After 20+ years, I decided to switch from FTM to RM 10. I’m finding it to be a learning curve. I was able to upload my first tree to Ancestry, but I’m confused as to what comes with future uploads to Ancestry. With FTM (when it worked), all I had to do was sync my tree with Ancestry, and the existing Ancestry tree remained, with the changes I made to my tree (and vice versa if I had made changes direct on my Ancestry tree). It seems this is not possible with RM. Do I need to create a new tree on Ancestry each time I upload? I appreciate your help, being a newbie can be a frustrating place to be!
Here’s the RM10 Help page on using Ancestry TreeShare. It’s on the Publish page. You will have a side by side comparison of the RM and Ancestry person. Then decide which side needs to be updated.
This older video demonstrated Ancestry TreeShare. The concept is the same, just the login is different.
I switched to RM when it was in preview 8. I used both RM7 and RM8. ( Mainly RM8 after month)
I used FTM for 17 years prior to switch to RM. RM7 was probably closer to FTM the RM8 and beyond.
The Full sync you were used to with FTM is not possible with RM. In my opinion this is a good thing. You can “share” item/changes via the method Renee provided. There are also some YouTubes available by RM team or other users.
Some users do not maintain daily changes which is the method I use. I mainly want the Ancestry connection for hints in addtion to having a tree online. I do not normally work on ancestry – if I were to I and filter and move those changed from Anc to RM if I need/want to. About 2 or 3 times per year I upload a new tree to ancestry (I copy db to new name , disconnect from Anc, and then upload to new tree. Once everything good I delete the old ancestry tree on their side.
If you do not mind keep up with all the changes you can do that. Having numerous Sync failures under FTM 2019 – it did not work reliably so the advance of full sync had no meaning to me. Additionally, they removed/censored any post that questioned about such things. With that you can but do not have to create a new tree occasionally.
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RM updates with Ancestry are a 1 on 1 process (rather than bulk FTM), meaning that if you make a change on either one, you need to update the other.
My suggestion is to do the update(s) soon after you make changes.
It is correct that RM doesn’t have a full sync with Ancestry. It’s more of a one at a time manual sync. Some RM users do the manual sync. Users who are successful tend to do the manual sync frequently, at least weekly and more likely daily. Other RM users don’t sync but instead occasionally do a full replacement, either from RM to Ancestry or from Ancestry to RM.
As a sample size of 1, I found the manual sync too onerous. My master data is in RM, so periodically I delete my Ancestry tree and to a complete new upload. A great deal about how you do this depends on whether you work primarily in RM or in Ancestry. I work primarily in RM and I use Ancestry only for hints and to download images. And when I download images, I download them manually rather than using the automated tools to do so. If I worked primarily in Ancestry, I would surely do the same thing in reverse - occasionally deleting my RM database and doing a new download from Ancestry.
There is a great appeal to working primarily in Ancestry. That makes it very easy to find images as sources and then to do almost a one click add of the image to your Ancestry tree as a source. And in many cases, Ancestry will even add facts to your tree for you, as for example when it finds marriage information in a census record. But again as a sample size of 1, I found that I couldn’t actually work both in RM and in Ancestry and then manually sync up the data between the two. Other users do seem successful in doing so.
As far as the RM user interface and the learning curve, I found the old RM7 user interface to be similar to FTM - not the same, but similar. But I think the new RM8/9/10 user interface is really its own thing, very different than both RM7 and FTM. Some users seem really to like the new RM8/9/10 user interface and some do not. It does take a lot of getting used to. I’m not fond of the new user interface, but I use RM10 anyway because of the great power of the product and because it’s the only desktop genealogy software that I have found that actually meets my needs. And I repeat, some RM users really like the new user interface.
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FTM 2024 (released in 2025) syncs reliably with ancestry and can be forced to only sync up and not down to your computer master tree. Like Jerry I use ancestry for record hints which I then download and add manually to avoid the meaningless names given by ancestry.
RM treeshare is an onerous manual effort to move data and the interface is much clunkier to me. It is a more powerful program but I find FTM reliable and easy to use.
Thank you for your reply. The reasons that I decided to switch from FTM to RM 10 are the inability of FTM 2019 to sync with ancestry, despite numerous attempts at troubleshooting, my sync failed every time. Also, somehow at least half of my images on FTM disappeared. FTM has a tool to find missing media (which suggests I wasn’t the only one with the problem), but it did not work. I would have had to manually go through hundreds of images and try to match them up with the sources in FTM. I also became frustrated waiting for the 2024 version, which I thought would provide an update option from 2019. The cost of FTM 2024 is more than twice that of RM10. Anyway, I think I will stay with RM at least for now, despite the fact that I cannot sync as FTM can (or should be able to).
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the confirmation regarding syncing to Ancestry. I also appreciate knowing how other RM users handle the situation. I will need to determine what works best for me. I don’t like the idea of uploading a new database when I want to “sync”, but I also don’t think I want to manually change Ancestry on a daily basis (I’m making a lot of changes each day). I will experiment and see what works best for me.
Thanks for your reply. I will review the instructions given and go from there.
Thanks for your reply. It is helpful to see how other RM users handle their database regarding RM and Ancestry
Thank you. It is good to see that FTM 2024 finally was released. The price, however, is more than twice what I paid for RM 10. For the time being, I’m staying with RM. I’m sure its just a matter of learning how to use the software. After all, having used FTM for 20+ years, I’m sure it will take some time.
Like you I had numerous sync fails which made any true recovery impossible.
The menu structure was the biggest adjustment for me (having used FTM for 17 years before switch to RM). I guess it might be fair to share FTM and other similar programs with the other menu design can be more intuitive for many users. It might have take 2 months to get “comfortable” using the RM8+ menu design. I also pre-brought FTM 24 (at the heavily discounted price) with the intention of keeping it for a 2nd program. Also for the ability to use the Android app. (found out you can’t do that without using vault subscription).
The reasons I will still use FTM is for 2 reasons, the calendar report works like no other software. And the FBC plugin. Other than that I think you will find that RM is overall a better program. RM Publish Book Feature is okay but lacks a lot of things and at same time allows for things that are not easily done with FBC.
The other advantage has is that the Sqlite Database is open – so that is a big win right there. Thought RM (company) does not support using of Sqlite queries and recommends against because one can easily mess things up if one is not careful.
Totally agree. I realize this doesn’t affect most users, but it is huge for me.
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