I just got RootsMagic 10 recently bc several genealogist I respect swear by it and one of them uses it on a Mac - which is what I have. I’ve been really frustrated. Purchase and download went great. I started out with (I don’t remember what it was called) basically a sync from ancestry to RM to get my tree migrated over. That did work… until it didn’t. When I went to open it the next day, although it appeared as though my tree was there the entire program froze and froze my entire computer which has rarely ever happened! I had to manually turn off my computer. I’m sure Mac users know that most of the time “force quit” can take care of most things & if not clicking on shut down from the apple menu will turn off the computer. None of those things worked.
When I eventually restarted the NEXT day (too frustrated to continue that day) everything was working normally. I opened RM and it started but there was no family tree file. I did a direct gedcom upload. Once again things seemed fine. THANKFULLY I have not have a re-occurrence of the complete computer lock-up, however, RM doesn’t seem to retain my gedcom.
I don’t understand.
I’m a long time Family Tree Maker user and I still have and use that program. Like I said at the top, someone I really respect suggested this to me and bragged on some features RM has that FTM doesn’t have. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any benefit yet because I spend most of my time re-uploading my gedcom.
So my question is - is this because I’m using a Mac? I understand there are few genealogy programs that are compatible with Mac. OR – Is there something that I am doing wrong?
When I have my gedcom uploaded I like the way it looks and I like looking around at all the features but I haven’t had a chance to see if this program is all it’s cracked up to be because when I go back into it the next day or in two days or whatever, I have to start from scratch. TBH, I don’t want to have to keep doing that every time, it’s not worth it to me.
So what am I doing wrong?
I wonder if you need to/haven’t enabled RM to access you Documents folder or even whether it needs to have Full Disk access? I’m away from my Mac at the moment so not sure where this is set in Settings, but you should be able to use search within Settings to find where these are enabled.
Also, have you set the Folders within the RM settings to point to sensible places, say somewhere under your Documents folder ?
Just some quick thoughts.
Thank you, I appreciate your response 
I found folder settings under the settings tab and they were all blank - otherwise everything else under the settings table is pretty much checked in all the appropriate ways.
I added destination folders to the blank field in the folders section. Hopefully that will help. I feel like I tried messing with setting before, but I’ll be honest, after a few hours and days I was getting pretty frustrated, lol!
It does seem to me this program is quirky but maybe it just takes getting used to.
I used FTM for 17 years before moving to RM. (Ver 7 (briefly) and 8, 9 , 10)
I do not understand what the issue is about starting from scratch that would be very frustrating. So it sounds like you are missing some thing Why, when how do you have ti start over?
Not clear what you mean by this but if you want to use FTM, Ancestry & RM, -
in FTM sync to Ancestry
in RM, create a New database and select the option to Download from an Online tree
pick the Ancestry tree and you will get it into RM
TreeShare in RM works differently then in FTM.
Watch the videos on RM …https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClAeFYGdN0CRVehqGjDDTgg
I did follow the steps you have above - create a new database… download from an online tree. When I made my OP I didn’t go into the minute details, sorry, but yeah, that’s what I did. It was a bit later in the day. Everything seemed fine, I took a little look around and decided I’d look better the next day. Well like I said in my first post when the next day happened not only was RM locked so was my Mac- maybe frozen is a better choice of words.
My next attempt was to upload my gedcom. Simple. Worked great but again I couldn’t (unfortunately) just sit there and use the program because of things going on. The next day or so I opened it back up and everything was good. Now a week later I opened the program today and there was nothing. As though I just bought it today- it was blank, empty! My gedcom from five or six days ago just gone!
That is what I mean when I say starting from scratch.
I uploaded my gedcom again. TBH I don’t even remember now why the person who recommend it to me love it so much! I haven’t gotten past arguing with it to get to any good stuff!
Is the database you saved not showing in Recent Files list?
You say you uploaded a gedcom. To where? Did you Export from FTM to gedcom and then Import into RM?
Downloading from online tree into RM is the preferred way.
You added the Folder locations to RM so when you go to that folder is your database there?
In the Settings>Program Settings, check the box that says Open Last Database.
I am on Windows so not sure a Mac is exactly the same but they should be similar.
So as I understand, you did go into settings in the RM program and set up where your files are to be saved–these are mine
You have to open your database within RM—When you 1st open you will be on the home page and you should see your database in the Recent Files
You can open it from there or open file–If it’s not there in the recent folder or open folder then for some reason, it is NOT being saved or RM has the wrong address in the setting files.
There is a help file near the bottom of the home page where you MIGHT want to check out some videos-- even though it says RM 8 or RM 9, it will work basically the same EXCEPT for 2 step verification with Ancestry and new features/ updates in RM 10-- @MadDog posted a link above..
can you give us a screen shot of your home page and inside your document file where you are saving RM?
edit–if you don’t see your database under recent or open then click on FILE on left side-- then open file—if it’s not listed there, scroll to the bottom and you will see Browse for file-- click on that and if it’s on the computer, it should find it
I’ve been using RM on a Mac since v7. I’ve never had the problem you describe. It sounds to me as if there’s something not quite right with the way you’ve set it up, but that’s just a guess.
Have you tried uninstalling the program completely and then re-installing it? Then take the setup in slow stages, especially the folders where your files are to be stored. FWIW, mine are pretty similar to those shown by nkess, though I use sub-folders, e.g. …/Documents/RM10Files/ BACKUPS etc.
Then, before rushing straight into Tree Share, or uploading a GEDCOM, I’d play around with the program a little to see if the problem you’ve been having is repeated.
RM ported to the mac does not work like any other mac program. It does work but you need to work through its settings and open files inside RM. Suggest you completely uninstall RM from your mac to redownload and install it.
Also, use a gedcom from FTM to create a new RM file rather than download from Ancestry. I use FTM and RM sync with Ancestry is very different and much more manual. Do not plan on returning to FTM from RM with a gedcom. You won’t recognize what you end up with.
If you have to force RM closed it will not save any setting changes or add the new database to the recent list. The file though would still be on the computer. You would need to use browse to select it. You probably have two databases now. Which you will need to decide on which one to keep, otherwise you may start opening and editing the wrong one and thinking data is disappearing. Use the one that is connected to the Ancestry tree, an Ancestry GEDCOM would not have the connection.
I’ve not seen anything about this aspect of setting up RM on a Mac.
If you go into the Mac System Settings and then Privacy & Security.what do you see under Files & Folders? This is what I have set for RM -
I suggest you check what is set here - RM may not have access to the part of your file system that you need. (I assume this access should have been set up when you installed RM, but ….)
As soon as I have an opportunity to get on my computer I will open the RM program and get all the details and take a screenshot. I did fill in those fields last night as they were all blank so hopefully that has helped. I did force quit the once as I mentioned when the entire computer locked up which is so strange for a Mac- at least in my experience. And once a couple of days ago I had a power outage due to a storm.
Thanks. Before I saw your post I was looking at the posts on my phone and I guess I couldn’t see them all - well I finally got on my computer and started the ancestry download which I might not have if I’d seen your post first. I THOUGHT perhaps the two (the gedcom and the ancestry) could exist simultaneously given that I chose a different destination file for the ancestry download into RM. When I looked at it though the gedcom is gone and the ancestry file is all that remains.
I’ll attach the screen shot. My folder settings - originally for desktop - was where I had the gedcom folder
The Home shows the documents file which is where I set up to receive the ancestry file. The Folder settings still show desktop even though I did change it before doing the ancestry download and the gedcom file I uploaded into RM yesterday using a desktop file (Rootsmagic10) as a destination is gone from RM. The destination is still there but the gedcom is not.
What will happen tomorrow I wonder. And I am wondering if this was worth the money. I got it because it was supposedly helpful in organizing and writing and helping with citations and many other things but so far all I have done is argue with it, restart it, reupload, delete and reinstall the program. I’ll be happy to stick with it if it gets better, I know new things can be quirky, but at some point I need to get on with work and this so far isn’t helping.
I just looked and my desktop option was toggled on but not documents! Huh!
Well, the good news is that even though Mac made me close the RM program to make the changes in the privacy settings when I opened it back up everything was still there. Fingers crossed it is a resolved problem more or less. Like I said though, I guess we’ll see tomorrow, lol!
Sorry @JP1 --replied to wrong person
Just making sure here as your last 2 posts confused me–
to set your locations for where RM stores your databases–open RM
and go to settings at the bottom of the list–click on the 2 file folder icons and fill in the destination folder–note I used the same folder for all – believe that is up to you especially with media as some say to have a separate one for Ancestry media downloads and their media files
That said it appears you have already set up the location for the database as it has/Users/curtispigman/Documents
only difference between yours and mine is that I have a separate file folder for RM 10 under documents as I have a lot of databases–
You said you set up a different destination for the gedcom-- the gedcom should be some where on your computer as you have to delete them to get rid of them-- can you do a search of the whole computer using the exact name of your file with .ged?
Your screen shot show the properties for My Big Avery Tree as of today–so you are saying that when you click on the People Icon on the left, your file is NOT there?
I’m sorry to be so confusing. When I click on the people on the left the file is there. It opens and everything is fine. Today. I did just download it from ancestry this morning.
I do know where my gedcom file is. It is easily accessible. What I was saying was that (again, sorry to have been confusing) I THOUGHT that since I had my gedcom set up as
users\curtispigman\desktop\Roots Magic 10 that when I did the sync with ancestry and set that for users\curtispigman\documents\Roots Magic 10 that they would coexist but that hasn’t happened. The gedcom (users\curtispigman\desktop\Roots Magic 10) just went away within Roots Magic but it does still exist within my computer.
Again the reason I uploaded the gedcom yesterday was because after not using/opening the RM program for a few day (previous frustration with it) the ancestry sync that I had done previously no longer existed. Opening the program yesterday was like opening it the day I bought and downloaded it the first time. Nothing was there. No files, no ancestry, no gedcom, nothing. This is part of my frustration so far. I can GET IT to show my family tree right now but what will happen later?
Perhaps toggling on the documents under RM in my security and privacy settings will make a difference though.
Let me say again how sorry I am that its been confusing for everyone reading. Its been confusing for me too!! I wanted to post more than a week ago. I wanted to post actually two and a half weeks ago on my second day of ownership when my entire computer froze up. I felt then that I may have made a terrible mistake. I’m still not sure. Trying to explain what is happening can be difficult.
Setting the default folders won’t make a specific database reopen. It is only the location on which folder to use by default. RM will always open without a database unless you tell it otherwise under Settings, Program Settings and check “Open last closed file”. You must close RM with that database open in order for it to remember which one. The exception is when RM was forced closed. In that case it will reopen with the previous last database