* Section of family tree gone missing

[erowland]

Today I opened FH and updated minor detail re an uncle on my mother's side. While doing so I split the screen between email inbox and FH. When I sought to access my mother's family most of her mother's and all of her ancestral family data was no longer showing. The data is still accessable through the Record Search box under each specific name. Any hesp would be appreciated
Edward Rowland V6.2

[Jane]

There are a couple of possible problems either you accidentally unlinked someone "breaking" the tree or there was some sort of error while updating. If it's the former you should be able to re-attach the broken link by adding her parent and using the existing record option.

Alternately you could use the Project Windows snapshot option to recover back to a previous snapshot.

[erowland]

Jane
I tried the Project Windows snapshot option and restored to 28 December. That worked and I am most grateful for your magic. Regards Edward

[sueherrington99]

Strangely, I've had a similar problem although mine relates to Source records and occurred yesterday. I am now left with 249 Media files which are no longer linked to any sources. The Source records themselves have disappeared from my Project. What is even stranger is that some of these sources were added 6 months or more ago, whilst some only within the last 2 or 3 days. They were definitely there when I began working on the Project yesterday.

Would using the snapshot option work here too? If relevant, my Project is stored in OneDrive, with backups done to a free-standing hard drive.

I'm not overly tech-savvy so don't fully understand the implications of simply restoring my last back-up (done a week ago).

I have to go out for a while now, but any help would be appreciated & I'll happily try to supply any further infrmation needed.

[tatewise]

Sue, just to confirm: If you open the Records Window and select the Sources tab, then nothing is listed at all?

All your records: Individual, Family, Note, Source, Media, Place, etc, are all held together in your GEDCOM file.
FH automatically takes a snapshot copy of the GEDCOM file at regular intervals, but at most once per day.
So use File > Backup/Restore > Revert to Snapshot and choose the one taken yesterday 03 January 2020 or earlier.
That should get back all your missing Source records, etc.

Snapshots only backup the GEDCOM file, whereas Medium/Full Project Backups include all your Media files and other Project folders & files. Do you know which type of backups you are creating?
Also snapshots exist within the Project, so if your main PC disk drive fails those snapshots go with it.
Whereas, your backups on an external drive, or in OneDrive, should survive a PC disk drive failure.

Since Source records are only a fragment of the GEDCOM file, it is difficult to understand how they can all get deleted without affecting anything else in that file.

Using OneDrive should not be able to cause that kind of problem.

BTW: Edward's problem was a little different as only one or two links between records appear to have been affected.

[sueherrington99]

Mike, thank you for your reply. Just a brief response but I will be fully available after tomorrow morning at which point I will try whatever solution you feel is best.

To clarify,in Sources, not all of my records have disappeared, but in the Records Window, under the Media Tab there are 249 Records which have no link, even though they were appropriately linked the day before - some via Ancestral Sources entry, some as a Citation for a Fact entered directly into FH. The Sources for these Facts are the ones which have disappeared. The remaining Media Records are still linked as normal.

I normally do a Medium Backup to an external drive every Saturday & a Full Project Backup usually on the 1st of each month.

[LornaCraig]

Since Source records are only a fragment of the GEDCOM file, it is difficult to understand how they can all get deleted without affecting anything else in that file.

There was a problem identified, and fixed, many years ago in Ancestral Sources which could cause some Source records to disappear. Sue's problem is very unlikely to have the same cause because the fix seems to have been successful (nobody has reported the problem since then), but just in case it is relevant I found this reference in Nick Walker's notes when he introduced v3.2.3 of AS back in 2012:
there was a "problem with Ancestral Sources, that has been there since v1.1. If the source entry type is changed while the file is loading it is possible for large numbers of sources to be lost. It shouldn't have been possible to change source type during a file load and this should now not be possible. "

[tatewise]

Thank you for that reminder Lorna, and it would apply to Sue if she was still using that very old version of AS.
( OR there is still an undiscovered and related bug still existing in the latest version of AS. )
Otherwise, it is not easy to delete a large number of Source records, except by editing the GEDCOM file directly.
Usually they would have to be listed in a Named List and then the delete records in Named List option applied.
If Sue can recall what changes were in progress when the records vanished, then the problem can be avoided in future.

Anyway, using the File > Backup/Restore > Revert to Snapshot method should recover the lost GEDCOM file data.

[sueherrington99]

Thanks Lorna & Mike.
I'm unclear Lorna whether, when you quote Nick Walker

If the source entry type is changed while the file is loading

he's referring to the file loading in AS, or reloading in FH AFTER making the AS entry.

I am using AS version 5.2, so not a very old one. HOWEVER, I had just finished make an entry via AS &, whereas I usually go straight back to FH, on this occasion I seem to recall that for some reason I didn't do so until after I had checked something via an (already open) Ancestry page. Whether or not I then changed the source type in AS before returning to FH, I can't be sure., although I'm sure that I'd saved the entry in AS.

I haven't ever used a Named List for the purpose of deleting records, so can safely rule that out.

Mike, you suggest using "Revert to Snapshot" - could you clarify for me, is this because Media Records seem to be still in place & therefore a Backup restore isn't necessary? Sorry for my ignorance but I'm a bit in the dark on these things.

Again, many thanks for such swift advice.

[tatewise]

To check all your Media records are linked correctly to their Media files use Tools > External File Links and scroll down looking for X marks instead of the usual icons. If none then all the Media are OK.

Assuming it is only the GEDCOM file that got Sources corrupted then use the Revert to Snapshot method.

If that does not resolve things satisfactorily, then we will need to use the Backups, but hold fire on that for now.

[sueherrington99]

Mike, I have used the Revert to Snapshot as you suggested & all appears to be back to normal

It seems that only the sources added on 3 January 2020 have been permanently lost as the Snapshot for 3 Jan appears to be identical to the one for 2 Jan. However, "We can rebuild them!!" - to misquote & show my age!

Thanks very much again to you & Lorna for your time & assistance.

Sue