I downloaded my tree from ancestry.com into RM9, so I could get used to RM9. I discovered that I do not like how the media gets from ancestry with weird meaningless names. So I created another media folder and would copy from the media folder created with the download to the new folder with meaningful names. Life got in the way and when I started up again I discovered that the ancestry media folder with the meaningless names was gone. I don’t recall deleting it, but I must have.
I can see in RM9 that I have a bunch of ‘broken links’ with thumbnails showing for the media I never did my rename process, but since I no longer have the original ancestry media folder I obviously can’t do the repair broken links process.
My question is: Since RM9 is displaying thumbnails, where are these located, and can I view them to determine what the media was in order to find them again?
The thumbnails themselves are stored inside the RM database and won’t be helpful. However, there is a somewhat convoluted way to recover the missing media files and avoid starting your project over from scratch.
Step 1 - Run the MultiMedia list report, save it as an excel spreadsheet, and sort by the Media column. All of the broken links will start with “FileName: [*Not Found* ]” followed by the location and file name of the file when it was initially downloaded. This won’t be helpful by itself because the file names will contain the names that ancestry assigned.
Step 2 - create a new RM file by downloading your ancestry tree again. Give the RM file a new name. This will download all the media again to a folder based on the new RM filename (rm filename + “_media”). The downloaded media should have the same meaningless file names that you can now match to the report from step 1.
It may be simplest to move the missing files from step 1 to the download folder where your master RM file expects them so that they no longer appear as missing links. Then proceed with your renaming / relocating task. When done, the files remaining in the new download folder (from step 2) should match the media that you had already renamed . these media files can be deleted along with the new RM db you created in step 2.
When you’re done, consider keeping the original download folder (your master rm db name + “_media”). I have a similar setup and check that default download periodically to make sure it’s empty. Any media file in that folder represents a subsequent treeshare that I forgot to rename and move.
Renaming media after it’s been added to a RM db can be confusing. I assumed that you use the method of clicking on the “Filename” from the Edit Media pane and then selecting the document icon at the far right, navigate to the file, right click and choose rename.
also, there have been many improvements since RM9 to Groups, Search, new tools like “Copy fact” and the Enhanced properties list that make RM easier to use. The current RM11 sale is a $20 upgrade that you might want to consider.
I’ve just gotten the upgrade. I wanted to fix the broken links. I rename both in the media pane and the file itself because I move it to a different media folder.
