Where are my multimedia files?

[Judith Morris]

Not having been regularly keeping one of my Reunion files up to date, I realized as I was finally upgrading a couple of days ago to 11.0.1 that my Ancestry tree had many more people and data than my Reunion file, so I downloaded a fresh GED from the Ancestry tree and created a new tree from it -- but the new tree has zero Thumbnails, whereas the earlier tree (created in March) has over 1644 thumbnails.

Cannot figure out how to make thumbnails appear; there's only an icon showing a world globe, indicating that if I want to see the photo in the tree, I have to go to a web link. And these are not even photos I originally found on the Web attached to someone else's tree -- they are photos on my computer that I had shared with my tree at Ancestry!

The older tree has been upgraded to 11.0.1 -- and yet the thumbnails still appear. But using that tree is unacceptable since it has only 9871 people, 7095 families and 17891 sources, WHEREAS the newer one created with the GED downloaded from my tree at Ancestry has 10121 people, 7090 families, and 29361 sources! I would like to use the newer version, but also want to see my thumbnails, by gosh! What have I done wrong, please? Was I a bad girl using primarily Family Tree Maker for a while simply because of its hints and syncing features with Ancestry.com (and not immediately then transferring all that new information to my Reunion file)?

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Where are my multimedia files?

What have I done wrong, please? Was I a bad girl using primarily Family Tree Maker for a while simply because of its hints and syncing features with Ancestry.com (and not immediately then transferring all that new information to my Reunion file)?

I wouldn't say you've been bad, but I fear you have created a bit of a mess.
When you download your GEDCOM from Ancestry, the multimedia links are going to be to files you've uploaded to Ancestry. Ancestry has no idea where they might be on your own computer.

One thing I'd try is to import the GEDCOM into a new Reunion file. Then go to Reunion -> Preferences, and click on the Multimedia icon. Click on "Repair Multimedia Links..." and see if it can find the files on your computer. Otherwise, I think you're going to have to create a "Multimedia Usage Report" and relink manually.

You may also want to take a look at this page about Reunion and Ancestry.

[Judith Morris]

Re: Where are my multimedia files?

I wouldn't say you've been bad, but I fear you have created a bit of a mess.
When you download your GEDCOM from Ancestry, the multimedia links are going to be to files you've uploaded to Ancestry. Ancestry has no idea where they might be on your own computer.

One thing I'd try is to import the GEDCOM into a new Reunion file. Then go to Reunion -> Preferences, and click on the Multimedia icon. Click on "Repair Multimedia Links..." and see if it can find the files on your computer. Otherwise, I think you're going to have to create a "Multimedia Usage Report" and relink manually.

You may also want to take a look at this page about Reunion and Ancestry.

Thanks, Dennis. I greatly feared when I first started playing with FTM I could be creating a mess, but promised myself I'd stay on top of it and immediately share new stuff to Reunion. The best laid plans... There's a possibility it might not have been such a huge mess, had Ancestry stopped supporting FTM a year or so ago, and FTM was bought by MacKiev, who have been working on upgrading FTM so it will be better (?) and also continue to sync to Ancestry (which cut off the syncing at the end of March). The new FTM 2017 is now up and running as of the last couple of weeks, and they've got the sync feature working again, so I'm exploring that.

But back to Reunion: That's one of the Leister links I hadn't yet seen, although I'd read several looking for answers. Thank you! I had done the download of the GED just as you described. And when I do the Repair Multimedia Links, it quickly reports back that all is well -- without telling me anything's missing, yet the links still are not there. I do recall downloading my Ancestry tree GED and uploading it to a new Reunion file a year or two ago and my photos and thumbnails still appeared. HOWEVER, I must admit there's a chance what I remember was doing it all (while Ancestry still supported FTM) with my FTM version of the tree instead of the Reunion one. As I further explore, I find that to add to the confusion, it seems my file location preferences once were accurate, but I've moved some files around and they may no longer be in the places I had earlier indicated the would be. Complicating the issue even more is that I'm doing two separate large trees, each with its Reunion version and FTM version ... and I've tended to keep the older versions, just in case, but the bugaboo I've always hated about Reunion, showing something was modified on a certain date when it may only have been opened, looked at with no changes made, and closed again, is making my file search more tedious.

In short, I think I've created a Royal Mess and need to do some serious cataloging of precisely WHAT I have, and WHERE it is or should be! Thanks for listening. I doubt anyone will dare in to weigh in with any further advice or ideas, but will keep my eyes on my inbox. Do appreciate your suggestions! Was using Reunion happily, daily, with great success all the way back to Reunion 2, I think, until I went off the rails leaping at FTM's syncing and hints. My bad!

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Where are my multimedia files?

Does anything useful happen when you go to Reunion -> Preferences, and click on the Multimedia icon, and then click on the "Rebuild thumbnails..." button?