Helen
Can you help me please, in layman's language?
Thankyou
Helen

ID:5797

[Jane]

I suspect you no longer have a project gedcom as when you restored you ended up with a new name for your gedcom.

Go to the Project folder in windows explorer and go to the .fh_data folder, make sure the gedcom file you restored is in there and has the same name as the Project, you may have to rename the old file to be able to give the restored file the same name.

Please check you have V4.1 installed (menu Help>About)

Open your Project from the File/Project Window

Go to the Tools>Work With External Links and check where FH is looking for the images, and hopefully your links will be back.

[Hely]

Thankyou, but, oh dear, I've already made a mess before I asked you and my tomatoes are already in the fruit salad!
Yes, I have V4.1

The main problem has been that I have SO many of the same name in the gedcom history files, but the data is all a bit different and I don't understand them.

I have done a re-name, so I now have 2 files in my 'project file'. They were both the same name. Changing the name of the new one to the old didn't import the photos. I have renamed the old one to HELY'S TREE1 and the new one is HELY'S TREE. The old one, (HELY'S TREE1 - 148mb) has all the photos but is missing the people I deleted. the new one, (HELY'S TREE 1.95mb) has all the people and no photos.

I can see the names of the photos in the 'Work with External Files' - all with crosses.

[Jane]

I think you have two project folders.

Using windows copy all the photographs from the media folder on one project to the other project.

[tatewise]

Helen said:

They were 'inserted' - not links.

The GEDCOM with the photos is 148mb.
The GEDCOM without the photos is 1.95mb.
The size difference suggests they may be embedded photos?
Or should the 148mb have been 1.48mb?

In the GEDCOM with the photos, do the Multimedia Records have Linked File Windows filenames, or are they blank?

[Hely]

YIPPEEEEE!!
Got everything back together - thankyou SO much!

Yes, I think I have recently embedded a lot....it said 'recommended' - is that OK?
I have the originals in lots of different files. I can remove them if need be, it doesn't matter. I have 1 file only with small photos of people in ONE file that I had LINKED for all the profile pictues, so I don't mind if that's all I keep. the rest are all census etc.

Shall I delete the other HELY'S TREE1 file now?

Much obliged,
Helen

[nsw]

I suspect that what you are calling embedded and linked isn't what Mike is referring to. Embedding refers to a specific method of saving your images within a GEDCOM file which isn't recommended and I don't think you've done that.

I assume you mean that rather than linking to the images wherever they may be on your hard disk, you've copied the images into the Media folder in your project, which is indeed recommended.

If I were you I'd leave those other folders for now in case you suddenly find you've lost something - you can always delete them in a few days/weeks when you feel sure everything is OK.

I'm glad everything looks OK now.

Best wishes

Nick

[Jane]

Glad you got it fixed, you should be able to delete the spare one if you are happy with the main one.


For information there are 3 ways for FH to store photographs

1. Embedded in the gedcom (not recommended and if you create a project from a file with Embedded it will extract them, you can embed on an export.

2. Externally Linked, so they show up as a full path in the Work With External File links

3. Linked to the media folder (recommended)

I suspect Hely is using the 3rd option which is the recommended on where the pictures are stored in the media folder, rather than embedded in the gedcom file.


edit: Sorry Nick, we posted at the same time I think)

[Hely]

Hello both,
thankyou for everything.

Yes, they are all in the media folder. I can see the thumbnails.

All seems well now, and I'm looking forward to V5 coming out.
I have had it since V2 - then all the upgrades. Should I buy the whole new set to keep it 'tidier' do you think?

Best wishes
Helen

[tatewise]

If you are happy to spend the little extra that a full licence will cost, compared to an upgrade licence, then it will make re-installation of FH a bit easier.