I have been trying out RM9 Essentials and am having trouble downloading a large Ancestry.com.au tree (26800 records and 6000 images). I first downloaded the database and it finished after a long download - but all the actual images for the profile thumbnails were missing.
I own 3 computers (2x Win 10 machines and a iMac running Big Sur)
I then tried loading the database on the iMac and the other Win 10 PC. Both downloads stop at around 93%. I deleted the database on the 1st Win10 machine and tried the download again It also freezes at the end (around 93-99%) - this is at the very end of downloading media files.
I also have another small database of 200 records on Ancestry and the downloads work fine.
I have access to a cousin’s database on Ancestry (400 records) and the download works fine
All records and the media etc are intact in these smaller downloads.
Downloads from my FamilySearch records (5000 records according to RM Home page figures.) all worked fine.
I thought I’d try one last time to download the large database from Ancestry and it froze again on 99%. While I type this problem for you I have been waiting nearly 1 hour with it in this frozen state hoping it might just be trying to finish off the download - but I’m afraid it’s stuck.
To get out of these freezes I have to Alt/Ctrl/Del and end the task as no buttons work.
Oh, I also tried to use the TreeShare on the original download to see if it would repair the missing images etc. Itr also takes a long time to go through the records and then freezes in the 93% range again.
I am impressed with many of the facilities I have seen in RM and would like to pay for the upgrade, but with this problem I’m afraid that even the full version will freeze up too.
This large database is not my own but a cousin’s in which I’m an editor - so, as I’m not the owner, I can’t split or fiddle much with these files.
As far as I can tell, this is a bug in RM9, or there is a file size limit on downloads in Essentials.
Is there, perhaps a way in which I can download this large tree in two parts (my side of the tree and then add in my spouse’s side?
It definitely works fine for the other 2 downloads of a few hundred records each (see numbers in my original post) - and I can’t find an answer to that question- is there a limit to the download file size for Essentials.
Next try, when it appears to freeze, open Task Manager and check and report RM’s resource utilization. If CPU, or Disk or Network or GPU is non-zero, it may be still working (or trapped in a loop). Some users have reported waiting up to 24-48 hours for it to eventually finish. Avoid downloading on weekends and holidays when Ancestry is busiest.
Yes, I did look at the Task Manager and it was pretty much zero. The graph had a periodic spike and then flat. Why would all the buttons on RM9 not respond to a stop if it’s not frozen? I wonder if those folk waiting up to 24hrs for a response were waiting with the progress bar at 99% Surely not!
TomH - I don’t know what’s going on. I re-downloaded the large database from Ancestry on the iMac - the program freezes at 95% on the 1st line (Downloading tree from Ancestry).
A re-try on the Win10 desktop it went through to 99% of the end (Downloading the media) and freezes - BUT - I see the database is there with all the media. The people profile jpg images are not shown in the Media file (all the document images etc are there) and yet if I open a record I can then open the media that is attached to that record. So where are these pictures being stored?
Once I restart RM9 I can open the database and it looks fine. All the profiles and media files are there.??? Well, I’ll try and move forward from here but I do think there is something not right in the software.
There are definitely things not right in the software but there is also a problem with the Ancestry service. It seems to be undergoing change, destabilizing the system with adverse effect on performance. For the last many months, users of the only other software that can download via the Ancestry API have been warned to avoid syncing. There have been numerous reports of wailing and gnashing of teeth from some who have tried. One wonders if the new owners of Ancestry have slashed budgets to finance their takeover.
on mac look at the settings for media location in the new database. That should tell you where the media are being found. Try opening a media thumbnail in RM to be sure it can actually load the image.
RM9 has had a timeout issue on uploading a tree to ancestry and needs a fast internet connection. My tiny 400 person tree failed at 5MBs up but worked at 150 and 1GB up while FTM worked at both speeds. However as Tom pointed out FTM cannot sync to ancestry since March 2023 due to “server load issues” at ancestry.
When you download an Ancestry tree via Treeshare all media goes into a folder with the name of “<your rootsmagic file name>_media”. This folder should be located in the same directory where your RM database has been saved (which is typically the Data folder as defined in your Folder Settings).
Also, you can confirm the location of any attached media by looking at the “filename” field of the media image because the “filename” field displays the full path as well as the file name. (More specifically, the filename field displays the location and name of the media file when it was added to the RM database. ) Remember that source/citation images downloaded via treeshare get attached to the citation, not the fact, so you need to look at the citation media.
Another test is to run “Fix broken media links”. That should come back clean immediately after downloading a new ancestry tree via treeshare. Any links that cannot be fixed are an indicator of missing images.
Thank you TomH for your help. I wonder too just how co-operative Ancestry is with other genealogy software. I have a feeling they want control. My cousin with the large tree has had many problems with them over the years he has subscribed. He will be impressed that I have the tree downloaded AND having all the media as well. Much better than a GEDCOM transfer. My other cousin Ancestry user is already impressed when I pointed her to the Book publish.
So as they say here in Australia (I’m originally from South Africa) Good on ya RootsMagic!!
So I will go ahead and do the upgrade to the full RM9
I seem to have solved my problem with the download of my large family tree on the Windows 10 platform but not yet on the iMac.
I’m embarrassed to say that as a ex computer professional I didn’t look properly at the destination folders for the database. I just saw Documents or Desktop and presumed it was my local folders. Thank you kevinm for pointing me to the folders for my media. It opened my eyes. I am primarily a Linux user and only use Windows when I have to. It would be VERY nice if RM would release a Linux version. Hint hint!
I did not realise that your RM program defaulted to OneDrive for a Windows install. Yes, I have a OneDrive (free space) automatically set up with my Windows 10 and that space is 15Gb free.
My tree overflowed this space and OneDrive locked saying that I was 101% over the space limit and to pay to increase the space.
Anyway - I have deleted all the OneDrive folders and re-downloaded the tree into my LOCAL folders and it’s gone through fine.
Now I will tackle the iMac and see if I have a space problem there (it doesn’t look at OneDrive thankfully).
Thanks for the assistance everyone. I have purchased the full version and will now enjoy getting into the other features.
Maybe whoever edits and maintains the RM info pages can use my experience and insert a warning to newcomers to be careful where to the point the storage to.
This discussion has not had any participants from the software publisher; we are all fellow customers/users.
RM does not default to OneDrive on Windows. Rather, when the folder settings are left empty (or are invalid), it defaults new database files to the Windows User’s Documents folder. In the last year or so, Microsoft has pushed OneDrive onto users and, by its default, puts the Documents folder into OneDrive.
RM Inc warns against having the database files in a cloudsync folder such as OneDrive. Arguably, the program should raise a warning if the folder path is one subject to cloud sync.
Ancestry has introduced quite a few changes to their trees and to AncestryDNA over the last year. July is usually the month when ethnicity estimates are updated (with a June date); I don’t think the issues are slashed budget, just high volume of changes and traffic.
They are not! A few years ago, Ancestry issued a bunch of Cease-and-Desist letters to much smaller companies (most individuals) that had developed original software designed to analyze DNA matches.
While I agree that Microsoft has pushed OneDrive onto users that doesn’t mean you have to use it–I just checked my computer–the last and only time anything OneDrive was used on my computer was the day we installed the computer-- but not sure how I disabled that on Windows (10 and 11)–perhaps this article will help someone else but will NOT verify that it works…