I have two RootsMagic9 files, one for my ancestry, and one for my wife. Currently, the media files are in one folder, and because of its size, it is getting difficult to work with. I would like to have two Media folders, one for each RM file. However, when I go into the settings menu and change the default location for media files, it becomes the default for both.
Am I missing something? Is there no way to place media files at a different location for each RM file?
There is no setting at the database level to force this nor is there really a general setting that does so. However, for each download or add file operation, you can manually choose where it goes. And you can move files around and use the Fix broken media links tool to repair the now broken links.
The request to have a setting for the default media folder for each database is one that goes back over a decade…
There are a couple of ways you could solve the problem.
First of all, I’m assuming you have one big folder will all your media files and that there are no subfolders and that’s the way I will first describe things. But if you do have subfolders, the same solutions could work.
So let’s suppose you have one big folder called RM_MEDIA where your RM media files are currently located… You could create subfolders within RM_MEDIA called HIS and HERS that would start out empty. Then you could move each media file one at a time from RM_MEDIA to either HIS or HERS. This will break all your media links, but you can run the FIX BROKEN MEDIA LINKS tool to fix the problem. Moving forward, you would put all new media files for your database in HIS and all media files for your wife’s database in HERS and the media links will be fine without further attention.
If you do have subfolders, the concept would be the same. For example, suppose you have subfolders of RM_MEDIA called Marriage and Census and DeathCertificates and Obituaries etc. What you would do would be to create the same subfolders in your HIS and HER folders and move your existing media files for example from Census to HIS\Census or to HER\Census etc. You would of course need to run the Fix Broken Media Links tool in this case as well.
I’m making up folder names because I don’t know yours, but adapt my sample folder names to your real folder names.
I probably should just stop here, but there is a similar solution you might prefer. Instead of making HIS and HERS be subfolders of RM_MEDIA, just make them independent folders. Move all your media files to the new independent HIS and HERS folders as previously described which will break all your media links. Then set your default media folder option to nothing - literally to nothing. This will have the effect of making your default media folder be your whole disk. Run the Fix Broken Media Links tool and all will be well. You don’t really need to set any folder to be your default media folder because it can be your whole disk.
Not setting any media folder value at all surely sounds strange. But the setting does not control where you media files are in any way at all. With one exception, RM never puts any media files anywhere. You put media files somewhere and then you tell RM where you put them. The only exception is media files downloaded from Ancestry via TreeShare, and such files are not stored in your default media folder anyway. TreeShare has its own special folder where it puts TreeShare media files.
Despite this workaround, I totally agree that the media folder option should be a database option rather than a program option.
Never thought of setting to none for media folder–neat.
Best to have a media folder for each database with nested subfolders for either families or media type. RM is excellent at finding media in such a structure. I use Families rather than Birth/Death/marriage folders.
Thanks to everyone for your quick response. I think the suggestions provide a workable solution, although not as clean as it could be.
I was experimenting with this on my old Win7 computer. The fix broken links works very well when moving the media folder or even a different computer. One strange thing that I could not resolve was when I ran the fix broken links, it repaired them all, but when it completed it stated there was one broken link that was repaired. I looked at the media files and there were no files with the conspicuous red 'X". I can put up with that, but I just wonder if it is real or just a bug. I have to do more investigative work, starting with my Win10 computer where all these medial files were copied from.