Initial Import of GED file from Ancestry to RM 11.5 fails on Mac with Access Violation error/freezing

RootsMagic
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My method is to work in Ancestry and periodically refresh my RM database by clearing files and doing an initial load with a new GED file that I have downloaded from Ancestry. I have been doing this several times a year since RM 7, albeit most of that on a Windows laptop and now on a Mac.

Using RM 11.5.0.0 on a MacBook Air with OS Tahoe 26.5.2, 16GB Memory. While RM is open, the only other apps open are SnagIt, WhatsApp, and a couple of Chrome browser sessions.

This is my 3rd attempt to load a new GED file on this particular device. 2 previous successful loads of new GED files were in summer 2025 on RM 10 and December 2025 on RM 11. At that point, my tree size was just under 56K people. This time, with a tree of just over 57K people, I upgraded from RM 11 to RM 11.5, cleared files, and on import received this Access Violation Error.

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On closing the error window, the import progress window appears frozen on the same person count each time. It doesn’t matter if I close this progress window or not. The process itself does not move past 0%, even if I let it go overnight. The result is a small RM tree with no people visible in the app.

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RM has permissions to access my Documents, Downloads, and Database folders. I have blown away RM files and repeated this process with the same results, rebooting in between attempts.

I did open a Support ticket but unfortunately the answer I got back was that the recommended initial load process is to use TreeShare. I tried that and it presents an entirely different issue, which I may post later in a different question.

Ancestry tree size 57,333 people, which RM shows as a moderate size.

Why/how I use RM.

1. It’s Relationship Calculator. I do a lot of DNA research and collaborating with cousins. The most frequent question I get from others is “How am I related to Person X?” You can’t answer that question for another person on Ancestry or FamilySearch as both provide only the single closest relationship to me.

2. The SQLite database means I can ask almost any question about my data and have an answer back relatively quickly. That’s my husband doing the querying, not me.

Any idea if I am doing something wrong here? Hoping not a code bug in the app as that means not a quick fix.

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I realize that the ultimate goal is to download your Ancestry tree into RM and that for your purposes in this particular case it matters not a whit whether that goal is achieved viaTreeShare or via GEDCOM. The RM folks are simply trying to help you achieve that goal.

But to me, there is a bigger issue. RM really shouldn’t crash on a GEDCOM from Ancestry. So I think there are two problems that should be resolved: 1) why is RM crashing on the GEDCOM import? I think this problem needs to be investigated and fixed, and 2) why is your TreeShare download losing so many people even though the TreeShare process reports success? I think this problem needs to be investigated and fixed.

In the case of the GEDCOM, I would be curious what other genealogy software says about the GEDCOM, including both RM’s competitors and free and basically non-competitive software. There are many such possibilities for investigating the GEDCOM. In the case of TreeShare, there is only possible alternative as there is only one competitor to RM that can download directly from Ancestry, But that possibility might be investigated as well, just as a test.

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Did you share the GEDCOM with the support agent to test importing? It is possible you got a bad download.

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Yes I understand they are being helpful. Interesting points, thanks Jerry. I was originally a fan of FTM, not that I used that app for my primary work either. I used it often for sending mass updates to Ancestry for things like address refinements and surname changes (If this person was born in Switzerland and surname is X, then update the surname to X with an umlaut, etc). 2 things sent me elsewhere. 1. The FTM Relationship Calculator was awful and focused on affinity relationships showing me in law and step relationships when I wanted to know all the blood relationships period. 2. The API with Ancestry broke entirely one day leaving me in the lurch. That is when I moved to RM 7. Although I felt the API with Ancestry at the time was too cumbersome, it had such a fantastic Relationship Calculator I felt the product was worth the price for that alone. Yes I am curious too why the GED file failed.

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Yes, rzamor1, I did share my GED file 2 days ago, but they have not commented on the integrity of the GED file or whether they tested it, just advised to go with TreeShare. You might notice on my separate TreeShare question, I just got that to work. So relieved.

I believe it was my own error for failing to clear out the tree file in the API folder. Not positive but since I could not remember specifically deleting that file before running my process, I did this time and TreeShare loaded all people.

Now I am curious as to whether the TreeShare process downloads the exact same GED file I would get from Ancestry, then run the Ancestry API locally between that GED file and RM? That would imply the Ancestry API used with RM TreeShare is more forgiving than the original process of initial loading with a GED file from Ancestry.

But I am not really volunteering to sign up to be a tester. Each run took between 7 hours 30 minutes and 8 hours, and I just want to get back to my tree now.

Thank you so much for reading my question and commenting with your input.

Jen

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I couldn’t tell you the differences between an Ancestry GEDCOM and TreeShare. I do know the GEDCOM will not contain media, nor will it have any link back to the Ancestry tree.

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Yes about the media. Not sure if by link you meant an actual URL, which I don’t see. But I do see the Tree ID and all Person IDs in the GED file downloaded from Ancestry. Here is an example from a very small tree I have.

I can see in the Tree ID in the URL from any person’s fact page on the Ancestry site:

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That same Tree ID is found in the downloaded GED file from Ancestry:

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Similarly, each Person ID from the same person’s fact page is found in the GED file:

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FYI am showing a snip of a deceased person on a public tree. Not violating any privacy, if anyone is concerned about that.

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Update and Wow! RM Support decided to test my GED file after all, and did so on both a Windows and a Mac device. Result: they received the exact same Access Violation error that I did and the file failed to load in the end. Their theory is that the GED file was corrupt. But suggested that I could download a new one and try again.

Strange. Never before in 13 years have I downloaded a corrupt GED file from Ancestry.

They didn’t answer my question about potential differences in the API that works with TreeShare (somehow being more forgiving) compared to the code that loads a GED file. My husband rolled his eyes at me for asking a question about propriety information. Inquiring minds though.

If I get around to testing a new download of a GED file of the same tree and running an initial import to RM with the new file, I’ll update this topic. Until then, off to learn more how to use TreeShare. Thanks for all your comments and interest.

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You could test the theory that the GEDCOM download is corrupt by importing it in other software. Almost every competitor’s free basic or trial version has import enabled. And ftanalyzer is a useful tool in its own right.

Most, if not all, ft programs log exceptions that they cannot handle in a text having the same name as their target database. RM’s file extension is .LST. Inspect it to see roughly how far it got. It won’t report where the crash occurred but the exceptions ahead of it may give a clue.

P.S. if you successfully import the Ancestry GED file using another program, maybe its export will not trip up RM. I recently used the free Ancestral Quest Basic to download through the FamilySearch API and export GEDCOM to RM to prove there’s a bug in RM’s FSFT download via the same API…

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Thanks, Tom. I didn’t know any of that… very helpful!

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That was an interesting exercise. The GEDCOM file that RM 11.5 blew the Access Violation error and failed to load, both for me and the support folks, just loaded successfully into a competitor’s program. No errors. All people present and accounted for. Load time? 51 seconds. Now I’ve gone and marked that ticket closed. Am going to open another ticket, referencing the initial ticket, just to let them know.

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If you still have your Windows laptop, try importing to RM 7.5. Something may have broken since that version. One of which seems to be memory management.

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It seems clear that either the GEDCOM from Ancestry was corrupt or else RM has a bug. I therefore wonder if the RM folks might want to collaborate with their friends at Ancestry to figure out which it is.

Updated: oops, I had failed to read the rest of the thread where a competitor had successfully imported the GEDCOM. That makes it sound much more like an RM bug.

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Another thought - sort of a triangulation to narrow down the cause. Export a GED file from the database created by your other software by its import of the Ancestry GED. Import that GED to RM 11.5. Did it succeed? Is everything you needed from the direct import of the Ancestry GED in this indirect import? If so, and you want to continue with your Ancestry-RM practice, you now have a workaround to bypass RM’s access violation error. Moreover, RM Inc could compare the Ancestry GED with this intermediate GED which might help identify what is causing RM to trip.

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